Where Would You Like See 'Star Trek' Go Next?

[Placebo]

I'd love to have another series set in the future again. Well, the Star Trek universe's future that is.

Maybe time for NCC-1701-F?

Throw your suggestions out there! Nothing is too crazy. :)

[FM Arouet666]

1. I wish I could respond, but I am in mourning.

I have been depressed since I read about STEs cancellation. Many have panned the series, but the this season has been very good, and is the only season I am familiar with. We have lost the series which had a chance to explore questions unanswered from the original series. Some have accused the series has being weak because it rehashed much of TOS, but this was a strength.

Anyway, as to your question, what is next. How about Star Trek: Lost in Space. A ship lost in a worm hole, which was unstable, and sent the ship outside our galaxy. No communication with Star Fleet, no hope of coming home, unless another worm hole can be found. Interesting new planets with an under lying plot about the struggle to survive and get home.

[Ravenseye]

2. Too much like Voyager

Voyager was essentially that show, except on the other side of the galaxy. Going back at Warp 9 would have taken them 70+ years. No communication etc.

Sure there were little snippets here and there of connection and communication. I remmeber the one Voyager episode where they found a wormhole to the alpha quadrant only so small they could only send signals through. A Romulan warbird communicated with them and I think it was discovered that it was not just a space wormhole but a time one too.

That would happen if they were out of the galaxy as well. Anyway, you really sound like you're describing Voyager.

[Ravenseye]

3. No more future.

Seriously. You get too far in the future and they're all travelling at Warp 100, and transporting across the galaxy. That's not Star Trek.

How bout a show set just after the original movies.

Star Trek Excelsior or something like that. Doesn't have to be Sulu, but you could have guest stars from the original series very easily that way. The Klingons aren't yet friends, yet not quite enemies.

Wasn't the Enterprise - B an Excelsior class ship? You could always do that one.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

4. I'd love to see an Enterprise-B or Excelsior series

I thought they were cool ships and their Starfleet uniforms were smarter.

Just a small nit-picking note (sorry) in the Star Trek universe the fastest theoretical speed is Warp 10 (travelling so fast that you're everywhere in the universe at the same time). Although in TOS they had a different Warp speed scale. I just realised... I'm a nerd.

[Ravenseye]

5. What about that episode where they travel to the edge of the universe?

You know....where wesley is boy genius and helps the traveller and things get all screwy and Troi has 'feelings' and picard screams in madness framed by a closeup shot with his eyes closed, and Riker tries to ram a door with his head?

Didn't they mention they were going at a faster speed?

I seem to recall numerous mentions of speeds faster than Warp 10.

Remember the one episode of TNG where they talked about how warp drive was hurting the fabric of the unierse and if they didn't stop they'd eventually not be able to do it anymore? Something like speeds over Warp 5 hurt subspace or something. They made it sound liek from them on they'd have to go Warp 5 MAX unless there was an emergency. I thought that was cool. Sort of a good idea to prevent instantaneous transfer anywhere in the universe.

Then they sort of disregarded it.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. Sounds like the ever-present plot inconsistency in ST

In an episode of Voyager, Tom Paris manages to get to Warp 10 in a shuttlecraft and they made efforts to explain that Warp 10 is the highest theoretical speed you can go, at which you occupy every point in the universe. Resulting from travelling at Warp 10, Paris morphs into a small amphibian creature. I know in TOS their ship once travelling at 'Warp 14' and in some Star Trek literature they explained it away as a 'changing of the Warp speed scale' or something.

I guess that ST writers didn't let consistency get in the way of a story.

[trogdor]

26. Sovereign Class (Enterprise E) fixed that problem.

It was, if I remember, something with the way the warp field was being generated.

[Ravenseye]

30. typical

come up with a pretty cool element that helps 'hold back' some of the technobabble solutions and puts some restraints on anything and they just technobabble their way out of it.

[Endangered Specie]

16. Yes, Id love to see a show centered around the Enterprise B or C.

If not that, then one immediatly following the end of the Dominion War (a show on perhaps reconstruction, and lets see what happens to the founders after Odo).

[coloradodem2005]

7. I think that they should take 2 or 3 years to figure it out.

The reason why is that during the 90's we not only had the presence of Trek, but the saturation of it. This season of Enterprise has been good, but the first three seasons were not nearly so good. They need to get people like Manny Coto, who actually care about and have a love for Star Trek to take over.

Yes, Berman gave us DS9, which I love especially as a counterpoint to TNG, but I could have done without Voyager. We need to go back and start again, using people who care.

[YankeyMCC]

8. It'll be funny...

When they do eventually create a new TV series to hear all the people who complained about ENT violating Trek canon then complain about the new show contradicting ENT.

[rogue emissary]

10. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! n/t

:toast:

[Technowitch]

9. I think they ought to retire the franchise

I know that makes me a bit of a heretic in SF-land, but I stand behind that opinion.

Don't get me wrong -- I have watched every single Trek episode ever made, often multiple times. My DVD collection lacks only the last three seasons of Voyager (I'll get the remainder as my re-run viewing gets that far in the series), and Enterprise, whenever that comes out. Haven't yet, but someday I'll probably break down and buy the TOS collections. As it is, I've seen those episodes so many times over the years, I have them virtually memorized. (I even downloaded "In Harm's Way", that fan-produced episode, and think it's pretty darned good for what it is.)

I've loved Trek, over the years. I saw some of the original broadcasts in the 60s (until they moved the show to well past my parentally-enforced bedtime). TOS reruns helped me survive the truly awful attempts at televised SF during the 70s and 80s (Buck Rogers, anyone?). Many of the new series seemed to have a bit of promise--but these were always soon wrecked by the addition of spandex-clad sex-objects, a cute wise-ass kid, or utterly improbable scripts. Sometimes all three.

Often however, there were a number of proposals for SF series that got nixed simply because a network "already had one SF show, and the ratings won't support more". And that show? Always Star Trek.

Roddenberry had a wonderful concept. But I'm tired of the "perfect" Federation. Of saucer-and-warp-nacelle starships. Of subspace and photon torpedoes, and sub-light shuttles that somehow manage always to find an "M-class" planet nearby whenever one's needed to crash-land upon. Of tiny stars streaming by to indicate hyperlight velocity, with no bearing whatsoever on reasonable cosmology. Of audible explosions in the vacuum of empty space. And of the habitual reliance on Treknobabble to resolve plot dilemmas (sloppy, lazy g'damned writers, in my not-so-humble opinion). Verteron pulses, tetryon particles, and theta radiation -- whee!!! Meanwhile, let's have yet another holodeck accident, and prove again that transporters really ought never have been certified as safe for human use. (Let's face it, friends -- the Star Trek universe is one huge product liability lawsuit just waiting for an attorney to come along. ;))

It's an old and familiar SF concept--which has its own undeniable attractions--but Trek canon has become so rigid, it's not far from religious dogma anymore. "Can't go faster than warp 10!"

I say retire it. And move on. Come up with NEW ideas. Original concepts and stories. An SF universe that's never heard of 'Starfleet'.

Want a space opera? David Gerrold had a terrific idea some years back--'The Voyages of the Star Wolf.' A disgraced ship with a bad-luck reputation. A decidedly less-than-perfect space-faring human empire--and an implacable foe, who's just launched a massive attack.

But we already had Star Trek.

I've said it elsewhere in this forum -- I really, really like the new Battlestar Galactica series. I had my doubts, but Ron Moore and his crew really knew what they were doing when they re-envisioned Glen Larson's original concept. With enough nods to the original to make it feel almost like an inside joke. ("Cylons look like chrome toasters!" "Those models are still around. They have their uses.")

I'd rather have more new things like this, than an old, tired franchise whose future timeline doesn't even really have room for anything more, not without "violating canon."

[YankeyMCC]

11. I generally agree...

It would sadden some part of me but I think you're right. Perhaps I could see them continuing with movies but without a TV series they could have a lot more freedom in stories and cast in the movies. So every few years give me a Trek based movie otherwise it may indeed be time to let it go.

[leyton]

12. I agree - I think Star Trek is done.

I really liked Firefly, and I think I would have like Babylon Five (but never watched it for various reasons). This goes to show - there is plenty of good sci-fi left to be made.

[Technowitch]

13. I loved Firefly, too

And for the precise reason that Joss Whedon had come up with a breathtakingly original approach to 'space opera'.

A lot of folks had issues with the 'wild west' style -- but as Captain Reynolds' unnecessary opening voiceover pointed out, some folks were lucky and wealthy and had technology. And some, especially those dumped by the terraformers on the frontier, didn't. It made sense. In other words, given food and water, cows and horses will breed; an antigrav cargo floater won't. Technology needs an infrastructure, and only the core worlds have it, in the Firefly universe.

Plus, I loved the characters, all of them. Especially Kaylee, such a sweetie, that one.

But as most of us here know, Fox never gave Firefly an honest chance. Some anti-SF idiot made them broadcast the shows out of sequence, and furthermore stuck it on the one night they figure geeks like us can't get dates and are home watching TV.

By the by, I would recommend renting Bab5 if you get a chance. The opening few episodes are a little rough, but it's worth it.

[Enraged_Ape]

14. Mega red-shirt dittoes

I agree with almost everything you wrote. You expressed my thoughts on the matter better than I ever could.

The "perfect" Star Trek universe long ago lost any real sense of danger or excitement. The "perfect" crew always solves the central problem of an episode in their "perfect" way, usually with some technobabble deus ex machina pulled out of a writer's ass.

I really think the Star Trek universe has completely run out of any new, compelling ideas. And after several hundred episodes, is that really surprising?

I am hoping for a multi-year hiatus, then a return of some kind with new blood involved. But if it doesn't come back at all, I can't say I will be completely heartbroken.

[Technowitch]

15. Thanks. And a question about "Trek canon"...

One of the wee details I've been wondering about during the last day is exactly when did it become 'canon' that EVERY ship, space-station, and outpose MUST be assigned a designated humanoid female prancing around in a skin-tight catsuit? Is it in the Starfleet regs or something, because I must've missed it.

Think about it:
TNG = Troi (although she diverged at times, and finally got ordered into a uniform at the end)
DS9 = Kira (although that red Bajoran "uniform" (and I use that term loosely) did not flatter her at all during the final season)
Voyager = Kes AND Seven-of-Nine
Enterprise = T'Pol

Yeah yeah... I know. I'm sure it's the studio "suits" who insist that ratings will be improved among the testosterone-intoxicated 14-30 male audience, by featuring a buff female bod in an outfit that leaves zero to the imagination. I just wish I knew why feminists like myself (and our male supporters) haven't made more of a stink about it. *shrugs*

Ah well... As Joel and the 'Bots used to say, "It's only a show... I should just sit back and relax." ;)

[lazarus]

17. It became canon Day One

Remember the mini-skirts Uhura had to wear?

[Technowitch]

27. Not exactly...

Think back to when TOS aired. Miniskirts, go-go boots, and beehive hairdos were pretty much the height of Mod fashion at the time. Exchange black hose for a pair of tights and those uniforms would not have looked out of place on a city street in 1967.

(Mind you, I preferred Roddenberry's original envisioning, where the women wore basically the same thing as the men. But I digress...)

So, in a way, those short-skirted uniforms weren't quite as incongruous as one might think. (Plus, given they were actually more glorified bodysuit with an attached skirt, they were actually rather more modest than a lot of women's fashions were in the late 60s. Trust me -- I was there. Hem-tugging and careful leg-crossing became an art form.)

However, when's the last time you saw a woman walk down the street wearing a skin-tight catsuit? I mean, at a time that isn't Mardi Gras or the SF Fetish Ball?

That's the real source of my annoyance. Sure, as a Bi female, I can easily see Seven-of-Nine or T'Pol as attractive eye-candy. They're hotter than hell (and it's no wonder Malcolm is obsessed with T'Pol's tight little ass). But they're so over-the-top, I've found them distracting and incongruous. Partly because their appearances have been made so extreme as to be laughable, but also because the oversexed crap is blatantly out of character for who they're supposed to be.

[Rowdyboy]

19. LOL...My partner is not a Star Trek fan but tolerates my interest ...

Passing through the room as I was watching a tape of TNG, he saw Troi's micro-mini, listened to a little dialog and started laughing. Apparently, he found it difficult to envision a woman wearing a 2 inch skirt solemnly and seriously discussing quantum physics (and we're gay!)

[Enraged_Ape]

20. Your partner has something there I hadn't thought of

But in retrospect, it was pretty hard to take the characters (and by extension, the shows) seriously when one of them was parading around amongst the military ranks like a porn star at the AVN Awards.

[YankeyMCC]

21. That's part of the point

I think. Now I'm probably going to sound like one of those Star Fleet costume wearing, convention going, klingon speaking people but I think part of the message is that Star Fleet is not the Military. Not in the way we think of the Military today anyway. It is more like the NSF with weapons to protect themselves. And a bit like the merchant marines called into service to defend the Federation when necessary.

So they use a military structure for administration but they are really a scientific/exploratory organization like NASA or NSF. So having odd uniforms like mini's shouldn't be as incongruous as it would be in a traditional contemporary military. And I think in the original the intent was at least partly about the freedom and liberation woman had in the future about what they wore. Of course I'm sure it was also about capturing male viewers. And I'm not naive enough to not realize that in later incarnations the sexy outfits were more about capturing male viewers than they were originally but nothing stays pure. :)

[Enraged_Ape]

22. I think the real message was, "Check out these tits and ass."

And this was just as true in the original '60s series as in the modern, more "enlightened" franchise offerings.

What's sad is that Seven of Nine and T'Pol would have been just as sexy and appealing in regulation Starfleet uniforms as they were in those ridiculous catsuits. Counselor Troi lost none of her appeal when forced to make the switch to regulation togs.

[YankeyMCC]

23. Well

everyone has their own opinion but if Mr Roddenberry was mainly going after that "hey check out the t&a" he would've had a lot easier time getting the show on air.

Things aren't always that obvious and simple. I'm sure the net execs pushed for such concerns but GR worked within the circumstances.

[Enraged_Ape]

24. Gene Roddenberry was a horndog.

Yes, he was a genius, a visionary, a master of the televised drama, just simply one of the best that TV has ever had to offer. But he was a horndog too.

Remember this guy was getting down with Lt. Uhura AND Nurse Chapel at the same time, at least for a while.

[YankeyMCC]

25. Ah yeah...

and being a horndog he couldn't possibly have looked beyond that, right. ;)

Like I said most things in life are not black and white. Of course men like looking at attractive women in miniskits etc... But that doesn't mean the women don't feel they can dress like that and be intelligent integral parts of a team or that the men who like looking at them can't realize that.

on edit: My only point was that in my opinion it wasn't as outrageous an idea that women wore such uniforms as your earlier post implied. Star Fleet wasn't supposed to be a traditional contemporary military. Of course there were "ratings grabbing" reasons too but there was also a plausable fit to the theme of the story.

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

44. exactly

(Just as a matter of personal taste), I always found the women who wore the standard uniforms (Crusher, Dax, etc) more attractive than the ones in the catsuits. Tight clothing does not create sex appeal; it's either there or it's not.

[Ready4Change]

41. Seriously, here is what I think the real problem is.

Fans of science fiction love technology. They love ships, they love sensors, they love various forms of ray guns and death beams and robots and "unknown forms of radiation."

But the real secret to making a series work, and to keep people watching, is to make the stories be about people solving people problems. To be Science Fiction technology has to be there, but it must always exist to highlight people problems.

Too often, the latest ST iterations have rested on technology problems, which generally are only solved by technological solutions. While that might be geeky cool, it's not very satisfying.

Humans need to see people solving people problems, or failing and getting their asses kicked for it.

So it doesn't matter WHAT the next series is, or when it comes about. If it ain't about people, it'll suck.

(On edit: Oops, thought I was replying to the main message. Sorry about that.)

[YankeyMCC]

42. Well said n/t

[Placebo]

28. no!

they can't retire ST forever. :(

[Ravenseye]

32. It won't happen

and I'm glad. There is no way they'll retire the franchise. Granted it's slipped a bit but it's been a cash cow for over 2 decades. They'll take a year, maybe get Manny Coto to develop the new series. We'll probably hear about it in the summer or fall, they'll start production sometime after that and we either get a late winter, early spring season start, or all the way till next fall.

No way they wait longer than that.

[Rowdyboy]

18. I'm not quite ready to give up on Star trek yet

I was around for the original series and have been hooked ever since. I initially though TNG was desecrating my favorite childhood memory-then I fell in love with it. When I first heard of Deep Space 9, I thought-how boring, stuck on a space station circling one plant. Then I fell in love with it. I avoided Enterprise until the year when I heard about the Vulcan storyline. Watched the next 8 episodes. Then I fell in love with it.

Never had a chance to see Voyager. Bet I'll "fall in love with it" when I do. I don't know what they can do for the next series, but I'm comfortable with the whole concept as it stands. I'm sorry Enterprise didn't get more time.

I've always thought the Romulans got short shrift in the series. They really caught my attention, as well as the Cardassians and, oddly enough, the Ferengi. Hell, I'd even like to see more about Betaset (sp?)

Regardless of how any of us feel, the Star Trek franchise makes money and they're not about to go away anytime soon.

[Endangered Specie]

31. You mean Betazoids (from Betazed)

http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/index.php/Betazed

[rabid_nerd]

29. they made a mistake with enterprise

ste was a mistake and I say that as a fan of quantum leap and all things trek.

ste was just too pandering too non-trek fans. they strayed too far, too fast.

The season two or three decision change from "Enterprise" to "Star Trek: Enterprise" was too obviously desperate that their attempt to cross their core with contemporary failed.

I admit I watched it, but not as religously as Voyager or Next Gen. I didn't like latter seasons of DS9 either.

They do need to move back to the future, to optimism and vision and social commentary... You know, Kirk kissing uhura and troi plus dr crusher, wesley and growing up, data and 7 of 9 longing for emotions..

a space soap opera..

I always saw this captain as a bush type pre emptor, negatively...

[Caution]

33. Away for a while

Then maybe a "Birth of the Federation" series that is between enterprise and TOS and gives us the Romulan war.

Get rid of Berman immediately and not one episode, not even one should have anything whatsoever to do with time travel.

[Autobot77]

34. I think Trek should be retired at least for a little while...

Personally I think it would be cool if they did something similar to Trek that they did with Battlestar Galactica..a reimagining.
However first and foremost Paramount needs to fire Berman and Braga, either the studio is being run by idiots or B&B are blackmailing them. Frankly Enterprise had potential but as usual it was ruined by B&B.

[Ready4Change]

35. Star Trek: The Sit-Com

Weekly Kenny-like red shirt death. Maybe one episode with red shirts dieing in droves.
Captain screaming for engineering to fix the warp dives or everyone will die, then pic of engineering where they claim to "be doing everything sentiently possible" yet are actually playing poker.

Everyone who enters the turbolifts making out with each other during the trip. Groups turbo lifting. Solos. Hot crew member starts for turbolift and entire bridge crew leaves their posts to follow.

Practical jokes regarding places crew members are beamed to.

Crew members convincing other crew members that they are still "trapped" in the holodeck, when they really aren't.

Alien species encountered who, despite pleading by bored crew members, just will NOT spark an adventure. "Shoot at us." "There is no need.' "Aw, please?"

Constantly throwing away perfectly usable energy weapons in order to punch out hostile life forms.

The options are never ending.

[ZombieNixon]

36. So...you basically mean live action "Futurama" with more sex?

;)

[Ready4Change]

37. With some Red Dwarf thrown in.

yah.

[Deja Q]

38. I'd like to see the franchise take a 16 year nap.

It's done. Been done for over a decade now.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

39. You party pooper!

I'll support any reasonably GOOD SF show being produced today with decent writing and production values.

Well, time to find a rerun of Space, 1999.

:toast:

[coloradodem2005]

43. Been done since 1999 for me.

I loooooved DS9. Didn't care for Voyager and Enterprise was good this season, but not so much in the past.

[ruthg]

40. NO MORE PREQUELS!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[blindpig]

45. series suck anyway

I loved the original, although the 3rd year got sucky. TNG was great 1st two seasons, when they killed off Yar I was very impressed, killed a major character! Therein lay my problem with series, predictability. You KNOW that everything is going to be hunky dorey at the end of 60 minutes. Anthologies like Twilight Zone or Outer Limits were great, why doesn't anybody do stuff like that now?

After LOTR I've given up on the large or small screen providing decent sci\fi or fantasy. It's one freaking disaster or lameness after another, particularly when they get their filthy paws on a great book. Once in a while you get a winner like Bladerunner, but they're harder to find than a smartass Vulcan. I'll stick with the library.

[Democracy White]

46. How about a drama

based on Starfleet Academy or a JAG-type format?

Dee