If you were in charge of the next iteration of Star Trek what would be your bright-line rules, that you would force into the series?
No deliberate time travel by any creature, including godlike entities. Time travel stories featuring an explicitly unreproducable anomaly are OK.
No new human/klingon, human/vulcan vulcan/kilingon etc. hybrids. They don’t need to pretend that the ones they’ve already introduced don’t exist, but no more, it’s stupid.
If some kind of new thing gets developed within an episode that would be hugely useful in every future episode, find some lampshade to hang as to why it’s never used again. Don’t just completely ignore it.
As a supertrope of example 3, vet all scripts for plot points that would CHANGE EVERYTHING! Remember, if it appears on-screen it’s canon; take care for the future of the franchise.
Don’t make a respected character do inexplicably stupid things to fit the plot.
If someone/something is introduced as extraordinarily dangerous, don’t repeatedly pwn them.
If your episode is intended to allegorically send a message, use a scalpel not a broadaxe.
The reason why ToS resonated with the fans is because of the interaction of the characters. Above all else make it about the characters. No spatial anomalies as the bad guy.
Well that would not be very much like Star Trek, now, would it?
But of course.
Mine:
If ocurring “contemporaneously” with, or in a timeline before, another of the shows do not seek to shoehorn in something that was introduced as new and unknown in a “later” show. So no Borg or Q pre-TNG era, for instance.
No new human/klingon, human/vulcan vulcan/kilingon etc. hybrids. They don’t need to pretend that the ones they’ve already introduced don’t exist, but no more, it’s stupid.
If some kind of new thing gets developed within an episode that would be hugely useful in every future episode, find some lampshade to hang as to why it’s never used again. Don’t just completely ignore it.
Only 10% of episodes will be centered around technobabble, and 10% about monster/alien of the week.
50% of episodes have to be part of some 3+ episode story arcs. Try to get away from entirely episodic television.
Not sure the point of this. Spock was supposed to be a bit of an anomaly and unique but there’s a common genetic history for all of these humanoid races. Plus you have a fleet of Captain Kirks out there, some of them no doubt fathered a kid with a green dancing gal or whatnot. Don’t go overboard with hybrids, I think, but IDIC.
I like these other rules being proposed. I don’t mind a little nod to other shows but this one should definitely keep away from nudging the viewer and saying “Here’s a Borg, remember them from TNG? Pretty cool they’re showing up in front of Enterprise C now, huh?”
I’d like to see admirals who aren’t just there to get in the way of the captain. Seems like Starfleet is filled with those.
No godlike characters that choose to live on a human level. That’d be like getting a human character to live like a germ.
No singular fashion sense that applies to an entire species. Romulans don’t all have to have the same hairstyle and metallic tunics. Military-style uniforms and grooming are fine for military, but don’t assume civilians will adopt the same style.
No “alien of the month” episodes where an entire species has a singular quirk, that once sussed out, enables the Federation to instantly bond with them. No planetary society is static. No one culture is 100% dominant. Beehives can’t rule planets. There can and should be variations.
As I recall, the new series Discovery is set prior to the Original Series. Thus, I would endeavor to maintain proper backward continuity with that series. Which might be a problem, unless I was willing to pretty much ignore everything that happened in Enterprise as complete fiction. Which I do.
Which solves the stupid Klingon ridged brow problem that show created, I might add.
