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Is Star Trek in need of a remake?
bartimaeus
Member Posts: 37 Arc User
in Ten Forward
After the announcement of ST:Discovery, and the trailer, and all the bashing about the Klingons and how "they do not look Klingon" etc, I've been thinking quite a bit, that, Star Trek, might need a remake, as a whole. Or reboot, or overhaul. Or, whatever you want to call it.
Not, totally, mind you. I am not saying to scrap everything and do it from the start. Nor i mean to use temporal events to create a different timeline. My point of view was merely about the design, the aesthetics, the science (and that includes sci-fi pseudoscience too) behind it. Because, frankly, this is the 2017. A person with a handful of bronze makeup and mongolian mustache just doesn't cut it for an extraterrestrial being. Variable color sweaters and short trousers don't constitute uniforms (and neither does everything else worn by any character in Star Trek). Crude, big chunks of metal with multicolored, shiny plastic buttons don't cut it for 22nd, 23rd, 24th or 25th century technology. And generally, they were to great extends to justify and canonize with the lore, what was, at first, a mere lack of budget and tools... and imagination. See, the movies, from WoK and on, tried to do something, and did it good, but still, it could do more. Maybe not "better", but certainly more.
So, would Star Trek need to... let's say, take the 10 best and most representing episodes from TOS era, and the 10-15 of the TNG era, and fully remake them, up to 2017s standards? With modern concepts on what should be "uniform", on how extraterrestrial species should look like, on how space vessels should look like, should operate like, scrapping excuses like "augment virus", "preservers spread dna all over the galaxy" and hybrid species.
Keep in mind, that i do not argue here what would make money for CBS, i am talking about what Star Trek as a lore would need.
Not, totally, mind you. I am not saying to scrap everything and do it from the start. Nor i mean to use temporal events to create a different timeline. My point of view was merely about the design, the aesthetics, the science (and that includes sci-fi pseudoscience too) behind it. Because, frankly, this is the 2017. A person with a handful of bronze makeup and mongolian mustache just doesn't cut it for an extraterrestrial being. Variable color sweaters and short trousers don't constitute uniforms (and neither does everything else worn by any character in Star Trek). Crude, big chunks of metal with multicolored, shiny plastic buttons don't cut it for 22nd, 23rd, 24th or 25th century technology. And generally, they were to great extends to justify and canonize with the lore, what was, at first, a mere lack of budget and tools... and imagination. See, the movies, from WoK and on, tried to do something, and did it good, but still, it could do more. Maybe not "better", but certainly more.
So, would Star Trek need to... let's say, take the 10 best and most representing episodes from TOS era, and the 10-15 of the TNG era, and fully remake them, up to 2017s standards? With modern concepts on what should be "uniform", on how extraterrestrial species should look like, on how space vessels should look like, should operate like, scrapping excuses like "augment virus", "preservers spread dna all over the galaxy" and hybrid species.
Keep in mind, that i do not argue here what would make money for CBS, i am talking about what Star Trek as a lore would need.
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Safe to say, realistic is boring.
Winning.
Oh, now don't tell me you want in on all this! Well, ok. Look this that Egg Pawn hanging outside your window, pointing his laser rifle at you, waiting for my next order. He's doing his part. He helps conquer the weak-minded. He roboticizes the weak-bodied. Heck, he even helps keep the useless people from causing any trouble, but you know what? Join. Find the closest Nataran Empire roboticization center near you and join the ranks, before the ranks find you. Oh, I know, you figure it must be so satisfying to know I basically rule the world now, and you know what? It is, but do you want to know the true definition of satisfaction? Well, let me tell you a little story. One day, you see a brand new event. They're giving out boxes that give old event stuff. Your dilithium is plentiful. You buy a whole lot of Phoenix packs on your main, and open them all. You get one epic token. Then, you decide, that since you have all the Breen ships and don't give a damn about the others, you exchange it for an ultra rare, and grab yourself a Jem'Hadar Attack Ship and for the hell of it, a Voth Bulwark. You open both, leaving the Bulwark in your vast masses of starships as you jump into the bugship and deck it out, deck by deck, into the most awesome Jem'Hadar ship you can. You fly it. You enjoy it. Eventually, you get bored and leave, leaving the old Bulwark never flown... until later. Your main is long complete. Your new alt main, based off some character you pulled out of nothing just to explain away some starship being in service without the command of your dear admiral, is also complete. Mostly. Their reps and doffs are hard at work, getting you stuff. You realize the potential, and head back for your dear admiral, pull the most Voth themed build you can out of thin air, and suit up in your giant ship in the shape of you know what. You head out... and cause all sorts of havoc. Enemies scream out your name as their very life is drained away by your swarms of Aceton Assimilators. They complain to the devs of your OPness when you revive yourself from death every time you die. Do you show any form of mercy? No. After all, this isn't the United Federation of Planets, this is mother frakkin' Starfleet, where you explore strange new worlds and kick butt never kicked before. Oh, and you realize that I just wrote another speech rivaling your own signature. Cool. Oh, wait, that's just the original draft, it is part of my signature now. Oh, and yes, I am aware that I have become a Canadian Regent; one day, sooner than you'd expect, we'll suddenly decide to take over the world and declare an "alliance", and I shall become it's Regent. You know, like the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in the mirror universe of our beloved Star Trek. Oh, who'll we be taking over with? I dunno, maybe [REDACTED], or maybe aliens from outer space. Guess you'll have to wait and find out, won't we? Until then, don't ask too many questions, or else my Breen allies on Titania might pick up on your -- [REDACTED BY BREEN CONFEDERACY FOR REASONS] Also, psst... keep an eye out for flying Tribbles! Also walls. Big, great walls, separating entire continents apart. Walls patrolled by Tribbles. Flying Tribbles. Flying Nukara Tribbles. Don't worry, it's not like they were on Venus with a herd of Tholians or anything, they just like the extreme heat and brutal weather like acid rain and hurricane force winds as the norm. Oh, and definitely keep your eye out on any two-tailed foxes, because if they ain't glowing, they're definitely an imposter. Possibly an Undine, we caught one of those once in my place once. Oh, and if you find a two-tailed fox that doesn't like the cold... most certainly ask him to say sorry. If he refuses, DESTROY HIM WITH A DOOMSDAY MACHINE, BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING ELSE THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH AGAINST SUCH AN OVERPOWERED IMPOSTER!
tr;dr, I am winning last post wins 3.0. Thank you for your time.
As for whether Star Trek needs a total overhaul (dumping everything and starting completely from scratch), what would the point of doing that even be? If you toss out everything to start over then why are you even using the brand at that point? If the writers are confident in their ability to tell their stories then they should build their own worlds instead of tearing down one that has already existed for over fifty years.
I honestly think Star Trek is less in need of an overhaul, but rather needs a production team that has confidence in the brand that they are using. I personally have long gotten the sense that Star Trek's owners don't actually like the franchise and feel embarrassed to be associated with it.
The history of Star Trek as a franchise is full of moronic decisions, but not one of them made it necessary to "reboot" Trek.
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I meant reworking the episodes in order to make this:
Look like this:
Without making a "new timeline".
I'd keep the stuff that works (Kirk, Spock, Klingons, a ship named Enterprise, etc), and the heart of the storytelling wouldn't change.
I think it could work, but I'm far more open to it than most fans. IMO, any entertainment franchise has to address this at some point... both DC and Marvel do it (too much, in fact), and Star Wars dealt a significant blow to it's EU after the Disney buyout. The latter example, however, seems to have worked for the better. Trek could serve well to do the same.
Doesn'T really need more than this.
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Continues tries to pay homage to the original series, and captures the look exceptionally well. But it is not engaged in retelling the same old stories. It isn't rewriting a known story with a modern twist. It is telling original Trek tales in the style of the original series.
If you want a new, more modern look for Trek, please don't waste your time retelling the old stories; we already know them. Instead, let the older versions, the LARPers, and the fan- filmers devoted to them retain their look, and the charm of their original sets and costumes while you create a new look, along with new stories.
I am a huge un-fan of remastering CGI. So far I have not seen a single product improve from this treatment. The updated animations on TOS is far less impressive than the original 'hokey' studio animation with which Trek was aired.
When something is past its time it begins to acquire layers of nostalgia which a remake shatters. Leave the past alone, mistakes, low tech, and all. Romeo And Juliette is doing fine. Instead of yet another remake, why not do what Trek always did best: present new ideas wrapped in interesting tales.
continuations.....NO REBOOTS.
REBOOT = The fast, easy, cheap, lazy way of repacking something, and many times, it's not as good as the original.
I'm gonna stop you there and say...
Remember how people reacted to JJ Abrams' take on Star Trek? EVEN with the bone of "Alternate Reality" given to the fans, which IS a legitimate way to revisit older time periods while modernizing the look and open the door to new stories, the so called "diehard" and "True" fans looked like this:
Hell... I know of one person who believes that ANYTHING that Gene Roddenberry did NOT have control over is NOT Star Trek whatsoever, therefor discounting EVERYTHING except for TOS and 2 seasons of TNG. Everything else to him is blasphemy.
While Star Trek would look good with the modern advancements and knowledge we have now... there are those who feel that it MUST, ABSOLUTELY, NO COMPROMISING, DO IT OR I HATE YOU FOREVER, FANGS OUT, has to look like it was made in the 1960s if we go back to the TOS Era in the timeline. Hell... there was rage over the fact that the NX-01 Enterprise from 100 years earlier looked MORE advanced than the NCC-1701 USS Enterprise.
Its that ridiculous.
He was just a man. A flawed man.
But, the general hopeful message of Trek is good and enduring. If it has that, then it's still Trek to me. Even the KT films have it.
TOS looks more advanced than ENT to me. The NX01 is all greebly and gnarly. Connie looks far more advanced.
True, however the displays inside looked more advanced than something made in the 1960s.
Enterprise: (Helm)
TOS: (Helm)
That's Romulans and their computer viruses for you. Forces everybody to roll back to older style computers.
Winning.
Oh, now don't tell me you want in on all this! Well, ok. Look this that Egg Pawn hanging outside your window, pointing his laser rifle at you, waiting for my next order. He's doing his part. He helps conquer the weak-minded. He roboticizes the weak-bodied. Heck, he even helps keep the useless people from causing any trouble, but you know what? Join. Find the closest Nataran Empire roboticization center near you and join the ranks, before the ranks find you. Oh, I know, you figure it must be so satisfying to know I basically rule the world now, and you know what? It is, but do you want to know the true definition of satisfaction? Well, let me tell you a little story. One day, you see a brand new event. They're giving out boxes that give old event stuff. Your dilithium is plentiful. You buy a whole lot of Phoenix packs on your main, and open them all. You get one epic token. Then, you decide, that since you have all the Breen ships and don't give a damn about the others, you exchange it for an ultra rare, and grab yourself a Jem'Hadar Attack Ship and for the hell of it, a Voth Bulwark. You open both, leaving the Bulwark in your vast masses of starships as you jump into the bugship and deck it out, deck by deck, into the most awesome Jem'Hadar ship you can. You fly it. You enjoy it. Eventually, you get bored and leave, leaving the old Bulwark never flown... until later. Your main is long complete. Your new alt main, based off some character you pulled out of nothing just to explain away some starship being in service without the command of your dear admiral, is also complete. Mostly. Their reps and doffs are hard at work, getting you stuff. You realize the potential, and head back for your dear admiral, pull the most Voth themed build you can out of thin air, and suit up in your giant ship in the shape of you know what. You head out... and cause all sorts of havoc. Enemies scream out your name as their very life is drained away by your swarms of Aceton Assimilators. They complain to the devs of your OPness when you revive yourself from death every time you die. Do you show any form of mercy? No. After all, this isn't the United Federation of Planets, this is mother frakkin' Starfleet, where you explore strange new worlds and kick butt never kicked before. Oh, and you realize that I just wrote another speech rivaling your own signature. Cool. Oh, wait, that's just the original draft, it is part of my signature now. Oh, and yes, I am aware that I have become a Canadian Regent; one day, sooner than you'd expect, we'll suddenly decide to take over the world and declare an "alliance", and I shall become it's Regent. You know, like the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in the mirror universe of our beloved Star Trek. Oh, who'll we be taking over with? I dunno, maybe [REDACTED], or maybe aliens from outer space. Guess you'll have to wait and find out, won't we? Until then, don't ask too many questions, or else my Breen allies on Titania might pick up on your -- [REDACTED BY BREEN CONFEDERACY FOR REASONS] Also, psst... keep an eye out for flying Tribbles! Also walls. Big, great walls, separating entire continents apart. Walls patrolled by Tribbles. Flying Tribbles. Flying Nukara Tribbles. Don't worry, it's not like they were on Venus with a herd of Tholians or anything, they just like the extreme heat and brutal weather like acid rain and hurricane force winds as the norm. Oh, and definitely keep your eye out on any two-tailed foxes, because if they ain't glowing, they're definitely an imposter. Possibly an Undine, we caught one of those once in my place once. Oh, and if you find a two-tailed fox that doesn't like the cold... most certainly ask him to say sorry. If he refuses, DESTROY HIM WITH A DOOMSDAY MACHINE, BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING ELSE THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH AGAINST SUCH AN OVERPOWERED IMPOSTER!
tr;dr, I am winning last post wins 3.0. Thank you for your time.
The problem is that Star Trek is split between two companies. CBS and Paramount. Paramount has the rights to the movies, while CBS has the rights to Everything from Nemesis back, and anything they come up with like Discovery. CBS can't really do anything with the Kelvin Timeline even if they wanted to because legally that belongs to Paramount.
Exactly. It's like saying a steam locomotive is more advanced than a Japanese bullet train.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
Would love to see a Back to the Future reboot where the first movie goes back to 1990 from the year 2020 and the second movie goes to the year 2050. Maybe we will have flying cars, Mr. Fusion, and usable hoverboards in 2050.
Post Future Janeway destroying Borg and Bringing Future Tech to the Present doesn't seem a place they want to go ever. Maybe they even don't want to back to children aboard starships.
It seems they think Star Trek work best in an age of exploration where the humans (or Federation) are not the top dogs and still face the unknown.
That's exactly what a Cylon wouldn't say. Trust your computers!
> No.
>
>
> continuations.....NO REBOOTS.
>
> REBOOT = The fast, easy, cheap, lazy way of repacking something, and many times, it's not as good as the original.
This, so much. I'd much rather see a series postdating DS9 dealing with the fallout from the Dominion War and Shinzon.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
That's just the leap from electronic to duotronic circuitry. Doutronics uses electro-plasma instead of electricity, and so more robust controls were needed. Heavier manual toggles, plasma-powered indicator lamps, more bulky consoles to contain them, etc..
Also, computers of the TOS era began to use some judgement protocols, allowing starship operators more tactical flexibility without inundating the operator with too much extraneous data.(This is a current problem with aircraft controls, which have become so complex a human can no longer actually pilot one without the computer.) By the time of TNG plasma circuitry was old tech, miniaturized and streamlined, and more fully integrated.
If one wishes to see technological advancement one should spend a life in the industrial trades. Where once were control houses filled with people operating and monitoring manufacturing processes, there is now a closet with computer networking devices and a remote operations station controlling dozens of processes.
The new tech looks like a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The old tech looks like futuristic scientific and technical gear. Where once a series of pipes and instruments with a variety of gauges, dials, and controls monitored the flow of chemicals, a single stainless box filled with electronics and a u-tube now does all that, plus measures density, viscosity, rate and volume of flow, cavitation, bubbling, and many other properties of materials which are only of interest to manufacturers and scientists.
Modernizing is the art of getting rid of what you don't need. The more technologically advanced a thing is, the less complex it becomes to the naked eye. Ergonomics takes over, lines are smoothed, smaller components begin to assume multiple roles with less need of human imput. A steam locomotive looks more complex than a Tesla.
P.S. Can you imagine working day after day in that KT era bridge? All that glare bouncing off your monitors, and glare everywhere you look. I bet the actors had issues with headaches after those shoots! No modern office would tolerate that much glare, and certainly no military would subject people whose job is to maintain focus on computer monitors to so much and such intense glare. It might make a good sci-fi set, but it makes both a lousy bridge and an unpleasant work environment.
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
I don't look down at my keyboard when typing. Also, I felt the controls on TOS was able to have customization....one example was Balance of Terror, when Uhura took over Stiles' navigation spot, and she was able to keep a hailing feature on there as well.
I also felt that some of the black surfaces of the bridge panels could have a display in them. And the nav control did have a screen to use, and so on.
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth