I'd really like to see a show that follows a ship from each of the major factions, Federation, Klingon and Romulan. Would make things interesting for the viewers and give the writers lots of room to write. If ships cross paths, it might even involve seeing different viewpoints on the same situation.
I would like to see the first alien captain of the Enterprise on TV. STO did it already, but it would be cool to me to see that on TV. My expectation is it will not be a Vulcan because that just wouldn't be engaging for a lead unless written consistently as well as older Spock, or unless the guy was v'tosh ka'tur, but an alien lead would be cool IMO.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
. I wanna see it in the PRIME universe first off.
. I wanna see it in TNG timeline.
I would LOVE to see it feature either:
A. The crew of the U.S.S. Titan with Riker as captain and the appropriate crew.
B. The crew of the U.S.S. Aventine with Ezri as captain.
c. Captain Worf in as yet to be determined named ship.
In the Past 24 Hours, CBS has released two statements defending their decision to release the future series via online instead of airing on television.
Has this effected anyones opinion about what to expect from the production staff?
What do you think they will choose to do as a setting, (as opposed to what you want)?
1. My expectations go WAY up if it is kept behind an exclusive pay wall rather than network TV.
2. I think they are gonna go with a completely diffrent timeline other than the general period either before or after TNG took place in.
When you say your expectations increase, is that because you think they will actually handle the series better this way, or only because you expect a better return on your investment if you have to pay?
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
When you say your expectations increase, is that because you think they will actually handle the series better this way, or only because you expect a better return on your investment if you have to pay?
I expect a better return on viewer's collective investment. I think these streaming service's exclusivity and required membership actually kinda demands it.
In the Past 24 Hours, CBS has released two statements defending their decision to release the future series via online instead of airing on television.
Has this effected anyones opinion about what to expect from the production staff?
What do you think they will choose to do as a setting, (as opposed to what you want)?
1. My expectations go WAY up if it is kept behind an exclusive pay wall rather than network TV.
2. I think they are gonna go with a completely diffrent timeline other than the general period either before or after TNG took place in.
That is a fare point, network TV only estimates viewings and has limited feed back in form of control groups.
An online system will better reflect what it is that people are enjoying within the show, what sort of stories bring the most people back. It will also provide a more stable income for CBS as opposed to trying to flog a show to other channels based on potentially false viewing numbers.
An example would have been the Firefly Series. It wasn't discovered until after it's cancellation that viewing figures were alot higher than previously 'estimated' at. Then there is Fringe; the network thought that the ratings were high until the debut of the 2nd to last season when they got more accurate figures and were sadly dissappointed.
STAR TREK CONTINUES
Episode One - A Single MomentEpisode Two - InfancyEpisode Three - Unto the Breach Episode Four - Head Of A NeedleEpisode Five: The Duality of MenEpisode Six - Redemption Earned Episode Seven - Shattered UniverseEpisode Eight - The Gepetto ConditionEpisode Nine - One Room, Two Officers Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest StarEpisode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't HurtEpisode Twelve - A Protracted Officer Episode Thirteen - SomewhenEpisode Fourteen - The Boy Who LivedEpisode Fifthteen - Empathy
I would like to see the first alien captain of the Enterprise on TV. STO did it already, but it would be cool to me to see that on TV. My expectation is it will not be a Vulcan because that just wouldn't be engaging for a lead unless written consistently as well as older Spock, or unless the guy was v'tosh ka'tur, but an alien lead would be cool IMO.
^ I think this idea could work as well. I remember Behr and Moore always talking about how difficult it was to build interpersonal conflict among the characters because of the human/Federation utopian society. Might be really neat to shoot for the moon and make this an all alien crew... explore the "human condition" from outside eyes so to speak.
I would love that, but it would have to be a simple enough make-up for the actor, even the vulcan ears and hair can take up to 40mins (I think). Perhaps a Vulcan/Human hybrid that is in touch of his emotions like Trip & T'Pols alternate son, (ENT: E2).
That way you have an interesting character that has more than enough space to create conflict like you mentioned.
STAR TREK CONTINUES
Episode One - A Single MomentEpisode Two - InfancyEpisode Three - Unto the Breach Episode Four - Head Of A NeedleEpisode Five: The Duality of MenEpisode Six - Redemption Earned Episode Seven - Shattered UniverseEpisode Eight - The Gepetto ConditionEpisode Nine - One Room, Two Officers Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest StarEpisode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't HurtEpisode Twelve - A Protracted Officer Episode Thirteen - SomewhenEpisode Fourteen - The Boy Who LivedEpisode Fifthteen - Empathy
I would like to see the first alien captain of the Enterprise on TV. STO did it already, but it would be cool to me to see that on TV. My expectation is it will not be a Vulcan because that just wouldn't be engaging for a lead unless written consistently as well as older Spock, or unless the guy was v'tosh ka'tur, but an alien lead would be cool IMO.
^ I think this idea could work as well. I remember Behr and Moore always talking about how difficult it was to build interpersonal conflict among the characters because of the human/Federation utopian society. Might be really neat to shoot for the moon and make this an all alien crew... explore the "human condition" from outside eyes so to speak.
I would love that, but it would have to be a simple enough make-up for the actor, even the vulcan ears and hair can take up to 40mins (I think). Perhaps a Vulcan/Human hybrid that is in touch of his emotions like Trip & T'Pols alternate son, (ENT: E2).
That way you have an interesting character that has more than enough space to create conflict like you mentioned.
I want a Romulan captain. I know it has to be human, I know, but still...
Ultimately, I think it has to be human for the basic fact that it is ultimately a story about humans, for humans. For a host of dramatic reasons an alien captain makes more sense, and would be far more interesting from the point of view of Star Trek fans, but it has always been a story about humanity. Even Star Wars is centered around humans, and it makes no sense at all there. Somehow, this almost feels racist, but the fact that I really want the opposite is a good sign to me that my instinct is right -- the main character needs to be human.
@themadrigogs, Not necessarily. To be completely honest, when watching DS9, the Bajorans and Cardassians often felt more human and relatable to me, in all their good and bad, than the humans.
And then of course there's a whole other strategy available too, such as the toon referenced in my signature: he was raised on Earth and therefore has human cultural referents. Yet he is fundamentally very different than a human. Because his culture and language are human, he can partially bridge the gap between the species (such as with sensory differences, and with some innate cognitive differences), because he is a native speaker of our languages and generally knows what we will or won't understand. But he can't bridge the gap all the way because no matter what his physical makeup, he cannot relate to--even despises--the culture of the rest of his species.
Raise an alien in human culture, and s/he can make the alien at least somewhat relatable while keeping things interesting.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
The Captain as non-human might not work too badly. It might actually make him decidedly alien and a more distant character than Kirk, Picard, Sisko or Janeway have been, and allow focusing more on the rest of the crew.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I think I'd like a Bolian captain. It's always bugged me that the only Bolians who got decent screen time seemed to be joke characters. We know from the opening of 'Emissary' that they aren't all like that; so yeah, I'd want a grim faced, hard as nails Bolian for a captain.
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
This kinda got lost in the other thread, but personally, something I would like to see, is if the new Trek series was more directly linked to STO, in the same way that the series and game of Defiance were linked. Something like that would really give viewers a sense of connection to the show. The world (and TV) is different to what it was during the Golden Era of Trek (TNG/DS-9/VOY) Back then, I could only watch the episodes and admire the actors from afar. Now, I can just message them on facebook, or meet them at conventions. Star Trek Continues, for example, I can both watch, as a viewer, and engage with in terms of funding, conversation with the cast, etc. It's very different to how things used to be, and that creates a different dynamic between producer and audience. How cool would it be say, to enter a competition of some kind either in game or on forum, where the prize, is that your ship is somehow incorporated into an upcoming episode? Maybe Captain Someone gets namedropped in conversation, or Ensign HotChick gets cast as a live character, or the USS Random appears in a space-scene... How badass would that be?? Sure beats the times when an astronaut, a prince, or a musician managed to snag cameos, this would be something attainable by anyone... The only character I personally could convincingly play on-screen would be a Bolian barber (like all those fat Jedi who haunt conventions... Never saw a fat Jedi on screen...) but anyone's ship could be modelled by the FX team to be inserted for a fleet scene... Very different to just watching TV and drooling over a poster or sending fanmail to the studio... If the new series is going to be using a new medium, they may as well fully explore that to heighten engagement, which would only increase audience numbers, and with actual fans, not just casual 'viewers'...
Set in the time before Captain Pike was a captain, when he and Matt Decker were classmates just coming out of the Academy and starting to explore the big unknown.
In the year 2238 Ensign Christopher Pike is promoted to Lieutenant Jr. Grade, and is transferred as a junior Engineering Officer to a ship with a Tellarite crew as part of the new Starfleet Cultural Exchange program, in which officers volunteer to serve with crews of other races to learn from their examples and then bring back what they learn to crews of their own race.
This is a time of rapid territorial expansion for the Federation, (though it is still very small,) and though it is still a decade before the Klingon wars there are raiders, pirates, and aliens of unknown intent out there.
Not only does Pike have to contend with seductive green alien women, he must adjust to life among the argumentative and gregarious Tellarites. Some potential cultural clash points:
Tellarites like to sleep together. Their mating is rigidly controlled due to their tendency to produce litters, and for them sleep has nothing to do with sex anyway. Instead of individual quarters, each officer has a desk in a common 'study' from which to work, and there is a communal sleeping platform for junior officers that Pike must get used to sleeping on, usually to wake with snoring Tellarites piled all around him.
Tellarites argue all the time about everything. For them it's the equivalent of a hug. If a Tellarite meets someone they don't know well enough to start a proper argument, the Tellarite will offer a polite insult to make the newcomer feel welcome.
Tellarites do everything together. They groom, eat, work, and play as a 'gang' which is a reference to their mining background. In fact, instead of watches Tellarites are assigned to 'shifts' and they retain titles like 'Foreman' and 'Superintendent' in place of the naval titles used on human ships. Boss is the typical Tellarite term for anyone ranked over them, but don't expect a Tellarite won't talk back to his/her boss!
There are also many story opportunities here, from First Contact with Deltans or Betazoid, to colonial surveys, to ghost-ships and plague-ships or planets.
I like the unique and new setting your are creating Brian 334, but you have to remember that the make-up and costumes have to be time regulated. The Actors would sometimes work up to 14 hours a day to get all the scenes done in time. Another reason it might be best to take ahold of the notion 'quality not quantity'.
Perhaps, a Betazoid Captain? he/she could have some history to explore during the Dominion Wars. Perhaps their abilities make them more intune with the crew, making their priorities the ship & crew as opposed to the mission at all costs.
Both a strength and weakness that could be explored.
STAR TREK CONTINUES
Episode One - A Single MomentEpisode Two - InfancyEpisode Three - Unto the Breach Episode Four - Head Of A NeedleEpisode Five: The Duality of MenEpisode Six - Redemption Earned Episode Seven - Shattered UniverseEpisode Eight - The Gepetto ConditionEpisode Nine - One Room, Two Officers Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest StarEpisode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't HurtEpisode Twelve - A Protracted Officer Episode Thirteen - SomewhenEpisode Fourteen - The Boy Who LivedEpisode Fifthteen - Empathy
Another aesthetic comment: I'd like to see more *alien* aliens, not just those of the rubber forehead variety, though at the same time I do still want to see canon species. I don't know if this would entail replacing Michael Westmore and going for JJ's makeup artist or not.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I wasn't aware the makeup artists for both Treks were together on FaceOff this year. I've watched that show occasionally in the past.
It's not that I think Westmore was *bad* at his job, necessarily (the design work on the Cardassians was excellent), but I noticed that the Abramsverse often went to more trouble with its aliens than just a rubber forehead, and I want to see more of that. A mix of the old and new is what I'd be looking for.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
It's been fifteen years since VOY ended; let's take up the Star Trek story fifteen years after Voyager returned to Earth. New ship, new crew, maybe the occasional cameo or guest shot from someone from TNG, DS9, or VOY, but let's give our new show room to breathe.
I've got two major series ideas that can proceed from there, since as tradition dictates we ignore novel "continuities" (which typically conflict with one another, and sometimes with themselves). One follows the adventures of the Intrepid-class USS Meriwether Lewis, as they explore the Gamma Quadrant on the other side of the Bajoran Wormhole in the wake of the Founders' withdrawal from interstellar affairs. The other would be a brand-new ship, the USS Magellan (stealing an idea from earlier discussions), as it explores some of the outlying regions of the galaxy - say, the spaces between the Beta and Delta Quadrants. (Use the modified quantum slipstream drive as presented in STO - it can jump the ship past several dozen lightyears of space, but then has to cool down and recharge its capacitors before it can be used again, so it's not a "save the day" plot device but does explain what Starfleet is doing that far out.) They should be far enough away from the nearest subspace booster that it can take days to get a message back to Command, so the captain has to be on his own and make important decisions without backup, just like Jim Kirk did back in the day.
Either way, I'd definitely like to see a multispecies crew - the viewpoint character will of course have to be human because that's what it's easiest for the audience to relate to, but let's have, say, a Human captain, a first officer who's also a liason from the Romulans, a few Klingons here and there (how about a Klingon chief engineer, straight off an Imperial cruiser?), and lots of amusing misunderstandings as all these disparate cultures must learn to work together. (No, Subcommander, it's not Starfleet protocol to go to yellow alert and arm photon torpedoes during a First Contact mission...)
The USS Titan concept in that regard (also Diane Duane's take on Starfleet) is a good one...I would actually want humans to be a fairly low percentage of the crew compared to prior shows.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
It's been fifteen years since VOY ended; let's take up the Star Trek story fifteen years after Voyager returned to Earth. New ship, new crew, maybe the occasional cameo or guest shot from someone from TNG, DS9, or VOY, but let's give our new show room to breathe.
I've got two major series ideas that can proceed from there, since as tradition dictates we ignore novel "continuities" (which typically conflict with one another, and sometimes with themselves). One follows the adventures of the Intrepid-class USS Meriwether Lewis, as they explore the Gamma Quadrant on the other side of the Bajoran Wormhole in the wake of the Founders' withdrawal from interstellar affairs. The other would be a brand-new ship, the USS Magellan (stealing an idea from earlier discussions), as it explores some of the outlying regions of the galaxy - say, the spaces between the Beta and Delta Quadrants. (Use the modified quantum slipstream drive as presented in STO - it can jump the ship past several dozen lightyears of space, but then has to cool down and recharge its capacitors before it can be used again, so it's not a "save the day" plot device but does explain what Starfleet is doing that far out.) They should be far enough away from the nearest subspace booster that it can take days to get a message back to Command, so the captain has to be on his own and make important decisions without backup, just like Jim Kirk did back in the day.
Either way, I'd definitely like to see a multispecies crew - the viewpoint character will of course have to be human because that's what it's easiest for the audience to relate to, but let's have, say, a Human captain, a first officer who's also a liason from the Romulans, a few Klingons here and there (how about a Klingon chief engineer, straight off an Imperial cruiser?), and lots of amusing misunderstandings as all these disparate cultures must learn to work together. (No, Subcommander, it's not Starfleet protocol to go to yellow alert and arm photon torpedoes during a First Contact mission...)
Instead of a Klingon engineer go with a Klingon Senior Medical Officer.
"He's wounded. We must send help him to sto vo kor." Grabs dagger.
"Um...no...I'm good just give me a shot or something other than ritual suicide."
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
I don't think you can compare Star Trek to BSG. Sure, they're both science fiction, but BSG, especially as re-imagined by Ron Moore, is a much darker series.
Part of what set Star Trek apart from other sci-fi is the positive vision of the future. It wasn't "War of the Worlds" type stuff where aliens come and kill everyone or some post apocalyptic nuclear holocaust theme. Trying to make the "utopia" of the Federation into some grimdark series, it won't work IMO.
I know the writers of TNG, especially Ron Moore, found it frustrating to try and write character conflict etc. for Trek, which is one of the reasons I'm concerned about this new show. If it's a grimdark drama, I certainly won't watch it.
Ron Moore actually had no problem writing for TNG, and worked really well with DS9. (His positive Trek experiences are one reason why, when the Final Four had to set up a secret meeting place in BSG, they met in storage compartment 1701D.) It wasn't until Berman and Braga decided that VOY should ignore its own premise that he got fed up and left. (And the BSG reboot was in part a response to this - by the Lords of Kobol, if we're supposed to be cut off from easy resupply, we're going to account for any new things!)
But no, grimdark is a poor fit for Star Trek. As SF author David Brin has pointed out, the basic message of Trek - all of Trek - is that there is hope for the future, that even if we have the Eugenics Wars and World War Three and the Earth-Romulan War and all that, we can still forge a future where people can live in peace and comfort, thanks to the ones willing to go out and experience adventure and hardship in their defense. And in this future, individual accomplishment is still possible, and is based on individual merit, not being born one of the lucky few with wealth or a surfeit of midichlorians or some other quirk of history over which one has no control. Anyone in the Trek universe, from pampered inner-world kids to survivors of collapsed colonies to people hiding in the Romulan catacombs and learning about their Vulcan cousins to the lowliest ensign or bekk or uhlan, can at least potentially one day climb into the spotlight and accomplish great things.
I don't think you can compare Star Trek to BSG. Sure, they're both science fiction, but BSG, especially as re-imagined by Ron Moore, is a much darker series.
Part of what set Star Trek apart from other sci-fi is the positive vision of the future. It wasn't "War of the Worlds" type stuff where aliens come and kill everyone or some post apocalyptic nuclear holocaust theme. Trying to make the "utopia" of the Federation into some grimdark series, it won't work IMO.
I know the writers of TNG, especially Ron Moore, found it frustrating to try and write character conflict etc. for Trek, which is one of the reasons I'm concerned about this new show. If it's a grimdark drama, I certainly won't watch it.
That's where I think DS9 got the right balance. It was able to explore darkness sometimes without going grimdark. Later ENT, from what I'm seeing so far in the episodes I'm streaming on Amazon, seems to have done so as well. IMO, light is brighter with *some* darkness, but NOT enough to snuff it out like all the grimdark stuff out there. Like I've said before, I watched nuBsG because I'd never seen that kind of grimdark thing before, but now that I've seen it, I feel like I've had that experience and seeing it with other series would just be repeating it. (Okay, I watch 24, but that's my only exception to that rule.) Better to aim for a DS9-style balance, I think, as that should keep it Trek enough (there is still something good to aim for and our good guys actually are trying to be good guys, not antiheroes) but also not blindly cheerful and PC like TNG to where it will turn off modern audiences.
Honestly, I think a series that tries to follow TNG is doomed to fail at the outset, whereas a DS9-like one has a shot at success as long as it does like DS9 and does NOT go off the cliff into total darkness. We still need heroes and something to genuinely smile and be amazed by and like without finding it too tainted by corruption and other things that make characters unlikeable. But we also don't need to hide our heads in the sand about the fact that sometimes bad things happen, people make bad decisions, and humanity is NOT perfect.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I don't think you can compare Star Trek to BSG. Sure, they're both science fiction, but BSG, especially as re-imagined by Ron Moore, is a much darker series.
Part of what set Star Trek apart from other sci-fi is the positive vision of the future. It wasn't "War of the Worlds" type stuff where aliens come and kill everyone or some post apocalyptic nuclear holocaust theme. Trying to make the "utopia" of the Federation into some grimdark series, it won't work IMO.
I know the writers of TNG, especially Ron Moore, found it frustrating to try and write character conflict etc. for Trek, which is one of the reasons I'm concerned about this new show. If it's a grimdark drama, I certainly won't watch it.
Ron Moore actually had no problem writing for TNG, and worked really well with DS9. (His positive Trek experiences are one reason why, when the Final Four had to set up a secret meeting place in BSG, they met in storage compartment 1701D.) It wasn't until Berman and Braga decided that VOY should ignore its own premise that he got fed up and left. (And the BSG reboot was in part a response to this - by the Lords of Kobol, if we're supposed to be cut off from easy resupply, we're going to account for any new things!)
But no, grimdark is a poor fit for Star Trek. As SF author David Brin has pointed out, the basic message of Trek - all of Trek - is that there is hope for the future, that even if we have the Eugenics Wars and World War Three and the Earth-Romulan War and all that, we can still forge a future where people can live in peace and comfort, thanks to the ones willing to go out and experience adventure and hardship in their defense. And in this future, individual accomplishment is still possible, and is based on individual merit, not being born one of the lucky few with wealth or a surfeit of midichlorians or some other quirk of history over which one has no control. Anyone in the Trek universe, from pampered inner-world kids to survivors of collapsed colonies to people hiding in the Romulan catacombs and learning about their Vulcan cousins to the lowliest ensign or bekk or uhlan, can at least potentially one day climb into the spotlight and accomplish great things.
If you get a chance read the series bible for Moore's BSG...it reads as an anti Star Trek guide.
Your pain runs deep.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
I dont see why they dont just get trekkie writers. Some of the best storys I have seen since TOS & TNG have been from Fan Fiction. Even the writer for family guy said he would love too do a script sometime! Lucky guy already had several cameos.
This is what scares me, the production team and JJ admitted they were Star Wars fans and watched 'abit' of Star Trek as kids, the result in my opinion was two films that didnt have any of the qualitys that make Star Trek a unique and loved show.
I am all for refresh, but get the right crew. You wouldn't get a plumber to look at your car.
STAR TREK CONTINUES
Episode One - A Single MomentEpisode Two - InfancyEpisode Three - Unto the Breach Episode Four - Head Of A NeedleEpisode Five: The Duality of MenEpisode Six - Redemption Earned Episode Seven - Shattered UniverseEpisode Eight - The Gepetto ConditionEpisode Nine - One Room, Two Officers Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest StarEpisode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't HurtEpisode Twelve - A Protracted Officer Episode Thirteen - SomewhenEpisode Fourteen - The Boy Who LivedEpisode Fifthteen - Empathy
Comments
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
. I wanna see it in TNG timeline.
I would LOVE to see it feature either:
A. The crew of the U.S.S. Titan with Riker as captain and the appropriate crew.
B. The crew of the U.S.S. Aventine with Ezri as captain.
c. Captain Worf in as yet to be determined named ship.
1. My expectations go WAY up if it is kept behind an exclusive pay wall rather than network TV.
2. I think they are gonna go with a completely diffrent timeline other than the general period either before or after TNG took place in.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I expect a better return on viewer's collective investment. I think these streaming service's exclusivity and required membership actually kinda demands it.
That is a fare point, network TV only estimates viewings and has limited feed back in form of control groups.
An online system will better reflect what it is that people are enjoying within the show, what sort of stories bring the most people back. It will also provide a more stable income for CBS as opposed to trying to flog a show to other channels based on potentially false viewing numbers.
An example would have been the Firefly Series. It wasn't discovered until after it's cancellation that viewing figures were alot higher than previously 'estimated' at. Then there is Fringe; the network thought that the ratings were high until the debut of the 2nd to last season when they got more accurate figures and were sadly dissappointed.
Episode Four - Head Of A Needle Episode Five: The Duality of Men Episode Six - Redemption Earned
Episode Seven - Shattered Universe Episode Eight - The Gepetto Condition Episode Nine - One Room, Two Officers
Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest Star Episode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't Hurt Episode Twelve - A Protracted Officer
Episode Thirteen - Somewhen Episode Fourteen - The Boy Who Lived Episode Fifthteen - Empathy
I would love that, but it would have to be a simple enough make-up for the actor, even the vulcan ears and hair can take up to 40mins (I think). Perhaps a Vulcan/Human hybrid that is in touch of his emotions like Trip & T'Pols alternate son, (ENT: E2).
That way you have an interesting character that has more than enough space to create conflict like you mentioned.
Episode Four - Head Of A Needle Episode Five: The Duality of Men Episode Six - Redemption Earned
Episode Seven - Shattered Universe Episode Eight - The Gepetto Condition Episode Nine - One Room, Two Officers
Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest Star Episode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't Hurt Episode Twelve - A Protracted Officer
Episode Thirteen - Somewhen Episode Fourteen - The Boy Who Lived Episode Fifthteen - Empathy
Or maybe, ahem, a Romulan?
Ultimately, I think it has to be human for the basic fact that it is ultimately a story about humans, for humans. For a host of dramatic reasons an alien captain makes more sense, and would be far more interesting from the point of view of Star Trek fans, but it has always been a story about humanity. Even Star Wars is centered around humans, and it makes no sense at all there. Somehow, this almost feels racist, but the fact that I really want the opposite is a good sign to me that my instinct is right -- the main character needs to be human.
And then of course there's a whole other strategy available too, such as the toon referenced in my signature: he was raised on Earth and therefore has human cultural referents. Yet he is fundamentally very different than a human. Because his culture and language are human, he can partially bridge the gap between the species (such as with sensory differences, and with some innate cognitive differences), because he is a native speaker of our languages and generally knows what we will or won't understand. But he can't bridge the gap all the way because no matter what his physical makeup, he cannot relate to--even despises--the culture of the rest of his species.
Raise an alien in human culture, and s/he can make the alien at least somewhat relatable while keeping things interesting.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/05/is-it-time-for-star-trek-to-grow-up?utm_campaign=fbposts&utm_source=facebook
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
Set in the time before Captain Pike was a captain, when he and Matt Decker were classmates just coming out of the Academy and starting to explore the big unknown.
In the year 2238 Ensign Christopher Pike is promoted to Lieutenant Jr. Grade, and is transferred as a junior Engineering Officer to a ship with a Tellarite crew as part of the new Starfleet Cultural Exchange program, in which officers volunteer to serve with crews of other races to learn from their examples and then bring back what they learn to crews of their own race.
This is a time of rapid territorial expansion for the Federation, (though it is still very small,) and though it is still a decade before the Klingon wars there are raiders, pirates, and aliens of unknown intent out there.
Not only does Pike have to contend with seductive green alien women, he must adjust to life among the argumentative and gregarious Tellarites. Some potential cultural clash points:
Tellarites like to sleep together. Their mating is rigidly controlled due to their tendency to produce litters, and for them sleep has nothing to do with sex anyway. Instead of individual quarters, each officer has a desk in a common 'study' from which to work, and there is a communal sleeping platform for junior officers that Pike must get used to sleeping on, usually to wake with snoring Tellarites piled all around him.
Tellarites argue all the time about everything. For them it's the equivalent of a hug. If a Tellarite meets someone they don't know well enough to start a proper argument, the Tellarite will offer a polite insult to make the newcomer feel welcome.
Tellarites do everything together. They groom, eat, work, and play as a 'gang' which is a reference to their mining background. In fact, instead of watches Tellarites are assigned to 'shifts' and they retain titles like 'Foreman' and 'Superintendent' in place of the naval titles used on human ships. Boss is the typical Tellarite term for anyone ranked over them, but don't expect a Tellarite won't talk back to his/her boss!
There are also many story opportunities here, from First Contact with Deltans or Betazoid, to colonial surveys, to ghost-ships and plague-ships or planets.
Perhaps, a Betazoid Captain? he/she could have some history to explore during the Dominion Wars. Perhaps their abilities make them more intune with the crew, making their priorities the ship & crew as opposed to the mission at all costs.
Both a strength and weakness that could be explored.
Episode Four - Head Of A Needle Episode Five: The Duality of Men Episode Six - Redemption Earned
Episode Seven - Shattered Universe Episode Eight - The Gepetto Condition Episode Nine - One Room, Two Officers
Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest Star Episode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't Hurt Episode Twelve - A Protracted Officer
Episode Thirteen - Somewhen Episode Fourteen - The Boy Who Lived Episode Fifthteen - Empathy
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
It's not that I think Westmore was *bad* at his job, necessarily (the design work on the Cardassians was excellent), but I noticed that the Abramsverse often went to more trouble with its aliens than just a rubber forehead, and I want to see more of that. A mix of the old and new is what I'd be looking for.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
I've got two major series ideas that can proceed from there, since as tradition dictates we ignore novel "continuities" (which typically conflict with one another, and sometimes with themselves). One follows the adventures of the Intrepid-class USS Meriwether Lewis, as they explore the Gamma Quadrant on the other side of the Bajoran Wormhole in the wake of the Founders' withdrawal from interstellar affairs. The other would be a brand-new ship, the USS Magellan (stealing an idea from earlier discussions), as it explores some of the outlying regions of the galaxy - say, the spaces between the Beta and Delta Quadrants. (Use the modified quantum slipstream drive as presented in STO - it can jump the ship past several dozen lightyears of space, but then has to cool down and recharge its capacitors before it can be used again, so it's not a "save the day" plot device but does explain what Starfleet is doing that far out.) They should be far enough away from the nearest subspace booster that it can take days to get a message back to Command, so the captain has to be on his own and make important decisions without backup, just like Jim Kirk did back in the day.
Either way, I'd definitely like to see a multispecies crew - the viewpoint character will of course have to be human because that's what it's easiest for the audience to relate to, but let's have, say, a Human captain, a first officer who's also a liason from the Romulans, a few Klingons here and there (how about a Klingon chief engineer, straight off an Imperial cruiser?), and lots of amusing misunderstandings as all these disparate cultures must learn to work together. (No, Subcommander, it's not Starfleet protocol to go to yellow alert and arm photon torpedoes during a First Contact mission...)
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Instead of a Klingon engineer go with a Klingon Senior Medical Officer.
"He's wounded. We must send help him to sto vo kor." Grabs dagger.
"Um...no...I'm good just give me a shot or something other than ritual suicide."
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
But no, grimdark is a poor fit for Star Trek. As SF author David Brin has pointed out, the basic message of Trek - all of Trek - is that there is hope for the future, that even if we have the Eugenics Wars and World War Three and the Earth-Romulan War and all that, we can still forge a future where people can live in peace and comfort, thanks to the ones willing to go out and experience adventure and hardship in their defense. And in this future, individual accomplishment is still possible, and is based on individual merit, not being born one of the lucky few with wealth or a surfeit of midichlorians or some other quirk of history over which one has no control. Anyone in the Trek universe, from pampered inner-world kids to survivors of collapsed colonies to people hiding in the Romulan catacombs and learning about their Vulcan cousins to the lowliest ensign or bekk or uhlan, can at least potentially one day climb into the spotlight and accomplish great things.
That's where I think DS9 got the right balance. It was able to explore darkness sometimes without going grimdark. Later ENT, from what I'm seeing so far in the episodes I'm streaming on Amazon, seems to have done so as well. IMO, light is brighter with *some* darkness, but NOT enough to snuff it out like all the grimdark stuff out there. Like I've said before, I watched nuBsG because I'd never seen that kind of grimdark thing before, but now that I've seen it, I feel like I've had that experience and seeing it with other series would just be repeating it. (Okay, I watch 24, but that's my only exception to that rule.) Better to aim for a DS9-style balance, I think, as that should keep it Trek enough (there is still something good to aim for and our good guys actually are trying to be good guys, not antiheroes) but also not blindly cheerful and PC like TNG to where it will turn off modern audiences.
Honestly, I think a series that tries to follow TNG is doomed to fail at the outset, whereas a DS9-like one has a shot at success as long as it does like DS9 and does NOT go off the cliff into total darkness. We still need heroes and something to genuinely smile and be amazed by and like without finding it too tainted by corruption and other things that make characters unlikeable. But we also don't need to hide our heads in the sand about the fact that sometimes bad things happen, people make bad decisions, and humanity is NOT perfect.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
If you get a chance read the series bible for Moore's BSG...it reads as an anti Star Trek guide.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
I dont see why they dont just get trekkie writers. Some of the best storys I have seen since TOS & TNG have been from Fan Fiction. Even the writer for family guy said he would love too do a script sometime! Lucky guy already had several cameos.
This is what scares me, the production team and JJ admitted they were Star Wars fans and watched 'abit' of Star Trek as kids, the result in my opinion was two films that didnt have any of the qualitys that make Star Trek a unique and loved show.
I am all for refresh, but get the right crew. You wouldn't get a plumber to look at your car.
Episode Four - Head Of A Needle Episode Five: The Duality of Men Episode Six - Redemption Earned
Episode Seven - Shattered Universe Episode Eight - The Gepetto Condition Episode Nine - One Room, Two Officers
Episode Ten - Beyond The Farthest Star Episode Eleven - It's OK, It Won't Hurt Episode Twelve - A Protracted Officer
Episode Thirteen - Somewhen Episode Fourteen - The Boy Who Lived Episode Fifthteen - Empathy