New Trek Series: What I Wish to See

[mullahstan]

I love Star Trek. My favourite series are The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. The Original Series was OK, but before my time, and Enterprise was wank.

But the producers need to learn from their mistakes, and from past glories, to make this new series great:

- An intriguing enemy

TNG had the Borg. DS9 had the Dominion. Both were arch-enemies, bent on the Federation's destruction, though they had their quirks. The Borg were a hive-mind, while the Dominion were out for widespread vengeance on any humanoid species, in retaliation for past oppression.

But the new show needs an enemy that is out for the Federation's destruction and has its own idiosyncrasies. The Borg worked since there was no leader, for a time. They added the Borg Queen in First Contact, but then we she was kind of their leader. The Dominion had slave races (the Vorta and Jem 'Hadar) to do their bidding for them, while they planned and executed everything.

The new enemy shouldn't be a rehased one, like Voyager had since it featured the Borg a lot too. Or ambiguous like the Suliban in Enterprise.

- Cool characters

TNG and DS9 had Worf. TNG had Picard and Data. DS9 had Sisko and Odo. TOS had Spock. Voyager had Tuvok and Seven. It needs believable and relatable characters, like all the other shows had. Sisko was a single father, and his son was essentially an "army brat". Picard devoted so much to his career that he never had kids. Worf was torn between the Klingon Empire and the Federation due to being orphaned from his Klingon family and being rescued by a Federation ship. Odo was an estranged Changeling, who reviled at the fact that his people ran the Dominion, the Federation's arch-enemy in DS9. Even then, he still loved them.

So the characters need to be well-developed, and well-written, with points that can make them believable and real. I doubt there has ever been a character in all shows that somebody out there cannot relate with on some level. This new show must continue that trend.

[jp612612]

Eh, I don't know. Star Trek is about sci-fi, not about action and this is what the new movies get so wrong. This is why Next Generation is the best series as it had more sci-fi than any of the others. The heart of science fiction isn't technobabble, but taking a completely theoretical idea and then asking human questions about it e. g. "Hmm... we just traveled through time. What are the moral implications here?"

That said, I do agree with your list and order. Deep Space Nine was mostly space opera rather that sci-fi, but it attempted to do something that no other Star Trek has even remotely tried and in the end, it showed a really romantic way to look at the universe. Voyager was by far the most disappointing as it had the worst writers ever. The thing is, they had the best possible backdrop for creating stories -- a ship that's transported an unbelievable distance away from home has unlimited possibilities because you can create races, civilizations, and technologies without having to explain why they've never seen this before.

So yeah, my fear is actually that the new series will try to go right to an "intriguing enemy" so that they can blow up stuff and create excitement that way, but I find myself thinking back on Mr. Rogers' speech to congress back in 1960 or whatever where he asks why we have to hit someone over the head to create drama on a show when there are so many other ways to do so. I liked the Borg story (Best of Both Worlds), but you know, when I think back on great Star Trek, I think of "Darmok", "The Inner Light", "The Wounded", or "Yesterday's Enterprise". As you probably know, most of those episodes have their own battle scenes, but that's not what they're about.

[ChocoLada]

They should have a series with more Gorn and Tholian attacks.

[ChocoLada]

Thank you for MHO

[DonkeyRick69]

Again with the Klingons.
They should have left the Klingons alone and concentrated on the romulans

[FýrdracaDócincel]

If they ever brought out a series surrounding the Eugenics Wars, I'd be all over that shit.