Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

[Dark Reality 0]

What do you all think would be the feasability of a Trek series which takes place primarily in San Francisco, at Starfleet Academy, and follows the stories of young cadets in their first year, as they go through their schooling, as well as personal relationships? Kind of like a 24th century 90210.

 

Trek has always excelled at portraying the relationships between the characters, as well as conflicts... A Starfleet Academy setting would really set the stage for more "friendly" conflicts, and be able to explore all kinds of school-related issues at the same time. We could follow Nog's education; that could be a starting point. Such a series would allow them to use more aliens, much more diversity. There wouldn't be a ship, per se... so it would kind of be like DS9 in that regard... and maybe have something major happening in the background, like an alien invasion (Borg? Dominion?) or something more internal.

 

Trek has probably gone about as far as it can, at least in some peoples' opinions, as far as space travel goes. Where else can they go? It's just an idea, maybe not the best, but I think they could make it work...

[HRH The KING 0]

I think it would work best as a CGI-Animated show.

 

I think Star Trek fans would simply dismiss a live-action show as "Star Trek 90210" like you said.

 

I would call it "Red Squad" and would give it the tone of a military training academy, rather than a "school".

 

If it were a live-action show, I think the idea has potential.

 

What I would suggest is that they start as fresh faced naive cadets, but perhaps a conflict of some kind forces them to be drafted into action quicker than they thought, and they experience the darker side of Starfleet life.

 

Slowly they would lose their naive outlook.

Edited September 24, 2005 by HRH The KING

[MANVERU 0]

no, real actors would be best.

That would be awesome!

I'd definetly get into it!

But it would be more of a Drama series than action

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I've been hearing this scenario bandied about for years now. It would not work for me....teen angst may appeal to teens but Trek fans have come to expect more from Star Trek - besides look at how many of them feel about Wesley Crusher.

 

In fact, I'm not sure the Academy environment would provide the diversity necessary to present the socially relevant issues Trek historically wanted to tackle. It was often the strange planet only visited once that allowed them to examine those parallels. Plots would have to center more on the character's lives than on issues or action as someone else pointed out. Personal lives dramas are pretty much my definition of soap operas.

 

And it wouldn't be diverse in that there would be a definite age bias. I guess the same could be said about previous Trek series - they were primarily biased towards 30-ish adults.

 

They may actually go ahead with this but I doubt the fan base it develops will be the traditional Star Trek fan but on the other hand I don't think TPTB want those fans anymore anyway. I mean most of those that have been around since TOS have crossed the age 49 limit of value to advertisers.

Edited September 25, 2005 by TheUnicornHunter

[Dark Reality 0]

@HRH The KING -- Why animated? I think CGI-enhanced would be cool, but even Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within/Advent Children isn't to a point of realism that would be acceptable to most audiences, and Square/Enix is the best of the best as far as CGI animation in film... Pixar has absolutely nothing on them. The next best I've seen is the French (?) team behind Kaena: The Prophecy (excellent CGI film you may have missed).

 

Starfleet Academy is a military training facility as well as a school. Starfleet is the Federation's military, although in the TNG years they weren't viewed as such. It wasn't until the Dominion that they geared more towards war again.

 

@Manveru -- Star Trek has always been drama. I've only seen a couple TOS episodes, so I won't judge that series, but even during the action in TNG, DS9, and Voyager, it was always more of a drama. It's a futuristic soap opera... I think a lot of fans accept and appreciate that, and even Voyager made fun of Trek as a soap in one episode where Neelix was hooked on a soap opera. What he was observing wasn't much different from the interpersonal relationships on DS9 and Voyager (more so than TNG).

 

@TheUnicornHunter -- What's with the anti-Wes stuff anyway? I don't mean to imply you specifically started that... I do know a lot of fans don't like Wes. But TPTB brought him back on DS9 in the form of Jake Sisko, and again on Voyager, sort of, in the form of Naomi Wildman, so someone at Paramount seems to think it works. Personally Wesley never bothered me, though he was a bit of a whiner.

 

I did not know others had been tossing the idea around. It just makes sense to me. They've really pushed the technological development as far as it's going to go -- any more, and it's going to get silly, or at least incomprehensible to anyone but the most serious sci-fi nut. First TNG had holodecks, then Voyager had the holo-Doc. With every other episode having a hologram from the holodeck steal the mobile emitter, it got kind of confusing. (Voyager should have replicated 150 emitters, had holographic characters made of the whole crew, put the real crew in stasis, and let the holo-characters fly the long journey home... problem solved.) Then you have Photon Torpedoes, Quantum Torpedoes, Multiphasic Torpedoes... Do they ever spell out the differences? Well, they tried something new with ENT, but TPTB didn't think that worked. IMHO all they really have left is the drama.

 

I dunno... I just really like Trek, and I'd watch a new series if they put it out. I couldn't get into ENT, but I'd love to give it another chance someday.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Yeah, too 90210-ish. Star Trek has always been about what the textbooks couldn't possibly have imagined. The events that would later write the textbooks, if you will. An academy series sounds like backpedaling.

[Stephen of Borg 2]

don't like the CGI idea at all

[MANVERU 0]

 

@Manveru -- Star Trek has always been drama.  I've only seen a couple TOS episodes, so I won't judge that series, but even during the action in TNG, DS9, and Voyager, it was always more of a drama.  It's a futuristic soap opera... I think a lot of fans accept and appreciate that, and even Voyager made fun of Trek as a soap in one episode where Neelix was hooked on a soap opera.  What he was observing wasn't much different from the interpersonal relationships on DS9 and Voyager (more so than TNG).

 

353984[/snapback]

 

What I meant was, Star Trek is based on exploring, helping, discovering. etc, etc.

 

I have no idea how they would fit an Accademy story line into the above.

It just won't work.

 

Unless a careless cadet messes with the space time continoum, and transports them into the Delta quadrant..

 

Actaually, that wouldn't be a too bad of an idea!!

 

Maybe transported into the Gamma quadrent

[Takara_Soong 4]

But TPTB brought him back on DS9 in the form of Jake Sisko, and again on Voyager, sort of, in the form of Naomi Wildman, so someone at Paramount seems to think it works. 

353984[/snapback]

 

I totally disagree with your comparing Wesley Crusher to Jake Sisko and Naomi Wildman. The only thing they had in common were they were all kids. As well, Jake and Naomi were much more secondary characters than Wesley was in the seasons he was a regular on TNG. Wes was such an unrealistic character and there were too many episodes where he saved the day, making all the adults look like idiots. He was more "real" later when he was written less perfect. I think TPTB* learned from the mistakes made with Wes. While I haven't seen much DS9, Jake Sisko was a much more balanced character. While I like Naomi Wildman, her age makes it impossible to compare her to the others.

 

*Let's put the blame for Wes where it should be - on Gene Roddenberry (hey, nobody's perfect). Wes was living Mr. Roddenberry's fantasy childhood. The character only took on a more believable tone after Mr. Roddenberry's day-to-day participation in TNG was ending.