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[Star Trek] Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise
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No you didn't. All you did was cite TNG as your main point, and it is not that easy.
TNG was another era of television. I doubt TNG would work the same way again today. Back then it was only TOS and about 4 movies in terms of canon/continuity. Today, as I have said before, there are 5 TV shows and 10 movies. As Priest said ... writers would be retconning your grandma into the show. Also, it is way to easy to do the same old, same old storylines.
Plus, as has also been said ... TNG itself didn't have continuity. Most episodes were stand-alones. There was no big arc like in DS9.
By now you have warp 10 that can instantly get you anywhere in the galaxy, weapons and armours that allow you to dispense a fleet of Borg with one shot without chipping the paint off the ship, portable holograms, nanoprobes that can be programmed to cure anything... basically you can't write a storyline without someone pointing out "why don't they just use X they got in episode Y and get out of it easy?"
Most people didn't care, though, because those were details from a more primitive show in a completely different era of TV, and because TNG found its own voice and its own identity. There's now more distance between us and the start of TNG than there was between the start of TNG and the start of TOS, so I think it's fair to say that if a new Trek show wants to tweak, nudge, and finesse continuity, most viewers outside of a tiny, shrinking minority aren't going to get too worked up about it, especially if it's any good.
Actual Play: Mage: the Awakening - At the Edge of All Things
And that'd be completely fine, if there was this empty space between TNG and now, just the TNG based movies. Heck, even DS9 would have been maneuverable in the grand scheme of things.
Voyager and Enterprise pretty much exclude the coexistence possibility though, without doing a ton of work.
The pilot would open with basically all the worlds in the Federation finally getting along, and then blam! Everyone gets killed for some reason, except for like a handful of people. And then those disparate peoples of various races, species, and identities have to search the galaxy for new civilizations and survivors, carving out a new form of confederacy to combat whatever threat it was that killed everyone else in the first place.
Think of it as Voyager mixed with BSG, with all the grittiness and exploration of the OT.
And a lot of those very vocal minority aren't going to give a shit if what gets run over is most of Voyager or Enterprise either. And there is a huge precedent in Trek Fandom for ignoring large swaths of related material. The novels have been declared non-cannon a long time ago.
They (as in Roddenberry) kind of did that. It was called Andromeda.
Never watched it, but I hear it was not so good.
I meant BSG in the "rag-tag group of survivors drifts through space looking for survivors" sense, not the "robot angels and bloody jihad" sense.
I can't think of any examples, but I'm sure there was a couple episodes of TNG that should have lasted maybe 5mins due to them having tech that would solve the problem they faced, yet they didn't even think of it for some reason.
It ain't easy writing for scifi.
A new series should focus on social issues that are relevant to us today. I'm thinking namely of racism and terrorism. The need for omnipresent security (Section 31 would fit in perfectly) vs. personal freedoms.
Or it became the worst kept set of secrets in the Alpha Quadrant and now everyone has it.
If anyone could name the show, and tell me if it was any good, I might try and Netflix it.
Can you imagine how screwed up a Nanoprobe warhead could be?
Andromeda and no it wasn't that good.
Treaty of Stardate X prohibiting the use of them. Could even make an episode out of it.
Like "Pegasus", but without butting into the finale of another show!
Grey goo
That sounds a lot like a specific episode of Farscape, in season one, where they get caught in some kind of alien trap. That's only about 10 years old though.
Seems like they should all just fly around in portable holographic bubbles or something. The only thing that would have to really exist is the fuel and the engine.
Basically, the only way to work a new Star Trek without a reboot is to do what TNG did and basically ignore continuity all together.
At which point, frankly, you are rebooting the show anyway.
The other issue with just jumping forward another 100 years or something is at some point it becomes ridiculous with either the technology being too advanced or the technology being not advanced enough. TNG already runs into this problem somewhat.
I think, overall, if you are gonna make a new Star Trek show, why not reboot? What's the point in pretending it's part of a larger series when you are just gonna ignore most of the other series anyway?
That's why I like the idea of widespread destruction of the Federation. It effectively jettisons most of the entangling continuity while still acknowledging its existence.
Like, say, start with blowing up the Federation headquarters. And the Earth. Put the humans on the defensive from the get-go, and let them take orders from the "aliens" for once.
But then you are suggesting rebooting and just not calling it that.
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
Pretend they were popular holodeck programs.
That's because Trekkies were the original Dave Matthews Band fans, and still are to a great extent.
You can't put a new, fresh spin on a Trek TV series without a host of neckbeards fidgeting about how Incongruity X doesn't fit with Voyager Episode Y. At best, 2 million people a week watched Voyager. 40 million Americans went to see the JJ Abrahams flick.
Exactly. It's not like either series is beloved by the fans. Pretending they didn't happen makes it easier for the writers and the fans get what they want.
Yeah, earlier in the thread, there was a guy who posted quite a bit about what he would like to see in a rebooted TV series - and not ONE of the suggestions had anything to do with story or character. It was all pseudo-military bureaucratic wank. I mean - the wank was on point, he was calling out legitimate detail problems, but that's the kind of thing I think the series needs to NOT pander to. I feel that immediately returning to churning out tv series will lead to that sorta tired wheel-speening much sooner than the alternative, which is letting Star Trek stay JUST a film series for awhile.
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
The probe didn't send them to the alpha quadrant, it killed them and the show is about the crew of the damned doomed to fly through an endless hell with Satan herself commands the ship.
The Enterprise has a plaque that says "To boldly go where no man has gone before".
Voyager's plaque says "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate".
Which I am totally groovy with. JJ Abrahams' flick, while disjointed, was exactly what the series needed.
One thing I loved most about that movie was how little actual time was spent aboard the bridge of the Enterprise, which has always been the mainstay of the Trek franchise in any incarnation. I hope it stays that way.
I was quite a fan of how industrial the society still was. From set to set, you could clearly imagine how Earth got from the Post-Industrial Information Age to the Warp Age. None of this "We have like 800 people on board, but like 5 shuttles." shit. No, an entire docking bay stacked to the nines with shuttles, bowels of the ship most people don't see because they're chock full of industrial parts.
Despite the glaring plot holes, it was a charmingly acted, believable movie.
I am definitely down with letting Trek stay in theaters for the next ten years or so. But if they stay good and popular, a series is probably inevitable at some point, and I don't see why it has to be a churn or a grind or anything like that. Why can't it be exciting and reinvigorating?
I guess I think it's possible in this day and age to make a Trek series that has the two-fisted action and kineticism of the original show and the Abrams movie but also the thoughtfulness and the character moments of the best of the recent shows. I'd like to see it in the movies as well - the recent one was fantastic fun but I hope the next one can kind of do a Spider-Man 2 and add some more depth and a plot that stands up to a bit more scrutiny.
Actual Play: Mage: the Awakening - At the Edge of All Things
None of them were really blockbuster hits on the order of the recent movie. They were modestly-budgeted movies (Wrath of Khan cost all of $11 million) that performed respectably to a niche audience.
Actual Play: Mage: the Awakening - At the Edge of All Things
Maybe they shouldnt make it like Insurrection? I remember not liking that movie, and I dont know if Nemesis was any better since I fucking fell asleep, but I have a feeling it wasnt. The beginning of that movie was kinda cool too. Plus the Remans were kinda cool. Maybe I'll get around to watching it some time; every time I consider watching it I get the feeling that Ive seen it in its entirety but I never remember what happens in the movie. Im pretty sure I saw it not that long ago since Im pretty sure Ive seen every Trek film, but I have very little recollection of that film...