Thinking back on all the Star Trek movies, the best parts of them evolve from the characters and their histories.
The Motion Picture, about all that worked was Spock learning to value his emotions.
Wrath of Khan pulled Khan from Space Seed, and evolved everyone else's careers.
Search for Spock was all about the crew sacrificing everything to save their friend.
Voyage Home was a comedy deriving from the characters existing traits.
The only good part of The Final Frontier was the character interactions.
The Undiscovered Country the character conflicts were all from their history with the Klingons.
Generations, Data's emotion chip and Picard's family losses were more compelling than the main plot. Tying Guinan in was interesting, and Kirk's regret at retirement was believable. The Duras sisters were a complete waste, though.
First Contact came directly from Picard's trauma.
And the best parts of the reboot movies, by far, was the character interplay.
Insurrection kind of vaguely referenced Picard and the Maquis, but not really in a way that functioned. And Nemesis seemed to outright reject the idea of natural character evolutions, by introducing B4 without even mentioning Lore, and half-assing the "Riker accepts a command" plotline resolution.
So here's my question: what if we did what the writers did before TWOK, and reviewed all of Trek to date. What stories would make good background for a movie? What plotlines and character threads could benefit from expansion they'll never have?
For all its episodity, TNG really did try to explore or resolve some things. So bringing up matters like Picard's archaeology schtick, or Lore, or Q, or the Klingon internal matters would need something extra compelling. Lore could be part of a larger movie about AI in the Federation, for example. Or Picard's experiences in The Inner Light could go somewhere.
The reunification of Romulus and Vulcan (except, you know, things happened). The reconstruction of Cardassia. The real impact of maintaining/violating the prime directive. The Conspiracy parasites. Hugh's Borg group. The Dyson sphere. The Schisms aliens. Riker's clone.
What else has happened in Trek that would have made a good launching pad for a movie?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I’ve always wondered just what Q had in mind for Picard in the conclusion of “All Good Things.” Novels (which I’ve never read) notwithstanding, it felt like Q was setting Picard up for something unusual, something mind-bending. Would make a great story for season two of Picard.
First scene, Q pops in on current-day Picard who’s aged 25-some years. With CGI de-aging technology, Q looks exactly like he did in TNG. Then he quips to Jean-Luc how he forgets how quickly us frail humans age, and *snap* he looks like 2019 John de Lancie.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
...I don't really understand what you're asking, though.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I'm saying, what happens if we do what they did prior to Wrath of Khan, go back through the characters and episode histories, and find incidents or threads that could be resolved or advanced well in a film.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
In other words, "imagine making a really good TNG cast movie other than First Contact, based on characters, but not just some hokey 'I wanna know what happened to Robin Lefler' crap."
Obviously, the only correct answer is a return to Ligon II, with a B-story following the path of that creepy-ass Betazoid gift box Armin S. played.
Besides that, TNG didn't have anyone quite as compelling as Khan. Oh, Q was a notable foil, but the idea of a story of him as prime antagonist a la WoK, where Q is out for blood and is giving no effs, is going to be entirely silly. (Only Kirk plausibly fought gods.)
Actually, there is David Warner's Cardassian torturer guy. And Jellico, and even that skeezoid Cardie with the foul rictus. Indeed, that two-parter was just leaking notable characters all over the place, and is probably a good place to start from . . . I'm thinking a really good psychological chessmatch. The backdrop, besides post-war Cardassia, could even involve some topical stuff on statism / fascism, presaging modern interest, and capitalize on one of the other best-known TNG quotes.
STAR TREK: KEEN MINDS "There are still four lights"
------------------- EDIT:
Oh, snap, the movie trailer opening with Picard, visibly alarmed, hearing a voice asking "tell me, Captain, how many lights do you see?"
Duuude. I just fell in love with my own s*** here.
Also, needs more Garak.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
...ooh. I like that. I like that a lot.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
At one point I had an idea for a post-DS9 movie that would convincingly bring back Sisko.
The antagonists for the movie were based on those refugees in that apisode who came through the wormhole and seemed convinced that Bajor was their promised land - shame it was already inhabited.
An extremist group led by a bonkers main baddie, unhappy with the planet they ended up with, would decide to do a spot of genocide-based fumigation of Bajor using some sort of weapon of mass destruction, perhaps nicked from the Dominion or something.
So, yes, it was yet another obsessed/crazy villain and yet another WMD-based plot for the heroes to contend with, much like just about every other Star trek film. I never said it'd be any good.