Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/04/8-writers-share-their-ideas-fo.html
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7 Likes
The spinoff I wanted to see was Worf, Data and Barkley drummed out of the service and basically doing a Firefly wandering around the galaxy pissing each other off.
As for Klingon technology, I like to think they’re like the Kzinti as described in the Man-Kzin Wars series, hired as primitive mercenaries by higher tech race and then revolting, enslaving them and stealing their technology to become a spacefaring race.
10 Likes
How specific. And wonderful!
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I’d like to see a crossover with Mr. Bester and Lwaxana Troi as frenemies.
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Ah, so the Klingons we see are sort of Space Normans, a nomadic military elite that just opportunistically lucked into the top of a much larger and unassimilable society and is all but forced to settle there.
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Sure. Stargate’s villains the Goa’uld are pretty similar, slavers and technology thieves.
If you are/were a fan of Larry Niven’s but never read the Man/Kzin Wars series, you’re missing out. He let other great writers into his playground and they generally did “Known Space” better than he had in decades. The backstories of the Kzinti and Outsiders are terrific.
And I chose Worf, Data and Barkley for my series because they were the only STNG characters that had any personal issues or ambitions. Everyone else seemed drugged. Recently watched “Chaos on the Bridge”, Shatner’s doc about the making of STNG, and it’s explained as all Roddenberry’s fault.
1 Like
I’d still love to see a series set at Starfleet Academy. They tried to lay the groundwork for one in TNG episode “The First Duty,” but it never came to life.
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Years ago I used to always say Gary 7.
With Kyle Mclaughlin as Gary 7, Lisa Kudrow (too on the nose?) as the secretary, and Janeanne Garafolo as Isis the cat.
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That was a great episode. I think it really gave Wil Wheaton an opportunity to shine as an actor.
A whole series based on Starfleet academy would be great. And it would allow for the perfect opportunity for all sorts of cameos, because eventually everyone comes to San Fran.
9 Likes
There isn’t enough material to make more than 7 or 8 seasons, but…
…i’d like to see a show where picard and seven of nine mud wrestle as a fundraiser to save the tribbles who are being factory farmed to extinction as space mcnuggets.
Don’t everyone applaud at once… 
7 Likes
You know what I’ve always wondered? How does the Federation ever advance scientifically or technologically? Because we never actually see it on the show. Oh sure, they occasionally introduce some new finding or development, but inevitably the new supercomputer goes haywire, the glowing crystal turns people into monsters, or the very useful medical procedure is being run by an irresponsible mad scientist. Then we all get a lecture about how playing God is bad, and we’re back to status quo. The most significant change the Next Generation series featured was the entire Federation getting slapped with a speed limit.
Star Trek is a very conservative show in that way.
I want to see a show focused on one of the Federation’s science vessels. They’ll spend an entire episode or season doing some plausible fantasy science or engineering on some phenomenon, and by the end the entire universe changes. Someone figures out interstellar-scale teleportation, and suddenly far fewer people need to use spaceships. Tie in the transporter to the replicators and suddenly we can print infinite redshirts, oh yeah and all Federation citizens are now functionally immortal. Spend half a season with the computer guys backdooring Borg cubes. Endless possibilities.
9 Likes
Make it a comedy starring a ragtag class of misfits including an anti authoritarian Andorian, a quiet-but-intimidating 7-foot tall Klingon and a robot that generates sound effects.
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This is more of an episode idea than a spinoff, but I’d like to see an alien race that makes contact with the Borg and their reaction is: “Collective hive-mind? Sounds awesome!” When the Borg start making the whole “resistance is futile” speech, the aliens counter with: “Sorry to steal your thunder, but we have no intention of resisting. Is there any way we can expedite the assimilation process? You guys are the BEST and we can’t wait to join.”
Perhaps this alien culture has an eschatology which predicts the coming of just such a new world. Of course, there has to be a federation captain there to extol the virtues of individuality to the aliens, because the universe is merely a lens through which we may behold starship captains.
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This is difficult to avoid when you want a show to be comprehensible when episodes are shown out of order in syndication. It would be easier to do these days when in-order netflix binges are the norm.
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Or we could just do the sit com that Frakes and Sirtis pitched about the Rikers:
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Understood, but this is {$CURRENT_YEAR}, toss that shit onto Netflix or Prime and screw the syndication. There’s no reason why they couldn’t devote an entire season to, say, exploring transhumanist ideas within the Federation that has a lasting effect, while taking time out for one-off episodes to do a little genetic engineering to figure out how to turn off the Cardassians’ Asshole Gene.
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Also, can we get at least one episode where Starfleet battles Scientology?
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I really, really hate the Kelvin-universe, but I thought they could build something from it like how Stargate SG-1 came from a middling Stargate movie. So here is my pitch for just that series:
The first Star Trek movie is the 9/11 event. The Vulcans are a major refugee problem in the Federation, exacerbating frictions that exist between Terrans and non-Terrans. Say about 10-50 million Vulcan refugees (maybe coming from Vulcan moons and terraformed planets in the system whose destabilized orbits mean it can’t house them any more) - enough to be a problem, not enough to be a power. Start with them in camps on Andor because they are closest, but the Andorians are resentful because Vulcans don’t assimilate and they want the Humans to take on the burden because the Humans and Vulcans were so close and because Andor and Vulcan fought a war. Vulcans were a founding member of the Federation and still want a say in quadrant politics. They are afraid that going to an existing colony world will marginalize them. And there are no new colonies large enough to take that many anyway. Romulans show up and offer a ready made world near the Federation border that they cede to the Federation, one of the ones they made for their own migration. This is not altruism - this is pure Putin.
Romulans are in an aggressive expansionist mode making new colony worlds as fast as they can as the future supernova will destroy the Romulan/Reman system and sterilize 10% of the Romulan Empire worlds comprising 80% of the Romulan population (a type II supernova will sterilize planets within 10ly, and remove planets’ ozone layers out to 25ly). They need to work starting now because they need to move an entire civilization - not just people but industry, agriculture, cultural artifacts, entire ecosystems. They are upset that the Federation did not tell them of the future supernova after the events of the Star Trek movie and had to learn about it using their spy network. They know that the Federation will not do anything, and that the Vulcans that could have helped are now dead. That means the Romulans are extremely pissed at the Federation, but incapable of a stand-up fight. They will use Romulan cunning to weaken the bonds of the Federation.
Put the Klingons in a low level war with the Kinshaya (the other religious zealots of the Star Trek universe, often used in books but never on screen) and create ramifications that force the depleted Starfleet to respond, but with no clear right choice. Romulans secretly support the Kinshaya because, as religious zealots, the Romulans consider them “predictable” as opposed to the Klingon religion of honor, which just depends on winning. Create a path to hell paved with good intentions, and then make a path back out using those same paving stones.
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Mentioned this a couple of years ago:
And have you seen LeVar Burton lately? He looks GREAT.
So it’s Captain LaForge versus Mad Scientist Wesley FTW.
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I would watch the shit out of this show. It would be fucking amazing!
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