Star Trek: Red, Blue, Gold

There's been tons of discussion over the notion of Trek needing to return to TV, and with i09's recent article suggesting that Paramount has a ready made Marvel Franchise Style Universe all ready and waiting. With this discussion, I figured it was time to post another one of my impossible ideas were I given a chance to play in an established universe. So, what would I do were I given the chance to play in the Star Trek Universe?

The idea is simple, a trilogy of series. Red, Blue and Gold. Each dealing with a different aspect of the Trek Universe.


Star Trek: Red

This was my first and favorite idea I cobbled together with my Star Trek/Expendables mash-up art. The expanded notion goes about like this:

The USS Roanoke finds a mysterious ship drifting through space. Sending in a five man away team of security officers, the ship detects a disturbance in the fabric of space time. Seeing it as an attack, the ship targets and destroys the Roanoke. Just as the ship activates its defenses to kill the men, a temporal event strikes the ship, flinging it through time and arriving in the rebooted Trek universe. (2261)

The ship, damaged from the time jump, resets to defaults and authorizes the five men as the crew.  They find that as a result, their patterns are stored within a cloning program. Every time they die within proximity to the ship, they are reset. As an error in the programming, the “Command” of the ship is set to a new member of the crew with each death, effectively making the captain a rotating position.

Upon Arrival, They have a run in with a Starfleet vessel, the USS Incipience, which the ship attacks automatically. The alien ship easily outclasses and destroy the vessel. They manage to rescue several members of the crew, forcing an uneasy alliance between the crew of the old universe and the crew of the new universe.

Dubbing the ship the Voir Rouge and adopting the "Red Shirt" uniforms of the new universe thinking it the same command color, the men try to return to their universe, and all the while try to influence events with their knowledge. However, this universe holds a few surprises for them too as events are playing out far differently than the history they learned in the academy.

Receiving word of the attack, Starfleet begins actively hunting them. In particular Section 31, who take great interest in possessing the advanced technology of the ship. But then, so do other races, including the likes of the Borg which cannot assimilate the clones, uncovering a dormant program within the Collective.

Based around the action part of the Star Trek series, not a single episode would be without one of the main "Red Shirt" crew dying. Playing both with the comedy aspect of the redshirt meme, but also the philosophical implications of being repeatedly killed and cloned. (It would also be fun to parallel this with the philosophical implications of the transporter in universe too, being deconstructed and reconstructed and the nature of identity.) But also the idea of there being no clear chain of command with the five of them being the "captain" and how their different styles get them into or out of trouble. It would also be fun to lampshade the VERY different rebooted Trek Universe compared to the original. (For example, one of the characters would be a fan of the historical adventures of James T. Kirk and have a hard time coping with how things have changed from what he knows.) Going by i09's three channel possibility, this would be the Showtime series, allowing for violence to be boosted a bit to punctuate both the horror and comedy of the situation. I mean, if your series stars five characters destined to die at least once an episode, you need to be able to span the gamut.


Star Trek: Blue

The least developed of the ideas. This one being based around the notion of science officers. Really dealing with the exploration and discovery aspect of the universe. But so too, can it also function as the "Academy" series starring a younger cast and being very CW style. Ideally, it would be placed in the earlier "Enterprise" era of the universe circa 2161. Don't we deserve a better show set in the early era of Starfleet? Really dealing with that sense of science being the driving force and exploring the universe and seeing all the amazing sights there in. Which is also why it would be perfect to pair with the younger characters, paralleling that idea of growth and expansion that isn't just a drive of human civilization, but inherent in humans themselves.


Star Trek: Gold

This one would definitely be the CBS series dealing with the political side of the Star Trek series, but also one of the more fascinating parts of Star Trek Lore, the Klingons. The Idea is thus: Taking place in the old Post-Next Gen universe in 2461. After a long a protracted war with the Klingon Empire, the Empire is finally on the cusp of joining the Federation official. Following a Federation Diplomat on Kronos the entire series would be trying the reach a point of understanding and agreement that would allow the impossible, the two wildly different cultures to join forces. What would either need to give or allow for this to be a possibility? With how impossible the likelihood of the Empire and Federation EVER being compatible makes for a fertile playground of stories by itself, add in the always fun Klingon culture, the political machinations and outright conspiracies and you've got yourself a good time!


So, there you have it, a trilogy of Star Trek series for three VERY different types of Star Trek fans. (Or three series for big time Trekkies!) I don't see a reason for any of them to last longer than say three seasons, given the difficulty of producing three concurrent series. But taken together, it certainly would be a blast.

But then, what do I know? I'm just another geek.