My Star Trek Suggestions.

Star Trek
A Star Trek series the way I would do it.
1)Set it a few decades AFTER Star Trek: Nemesis. Allows use of any storylines and characters that were “left hanging” after the end of 24th century Star Trek. Plus it allows use of established technology in the Star Trek universe.

2) Set it aboard a future version of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Ultimately, the Enterprise is the character in the Trek universe that matters most. I would drop the entire registry number letter add on thing and just give the ship a new number. No one really cares about a ship being “D”, or “E” or “F” anyway. The name matters. Not the registration.

3) The Enterprise should be the biggest and strongest starship by far. This allows the ship to have the “aircraft carrier” feel when working with other Starfleet vessels. Also, this Enterprise should never be defeated in combat unless it is either badly outnumbered (three to one at least) or engaged by an opponent with clearly superior technology.

4) Note, the new Enterprise will NOT have a new capability that producers think might be “cool” but which as a practical matter is almost never used in episodes (ST:TNGs saucer separation, Voyagers ship landing capability). And the ships capabilities will be consistently shown.

5) Only five main characters at one time but a larger number of recurring characters.

6) Main cast gets “Law & Ordered”. That is like “Law & Order” most of the main cast members stay on the show 2-4 seasons before leaving (death, transfer, promotion, mysterious disappearance...) and being replaced by entirely new characters (they can guest star in the future).

7) Change the programming format. For too long Star Trek has been stuck in the mode of airing nine new episodes in the fall, followed by four reruns, then four new episodes, then three reruns…. Why not start with first run episodes in time periods like the summers when network competition is far, far weaker. USA & TNT have done well with this tactic.

8) Embrace new technology and change the production format. Why simply crank out 42 minute episodes to air in one hour time slots? Yes, produce these as well, but why not produce “stripped down” episodes at 30 minutes long which keeps the basic “A plot” intact but still enables fans to follow the basic storylines. Likewise, produce longer 50-60 minute versions of the episodes that have all the plots and subplots as well as more special effects sequences that fans can purchase and view online. The thing is to increase interest in a series by making the episodes viewer friendly for fans.
This is similar to the original idea behind “Law & Order”. Filming the episodes in a way that they could be syndicated either as half hour or full episodes.

9) “John Deere” the merchandising. John Deere the tractor and equipment company makes their money selling tractors and equipment. But they produce a substantial amount of other merchandise (toys, books, clothes, et cetera) sold to people with no interest in farm equipment. This strategy serves to promote the John Deere name and keep it in the public eye. The Star Trek franchise has in recent decades (1990s and forward) a disturbing lack of imagination when it comes to merchandising and licensing.

10)No time travel episodes. Or at the very least, no time travel episodes to Earth’s past. At any rate, if time travel is used, it should be very carefully “restrained”. Such as making it clear that the circumstances allowing it are rare and can’t be repeated or predicted.

11) No “god like” aliens.

12) No episodes written specifically for the purpose to being humorous .

13) Do not feature a family member of EVERY main character.

14) Do not spend so many episodes returning to Earth for whatever reasons.

15) No alien societies which are copies of historical Earth societies. In other words, no “20th century Roman Empires”, no “American Indians in space”, no “Nazis in space”, no “Chicago in the 20s in space”, et cetera.

16) Stop introducing brand new aliens. After decades of Star Trek, we have more than enough alien races mentioned or briefly featured already to deal with for three or four series.

17) Leave the Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Bajorans, and Andorians alone. All six races have been featured (over featured) in previous series already. They don’t have to disappear entirely, but give them a rest for the most part. And very rarely show the Borg (ships fine, individuals(?) no).

Use the Borg more like a combination of Saberhagen's Berserkers and an H.R. Giger creation.

18) Have the Enterprise crew work with the crews of other Federation starships more often. The Enterprise is supposed to be part of a fleet after all.

19) And yes, more battles. I would prefer no fewer than six episodes a season but no more than eight featuring armed combat (out of a 26 episode season). I would greatly prefer that space battles be considerably more realistic and not the “Battle of Britain” swooping and shooting that characterized Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Seeing modern (25th century) ground and aerial combat would be a real treat as well.

20) Look to the “Starfleet Corp of Engineers” (SCE) stories for inspiration at to how “exploration” stories should be written.

21) Use “Stargate SG:1” as a model on how to handle updating plots and maintaining continuity. SG managed to provide a continuous storyline while still having standalone stories in between by simply providing a brief recap in the openings of “arc” episodes.

22) Tone down the liberalistic moralizing. Star Trek is supposed to be set hundreds of years in the future. Who can say what will be “liberal” or “conservative” in 300 years.
Those are my suggestions currently.

I like a lot of those suggestions. I think I came up with a similar list earlier. I'll see if I can find it...

(Nope, but I did stumble upon my take on a Klingon soap opera...)

I'll address these more in depth when I'm not on my cell phone, but this is actually not a bad list.

Mostly good ideas, I'd probably only tinker about the edges. Some will disagree, but I never thought Star Trek overtly political. Yes, the shows did showcase some ideas considered liberal by 20th century standards, but think about how the 21st century would appear to the typical 18th century conservative.

I didn't mind the Dell monitors on new bsg. Film the new series in Canada. Smaller seasons for European markets.

An addition to what I mentioned about time travel. You don't need time travel to tell stories from past times. Just do what non science fiction series routinely do, use flashbacks with the main actors portraying the characters from that time.

Series from "JAG" to "Walker: Texas Ranger" have used that method of storytelling.

So, items 11 to 17 are pretty much a plan to strip half of the core of TOS from any subsequent series - and to replace it all with a load of space battlee? And this is what people are saying makes a good list? No wonder so many of you liked Into Darkness.

TOS would still be TOS without those things. I don't think people liking the list is an endorsement of the list as the only way to proceed. Personally,I don't have much objection to a series following Dayton's listed principles. I might make a different list if I were TIIC, but I'd watch Dayton's show and enjoy it as Star Trek. I see nothing in the list that disqualifies it for the name.

These suggestions are all gay. Like Dayton.

1. It's a century after Nemesis.

2. Enterprise Z.

3. Human sexual morals have finally reached Deltan levels.

4. There's no more prime directive.

5. Given 3 and 4, they go to puritan planets, and sexually liberate them with porn, toys, and various lubes, creams, and foams.

6. This would have to be on Showtime.

And yes, Gene would have approved, he was a horndog.

a) you must REALLY hate the Vulcans, to mention them twice. I'm guessing one of those was supposed to be Romulans. Or possibly Borg. Or Cardassians. Or Ferengi.

b) so given the restrictions of #s 16 & 17, I'm guessing we'll see a large amount of encounters with Gorns, Hortas, and Bajorans, eh? Oh friggin' joy. Or will it just be Federation in-fighting?

Here's a Star Trek I'd like to see.

It would be roughly contemporaneous with TNG, perhaps a decade after.

It would center around a ship called the Odyssey. This ship would be much larger than any Starfleet vessel we've seen before. It would have a crew of thousands, and thousands of passengers...colonists.

The Odyssey will be on a decades-long journey to another galaxy, which is connected to Federation space via a wormhole. The ship's mission will be to land colonists on distant worlds to spread human civilization. Federation space will still be reachable through communications, but every day the Odyssey's journey will take it farther away.

The ship itself will be a true city-in-space, with "neighborhoods" and "districts." Although the crew will be mainly human, other familiar alien races will be present. The motif is kinda like "spaceship Earth," a microcosm of 24th Century humanity.

The ship will carry several roughly Defiant-like starships which can be used to venture away from the Odyssey.

The stories would be a mix of adventures involving settling--perhaps terraforming!--new worlds and exploring this strange, new galaxy, combined with stories set aboard ship that offer social commentary.

There will be new threats, new dangers, new allies, and new opportunities.

Just for the sake of avoiding re-treads from prior versions, there will be NO time travel, NO parallel universes, NO godlike beings.

I dunno, that kind of thing plays out better in thick beefy novels....

IMHO.

How many star trek suggestion threads can one man create?? Its a troll!

Paladin's idea sounds interesting, too. What I'd really like to see is non-Starfleet stories set in the Trekverse. Trek versions of Law and Order, The Sopranos, etc.

Throw in lipstick lesbians in catsuits.

More exploration and less military Trek.

Starlost meets Stargate: Odyssey?

Isn't this my first one?

I guess the fact that you've invaded every other Star Trek thread with "This is how it should be done" posts doesn't count?

It's not even your first one today, man. Did you really forget about the other one?

Post a link.

No it doesn't.

Just as idiotic threads started by you and others for the purpose of trolling and insulting me are not my threads even though my name is in the title.

Certainly. Here you are.

1-2) 15 years after NEM, but on the Enterprise E. The rebuild will explain any design fixes, but essentially the same ship with some history. Retire all of the present crew.

Choose one of the following-Wesley Crusher as XO
-Nog as Chief Engineer
-Brent Spiner as the Computer

3) The Enterprise should lead one of several ship groups a la a battlestar. The redesign should introduce a small compliment of interceptor craft that it carries, as well have purpose built equivalents to the Defiant and a Miranda as escorts.

4) If you want the ship to do something it's never done, there has to be a full explanation available with the tools already existing. Yes, a starship can be submerged using shields etc., now explain why this is a practical idea.

5-6) Principle upper and lower deck crews. At least one relationship develops per season to add depth to characters. Sort of like the L&O, these could be affected by the transfer or death of one of the characters.

7)I never knew there was a format to that? Either way, be organized enough to run 13 weeks on, 13 weeks off. ALternately, introduce subseries focused on the support ships allowing for a year round show.

8-9) I'd go with 60 minute eps designed for NetFlix. No real opinions on marketing right now.

10-12) Definite tight rules on time travel, and no more than once a season. Humour should always be in the script, but yeah, no Picard of Sherwood crap. I'm not sure where you'd draw the line on god like aliens? Telekinetics? Shapeshifters? Gaseous disembodied heads?

13) If there's got to be a family angle, let it be siblings in the lower decks. We don't need an exploration of the relationship, simply knowledge of that aspect to their characters.

14) No need to return to earth unless it's in a flashback. Even attached to a specific sector they should be at least several weeks travel away.

15)Transplanting ancient earth cultures around the universe seemed to be all the rage 5000 years ago. It's a wonder civilization ever developed here at all. Enough already. We've found all the mass abducted cultures! Maybe one or two lost colonies over the course of the series, but no space nazis!!

16) We should actually get to know new species over a few episodes or at least their story. AotW is like a series of one night stands. There's a library of them we can go back to explore with a modern eye.

17)If the ship/group is in a regular area of space, it makes sense they'd run into their opposite number along the border areas. Recurring characters on the other side that our crew interacts with is another positive in my book.

18)Back to that. I think I'd rather see the setting as a Starship Group. The Enterprise as a utility carrier, with a destroyer and a research vessel supporting it. This would allow SHIP A/ship b, SHIP B/ship c staggering of plots and casts.

19) By adding a squadron of interceptors and a gunship, space battles can be a mix of fighter and capital ship combat.

20-22) Flesh out the Federation civil society. Actually, that could be the C story setting-"meanwhile, back on one of the crew's home planet..."

What the hell are you talking about?