StarDestroyer.Net BBS

OK through a twist of fate you take GRs place as the man ((or woman)) who decides how to run Star Trek the Next Generation. What do you change about the show and the chars or what do you leave alone?

Keep Troi in the miniskirt-dress she wore at first, that's for sure!

Get good writers and let them have at it. If possible get Harlan Ellison back. For my money one of the best things about TOS was the creativity and the fact that it was something new all the time.

Focus on exploration like TOS and jettison this touchy feely future of Roddenberry's. make the future Federation a little grittier, a little rougher around the edges, they have been exploring for some time now and growing. They cannot maintain the niativity that Roddenberry would like them to have. Some comprises have to be made, some greyness has to have leaked in. Perhaps have them coming out of an apocalyptic war with the Klingons or Romulans or even better yet a Klingon-Romulan alliance that very nearly drove the Federation to the brink but in good guy fashion they came back and crippled the bad guys forcing them back into a cold war type situation and the Federation has to reestablish links with far flung colonies lost during the war.

Make the Ferengi ruthless capitalists with balls. Sort of Klingons with big check books. I remember in Encounter at Farpoint the look on Picard's face when the guy at the station mentioned that he would ally with the Ferengi. It made me as a viewer go...whoa...these guys have to be more badass than the Klingons. When we finally saw them my jaw dropped to the floor and I think it was at that moment that my love for Trek was completely ass raped by a gang of demented porn stars from the 70's. THIS is what we were built up to?!

Thats just off the top of my head, but definately recapture the spririt of high adventure from TOS that has never really been done by any of the series.

Among other things, bring back the constant tension between the bureaucrats and the soldiers which was a staple of TOS. The TNG-era Federation is just one big happy family most of the time, and it's nauseating. I don't care how advanced our technology is; bureaucrats will always be assholes.

First thing I'd do is redesign the bridge of the E-D. No more fucking TAN. Make it more militaristic: battleship gray, blacks, some red. And the navigator would NOT be laying at his post in a fucking easy chair either. I thought that was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. No families onboard. No luxurious crew quarters. Engineering would be much harder to access in terms of security.

No crew allowed in 10-Forward while on duty. That means, no one in uniform allowed in. More casual uniform variations like Kirk had. MORE VULCANS, especially on the bridge. The councelor will NOT have a bridge post. Like B5, the characters will no longer be perfect.
Riker would not look up to Picard lovingly anymore. After season 3, Riker would get his own command, and Data would be First Officer. Wesley Crusher would be shipped to Starfleet Academy ASAP. And finally, Picard would be given a set of balls.

Actually, I like the idea of the counselor being on the bridge, not with a post, but just a place to sit while the captain talks to someone on the viewer. It would be useful to have someone who can tell whether or not the other guy is lying just by looking at him.

I agree. She is not useful as a counselor, but as a negotiation tool.

Create the E-D in the image of Nicholas Meyer.
I was really impressed of his image of the Enterprise, Starfleet and the Federation In ST II and VI (III also). Starfleet is clearly military and seperated from the government and the buerocratic apperatus. The Enterprise is a real warship with no laughable failing systems and functional design. The officers are clearly seperated from the crew, and they wear real uniforms.
I can describe it all, but emulate his style, and we get a much better Starfleet and Federation than the real TNG one.

What about making it on a slightly tighter budget?? Sometimes, budget restraints lead to sci-fi writers focusing on plot rather than showing off special effects.

TNG didn't actually throw around special effects, you know.

Listen to the Science advisers. Codify speeds, power outputs, energy of photon torpedoes, range of phasers and transporters.

ST:2 uniforms.

I have to agree with Tribun.

Get Meyer to take care of everything in the beginning.

Technobabble would not be allowed to solve problems, only create problems.

I have to agree with Necron. The producers loved to talk themselves up for having science advisors but the truth is those advisors were ignored a majority of the time. Start listening to them and having them be an integral part of the production process rather than have them around like a spellchecker.

And the navigator would NOT be laying at his post in a fucking easy chair either. I thought that was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen.

There's a lot more stupid things than giving the navigator a comfy seat.

Okay - what about having seatbelts on the starships?? I'm finding it somewhat ridiculous that after centuries where Starfleet officers accidentally fly out of their seats every time the ship is hit, no starship designer has thought of it.

Simon H.Johansen wrote:Okay - what about having seatbelts on the starships?? I'm finding it somewhat ridiculous that after centuries where Starfleet officers accidentally fly out of their seats every time the ship is hit, no starship designer has thought of it.

Sctually, in TMP, Kirks seat got someting like that. At the beginning of the "wormhole"-scene.

Agent R wrote:Actually, I like the idea of the counselor being on the bridge, not with a post, but just a place to sit while the captain talks to someone on the viewer. It would be useful to have someone who can tell whether or not the other guy is lying just by looking at him.

And put her in a uniform in the first place. I always hated Troi's stupid little non-Starfleet outfits. To me she looked 10x better in uniform...

Sure she's a counselor, but she's a commander in the Science division first, for God's sake, so put her in a uniform! She didn't even have rank pips until the fifth season or so.

Tribun wrote:

Simon H.Johansen wrote:Okay - what about having seatbelts on the starships?? I'm finding it somewhat ridiculous that after centuries where Starfleet officers accidentally fly out of their seats every time the ship is hit, no starship designer has thought of it.

Sctually, in TMP, Kirks seat got someting like that. At the beginning of the "wormhole"-scene.

And, IIRC, all the seats on the bridge had them, too.

So yes, having emergency restraint systems they could use for turbulance or during combat would be good.

On that vein:

-- all bridge personnel have seats, especially whoever mans the weapons.
-- get rid of all the open space. The E-D's bridge had maybe 1 or 2 extra stations compared to the E-nil, but they had a much larger bridge. Did they really need that extra room?
-- have Riker actually sit at a duty station. Spock and all other TOS first officers were able to give their captains advice while sitting at their stations; why can't Riker do the same?

Simon H.Johansen wrote:Okay - what about having seatbelts on the starships?? I'm finding it somewhat ridiculous that after centuries where Starfleet officers accidentally fly out of their seats every time the ship is hit, no starship designer has thought of it.

But would you really want to be belted in front of those oh so safe consoles?

Stormbringer wrote:

Simon H.Johansen wrote:Okay - what about having seatbelts on the starships?? I'm finding it somewhat ridiculous that after centuries where Starfleet officers accidentally fly out of their seats every time the ship is hit, no starship designer has thought of it.

But would you really want to be belted in front of those oh so safe consoles?

Well of course u'd have to elimate that brainbug iuf u took over tng.

Oberleutnant wrote:I have to agree with Tribun.

Get Meyer to take care of everything in the beginning.

and DC Fontana goddammit!

NecronLord wrote: ST:2 uniforms.

No, add pockets and make them slightly less formal-looking. Certainly based on the ST2 pattern though.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:

Agent R wrote:Actually, I like the idea of the counselor being on the bridge, not with a post, but just a place to sit while the captain talks to someone on the viewer. It would be useful to have someone who can tell whether or not the other guy is lying just by looking at him.

And put her in a uniform in the first place. I always hated Troi's stupid little non-Starfleet outfits. To me she looked 10x better in uniform...

Sure she's a counselor, but she's a commander in the Science division first, for God's sake, so put her in a uniform! She didn't even have rank pips until the fifth season or so.

Okay, yeah, I suppose. I mean, Ezri was a counselor and she wore a uniform. Didn't Deanna wear a uniform in the later seasons?

Agent R wrote:Didn't Deanna wear a uniform in the later seasons?

Captain Jellico who took command of Enterprise in the two parter episode "Chain of Command" ordered her to do so, because he considered it inappropriate for her to wear a civilian outfit while on duty.