Reinventing Trek

[Ineti]

So, I was reading a recent article about how Ron Moore is going to reinvent Battlestar Galactica for TV, and I thought...when ENT has run its course, where would Trek go next?

Thoughts, ideas? How would you reinvent the Trek franchise?

[Dan Stack]

If I were to reinvent Trek as opposed to a new spin-off...

I would not change the universe to fit my own political views - I see politics quite differently than Roddenberry did but I would try to keep much of his ideals - i.e. material needs provided for by society/technology, something of a socialist utopia... I'd also keep the lack of prejudice among humans. I'd still have conflict, believing that people of good character can still disagree...

I'd probably wind up re-creating the original Star Trek, keeping the spirit of the characters. The trilogy of Kirk-Spock-McCoy would stay much as it is today. Spock would deal much more with the idea of living in two worlds - indeed I'd probably have some level of prejudice against Vulcans (which TOS did do in my opinion). I might very well recast some genders or races here just to shake things up. I would make it clear in my writerss bible that these three are the stars of the show - the others are supporting cast.

The supporting cast I would change quite a bit. For example, Uhura was rathing shocking for being both a woman and African. That would not be shocking any more (though I would try to make the cast representative of various races and cultures). Instead, I would try to invent some characters to challenge and insult the viewers - an openly gay character (not like that annoying dude on "Will and Grace"), a devoutly religious character of an alien religion, an atheist, Arabic characters, etc. Characters like Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov served to challenge the audience, I'd continue to do that.

I would tone down the technology a bit. The transporter is gone - it was invented to serve a story element - getting the characters to the action. In modern Treks it is too magical and the story often forces characters to forget about using it for purposes of the story. Similarly, no more vaporizing with phasers - perhaps they are not as powerful, perhaps there is defensive armor.

Though the technology is toned down to that of "Enterprise" level, the Federation has been around for a while. We are on the frontier as opposed to in the wilderness, so to speak. That means pockets of civilization interspaced with unexplored areas. Gives us that "old west" sort of feel and widens our storylines. Space is awfully wild - there are pirates preying on civilians on the frontier. The civilians are often armed and take justice into their own hands. There are con-men, religious preachers, prophets, and mercenaries in my universe. In my universe I try to visualize planets as islands on a vast ocean, dropping the need for strict borders. The major powers have small cores (like the European countries did in the Napoleonic age) but our stories take place in a region where one planet in a system might be claimed by the Romulans, the next might be Terran.

I think I also remove ship-mounted subspace radio - it exists, but only with huge arrays. This forces our heroes to be those who make decisions.

I like the Klingons and Romulans as bad guys, but I probably tweak them a bit to fit in with today's issues. The Romulans probably symbolize the Middle East conflict - especially appropriate with Mr. Spock as a Vulcan half-breed. You have them with their cloaked ships, Romulans disguising themselves as Vulcan members of the Federation. Perhaps there is some occupied territory from the last Vulcan-Romulan war that the Vulcans feel would be illogical to give up, causing Romulan terrorism. (My Federation is a much looser alliance than that seen in TNG.)

The Klingons probably are more like they are in Enterprise - space vikings if you will. This gives writers an excuse to have some more action-oriented stories while the Romulans allow us to focus on issues.

The stories tend to be quite varied - I don't focus on just exploration, just politics, just comedy, I vary the storylines. Nothing like Babylon 5 or DS9 level story arcs, but the show has an internal continuity which we pay attention to.

More if my muse inspires me.

[qerlin]

Dan and I are on a similar wavelength. The transporter has always been a real problem to me...replicators as well.

Phaser should have a consistent effect. Like Dan, limit the power.

UFP -- socialist utopian, but with a darker underbelly...where are all the lazy people. They're out there, you know.

I like the Enterprise snotty-Vulcans. I liked his idea on the Romulans. I'd explore them, mroe than the Vikings in Space.

A small Federation with lots of unexplored territory around the core worlds.

Subspace radio is fine by me...but it still takes days to weeks to get an answer from home if you're out there.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing gravity production as new and not perfected. Rotational sections on the ship. But that's just me.

Oh...and can the technobabble. There's enough actually theory and science out there that could be used. No more iso magnetochonometric multiphasic doohickies.

[Joe Dizzy]

Originally posted by qerlin
UFP -- socialist utopian, but with a darker underbelly...where are all the lazy people. They're out there, you know.

No. They're not. That's the whole point of Trekkian humans.

[Joe Dizzy]

I think I'd go for post-apocalyptic Trek.
Remotely like Andromeda, minus the campy-ness and the fossil (Hunt).

Just a bunch of "loonies" on a ship. I'd clash their idealism and dreams, they picked from old history snippits, with the harsh cyncism of a galaxy that was brought to its knees a long time ago.

Whereas TNG showed us enlightened humanity, I'd go for a crew that will one day serve as in inspiration to others. Echoing the whole 'I have a dream'-sentiment. Although at least one character will probably end up acting against his ideals in order to keep the peace (see Sisko in In The Pale Moonlight). Hmm, he might even make a good baddie in the final season.
Though the whole saviour-aspect (of the crew) would be seriously undercutted by always subtly reminding the viewers that character-wise the crew is equal to everyone they meet.

Like Dan suggested "contemporary" characters are a must (religious, arabic, gay characters).
In the end the show would basically be a commentary on the ever present cyncism and apathy these days. (Which I personally find both despicable and pathetic.)
I'd change the humour and action aspect slightly. Making the action visually more interesting and the humour less sit-comish.
And to ensure the ratings are high enough and to avoid studio influence, I'd of course include:
action - not very difficult in this setting.
season story arcs - a must these days.
main character couples - though generally frowned upon, handled well they serve to enhance the humanity of the characters
badass one-liners - to keep the tough guys watching
hidden sci-fi references - to keep the geeks watching

As far as continuity goes I'd keep it on TNG-level as far as the distant affairs are concerned (the ferengi are where? the Klingons eat what?) but very tight (Buffy-level) as far as character-development is concerned.

Joe, ...who isn't quite sure if he's ranting already

[Ineti]

Hmm. Interesting comments, all. Thanks for posting them. As I read them, I came to the realization that I used the wrong terminology and ended up asking a different question from the one I intended.

I'll start a different thread about what I think I wanted to ask about, which would be what do you want from ENT's successor?

But this is a great thread here. I'm intrigued by what people would reinvent.