posted
I know that this has been talked about before, but I did a quick search and the last time there was a post on this, it was a year ago. So here it is.
Star Trek has always been about a bunch of explorers well... exploring. Now where did Star Trek go wrong? (if it went wrong) No, I am not talking about silly little continuity errors or the like. I am talking about concepts and ideas.
I think after the TNG era, Star Trek started involving situations with more and more resources. This was not necessarily a bad thing. After all, having Sisko on a space station near a wormhole, and later having a little ship to fly around in, meant enough plot flexibility to bring the characters into new situations.
However, more resources always comes with a price. Having Voyager and Enterprise fly around solo was more in the spirit, but technobabble always seemed to get in the way. How often were problems solved because of the use of some sort of cutting-edge technology, rather than through the character's own actions? One could argue that the character's actions precipitated the technology, for example Torres fixing the warp core, or Seven giving Voyager a new kind of armor.
I realize that my idea might fly in the face of years of Trek experience... but why not have a new series that focuses on the actions of a few individuals, rather than the exploits of a crew?
Maybe three or four well-thought out characters going through Starfleet Academy. Or maybe a few characters part of some sort of "Hazard Squad". Anything to rejuvenate a series that seems to be rehashing old concepts and relying on eye-candy.
And please, no more boob factor... not that having attractive characters is a bad thing, but having them wear different uniforms to stand out and attract a new audience? It wouldn't be bad having another strong female character besides Janeway.
Am I the only one that longs for the days when problems were solved through the character and moral choices of James T. Kirk, rather than inventing technobabble X to solve problem Y and showing some cool special effects? And I was born in 1984 for god's sake.
Get Star Trek together, or I might end up not watching it anymore.
Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I'm still sticking with the idea that was bought up last time this was discussed of a Hornblower like series, centering on one officer, with a number of semi-regular/recurring characters. Each series could focuss on a different posting and so be in a different situation with different characters and yet there would still be scope for character development.
Similar to the idea you mentioned above but without necessarily having them part of some special operations unit or whatever.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Who could forget Horatio Hornblower! Yes, if Star Trek focused on character development like Horatio Hornblower by following the exploits of one or a few officers through Starfleet, it would be great. Since there would have to be enough material to justify a series, perhaps they could start out in Starfleet Academy, or even earlier, and we could see them progress through the ranks in different postings.
Yes, special operations is not really Trek-like, and eventually types of plots would be dull. How many times can you send the Hazard Team to board a borg cube before it becomes lame.
posted
I think it would be interesting to see something thats broader than one ship. What are the odds that X ship is ALWAYS where the action is? ALWAYS the closest ship in the sector? ALWAYS SOMETHING?
Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Captain Boh: I think it would be interesting to see something thats broader than one ship. What are the odds that X ship is ALWAYS where the action is? ALWAYS the closest ship in the sector? ALWAYS SOMETHING?
Slim to none?
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
A good writer would be able to make even routine supply runs be episode material. Every encounter need not be a fight with the Borg. If Star Trek was focused less on the technobabble, and more on individual characters/a character, it would be far more profitable to watch IMO.
Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
(It just seemed to me that so many spin-off shows involved one character from the original moving to another place and becoming a private detective. I can't actually think of any examples apart from Angel and, er, Baywatch Nights, and possibly Frasier.)
posted
(So here is the pitch: Quark, feeling alienated by the direction Ferengi society seems to be going, packs his bags and hits the roads as a freelance financial consultant. A one-man Space IMF. In the first season he's on Cardassia, "helping" with the rebuilding process, so that we can have plenty of DS9 guest stars show up, and he's building up this big scam except his hidden niceness keeps getting in the way and he gives out sound advice from time to time. Who wouldn't watch?)
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
...and Quark could live on a reclusive writer's estate and there'd be this butler named Higgins and....
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
So....does that make Morn "T.C."? Nog as "Rick"?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
i think that a series focussing on just one character could definetly work, with a few recurring characters in the background. after all, the previous shows always seemed to gravitate to the core characters anyway, like bones/kirk/spock, or picard/data, or janeway/seven. DS9 seemed to stay clear of this trap though. maybe they just had more diverse characters.
-------------------- "Brave men are vertebrates: they have their softness on the outside, and their toughness in the middle" -Lewis Carrol
Registered: Jan 2005
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