I know a strictly military-focused show goes against Roddenberry’s vision, but what are the chances that we could see some sort of war-focused Trek in the future? The scenes in “Under the Cloak of War” (SNW 2x08… yes I’m a few weeks behind) fascinated me. What would a MAS*H-style show look like in Trek? Could the show tell the story of the war exclusively from the medical perspective? Until now, we’ve only gotten glimpses of war shown through the eyes of our main characters (O’Brien, Nog, Chakotay, Burnham, M’Benga, Chapel, etc) and we’ve gotten fleet-level looks of battles, but very little on-the-ground coverage of war.
I’d prefer the setting to be some war set some time after PIC–something we as an audience know nothing about. What are your thoughts, Lemmy?
You must log in or register to comment.
I could totally see the Federation getting involved in a war with the best intentions, believing that they need to act to prevent a powerful, implacable faction from gaining the upper hand and tipping the balance of power across many star systems & potentially exterminating/enslaving multiple less advanced civilizations, say along a Federation border.
And the whole thing starts going sideways, and the Feds won’t commit fully to the effort but a dedicated faction of true believers keeps it going on a shoestring.
Kind of sounds like the Maquis. Or maybe the Cardassian War in general.
I don’t think a medical-focused Trek show would have to take place during war time. Medical Ethics in general is ripe for the sort of show Trek lends itself to.
There was a spinoff pitched during TOS called Hopeship featuring M’benga. The pitch for NBC/RCA was that instead of introducing expensive colorful sets, they could stay shipboard and have expensive alien makeup and costumes.
I have an idea for a series I’d like to write that fits this somewhat. In the Kelvin timeline before Romulus is destroyed but after Voyager, the Romulans decide to stripmine their doomed solar system, build a fleet, and go on a conquest to subdue Federation territory starting with Earth. The war would be an over-arching theme but the episodes would still be mostly self contined challenge of the week type stories based one ship & crew but with glimpes of what other crews are going through, but also flashbacks to how the invasion got started showing how we got to “now” without dragging it out.
One of Roddenberry’s first series was called The Lieutenant which aired on NBC for a season – until it was canceled due to a falling out between the Marines and the network over a race-based episode that nobody wanted but Roddenberry forced through (too preachy they worried). Episodes of this are available on YouTube and you will see some of the Trek stars that appeared in Where No Man has Gone Before.
The last thing I want to see from Star Trek is something like MASH, a show which whitewashes the genocidal Korean War. The last thing Star Trek needs is more imperialism.
Wow. Yeah, because if you read my post, that is exactly the part of MAS*H that I wanted to copy.
My comment was just hating on MASH, not your concept. I just can’t stand MASH.
The idea of a story of the war from a medical perspective sounds like fun, but I think it would be even more interesting to have war be a part of it (like the Dominion War) but also have some drama and fun like Scrubs.
