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The_Real_Chris wrote:

 Ghool wrote:
I’d like none.
The problem right now is the complete lack of anything new. I’d Ike to see something fresh, new and different. A new IP. New worlds. New stories. And not in the same old tired IP worlds/universes Hollywood has been beating to death to get stories out of.

But I’m probably one of four people that actually would like to see someone try something new. I’ve had enough SW and Trek to last several lifetimes.

You had the Expanse, don't get greedy.

I consider the Expanse to be the modern reboot (that didn't suck!) of B5. It hit the same notes and scratched the same itches B5 did for me in the 90s. YMMV.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As for Star Trek, I'd like a show where Starfleet crew and officers (always too many chiefs and not enough braves!) act like the professionals they're supposed to be and not snarky space baristas on their lunchbreak. Something toned down in scope where every season isn't a Federation/quadrant/galaxy/universe ending emergency bigger than the previous season. Something set on a much smaller ship (without roller coaster turbolifts that are bigger on the inside) like the Archer class scout that can't deploy a swarm of attack ships dwarfing that of a Tyrannid hive fleet and without the backup of endlessly copy pasted pew pews and/or ships. Where they have to actually rely on their wits and usually are the underdog in the situation on a personal scale (though the Federation is still the big dog on a galactic scale).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you had asked me about Star Wars in years past I'd have said a live action Clone Commando series but that's been sort of done with Bad Batch (that I have no interest in along with the other cartoons). The other option would have been in the EU Legacy era 130ish years ABY with a resurgent Sith and a split Imperial remnant with opposing Imperial Knights but I don't see that as likely given the sequel trilogy.

 warboss wrote:

As for Star Trek, I'd like a show where Starfleet crew and officers (always too many chiefs and not enough braves!) act like the professionals they're supposed to be and not snarky space baristas on their lunchbreak. Something toned down in scope where every season isn't a Federation/quadrant/galaxy/universe ending emergency bigger than the previous season. Something set on a much smaller ship (without roller coaster turbolifts that are bigger on the inside) like the Archer class scout that can't deploy a swarm of attack ships dwarfing that of a Tyrannid hive fleet and without the backup of endlessly copy pasted pew pews and/or ships. Where they have to actually rely on their wits and usually are the underdog in the situation on a personal scale (though the Federation is still the big dog on a galactic scale).

Seems to me like a lot of Trek ends up being a bit Down Periscope. A lot of us want Trek to be Hunt for Red October.

Speaking of, that's something I'd love. . . Even if they recycle a set time period. Whether it's klingon war, or whatever, I don't care. . . but make the ship feel appropriately small. with some "give them one ping on sonar, one ping only" levels of in close. The ship should not have as many windows as a carnival cruise ship. The view screens should feel exactly like that.

I am loving SNW even the musical! And I hate the very idea of prequels.

My only objection is every room feels too damn big for a ship. there's no feeling of claustrophobia.

So add to my list, smaller rooms.

Episode 3 was a time travel episode as well. I think they use it primarily to reduce production costs rather than anything else

Star Wars: Band of Stormtroopers

Simple as

 Bobthehero wrote:
Star Wars: Band of Stormtroopers

Simple as

I'm tired of SW at this point with all the misses Disney has been throwing between the D+ shows and the terrible sequel trilogy. The fact that they're doubling down on Rey shows me they haven't learned anything so really I would prefer nothing and wait like 3-5 years before scrapping/rebooting the post-Disney creations, but if we HAD to have new content, what Bobthehero mentioned would be great since we really only get the perspective of the Empire from a very caricaturized or limited perspective and often not from people who fight from the front lines (one of the few things I liked from Solo was the very beginning when he was forced into being a Mudtrooper.

Getting to see a unit of Stormtroopers go through missions, encounter rebel cells unrelated to the main cast of Rebels or the main trilogy, lose people and witness events like the Battle of Hoth from the perspective of Imperials would be nice, especially if these guys don't just do a 180 and become Rebels within the first 2 episodes of their show. Ideally, they never turn into Rebels, and learn to survive as one of the Imperial remnants that contest the eventual development of the First Order.

Other than that, do a small scale series with new characters that is far enough into the future from the Rey Trilogy and in a region of space that hasn't been explored yet. Would love to see more about the Chiss Ascendancy rather the usual Empire vs Rebels paradigm.

It is interesting to see so much interest in stories from an Imperial loyalist perspective.

While satirical, the YouTube series “I. M.P.S. The Relentless” is an entertaining take on the Imperial perspective…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqKrmN3-fdo&list=PL_K_bgcWmGJLD4ez-dcmL7HnXD2vUVL_R

 Grumpy Gnome wrote:
It is interesting to see so much interest in stories from an Imperial loyalist perspective.

While satirical, the YouTube series “I. M.P.S. The Relentless” is an entertaining take on the Imperial perspective…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqKrmN3-fdo&list=PL_K_bgcWmGJLD4ez-dcmL7HnXD2vUVL_R

I find it difficult to see how someone could make an Imperial perspective show…tastefully, without the main characters defecting to the rebels.

I do think there could be mileage in the corporate security guys; rather than the petty extortionist bureaucrats from Andor, make them “honest joes”, just trying to keep the peace in their little corner of the galaxy, stuck between an increasingly authoritarian and disturbing Empire and the rebels who see them as nothing more than Imperial collaborators. That could have mileage, particularly if you made the rebels one of the militant factions.

Same way they did games and such in the past.

In an Imperial focused show, you really do have to have a.... "Maybe we are the baddies moment", highlight the absurdity/satire ala Brazil, or focus on the anti-war aspect ala All Quiet on the Western Front.

If you do not you are basically just writing Totalitarian Authoritarianism fan-service and apologetics. No one should really want to do that.

If you want a more "Military" style show, you could also create a show that focuses on the Rebel Commandoes. Something like SWAT, Combat!, Tour of Duty, or that Navy Seal TV show.

 Jadenim wrote:

 Grumpy Gnome wrote:
It is interesting to see so much interest in stories from an Imperial loyalist perspective.

While satirical, the YouTube series “I. M.P.S. The Relentless” is an entertaining take on the Imperial perspective…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqKrmN3-fdo&list=PL_K_bgcWmGJLD4ez-dcmL7HnXD2vUVL_R

I find it difficult to see how someone could make an Imperial perspective show…tastefully, without the main characters defecting to the rebels.

I do think there could be mileage in the corporate security guys; rather than the petty extortionist bureaucrats from Andor, make them “honest joes”, just trying to keep the peace in their little corner of the galaxy, stuck between an increasingly authoritarian and disturbing Empire and the rebels who see them as nothing more than Imperial collaborators. That could have mileage, particularly if you made the rebels one of the militant factions.

I quite agree. That is why I find that there is so much interest in the idea so fascinating.

Years ago I read some great detective novels about a Soviet criminal police detective tangling with the political secret police and various government agencies…

https://www.goodreads.com/series/68376-porfiry-rostnikov

… I could see something similar working well in Star Wars along the lines of Andor with its “shades of grey” themes.

 Easy E wrote:
In an Imperial focused show, you really do have to have a.... "Maybe we are the baddies moment", highlight the absurdity/satire ala Brazil, or focus on the anti-war aspect ala All Quiet on the Western Front.

If you do not you are basically just writing Totalitarian Authoritarianism fan-service and apologetics. No one should really want to do that.

No? You don't have to endorse the actions of the characters you write about and just because you don't make them act like rabid idiots or make them go ''Huh, we're bad'' doesn't mean you approve of what they do, either.

 Bobthehero wrote:
Same way they did games and such in the past.

Yeah... that's not going to work in the current age and "modern audience" era that can't relate to anything they even partially disagree with.

Well the thread's title just about what I want, not what I expect will happen, or is possible I wouldn't be expecting anything better than the modern Battlefront 2 story to happen if there was an Imperial centric show. Though there was a nice surprise in Squadrons, even if there were perspective shifts .

You're not wrong though.

Fair enough.... I guess there is always Troopers!

That leaned into the satire of COPS in Star Wars though.

 Easy E wrote:
In an Imperial focused show, you really do have to have a.... "Maybe we are the baddies moment", highlight the absurdity/satire ala Brazil, or focus on the anti-war aspect ala All Quiet on the Western Front.

If you do not you are basically just writing Totalitarian Authoritarianism fan-service and apologetics. No one should really want to do that.

If you want a more "Military" style show, you could also create a show that focuses on the Rebel Commandoes. Something like SWAT, Combat!, Tour of Duty, or that Navy Seal TV show.

Bad guys being the protagonists isn't a novel idea, it's basically what we wanted from Book of Boba Fett to be the rise of a new head in the criminal underworld of Tatooine, where Boba develops his ambition from the being one taking orders to becoming someone who gives the orders. Instead we got "I'm a bad guy, trust me bro" even though he doesn't really do any meaningful criminal activity. Breaking Bad is a great show of the transformation of man trying to leave a legacy behind/provide for his family to becoming a power hungry egomaniacal monster but I would say it doesn't glorify doing drugs or being a cartel mobster in any real meaningful way. Same goes for other shoes like the Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy, Hannibal, lots of anime like Monster/Death Note, etc. They all act more as cautionary tales about human nature more than anything else without sacrificing the integrity of the main character fundamentally being a villain/bad guy.

I think there may be a difference in scale. The shows you list are bad organisations that exist in the grey zone of an existing larger society. The conflict is that they do stuff that is deemed against the rules (including murder and suchlike) but their impact (while unpleasant) is broadly limited in scope.

The Empire is the overall authority and actively undertakes genocide and oppression of innocents with a "Humanity First" standpoint (this may be going a bit far, but I think its pretty close to the mark).

 Flinty wrote:
I think there may be a difference in scale. The shows you list are bad organisations that exist in the grey zone of an existing larger society. The conflict is that they do stuff that is deemed against the rules (including murder and suchlike) but their impact (while unpleasant) is broadly limited in scope.

The Empire is the overall authority and actively undertakes genocide and oppression of innocents with a "Humanity First" standpoint (this may be going a bit far, but I think its pretty close to the mark).

Right, but we're not taking the perspective of a Grand Moff or Palpatine himself, people who are doing the top-down decisions of committing atrocities. The show BobtheHero and I suggested is more of a front-line Imperial soldier perspective carrying out the orders. You know, the whole banality of evil and all that we learned from people who lived in Nazi Germany that ran the trains and other mundane aspects of the final solution.

It also doesn't change the fact it's a perspective that was heavily underutilized and gives us more insight on the Imperial side of the story on major events like the First Death Star blowing up. We had chances to have nuanced takes from Battlefront 2 (wasted when Inferno squad, who should be amongst the most indoctrinated being special forces, just goes 180 to rebels that quickly), and opportunities from Finn being a child soldier that could have had an entire arc of becoming humanized after being raised as a weapon both being completely fumbled, so I feel like this isn't a hard ask except for people who can't separate fiction from reality and are worried this is somehow going to promote fascism in some ridiculous way (I guess you guys would try and cancel the 501st legion then, the guys who dress up as clones/stormtroopers at fan events?).

In a different time, and a different place I would have been into a stormtrooper/Imperial focused show.

In this modern day, where people unironically claim "The Empire was Right!". With that level of media analysis going on, this is not the time or place for an Imperial centric show.

Star Wars at its core is about Good triumphing over Evil. That must be held sacrosanct, or Star Wars stops being Star Wars. Instead, we get Authoritarian apologetics as "The Empire was Right!"

If you want military sci-fi shown on screen, then Rebel forces can do it just as well as Imperial ones.

And it wouldn't change anything with a Rebel centric show, and we have tons of those, so bring forth Band of Stormtroopers.

Also, EP3 and EP5 disagree about Good triumphing over Evil, ultimately Good would win, but an interlude showing Evil triumphant is very much in the spirit of Star Wars.

I think it could be done well. I don’t think Disney would do it well. But another culture war bait series could really drive “engagement”.

Fair enough. If that is what you want, who am I to argue. People want what they want!