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I saw an interesting stat the other day, there were 18 years between the last episode of the original Star Trek in 1969...



And the first episode the Next Generation in 1987...




Obviously there was the animated series and some of the movies in between but it's interesting because it's now 18 years since the end of TNG in 1994....



Wow, kind of scary, the late 80s are now as far behind us as the 60s were to lil'Kyoto.

Obviously there were 2 more TNG series, a few films, the prequel series, and the reboot movie, I'm going to discount all of them since the TNGs shows were still shaped by the 1987 show, and Enterprise and the reboot were both going for a retro look.

TOS and TNG definitely look and feel like shows separated by 20 years. While TOS was pushing the envelope in the 60s the casual sexism and bad science really mar it. TNG holds up better, mainly let down by the bad acting and restrictions put on the writers that Starfleet personnel could not have interpersonal conflicts ala Kirk, Spock and McCoy which made for some pretty dull episodes all things considered.

Now let's say you were taking Star Trek to the next level, 18 years after TNG, what would it look like? Lets say you're created Star Trek the More Nexter Generation, set 100 years after TNG?





Where would you take the staple technologies and meta plot? The uniforms? The ship? Any thoughts?

Oh and yes, I have finished watching TOS and yes am now starting TNG. Look for a thread soon.

Oh and yes, Encounter at Farpoint is bad, just bad, bad, bad.

Maybe have the Federation in a decaying state of corruption and the plot focuses on some revolutionaries attempting to reform the system?

I never watched TNG so I'm not 100% on where things left off.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Maybe have the Federation in a decaying state of corruption and the plot focuses on some revolutionaries attempting to reform the system?

I never watched TNG so I'm not 100% on where things left off.

Deep Space Nine included some of that, V'ger was mostly set away from the Alpha Quadrant so it didn't shed much light on where things were, Enterprise of course was set 100-200 year before.

40K mini seris needs to be next.......

 Jihadin wrote:
40K mini seris needs to be next.......

Natch

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:
40K mini seris needs to be next.......

Natch

base it off eisenhorn and you got gold there..action, drama, intrigue...sigh if only

Give it time.....eventually Hollwood and other TV syndicates going to start looking for "new" material.....can only have so many dinosaurs, alien invasion, apocalypse, zombies, and whatever showing to get boring if it isn't already.

Its Kinda Odd, The oldest shows(TNG, Sg-1, Fire Fly, Red Dwarf) are the ones still holding the mot weight.
After im done with Star Gate Atlantis I might watch all the TNG

Grey Templar wrote:Maybe have the Federation in a decaying state of corruption and the plot focuses on some revolutionaries attempting to reform the system?

I never watched TNG so I'm not 100% on where things left off.

TNG ended with one of the best series-finales you could expect from network TV. DS9 sorta included a war-torn federation, and nobody gave a gak about Voyager.

Dude.....Seven of Nine...

Yeah, well whatever the format, it should include the death of Wesley Crusher! If set in the future, they should either go back in time to kill him, or re-animate his corpse and kill him again! Or erase him from time.

I like TNG and some of the episodes, but for me, DS9 is better. Look how much a character like Worf evolved from TNG series 1 to DS9 series 7. No contest.

TOS and TNG were Star Trek. Brandon Braga killed Kirk and the whole franchised died then in a ridiculous fashion.

Any new Star Trek would only increase the RPM of Gene Roddenberry's ashes (along with Timothy Leary's) as they move through the vacuum of space.

 Jihadin wrote:
Dude.....Seven of Nine...

The actress had more implants than the character

A new Star Trek series would need plot arcs spanning seasons. For one thing it's kind of expected of shows these days; also to do anything else would just be recycling the old Trek formula with new actors and sets - out of the question basically.

So what would the plot be? DS9 gave us the war angle, Enterprise the temporal cold war and the rise of Humanity to the stars. Some kind of civil war based on a clash of values within the Federation sounds feasible, especially given how many different planets and races are in there. Events surrounding the destruction of Romulus have been suggested as a possible background. I think there's at least another series left in the franchise.

I must be the only human alive whose favorite star trek is voyager

I'm a pretty big fan of Star Trek as a setting (well maybe not Enterprise or Voyager, but even they had their moments.) So I'd love to see something show up. We also seem a little starved of good space Sci-fi based drama at the mo.

The only thing for me is I'd like it set in the immediate aftermath of DS9/TNG era, or a couple of decades down the road. Too far and you loose the ability to have old Picard, Riker styled cameos, and I think Enterprise showed setting stuff early or before TNG just isn't going to work.

As for crew, some new race or one of the classic TOS races would be cool a crew member. I'd love to see something like a exiled Romulan for expansion of their race/culture and ideas and the clashes it would allow when they bump into other Romulans.

Maybe more of a science vessel than the flagship. Hell with the changes with the Dominion during DS9, a vessel exploring into the Gamma quadrant would be pretty cool, no matter the ship class.

Time to try and answer my own questions...

Time - I'd move it ahead 80 or so years, TOS, TNG etc all happened but long ago.

Tech - Here's the big change, TNG took a good step forwards by putting everyone in constant voice communication with com badges but even now it looks crude compared to smart phones and tablets. So I'd fold the communicator, phaser, tricorder, medkit and personal force field into one drone or bracelet or box or something. Give it holographic displays and other CGI niftiness.

Plotting - The big change in TV since 1987 is multi episode, multi season arcs. DVDs, streaming, and just the internet means viewers can easily keep up to speed. So yeah, big plots rather then episodic monster/alien of the week.

Uniforms - always the tough one, spandex is kind of the show's halmark but the fact is people are people and people get older and fatter so I'd go with jackets and military style uniforms ala the movies rather than TOS or TNG spandex. Which brings me to...

Politics - ST is always at its best when it comments on the contemporary world, so here's my take. The Federation is coming out of a dark age, attacks by the Dominion, Borg, etc force the Federation to do things it never would have in the good old days. Mandatory blood screenings for shapeshifter infiltration or borg nanites, torture of prisoners, genetic engineering fill in the blank. So one of the key plots is the clash between a militarists and idealists. Maybe make the captain and first officer the crux of that conflict.

Plot - Go big or go home. Start with the Federation liberating Earth from the Borg. Move to the Enterprise NCC 1701J starting its new mission to explore the ruins of the Alpha Quadrant and beyond.

Ship - The 3 main Enterprises have all been classics, I won't pretend I can come up with something as good. but my thoughts are go for smaller (crew of 100, compared to Kirks 400 and Piccards 1000) sleeker, faster. Give it something more robust than shuttles and remind the writers of this, so the crew can operate in multiple places. Something like the Prometheus class.



Crew - The formula is well established, multi-ethnic Earthers, a funky alien or two, an established alien or two, and someone seeking to be more human. It is a good formula.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:
Dude.....Seven of Nine...

The actress had more implants than the character

hahaha, that's a keeper. As a small side note, Seven of Nine and her husband's (at the time) sexual urges---most likely directly led to an Obama Senator--which gave him the opportunity to then of course, run for President;

http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/806201/how-the-jeri-ryan-scandal-gives-us-barack-obama



RE: TNG--the first season is pretty shaky but it became my favorite Star Trek franchise after that. Particular favorites of mind;

The Inner Light
Chain of Command

Really well written--and centers mostly on Patrick freakin' Stewart.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I must be the only human alive whose favorite star trek is voyager

You are not alone. The truth is out there.

Just suddenly hit me that, eighteen years. Can barely believe it, probably thrown by all the reruns.

Jihadin wrote:Dude.....Seven of Nine...

While I personally vote "meh." to begin with... for most people, she would be counterbalanced by Neelix, the Jar-Jar of the Trek universe.

hotsauceman1 wrote:I must be the only human alive whose favorite star trek is voyager

Probably. it was a really bad show with a lot of unlikeable, annoying and one-dimensional characters and fan-detested elements shoehorned into it.

But The Doctor Was Awesome.

hotsauceman1 wrote:But The Doctor Was Awesome.

"Dude! This minor character is awesome! Don't sorry about wading through entire episodes of Janeway's holodeck costume romance novels and that annoying, neurotic alien."

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I must be the only human alive whose favorite star trek is voyager

While not my favorite, it is a close second to TNG in my book.

 azazel the cat wrote:

Jihadin wrote:Dude.....Seven of Nine...

While I personally vote "meh." to begin with... for most people, she would be counterbalanced by Neelix, the Jar-Jar of the Trek universe.

hotsauceman1 wrote:I must be the only human alive whose favorite star trek is voyager

Probably. it was a really bad show with a lot of unlikeable, annoying and one-dimensional characters and fan-detested elements shoehorned into it.

Neelix... Manfishdog in clown suit with no purpose... utterly gak.

Harry Quim... Just fething awful.
Tom Paris... Just. Fething. Awful.
Neelix's girlfriend with ridiculous large ears... Fething terrible.
Chakotay... Just. Fething. Awful.

1st series bad guys, with dog turd hairdos... Just Fething Awful.

Be'lana... wasted opportunity for hot klingon chick, written poorly.
Tuvok... wasted opportunity for cool vulcan
Janeway... what the feth was with the endless kathryn hepburn impression?!?

The EMH Doctor was cool as hell, liked him a lot.
7o9 was always watchable, some of the 'tame borg' stuff got silly though (the borg kids episodes made my nose bleed).

MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 azazel the cat wrote:

Jihadin wrote:Dude.....Seven of Nine...

While I personally vote "meh." to begin with... for most people, she would be counterbalanced by Neelix, the Jar-Jar of the Trek universe.

hotsauceman1 wrote:I must be the only human alive whose favorite star trek is voyager

Probably. it was a really bad show with a lot of unlikeable, annoying and one-dimensional characters and fan-detested elements shoehorned into it.

Neelix... Manfishdog in clown suit with no purpose... utterly gak.

Harry Quim... Just fething awful.
Tom Paris... Just. Fething. Awful.
Neelix's girlfriend with ridiculous large ears... Fething terrible.
Chakotay... Just. Fething. Awful.

1st series bad guys, with dog turd hairdos... Just Fething Awful.

Be'lana... wasted opportunity for hot klingon chick, written poorly.
Tuvok... wasted opportunity for cool vulcan
Janeway... what the feth was with the endless kathryn hepburn impression?!?

The EMH Doctor was cool as hell, liked him a lot.
7o9 was always watchable, some of the 'tame borg' stuff got silly though (the borg kids episodes made my nose bleed).

I generally agree. The doctor was the only interesting regular character, and the only decent episode I ever saw was the one with Kurtwood Smith, who is always awesome.

Y'know, I was brainstorming some more. thinking about how the show could have this theme of trying to rebuild the Federation, they could have a ship's AI as one of the characters, use the genetically enhanced thing (ie Khan and Bashier) for a character, and have a point of view character from the past to try and guide everyone on the right path.

And you know what I was ending up wtih?



Andromeda.

Which always was a thinly veiled Trek squeal anyway.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

A klingon focused series might be interesting.

 Khornholio wrote:
A klingon focused series might be interesting.

I think that would get old pretty fast, although I could see it working for awhile...

Battlecruiser: Vengeance would be cool.

It's kind of a klingon battlesoap referred to in some of the EU novels.
Basically a more aggro version of the ST we know. With a nice rousing theme score to get your blood pumping. With the Captain always capturing an enemy vessel "I am Koth of the Vengeance, and this ship is my prize.".

The closest ST got to it was Enterprise: A mirror, darkly (pts 1 &2) - two of the better episodes of a crap series.