LaughingCheese wrote:The basic premise of the show would be that tech is much more primitive, perhaps with projectile weapons, and armor would consist of retractile plating, and perhaps hull "polarization" (I STILL have no clue what that means; I think it referrs to some kind of hardening of the hull), it would be better explained to say the least.
The basic premise of the series, IMHO, would be the first Earth Starship setting up treaties, agreements, alliancs, between different alien cultures. Go with the B5 explanation of humans making comunities wherever they go, encouraging different groups to work together. There are a few battles, but slowly, steadily, they are forming different planets to form defense treaties with each other (main goal is to go around making non-aggression between other alien races, and trade with Earth). Earth gets stronger through trade, and they are steadily getting the alien races to not be at war with each other. A map on the wall of the Captain's quarters would have cute little flags and lines connecting the empires, showing their relative status. The more green present, the better it is.
The series would be the slow formation of the Federation, speeded up by the Romulans attacking.
You would even have episodes where you have the Enterprise crew solve a simple problem, but it creates a complex problem that the Kirk Enterprise has to solve. This creates a few links between the series.
LaughingCheese wrote:NO Borg, Ferengi, etc. Although I didn't mind the Borg so much, because that's conceivable that there might be some remnants from the sphere (actually there should be remnants, given an object that size).
I'd go for fragments of the Sphere being still intact, and the drones taking over an advanced 747 (fusion-powered air-breathing transport). The Borg take over the transport, and head off into space. This triggers alerts because the transport was not space-capable. The modified transport then goes into warp, and more alarms go off.
Pretty much the transport's goal is to reconnect with the Hive Mind, and repair/upgrade itself enroute to that effect. It never uses full Borg technology, it never really focuses on the Enterprise, it just wants to go home. Have the engineer get lost in the technology, where he finally says it is too advanced to figure out. Have another ship try to attack the transport, get beaten, and its parts integrated into the Borg transport. As the show goes on the transport gets faster and more dangerous, until they have to attack out of necessity, rather than plan.
The final battle is where they have to devote everything they have to destroying the transport, and they barely win. Key detail is to kill off 2-3 main characters in the process. The trailers would hint at one person being assimilated, but as another character dies, the audience slowly realizes that the Borg are extremely dangerous to these people. You would get the impression that they barely won, took horrible losses, and they were only fighting a modified low-tech transport that didn't care about them.
(To hide who lives and dies, the actors with 5-year contracts have their characters die, and the actors become aliens instead, with their voices modulated to change them sufficiently).
LaughingCheese wrote:I do like the idea that the series events should end in the formation of the Federation.
Perhaps we see Klingons become more aggressive, as they see a threat from Earth? Perhaps this leads to the tensions felt in the 23rd century?
There could be some great Klingon storylines; personally, I'm sick of all these Romulan movies.
Should the tech be more primitive? How much more primitive?
Primitive tech is discussed already.
Klingons would be started as a bunch of pirates, but as you fight them, you get hints of a larger culture sending out its misfits to test its neighbors, and learn what the threats are. Eventually you get the Klnigon High Command realizing that the Federation is tough enough that their misfits cannot fight them, and a direct strike on the Federation means the Romulans might attack them.
So they follow the human method, to gather allies from among the raes on the border, each seeking a strategic advantage, to be ready for the coming war. They saw that the humans gathered a major empire through diplomacy and trade, and decide to try that as well, to get allies quickly, and hide their own empire from the humans (so the humans don't try to fracture their empire in the meantime).
You could even have a few cases where the characters (and audience) see the galaxy as a collection of threats, and want to focus on massive military buildup and conquering them because it would be easier. You then have 'parables' where the characters are told about other times when a conquest was attempted in human history, and the problems that involved (or worse solutions) caused more problems. You might even have races that respect the humans, and decide to cooperate, rather than fighting.
I.e. One race might demand that a human starship is always present over their world to protect it. The Romulans attack, and the human captain is torn between the treaty to always be over the world, and going to help fight the Romulans. The race explains that they know about the Romulans, and since the human chose to stay, showing that since humans are willing to keep their word, the aliens will send their fleet to fight. Stuff like this would be where the Federation is slowly formed, one race at a time, joining to work together.
It would be slow, it would be difficult, but the end result is worth it.