# Redoing Star Trek **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 25, 2000, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redoing-star-trek/47158 "2000-12-25T04:55:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redoing-star-trek/47158/21 "2000-12-29T05:07:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lolagranola \* > \*\*If it’s a different backstory, isn’t it more like different science fiction, rather than Star Trek?? Other than the use of the Federation and Vulcans, I fail to see the point. \*\* As others have done on technological points, my idea was to make the _Trek_ universe more rationally based. For dramatic purposes, _Star Trek_ had the majority of the “aliens” it encountered to be effectively human. As any number of people have pointed out, the real chances that random evolution would fill the galaxy with intelligent humanoids is nil. I proposed a scenerio that would explain this much more plausibly. [aside]Actually, the original _Star Trek_ had many more non-humanoid aliens then any of the sequal series. About the one really good ET they’ve had recently was the insectoid that attacked B’Lanna Torres on _Voyager_[/aside] Furthermore, I thought that there should **not** be hundreds of spacegoing alien races out there, because of the famous Fermi’s Paradox. Supposedly, the physicist Enrico Fermi once stood up suddenly at a dinner party and asked “Where are they?”. Asked who he meant, he explained that if there were alien beings and interstellar travel was possible, why weren’t they here already? Anyway, as far as the technology goes, (1). I agree that the holodeck is overused, and most vehemently that they should not be casually creating quasi-sentient hololife. Transporters are sorta ok, although I agree that they are another overused “miracle” plot device. Of course, granted that we’re talking about a civilization that can travel faster than light and generate artificial gravity and forcefields, the problem is postulating any _limitations_ on what they could do. What _Star Trek_ needs (or needed- too late now?) is a hard-science approach like the works of Larry Niven, where a certain level of plausible technology is given, and then the ramifications of that technology are played out. Everytime _Voyager_ uses the term “Theta radiation”, I cringe. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redoing-star-trek/47158/22 "2000-12-29T10:46:03Z")
> [@](#): > > For dramatic purposes, Star Trek had the majority of the “aliens” it encountered to be effectively human. As any number of people have pointed out, the real chances that random evolution would fill the galaxy with intelligent humanoids is nil. I proposed a scenerio that would explain this much more plausibly. Well, I see the “all aliens are human” notion as another effect of working in a TV-show format: The makeup can’t be too elaborate (too expensive to do all the time), and we still have to be able to read the aliens’ expressions (otherwise, you end up with crap you see on _Power Rangers_). So I’m willing to forgive the limitations of the makeup crew in ST, just so long as a Trekkie doesn’t criticize _Star Wars_ because it’s ships are dirty. Personally, I think the “aliens are human” thing is something they shouldn’t have tried to explain. It brought undue attention to something that everyone was aware of, but willing to ignore. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redoing-star-trek/47158/23 "2000-12-29T11:20:08Z")
Well, some hard SF authors (i.e. Larry Niven) have used teleporters in their stories, so they can’t be too far beyond the realm of possibility - true, not possible with any physics we know, but the same is true of their FTL and that’s a common thing in SF. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redoing-star-trek/47158/24 "2000-12-29T18:54:41Z")
If we’re looking at creating an “exploration-type” SF series, how about a little bit of altternate reality here? What about a little POD around 10000 BCE? An advanced civilization on Earth had FTL space travel, and settled habitable planets beyond our solar system. Internal strife led to the downfall of that civilization, and the eventual loss in contact with the “homeworld” from the “colonies.” A convergence about 350 years from now leads us to rediscover our lost past – SETI ferrets out a domestic television broadcast from one of the former colonies, and a still-intact spacecraft is found somewhere in … oh, South America, in one of the Inca tunnels. An affluent Earth that is more cohesive, united in a European Confederation like scheme, sets out to explore its past in space. No transporters, no holodecks, but there could be virtual reality chambers and suits. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/redoing-star-trek/47158.md?page=1)