I just finished watching all of the Star Trek movies and TV series’ over the past few months and it’s left with an idea for a new Star Trek series. Keep in mind that I’m not at all an expert of any kind on the Star Trek universe. I’ve never read any of the books or anything. My entire experience is based on the movies and TV shows. This is just an idea that I was wondering what people thought about.
What if there was a Star Trek series set entirely on Earth? The whole series talks about 24th century Earth like a utopia, with no wars or hunger or poverty, etc. Some DS9 episodes imply that there’s no such thing as currency and there was one TNG episode that talked about how everyone just pursues what their passionate about, but obviously there still has to be stores and restaurants and a “working class” right? And then there’s questions about how technology integrates into our daily lives. What’s dinner like for a family that has a replicator? Or does everyone have a replicator? And do they still cook anyway? What about transporters? Is a weekend getaway to Paris as simple as stepping on a transporter pad? Are transporter pads commonplace or do you have to go to a “transporter station” or something? What about entertainment? In Enterprise they’re still watching movies, but by TNG they talk about TV’s like they don’t exist anymore.
These are obviously rhetorical questions* and I’m sure I could find answers for them, but that’s not really the point. Am I the only one interested in seeing real people function on 24th century Earth in the Star Wars universe? It doesn’t have to be as boring as I make it sound. I don’t mean that we’ll be watching families make dinner with replicators. DS9 was centered around an ongoing war, so there could easily be some action-based plot centered around alien infiltration and/or invasion or something to that effect. In fact, the technology could just sort of fade into the backdrop (i.e. Whereas a character in a 21st century show would get to work and pour themselves a cup of coffee, a character in this show would get to work and get a cup of coffee from the replicator). Thoughts?
*feel free to discuss or hypothesis about the questions, if you’d like, or enlighten me if you have the answers.
The original series had an episode(Assignment: Earth) that was supposed to be pilot for a spinoff set on Earth. But …
It was time travel, and was set to be cheap by bringing an alien named Gary Seven to the 60’s/70’s and really didn’t interest anyone(other than those of us who like Teri Garr looking hot in mini skirts).
ST: Enterprise spent a fair amount of time on 22nd-century earth, but they never went into any detail as to what life was like. Actually, I think it would be kind of boring, considering the conflict-free fantasyland that they supposedly inhabit.
In TOS, it was decided not to return to 23rd-century Earth because Roddenberry et al. wanted to avoid any conflict with NBC censors as to race relations, future socioeconomic systems, politics, and so on. These were all very touchy subjects in the '60s.
I think on TNG, the only episode really set on Earth was when Picard went home, and everything took place at his family’s rustic vineyard in “France.” It was shown again in “All Good Things…” along with “Cambridge, England,” but was far from being the focus of that episode.
BTW, the term “Star Date” was created to keep the timeline deliberately vague, so there would be no conflicts or discrepancies over what historical event happened when, or when this or that was invented. The concept was a good one and should have been maintained, but they violated it as early as the first season by setting the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s (“Space Seed”). A number of books have since come out with full timelines for the series, which obviously deviate from reality and will continue to do so.
I also have trouble with the idea that this or that happened in 2150 or 2275, or he or she was born in 2361. Who cares?
…considering all the long, tortured, meticulous quibbling and debate I’ve seen over two-line passages of holy books and ancient poetry, it doesn’t particularly surprise me that people could do the same over something with spaceships, rayguns, and sexy green aliens.
A Starfleet Academy-based show could be good but I suspect people would get bored and by season 2 the cadets would all be flying off into space on flimsy premises.
It could work, just a show that can stand on its own merit placed in the Star Trek universe. It doesn’t have to be locked into the Academy or even Star Fleet. It could follow almost any aspect of life. Maybe it could take place in an advertising agency.
It’s probable that even Star Trek producers would realize how limited (and limiting) that a series based on Earth would. The series which have been shown have all had digs in about the Earth-centric nature of The Federation, so series set on Earth would probably contain more than a few of the same.
I’ve always thought that a Section 31 based series (highlighting the affairs of The Federation’s secret intelligence arm) would be be a more interesting and a more “adult” addition to the franchise. Much of it could be set on Earth;but there still would have to be space battles and green aliens to make things tolerable.
Yes, exactly! Something like this was what I had in mind. I wasn’t thinking that ALL the action would have to be set on Earth, or that the main setting even needed to be Earth. Just a “planet-based” Star Trek (which obviously would not be a literal star trek :)). There could obviously be episodes, or even entire story arcs, that took place on a star ship or on another world, but the main focus would be on characters who don’t spend their entire lives flying through space, which, I imagine the vast majority of the population does not, even in the 24th century. It could even break from the “campy” style of all of the series’ to date, in a similar way that the two new movies are a break from the look and feel of the older movies. A more “adult” franchise is a good way to put it.
I don’t think something like that would be any less interesting than DS9, which ran for seven seasons, would it?
I remember that episode! And yeah, the aliens sent out a signal to somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, if I remember correctly, and it all kind of ended on this ominous implication that sometime in the future they might come back in force.
I remember reading that was meant to be the first hint of the “Borg” concept, but the race that was coming to invade was obviously changed significantly before the next episode in which they appeared. I.e. if all had gone as planned the Borg episodes would be “brain parasite” episodes and that open thread would be resolved.
I believe the episode “The First Duty” (the one where [del]Tom Paris[/del] Nicholas Locarno convinces his flight squadron [which includes Wesley] to try to perform an illegal maneuver) was set almost entirely at Starfleet Academy (meaning San Fransisco, Earth).
Except it wasn’t a conflict-free fantasyland at that point. There were no replicators, transporters were brand-new and not entirely trusted, it was clear that the Vulcans were bogarting the best tech, and so forth. There was a one-world government, true, but in context that was like Italy uniting while the rest of Eurasia had separate governments.
I don’t mean that we’ll be watching families make dinner with replicators. DS9 was centered around an ongoing war, so there could easily be some action-based plot centered around alien infiltration and/or invasion or something to that effect. In fact, the technology could just sort of fade into the backdrop (i.e. Whereas a character in a 21st century show would get to work and pour themselves a cup of coffee, a character in this show would get to work and get a cup of coffee from the replicator). Thoughts?