Star Trek XI vs. Serenity

POSTED BY: chronicthehedgehog
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 22:17
VIEWED: 4319
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CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

Thursday, March 10, 2005 3:11 PM

Just read this over at Dark Horizons, about Trek XI:

Quote:

The plan is to do something grittier, "There's an old tradition in space films, if you think about it, where war and conflict are very sterile. Death doesn't hurt, it's not really ugly. You can get killed by a phaser and just ... disintegrate. We're going 160-odd years before Kirk is born. It's an earlier time, and I think it would be really refreshing to feel something in the course of telling this tale, instead of being wowed by special effects, or presenting another crew in jeopardy where, in the end, the captain does something brilliant, and all's right with the world" says Jendresen.

This feel familiar to anyone else?

DTUCK

Thursday, March 10, 2005 3:13 PM

[sarcastic]

Noooo....

[/sarcastic]

__________________________________

The best way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

ZOL

Thursday, March 10, 2005 3:18 PM

So, are we talking riding horses, shooting from the hip, shindigs, mega-mean corporations, band on the run type of thing ... I don`t think so.

Trek as it is needs to setttle off planet for a while - it`s been series after series saturating the TV & the Fans - tme for a desreved break (another 10 years should do it)

Darin (Zol.)

DUG

Thursday, March 10, 2005 3:44 PM

I would agree that they need to rest the series for a good few years. They also need to actually get a new idea. There's an entire universe they can explore but every idea they come up with is the exact same. A view of life in a military ship, with the slight variation of DS9 being a military base. Until they gave them a ship, at least....

I would have loved to see an exploration of life on earth or life with a free trader rather than what they came up with for Enterprise. It was just the same tired concept rolled out one more time. Instead of another story of Starfleet I would like to see more of their universe. Think of dramas about the real world; there are tons of different concepts you could work with, but these guys are pitching nothing but different variations of JAG.

BADGERSHAT

Thursday, March 10, 2005 4:40 PM

Absolutely.
I think they would do well to set a series in the Star Trek Universe, but NOT focus on Starfleet people. They'd do well to go toward some of the private captains (yes, akin to "Firefly") or colonists/settlers (like "Earth 2"), or something completely outside the military realm, like go into the scientists developing warp drive (like they sort of did in "First Contact")...

... okay, maybe they should just hang it up for a bit...

--Jefé The Hat

***************************
--Don't bother trying to predict, figure out, second guess, criticize, or suggest anything that comes from the mind of Joss Whedon, for you shall usually be wrong, and shall find out the Truth and Purpose in due time.
(This is the Truth of Whedoning)

"I like smackin 'em"--Jayne

THATWEIRDGIRL

Thursday, March 10, 2005 4:47 PM

We need a break. I could have sworn they promised us no movies for a while, didn't they?

I would love for them to explore outside of starfleet...or humans for that matter.

www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
--Aldous Huxley

CYBERSNARK

Friday, March 11, 2005 4:52 PM

Actually, all of your suggestions (which I agree with) are all vetoed by none other than Roddenberry himself. See, like Joss, Roddenberry was one of those SF writers who, when told that "we can not write real aliens. We are human, and thus utterly incapable of imagining or comprehending anything beyond our own humanity, and these are the most important stories/themes we will ever encounter," accept that doctrine and go on to write brilliant humanist dramas, in which any non-humans (if they appear) are merely "fun-house mirror" reflections of human characteristics. Star Trek is an allegory (note that every major race corresponds to a facet of the human psyche), one about humans, in which the aliens are just there as walking metaphors.

When TNG was created, Roddenberry wrote a "franchise bible" for any subsequent series. It included words to this effct:

Star Trek must always be about the humans; it's all about the human capacity to grow and improve ourselves.

To that end:
Any Star Trek series must focus on a Starfleet crew, and the Captain (i.e., the lead character) must always be human.

So, no Klingon ships/crews, no alien captains, no non-Starfleet crews, no civillian dramas, etc. Any non-humans must only be there to provide conflict and perspective commentary on the human leads. It's the novels alone who're free to defy this.

This is unfortunate for those of us (SF writers) who deny the old "we can't write aliens" adage (because if we were the sort to do what we're told, we wouldn't be writing SF in the first place) and try to out-do each other with our bizarre, perception-twisting aliens.

This is why Farscape is so utterly unlike any possible Star Trek; the Farscape writers tried to do alien characters (and, arguably, succeeded), while Star Trek is always about humans.

This is also why Voyager ruined the Borg; the Collective is unlike anything that a human consciousness has ever experienced --it demands writers who're willing to think like a single immortal hive-mind spread among millions of bodies (see First Contact to see it done right). Instead, the Voyager writers just couldn't wrap their heads around it, so we ended up with an empire of individual slaves, ruled by a Queen.

That said, and as much a fan of Star Trek and Roddenberry as I am (note that I speak of Roddenberry & Joss in the same breath, unabashedly), I believe that his initial vision was. . . smaller than Trek has become. DS9 played fast and loose with these rules, and has become one of the most acclaimed of all Treks.

By now, the franchise has grown large enough to go further. I want to see an alien captain, and a non-Starfleet crew, but it won't happen until someone has the guts to (conscientously and selectively) defy the rulebook.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

EMBERS

Friday, March 11, 2005 5:03 PM

well I might remind you that not all humans in the Star Trek universe are in Starfleet...
they could easily write a show about the Star Trek world Roddenberry created,
but show Earth more
(I know they thought about a show at the Academy,
but I do NOT mean that...avoid the Academy)

Show other planets inhabited by humans....

but basically, wait a bunch of years until someone really creative comes along.
Someone like Gene Roddenberry.

In the mean time I am thrilled that Joss has created the anti-Star Trek
a world where all human ills have NOT been solved by an all powerful Federation
(because personally, I always thought that that was the weakest point of Star Trek...)

MACBAKER

Friday, March 11, 2005 7:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chronicthehedgehog:
This feel familiar to anyone else?

Yea!!! Another horrible idea from Berman and Braga!!! When will Paramount learn, and fire these two hacks!

If Paramount MUST have a Star Trek (and they do, to push their merchandising interests) then hand it over to people that respect continuity and the fans. My vote is for Manny Coto, who has made this season of Enterprise the best Trek since DS9 was cancelled, or Steven Ira Behr, who produced DS9. Even better, both of them!

Make a movie with cast members from TNG, DS9, and Voyager, and make it EPIC, not another low budget piece of tripe!

I'd given some thought to movin' off the edge -- not an ideal location -- thinkin' a place in the middle.

THATWEIRDGIRL

Friday, March 11, 2005 7:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by MacBaker:
Manny Coto...Steven Ira Behr

hip, hip, hooray!

www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
--Aldous Huxley

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