For better or for worse, Star Trek: Voyager was the flagship show of the United Paramount Network (UPN). I think the idea was that Voyager would only run for seven years (just like Next Generation and Deep Space Nine), but UPN would exist for as long as there is television.
So Voyager would end its run, and a new Star Trek series would takes its place, to run for another seven years. That’s not quite how things turned out, though. Voyager did run for seven years, Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) traveled back in time to make sure of that.
But the next show, Enterprise, ran for only four seasons, and UPN lasted only two more years after that. The common wisdom at the time was that the franchise needed to lie fallow for a while.
With the first announcement of a new Star Trek series to follow Voyager, I had a couple of ideas for what the new series should be like. I think a lot of fans did.
I think my ideas would have helped keep Star Trek on the airwaves for a bit longer. Or, perhaps more likely, my ideas would have gotten Star Trek off the air even more quickly.
Maybe some fans wrote down their ideas for a new Star Trek series. I didn’t. And I forgot about my own ideas until a few weeks ago, as fans speculate about the new series and mini-series in the pipeline. Star Trek: Picard in particular.
I don’t remember who said that writing is a very good way to organize your thoughts. Since I didn’t write down my ideas for a new Star Trek series, my thoughts on it aren’t very organized.
Even if I tried to, I couldn’t possibly write down today my ideas as I would have written them down back then. In writing these ideas down now, I will develop them using knowledge I wouldn’t have had back then, like some of the things I know about climate change now.
I think I had casting suggestions, but back then they would have been quite useless even if my ideas had gotten anywhere close to production. The only actors I’ll mention by name here are ones who have already played specific characters in Star Trek.
My best idea was perhaps for a series with working title “Star Trek: Duck Blind,” inspired by the Next Generation episode “Who Watches the Watchers?” As you might recall, that episode showed us proto-Vulcans on Mintaka III.
Federation researchers observe the Mintakans from a “duck blind” disguised holographically into a mountain. But when a power failure leads to the unintentional exposure of the researchers, the Enterprise comes to the rescue.
Witnessing the miracles of modern medicine, Liko (Ray Wise) is returned to his people with the belief that Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is a god, and other Mintakans also become believers. Picard is of course dismayed by this development.
At this point I remind you that in these open threads we may freely discuss anything that happens in any of the Star Trek series that have concluded production. Don’t anyone whine about spoilers for an episode that aired more than a decade ago.
As for Discovery, and the other new series, well, use commonsense and don’t be a jerk going out of your way to spoil it for others. I wouldn’t mind spoilers for Discovery Season 2 or Season 3, but maybe everyone else would.
Okay, so Picard does everything he can to convince the Mintakans that he’s in fact not a god but a mere mortal, just like them. Picard explains the purpose of the observation post and orders it destroyed.
Presumably the Federation continues to use duck blinds to observe other pre-warp civilizations, though perhaps that becomes less of a priority during the Dominion War.
My proposed “Star Trek: Duck Blind” series would start right at the end of the Dominion War. The “Female Changeling,” as she came to be known (Salome Jens) has just signed a peace treaty.
But a Jem’Hadar ship attacking the USS Interceptor hasn’t gotten the memo yet. The Jem’Hadar destroy the Starfleet ship just as a shuttlecraft is coming back with some much needed dilithium.
The Jem’Hadar notice the shuttlecraft, which is then forced to crash land on Mintaka III, after a successful attempt to evade the Jem’Hadar.
The shuttlecraft’s communications array is damaged and the Starfleet officers aboard need a bit of gold to repair it. One of the officers is Lt. T’Pling, who is Vulcan, so she might pass for Mintakan.
T’Pling goes to a village and succeeds in obtaining the necessary gold to repair the comm and send a distress signal. But she also discovers two disturbing facts about Mintakan society.
First, despite Captain Picard’s efforts, the cult of the Picard has become a major religion and even splintered off into at least three different sects. T’Pling characterizes the differences in their respective dogmas as minor, but just serious enough for each sect to regard the preachers for the other sects as false prophets.
T’Pling reports that there are Mintakans who regard the whole story of the Picard as a complete fabrication by Liko, with no basis in fact whatsoever. But it’s difficult to ascertain how much of the planet’s population ascribes to each of these belief systems.
Second, T’Pling discovers two competing inventors working on a land and sea vehicle powered by fossil fuels. It’s difficult also to assess how much pollution might result if the vehicles are ever mass produced.
The two inventors both believe in the Picard, but, you guessed it, they’re from different sects and they want to use vehicles to send missionaries to every corner of the world to preach their version of the gospel of the Picard.
The first episode would conclude with T’Pling’s debriefing at Starfleet headquarters. Starfleet decides it’s time to re-evaluate the whole duck blind program.
Perhaps at this point Ambassador Picard would make a grand entrance, and make an enigmatic statement that would make people want to tune in for the second episode.
The first season would focus on only four or five different civilizations under observation, including at least one much more technologically advances than the Mintakans, and one much less so.
In one of the more technologically advanced worlds, the observers would be disturbed to find that the wealthiest inhabitants have their own private emergency services to help them cope with the problems of climate change.
Worse, the inhabitants of a remote island, who are of a slightly different species, could be forced out as the wealthy see the island as a way to escape the ravages of climate change.
Obviously the Prime Directive applies. But one of the researchers takes it upon himself to arm the islanders so they can defend their home. This well-meaning action could have disastrous unintended consequences.
Another idea I’m sure I couldn’t have come up with earlier is about another technologically advanced planet with way too much garbage in orbit. In real life, that’s becoming quite a headache for satellite operators. Not like in Gravity, but there’s enough of it to be a serious problem.
Tonight the Heroes & Icons (H & I) digital TV channel will air the following Star Trek episodes: original series “The Conscience of the King,” Next Generation “Descent” (Part I), Deep Space Nine “The Emperor’s New Cloak,” Voyager “Prime Factors,” Enterprise “Similitude.”
The open thread question for today is: have you had ideas for Star Trek series or episodes? And if so, can you share them, or at least summarize them?