# An idea for the future of the Star Trek franchise **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 6, 2000, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167 "2000-09-06T02:11:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maureen\_Birnbaum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Maureen\_Birnbaum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maureen_Birnbaum)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/21 "2000-09-06T10:13:49Z")
Surely there are two other watches–who are those people? Or are Kirk and the gang on the bridge 24 hours/7 days? Or am I being too picky again? (signed) “Your sf (not sci-fi) pal in the Deep South” ---
**Author:** ![Fillet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Fillet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fillet)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/22 "2000-09-06T15:37:57Z")
I like Guanolad’s idea for an arc story. But going the soap opera route has some potential, too. Am I the only one who’s ever read any of the ST:New Frontier books? Some of the story lines are a bit hokey, but I really LIKE the idea of a crew that is allowed to have some warts, and is not always struggling valiantly to uphold the ideals of the Federation. There’s a captain who has a license to do pretty much what he pleases, and has a lot of emotional baggage to add complexity to his character (not 1-D like Kirk); the science officer who is half-Vulcan, half-Romulan & so has some unpredictable reactions to situations; and the Vulcan doctor who gets pregnant by the hermaphroditic chief engineer who is him/herself pregnant by the first watch helmsman… the possibilities are endless. ST:90210, indeed! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EnochF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/779978/32.png) [@EnochF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnochF)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/23 "2000-09-06T15:58:32Z")
The new _Trek_ series is probably not going to be much fun for anybody involved, whether it’s the writers, the producers, the viewers, the actors, the promoters or the folks at Paramount trying to make money off it. I don’t want to seem pessimistic, but the whole project is doomed. _ **DOOOOOOOOOOOOMED** _. I just hope no decent actors get stranded in the production somewhere… The only possible good thing that could happen in Series V is to discover that _Voyager_ has been declared officially non-canon along with _Star Trek V_ and the _Animated Series_. But that’s not going to happen, is it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/24 "2000-09-06T16:11:21Z")
Hey, I have an idea! Let’s do a PSYCHO! Haul out the original scripts from 1966-69, dust off the original sets, do a little mending on the original costumes, and SHOOT THE WHOLE THING ALL OVER AGAIN, with new actors. What the hell, it’d probably get more media attention and viewer interest than any kind of new series. ---
**Author:** ![Nukeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Nukeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nukeman)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/25 "2000-09-06T18:56:49Z")
ELO !!! ---
**Author:** ![Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/26 "2000-09-06T20:01:04Z")
They should do what they did in Next Generation, but spice it up. A live episode, an episode directed by Quentin Tarantino(the captain gets his ear cut off, but they replicate him a new one) More Klingons would be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/27 "2000-09-06T20:48:08Z")
I hardly know her! \ ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/28 "2000-09-06T22:29:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GuanoLad \* > \*\*Here’s the premise. > > Voyager returns to the whatever-it-is Quadrant to discover that the Federation is in tatters. There has been a fullscale pangalactic war, and the whole galaxy is in chaos. Everyone, including the standard bad guys like The Dominion, the Romulans, the Klingons, everybody, are all in terrible states of devastation. > > And it’s the job of the ragtag Federation survivors to: > > - (first season) piece together what happened, and who is responsible. > - (second season) gather resources, allies, etc to establish a stronghold > - (third season) make their first vollies, attacks, sorties, to test the waters and learn more about their foe. > > Etc etc etc > > All through the series of course there are the usual sideline, non-story-arc tales. But what is cool is that there’d be a lot more danger. Nobody would know who was trustworthy and who wasn’t, and there’d be a ton of tension between characters always. Characters could die at any time. Lots of action (which the trekkers love and want more of) plus room for more character-based tales, and still space for SF allegories etc. > > \*\* This is way cool (and way ambitious). What I liked best about _Blake’s 7_ (besides the high-school-theater-department set and costume design) was the way any character could buy the farm at any time. (Okay, we knew Blake and Avon weren’t going away any time soon, but still.) Even the OS movies wouldn’t let Spock stay dead…undermining the power of _ST:TWOK_. The worst part of the last two years or so of _ST:TNG_ was the way Riker had become a co-captain…he’d just come so far from the hotheaded punk he was in the beginning…he _deserved_ to have his own command and they had to keep coming up with excuses to keep him on the _Enterprise_. It woulda been cool if people could either die or transfer off and on the ship, just like in real-world workplaces. The galaxy is an awfully big place… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/29 "2000-09-06T22:57:28Z")
Saint Zero posted: > [@](#): > > Let’s find out what happened in the “Mirror Mirror” universe after Kirk left for his own universe, telling the evil Spock that all the death and waste was illogical. He looked ready to take over. > > _That_ would make a fun movie. Too late. Deep Space Nine went to that well one time too many. Evil-Spock’s change of heart led to the Federation being wiped out and the human race enslaved. Thanks, Kirk, ya bastard. GuanoLad posted: > [@](#): > > Here’s the premise. > > Voyager returns to the whatever-it-is Quadrant to discover that the Federation is in tatters. There has been a fullscale pangalactic war, and the whole galaxy is in chaos. Everyone, including the standard bad guys like The Dominion, the Romulans, the Klingons, everybody, are all in terrible states of devastation. > > And it’s the job of the ragtag Federation survivors to: > > - (first season) piece together what happened, and who is responsible. > - (second season) gather resources, allies, etc to establish a stronghold > - (third season) make their first vollies, attacks, sorties, to test the waters and learn more about their foe. You are also too late. There’s going to be a Roddenberry show with almost this exact premise: “Andromeda” The Sulu-based show has been shit-canned by Paramount. Pity. I just watched _Star Trek: Insurrection_ again the other day and it sucks even more than when I paid to see it at the theater. I think it would have BENEFITED from Shatner’s direction. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/30 "2000-09-06T23:03:51Z")
One thing I’ve noticed about all the series, they seem to take place in grandoise, big-time scales, where every action is capable of starting galactic war or killing millions. Here’s my premise… do a sort of “Special Operations” unit. In the Post-Dominion War era, there’s a lot less stability in the Federation, requiring them to find less-than-enlightened solutions to problems. It’d give an opportunity to make niftier weapons and gizmos, too. A sniper-rifle phaser…? Anyway, it’d allow for more “behind-the-scenes” action, space battles between ships that are less than several hundred meters in length (I always liked dogfights between smaller vessels, anyway), and the characters would be more than Anal Starfleet Officers. And it’d allow plenty of opportunity for character carry-overs… don’t you think a Borg Drone would make an effective spy/assassin/whatever? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/31 "2000-09-06T23:06:11Z")
I agree with a35362 and GuanoLad’s idea’s. As I was devastated when B5 went off the air, the idea of a story arc is great!!! Don’t count on your fingers, but I am OLD enough to remember when the original series was original. I had a sixth grade teacher who was in his first year of teaching and so not burned out yet. He loved fantasy and science fictiona and got us all interested too. When he told us to write a short science fiction story I remember one kid who lifted his plot right out of ST. Just changed the names. (I wrote something awful about the sun going out) So I would really like to have my interest in the franchise revived. ---
**Author:** ![Maureen\_Birnbaum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Maureen\_Birnbaum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maureen_Birnbaum)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/32 "2000-09-07T04:34:17Z")
Oh, I was going to say something about “Guns of the South” and Robert E. Lee and automatic weapons, but I realize I’m taking all this far too seriously. Back in the Good Old Days when you read something, it was in the library and was very likely still there six months later. You could go visit your old friends on the shelves. That’s where I found TUNNEL IN THE SKY, the first sf book I ever read. Now that library is a fruitstand. (signed) “Another learning experience. I hate 'em.” ---
**Author:** ![Erika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@Erika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erika)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/33 "2000-09-07T04:52:15Z")
As much as I love star trek, I’ve gotten distracted over the past two series. I must say that a hiatus is in order - multiple years sans new star trek. Although a New Frontieer Series would kick ass! And I like a lot of the other ideas too. But they need to spend some time between now and “new series” working out a cohesive history, and decide the fate of the universe. Cuz it’s not particularly believable now, even in the “i’ve suspended belief in anything real, and want to work this out entirely within star trek” sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![dpr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/34 "2000-09-07T04:57:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Baker \* > \*\*(I wrote something awful about the sun going out) > > \*\* So it was YOU who wrote Final Night for DC Comics!!! Finally we have someone to point the finger at! ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/35 "2000-09-07T06:05:04Z")
I have a story idea. The Orion slave girls (the infamous green women) successfully revolted against their masters, almost wiping them out. What was left of the Orions got the Federation to help them reclaim their empire. The ex-slaves, calling themselves Dryads, then declared war against the rest of the Federation. Any Federation thoughts of an easy war after the Borg and the Dominion were immediately dashed when they discovered that the Dryads not only are great tacticians, they found weaknesses in the tactics of other great generals in the past, and avoided duplicating them. The Dryads captured Tholian ships, which they modified to be even more terrible than before. I am not entirely sure how this story will play out, though. ---
**Author:** ![dpr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167/36 "2000-09-10T23:42:37Z")
[http://www.downtoearthcomic.com/](http://www.downtoearthcomic.com/) The September 10 strip. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-for-the-future-of-the-star-trek-franchise/32167.md?page=1)