# Hypothetical Star Trek movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900 "2018-04-22T14:40:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/1 "2018-04-22T14:40:47Z")
I got to thinking about something recently. There are a few Star Trek episodes where the crew visits Earth, but those usually involve time travel. We don’t get to see much of Earth during the main timeline. For all the series and movies, there are still large chunks of the Star Trek universe that we know little or nothing about. I wonder what the average citizen on Earth thinks of Starfleet. Is it highly respected? Or does the average “upstanding citizen” tend to look down on it? How hard it is to get into the Academy? A whole series would be too much, I think, but a single movie focusing on life on Earth, and how Starfleet interacts with the general populace, would be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/2 "2018-04-22T15:40:00Z")
I know the subject has been covered (and it probably wouldn’t make a good movie), but I’m intrigued by the thought of what happens the day after the Vulcans land–there are a lot of people whose _raison d’être_ for getting up in the morning is our Divine uniqueness; global religious wars of all stripes might ensue? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/3 "2018-04-22T16:09:46Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > A whole series would be too much, I think, but a single movie focusing on life on Earth, and how Starfleet interacts with the general populace, would be interesting. I totally disagree. Such a movie would be a complete yawn. How does NASA and the military interact with today’s populace? 95% of the people 90% of the time don’t even think of either during the course of a day. Booooring! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/4 "2018-04-22T16:11:24Z")
I thought I heard that they were thinking at one point about a television series set at Starfleet Academy. That could cover some of the territory you mentioned, such as showing someone coming from elsewhere on Earth and joining the academy. And of course there would be various alien species among the students, faculty and staff of the school. Perhaps one of the students has never met an alien previously? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/5 "2018-04-22T16:22:42Z")
I’d watch that movie. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/6 "2018-04-22T16:32:09Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought I heard that they were thinking at one point about a television series set at Starfleet Academy. That could cover some of the territory you mentioned, such as showing someone coming from elsewhere on Earth and joining the academy. And of course there would be various alien species among the students, faculty and staff of the school. Perhaps one of the students has never met an alien previously? _Star Trek: The Paper Chase?_ _Welcome Back, Captain Pike?_ _Our Miss Uhura?_😛 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/7 "2018-04-22T16:41:09Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > _Star Trek: The Paper Chase?_ _Welcome Back, Captain Pike?_ _Our Miss Uhura?_😛 ‘Saved by the _tone_’ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/8 "2018-04-22T16:44:31Z")
_Warp 222._ ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/9 "2018-04-22T16:52:20Z")
Goodbye Mr O’Brien, perhaps. Seriously, the plan I heard had Miles O’Brien (played by Colm Meaney) reassigned to be instructor at Starfleet Academy. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_lining](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Silver\_lining](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_lining)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/10 "2018-04-22T17:20:15Z")
Maybe the genesis of Star Fleet on Earth combined with say the Roman war fought with nuclear weapons would have some interest. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/11 "2018-04-22T18:15:59Z")
There was a two part DS9 episode about a potential Dominion attack on Earth which was set almost entirely on Earth and which covered some of this. I got the feeling that most of Earth was in denial about any possible problems, and that the Borg attack was not mentioned in polite company. But a lot of that was the DS9 disdain for the Roddenberry concept of utopia. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/12 "2018-04-22T19:40:49Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There was a two part DS9 episode about a potential Dominion attack on Earth which was set almost entirely on Earth and which covered some of this. Was that the one where Sisko’s kid was hanging out with his grandfather, who ran a restaurant or something? That’s what I was thinking of when I started reading the thread. Like with “monster” species in various shows (such as Buffy) I think about what weird non-human characters do in their day-to-day life when they aren’t interacting negatively with humans. Like [the Sheliak](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Sheliak). What do the Sheliak do in their free time when they are hanging around on their home world? Do they watch _Shelia’s Got Talent_ with Shimon Showel? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/13 "2018-04-23T00:56:26Z")
\*\*\*TOS \*\*\*consciously ruled out any visit to Earth because it would be too risky to show how the present-day economic and political system turned out, from standpoints of both prognostication and censorship. Also, it would have been a diversion from the whole point of the series, which was to explore strange new worlds. How would they go about depicting a civilization that had to be rebuilt after a devastating Third World War, anyway? I don’t think their budget could have stood the strain. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/14 "2018-04-23T01:18:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > How would they go about depicting a civilization that had to be rebuilt after a devastating Third World War, anyway? Film it in New Jersey? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/15 "2018-04-23T01:26:00Z")
But, but, but it wouldn’t be Star Trek! > [@Kirk](#): > > Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year [continuing/ongoing] mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man [one] has gone before! Earth is where they come from, not where they go to. It would be like taking _Moby Dick_ and saying, “The stuff with the whale was pretty good, but how about we take the crew and go back to New Bedford?” ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/16 "2018-04-23T01:32:58Z")
TNG ep: Family also covered some of that ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/17 "2018-04-23T02:06:14Z")
If you want to do an interesting TV series, you base it on SFA cadets and have occasional scene shot in Terran SFA, but most of the show would involve field training, where cadets are taken to other planets and through space navigation practice to gain hands-on experience. I can imagine all kinds of fun that could be had with that. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/18 "2018-04-23T02:09:51Z")
What ship, the _U.S.S. DeGrassi_? ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/19 "2018-04-23T02:11:56Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Also, it would have been a diversion from the whole point of the series, which was to explore strange new worlds. > [@kunilou](#): > > But, but, but it wouldn’t be Star Trek! > > Earth is where they come from, not where they go to. It would be like taking _Moby Dick_ and saying, “The stuff with the whale was pretty good, but how about we take the crew and go back to New Bedford?” I figured this would come up at some point. It’s deeply ironic: considering that DS9, which Dopers for some utterly inexplicable reason consider the best series, is deliberately and explicitly the **opposite** of the whole “exploring” ethos. DS9 is nothing more than “Let’s throw a frontier garrison into outer space.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900/20 "2018-04-23T02:48:35Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > I figured this would come up at some point. > > It’s deeply ironic: considering that DS9, which Dopers for some utterly inexplicable reason consider the best series, is deliberately and explicitly the **opposite** of the whole “exploring” ethos. DS9 is nothing more than “Let’s throw a frontier garrison into outer space.” _ **I** _ don’t consider it the best. Different and interesting, yes. But certainly not the best. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-movie/812900.md?page=2)