Personally?
I'd dump Enterprise, and put together a series focusing on Sulu and the Excelsior... I've heard rumors that Takei would love to do something like that, and frankly the opportunity should be taken while the guy's still alive.
Also, all of the current writing staff would be DUMPED. Hire real sci-fi writers. Ban technobabble. (seriously; an episode of TNG has Data going "blah blah blah, this means there's been movement within the last ten hours"... why the fuck not just say "there has been movement within the last ten hours"?)
Although... maybe movies featuring Sulu? I don't particularly care for the TV format.
What would you do with Star Trek?
Moderator: Vympel
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Uraniun235
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Basicly throw them in SW galaxy.
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Guest
I like the idea of seeing more of the Excelsior, Apparently Star Trek 6 The Undiscovered Country was suposed to focus a lot on Sulu's ship but Shatner threw a wobbly at losing the lime light.
I'd scrap eveything from about TNG onwards, write it up as an alternate timeline that Q allowed our main caracter to see and start a series from scratch, maybe in a time set from just after TOS, scrap the communism, human nature proves communism can't EVER work. add a story ling about genetic mutation to accound for Klingon Bumpy Heads, shoot any writter who messes with time travel/quantum realities. Make the time line that the Klingons attact earth instead of surrendering to it, and add big ass ships that kick ass, huge battle ships, no science vessel crap,
I'd scrap eveything from about TNG onwards, write it up as an alternate timeline that Q allowed our main caracter to see and start a series from scratch, maybe in a time set from just after TOS, scrap the communism, human nature proves communism can't EVER work. add a story ling about genetic mutation to accound for Klingon Bumpy Heads, shoot any writter who messes with time travel/quantum realities. Make the time line that the Klingons attact earth instead of surrendering to it, and add big ass ships that kick ass, huge battle ships, no science vessel crap,
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Slartibartfast
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Well, other than the obvious stuff (pissing on B&B's graves, firing the lame babblewriters, getting some scientific/military advisors and give them veto powers, etc) I would create a new spinoff:
Star Trek: The Romulan Campaign
A war/terror/espionage/whatever campaign focusing on the Romulans and their attempts to do all their evil and nasty stuff (most of the time, succeeding, specially stuff that the Feds won't know). Kinda like CIA or Alias.
Star Trek: The Romulan Campaign
A war/terror/espionage/whatever campaign focusing on the Romulans and their attempts to do all their evil and nasty stuff (most of the time, succeeding, specially stuff that the Feds won't know). Kinda like CIA or Alias.
Basics in order:
1. Fire the current crop of writers. If you can find writers with BS's (or PhD's in the sciences) ... go with them.
2. Hire (or just accept fans) technical consultatants. These would be military, scientific, and historical.
3. Have some honest to God engineers design systems for the ship ... no more floating powder kegs, no more one hit kills from weak weapons).
4. Standardize some things ... no more of this crap where maximum velocities are whatever the hell you want them to be for the episode at hand. No more where the sheilds react differently to every damn particle of the week ... pick some numbers and run with those.
5. Keep a running catalogue of all the feild enhancement your egineers come up with ... if one finds a way to make a bomb out of a coat hanger, some spittle, and an orange crayon ... it will be used again if its needed.
6. Write some actual frikking SOP's for various situations. These should be written by the consultants ... not the writers.
7. Get actors with either very good theatrical backgrounds (like Patrick Stewart) or ones with military backgrounds. No more of this crap for acting like from Kate Mulgrew.
Now that we have the basics for a viable show we need something to freshen up the Star Trek universe.
I'd try to go back to Trek's roots. Star Trek was best when it was midly allegorical to the events of the world. The idea of a coldwar fought between two great powers, the political maneuvering of the various powers amongst the lesser states, etc. In a nutshell ST:VI.
I'd look to make ST something closer to today's world. So with that in mind I'd introduce limited superweapons to startrek ... something simple like say stray a few stray hunks of Tantulum travelling at high relativisitic speeds. SF manages to harness these as weapons (say perhaps to attack the Borg) and the other powers manage to just grab a few a peice.
The series then follows the Federation's role as the sole superpower of the Galaxy. This allows the show to more easily relate to the audience ... instead of the current breastfest with alien window dressing. Before a single episode is written ... have the full story arc ready. How the feddies end up breeding resentment among the Klingons as they attempt to liberalize the society through trade, leading to spliter groups, rebels, etc.
How the Cardassians embrace federation (note minus the stupidity of communism) style government, but have a significant "old gaurd" mucking around who advocate a return to militarism.
Get some cloak and danger political intrigue going, get some reason for mucking around on all these various backwater planets ... hunting terrorism/conspiracy/whatever ... like TOS's cold war did.
Use violence/sex sparingly on screen. Gratuitious battles weaken their impact (not to mention blowing the FX budget) ... create plot/drama/suspense by what your characters do and say ... not by brilliant explosions and eye candy. Sex is fine, but it should have some impact ... there is a reason mini-skirts work better than 7 of 9 bust shots ... give the audience a reason to care about why sexual/violent behavior is occurring.
Plot devices that need to be killed:
The Brainstorming Session. No more taking and calling all the senior staff togethor and bouncing ideas around a conference room. You want something to happen, the captain says it, the egineer/science officer/tactical officer takes care of it.
Near encounters in the vacuum of space. The ship just happens to run afoul of something in transit between stars. You run into weird things in orbit of other things (like say stars) or you make a detour which is the direct cause of running into whatever the hell you are going to run into. Space is big and empty. The chances of stuff randomly coming within visual distance of each other in the vacuum of space is essentially zero.
The uniform alien of the week. Aliens need to have more than one defining trait, individuals should have a whole range of behavior ... above and beyond faction A supports one ideology and faction B supports another.
The inspiration moment. Every bloody idea does not need to be inspired by something completely unrelated. It is OK for egineers to think of innovative techniques and applications (after having tried it SOP) WITHOUT some dumbass "inspirational moment" that comes from something completely unrelated.
1. Fire the current crop of writers. If you can find writers with BS's (or PhD's in the sciences) ... go with them.
2. Hire (or just accept fans) technical consultatants. These would be military, scientific, and historical.
3. Have some honest to God engineers design systems for the ship ... no more floating powder kegs, no more one hit kills from weak weapons).
4. Standardize some things ... no more of this crap where maximum velocities are whatever the hell you want them to be for the episode at hand. No more where the sheilds react differently to every damn particle of the week ... pick some numbers and run with those.
5. Keep a running catalogue of all the feild enhancement your egineers come up with ... if one finds a way to make a bomb out of a coat hanger, some spittle, and an orange crayon ... it will be used again if its needed.
6. Write some actual frikking SOP's for various situations. These should be written by the consultants ... not the writers.
7. Get actors with either very good theatrical backgrounds (like Patrick Stewart) or ones with military backgrounds. No more of this crap for acting like from Kate Mulgrew.
Now that we have the basics for a viable show we need something to freshen up the Star Trek universe.
I'd try to go back to Trek's roots. Star Trek was best when it was midly allegorical to the events of the world. The idea of a coldwar fought between two great powers, the political maneuvering of the various powers amongst the lesser states, etc. In a nutshell ST:VI.
I'd look to make ST something closer to today's world. So with that in mind I'd introduce limited superweapons to startrek ... something simple like say stray a few stray hunks of Tantulum travelling at high relativisitic speeds. SF manages to harness these as weapons (say perhaps to attack the Borg) and the other powers manage to just grab a few a peice.
The series then follows the Federation's role as the sole superpower of the Galaxy. This allows the show to more easily relate to the audience ... instead of the current breastfest with alien window dressing. Before a single episode is written ... have the full story arc ready. How the feddies end up breeding resentment among the Klingons as they attempt to liberalize the society through trade, leading to spliter groups, rebels, etc.
How the Cardassians embrace federation (note minus the stupidity of communism) style government, but have a significant "old gaurd" mucking around who advocate a return to militarism.
Get some cloak and danger political intrigue going, get some reason for mucking around on all these various backwater planets ... hunting terrorism/conspiracy/whatever ... like TOS's cold war did.
Use violence/sex sparingly on screen. Gratuitious battles weaken their impact (not to mention blowing the FX budget) ... create plot/drama/suspense by what your characters do and say ... not by brilliant explosions and eye candy. Sex is fine, but it should have some impact ... there is a reason mini-skirts work better than 7 of 9 bust shots ... give the audience a reason to care about why sexual/violent behavior is occurring.
Plot devices that need to be killed:
The Brainstorming Session. No more taking and calling all the senior staff togethor and bouncing ideas around a conference room. You want something to happen, the captain says it, the egineer/science officer/tactical officer takes care of it.
Near encounters in the vacuum of space. The ship just happens to run afoul of something in transit between stars. You run into weird things in orbit of other things (like say stars) or you make a detour which is the direct cause of running into whatever the hell you are going to run into. Space is big and empty. The chances of stuff randomly coming within visual distance of each other in the vacuum of space is essentially zero.
The uniform alien of the week. Aliens need to have more than one defining trait, individuals should have a whole range of behavior ... above and beyond faction A supports one ideology and faction B supports another.
The inspiration moment. Every bloody idea does not need to be inspired by something completely unrelated. It is OK for egineers to think of innovative techniques and applications (after having tried it SOP) WITHOUT some dumbass "inspirational moment" that comes from something completely unrelated.
Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
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Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi
- What Kind of Username is That?
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Fire all the writers and gradually hire better writers. First, I'll use cats, then dogs, then monkeys, and then hire the best human writers availlable. I would cut all the technobabble, cut any sci-fi chic, make ST ships stronger, not base episdoes on dumb engineering, stop any brain bugs, be consistent with TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager, make ST literature canon, cut the soap-opera stuff out, put in more scientific realism, introduce new aliens that aren't "species of the week", introduce new characters...
If I had ther series, I'd have a laundry list of problems to fix.
If I had ther series, I'd have a laundry list of problems to fix.
BotM: Just another monkey|HAB
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Dennis Toy
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If i had Trek things i do...
1. Give it a rest for 10 years
2. set it about 200 years into the future.
3. Create larger, stronger and more well designed ships using common-sense engineering and more variety of weapons including fusion cannons, Ion-cannons, rail drivers and high-yield quantum torpedos.
4. go back to exploration, seeking out new life and exploring humanity and our place in the universe.
5. Create REAL aliens, not guys with cosmetic birth defects.
6. Hire Real Science-Fiction writers. Get them damn soap opera writers off. Encourage them too look to but no totally rip off ideas from sources including sci-fi books, other bigger movies and even some anime.
7. Kill of cliches, particularly them damn shuttle crashes, problems on the holodeck, warp cores gonna breach, and we pissed off another alien.
8. Design better shuttlecrafts, runabouts and small vehicles. You think an NTSB type organization would find the problems and be able to design better shuttles.
9. Dissolve the communism of the UFP and make it a free market where starfleet officers would get paid for their deeds and be able to buy whatever their desires like. I would also create a civilian population. Material Gain would exist. People would have personal spacecrafts.
That my idea for trek.
1. Give it a rest for 10 years
2. set it about 200 years into the future.
3. Create larger, stronger and more well designed ships using common-sense engineering and more variety of weapons including fusion cannons, Ion-cannons, rail drivers and high-yield quantum torpedos.
4. go back to exploration, seeking out new life and exploring humanity and our place in the universe.
5. Create REAL aliens, not guys with cosmetic birth defects.
6. Hire Real Science-Fiction writers. Get them damn soap opera writers off. Encourage them too look to but no totally rip off ideas from sources including sci-fi books, other bigger movies and even some anime.
7. Kill of cliches, particularly them damn shuttle crashes, problems on the holodeck, warp cores gonna breach, and we pissed off another alien.
8. Design better shuttlecrafts, runabouts and small vehicles. You think an NTSB type organization would find the problems and be able to design better shuttles.
9. Dissolve the communism of the UFP and make it a free market where starfleet officers would get paid for their deeds and be able to buy whatever their desires like. I would also create a civilian population. Material Gain would exist. People would have personal spacecrafts.
That my idea for trek.
You wanna set an example Garak....Use him, Let him Die!!
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Robert Walper
- Dishonest Resident Borg Fan-Whore
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Easy. I'd create an movie continuing where Voyager's "Endgame" left off.
The Borg are pissed, they lost a Transwarp Hub to the Federation. It's the last straw. They send forty cubes through another Transwarp Hub close to Federation space. They begin a campaign of complete assimilation of the Federation and all Alpha Quadrant powers. The Romluans, Klingons, Cardassians, and even Dominion get involved. The Borg take over the Galaxy, Trek can now rest peacefully.
Basically, the movie is going to be one huge sci-fi battle...
The Borg are pissed, they lost a Transwarp Hub to the Federation. It's the last straw. They send forty cubes through another Transwarp Hub close to Federation space. They begin a campaign of complete assimilation of the Federation and all Alpha Quadrant powers. The Romluans, Klingons, Cardassians, and even Dominion get involved. The Borg take over the Galaxy, Trek can now rest peacefully.
Basically, the movie is going to be one huge sci-fi battle...
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Raoul Duke, Jr.
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I think it's unanimous: Trek sits in the corner for a decade or two and thinks about what it's done. 
After that, why bother going back to Starfleet right away? Let's have a series about the Maquis! Or some similarly rough-and-tumble bunch. I mean, we could have familiar elements, preserve continuity with TOS and still have a new perspective on established Trek events.
After that, why bother going back to Starfleet right away? Let's have a series about the Maquis! Or some similarly rough-and-tumble bunch. I mean, we could have familiar elements, preserve continuity with TOS and still have a new perspective on established Trek events.