New Trek Series ideas

[Nene_Richards]

As I have stated before and thus agree with you: Reconstruction Era is the best idea.

• With weakened fleet and personel how will the Alliance protect their borders?
• How will the Alliance help the Cardassian Order Rebuild?
• With the add on of Voyager's voyage, what technological edge does the Federation have? Will this help destroy the Alliance?
• Who or what has been waiting for their revenge or oppertunity since the Alpha Quadrant is unstable? What of people like the Son'ya? Remans? Gorn? Anxar? Xindi? Suliban? Orions? etc? There are plenty of races that could use this as an oppurtunity to spread their interests.

This could be a very interesting show, heck there are story ideas that I know that are out there that I am not even thinking right now.

[BouncyCaitian]

Borg invasion once the Borg have adapted to not having a Queen Around....

[marty4286]

Reconstruction era would be pretty relevant... Not everything would have fallen into place with the Dominion out of the picture. Occupation of Cardassia could be vaguely likened to occupation in Iraq or Afghanistan (though it might turn off a lot of people for being an obvious gimmick)

I imagine that Cardassia would still be occupied and administered by foreign powers. If not, then at least some kind of a significant presence (advisors? aid workers? security for the advisors and aid workers?).

[Nene_Richards]

Reconstruction era would be pretty relevant... Not everything would have fallen into place with the Dominion out of the picture. Occupation of Cardassia could be vaguely likened to occupation in Iraq or Afghanistan (though it might turn off a lot of people for being an obvious gimmick)

I imagine that Cardassia would still be occupied and administered by foreign powers. If not, then at least some kind of a significant presence (advisors? aid workers? security for the advisors and aid workers?).

I care to disagree what has hurt Trek was it was a social commentary about our world today set in the future, however, the story was mostly covered in DS9 though with the Federation/Bajorian storyline, ahead of its time I think. My opinion.

[JALU3]

Although the current conflicts occuring within the middle eastern region is the main focus of world politics right now . . . I am sure that there are other worthy social commentary that Trek can take up and look at . . . in a way that only Trek and the Sci-Fi genra in general are able to do.

What about immigration? What about civil rights? What about religious extremism? What about the sterilizing of the public square of X (fill in X with whatever it is that you think is appropriate)? What about reletivism? What about oversized central power? What about life? What about death? . . . there are so many subjects that are issues within our current cultures that can be looked at through the prism of trek.

We just need to think of scenarios that'll work around it.

For instance . . . in BSG . . . they are moving in a direction . . . where the protagonist is an insurgency. . .

[Tricky]

You know, I didn't think about the next Season of BSG as insurgency; I thought of the French Resistance, which, while being an insurgency, is the go to one for modern politics. This is mostly cause they were against Nazi's, and anything against Nazi's is good.

Just a thought, but what if all of the Federation's current problems shifted public opinion toward a 'non-Rodenberry' place. We saw the fear and distrust growing with the Dominon/Changeling threat, but what if there was a growing xenophobic movement, or a return of Human Supremacy?

Think about some of the public opinon after 9-11: I heard people basicly calling for us to return to Isolationism; to pull all our stuff back and put our collective heads in the sand. I also heard people who wanted to carpet bomb every country that ever gave us any grief about anything. (I pointed out that we would have to blow them all up, as well as the Southern states, which really offended this person for some reason...)

[JALU3]

It would be interesting to see those extremes (on either side) play out . . . with the moderates squarely in the majority . . . but their voice basically ignored because they don't make "good" news.

Be interesting to see that in a Trek Universe.

And I heard those ideas to. Lock 'um all up . . . Nuke 'um . . . It wouldn't have happened if we just stayed here . . . we need to pull everything back . . .

Extreme responses, on different sides . . . due to the same event

But those discussions are for the political forum . . . but can relate to what a new show can have as a background for story and plot.

As for the movements, I am sure there are those in EVERY Federation species/culture. Isolationist/Xenophobist to Supremicist/Xenophobust. It's just that they are not in the majority. . . and thus on the fringe of any society within the Federation. However, I am sure, that they get into the news far more then everyone else . . . and that may have an effect on public perception of any given issue.

For instance, not to get to political, recently there have been supposed spontanious protest in favor of open borders/destablishment of immigration policy. Those who are involved, are a minority in comparrison to those who think otherwise . . . or those who have gone through the process to enter the States legally. However, media perception shows something different. Furthermore, do all those perticipating know exactly what they are there for? Listening to the news, not all of them do, some just see it as an excuse to fight "the Man", or to not go to school for a day.

But hopefully people in the 24th century are smarter then that and listen to the extremes . . . but would make an interesting what if. Cause there are extremes on both sides. And Trek can look at both.

Has anyone seen Sliding Doors?

Say we have an event happen . . . and we look at what would the future to that event be like . . . if both extremes were taken in action. And in the end . . . we see what really happens. Give some interesting things to talk about around the water cooler.

Or say . . . we introduce that one group from Starfleet Command 2, the Interstellar Concordium.

They are well meaning . . . but they are forceful that their views of the galaxy be the dominant ones.

[C5]

Resurrecting an old thread...

I was thinking about a new Trek series yesterday while watching one of the numerous VOY episodes I hadn't seen yet, and I started to wonder if a new Trek show wouldn't be quite interesting if set in the far future, with an extremely advanced tech.
In these discussions about new Trek series, we always tend to view hyper-tech as a drawback, hindering good character stories with technobabble. But if a series is set in a time where technology is almost omnipotent, then story-wise, it might as well have no technology at all. If the tech can solve almost anything, then all that's left for the plot is to rely on character interactions, social messages or the human experience... one of the few things fans can agree on about what Trek should be.

I mean, we've had our share of "oh sh*t, our vital piece of technology is failing, and we need to fix it because it's endangering the life of some non-red-shirted crewmembers" plots, culminating in Enterprise, where erecting a force field or beaming someone is a challenge in itself.
But a series where the tech would almost never fail and be nigh omnipotent ("what, the star is going nova ? Oh right, raise the shields and beam the crew that's one light-year away, we gonna record this") could leave room for much more intricated story lines. Plus, it would allow cool episodes with time travel, alternate dimensions and exploring other galaxies.

Well, just my two eurocents about the subject... and probably some highly wishful thinking, as I don't think any producer would caution a Trek series where the transporter, holodeck or shields would never fail...

[Silverstreak]

Time Travel is the crutch of the sci-fi writer. A good sci-fi writer should never need to use it, that is one of the problems star trek has, they do too much time travel.

[C5]

Time Travel is the crutch of the sci-fi writer. A good sci-fi writer should never need to use it, that is one of the problems star trek has, they do too much time travel.

My opinion is that time travel can be used for very nice stories, provided they don't always revolve around the alter-the-past thing. TOS All our yesterdays is IMHO a nice example of an interesting time travel story that doesn't rely at all on paradoxes.

[Silverstreak]

I never said anything about Paradoxes, but amoung the writing community it is well known that Time Travel stories are the crutch of the Sci-Fi writer, unless the series is based on it.

[Tricky]

Hmmmm.....hyper-tech Trek?
I've always thought about 'the future of Trek': Most of the Galaxy is now at least an ally of, if not member of, the FED, where they have Quantum-slipstream-spacefold drives,etc. I thought that would have been a nice "sneak peek" for a movie or episode of the show.

One thing I thought of, and this was spurred on by a bunch of comics I heard about, was the "Fall of the Federation", showing the collapse of the FED. But then you run the risk of becoming either Andromeda or SW!

[black campbellq]

Hmmmm.....hyper-tech Trek?

That would be my choice. Take it forward 50-100yrs. QSD as standard, or transwarp. The UFP is expanding fast and becoming unwieldy. Sentient starships and common androids (come on...they can't replicate Data's tech? Or the Ilia android they scanned in TMP?) Cybernetic interfaces. Use the nanites for more than story hooks -- building ships, live time medicial care. How 'bout storing the patterns of crew transported so you can reinstantiate them when killed?

Deal with and define Federation society...not this "we have the perfect society" crap. What do people do, if you don't have to work? How does economics work...is there economics? How do the politics work? Where are the opposition, and what do they stand for? There's so much they could deal with and make the show truly interesting.

Take chances with the tech, the UFP, the characters. A lot of fans will bitch because "it's not Trek..." but I disagree. Get the franchise out front of everyone again; that requires innovation.

[Tricky]

Slightly off topic, but a burr under my saddle for way too long, is the way FED culture seems to accept all things, especially in new species, but there are things that they just simply won't accept in their own people. Like genetic engineering, cybernetics, and sentient AI and certain family linages.

So, a worm, that if it didn't crawl into your belly and access your central nervous system is a sentient lifeform, but Data, who is a member of Starfleet, isn't? ( I know that is making it way more simplistic than it is, but seriously, the Trill symbiotes are just really lucky parasites...all they want is some opposable thumbs).

Bashir was one of the best DR.s we've seen, yet once he was revealed to be augmented, all that goes away? What happend to IDIC? And what about that guy in "The Drumhead"? They find out his grandparent was Romulan, and now he's out? Yeah, he lied on a form (they don't DNA test?), but Kirk broke the Prime Directive HOW MANY TIMES?

Getting back to black's comments: How does FED society work? You've seen evidence that people do work, but why? How does not having money affect what's done? (I often say the the FED is a Communist economy with a Republican Democracy for a gov't)

[Silverstreak]

I agree, I'd like to know a bit more about how the Federation actually survives without imploding on itself.