OT: JMS writes Star Trek

[trekgeezer]

I like the divergent opinions people give on this board, so I thought  I would post this bit of news to see  what  ya'll think.

It is obvious from my handle here that I like Trek. Well, I thougt the new series Enterprise was looking promising for a while and then the team of B&B have it make a left turn and now it will be the only one of the modern series not to make a seven season run (how Voyager made it that long I will never know).  Anyway, I read some interesting news on a couple of different sites.

Seems J. Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame claims to have been offered an Executive Producer job on the upcoming fourth season of Enterprise and declined it.  He also says that he and Bryce Zabel, the creator of the short lived series Dark Skies, have written a treatment for a new series that would 'save' the Star Trek franchise and it has evidently been turned in to Paramount.

I find this ironic because he has claimed for years that Deep Space Nine  was an  ripped off from B5 , which he had shopped to Paramount before taking it to Warner Brothers.

I don't know if anyone here cares about this, but if you do please chime in. Do you think JMS could revive Star Trek?

[BeyondTheGrave]

well trek geezer iam not a big fan of star trek or  babylon 5 but JMS  has done some very good work in comic book world. he had revived spider-man comics as well as a little know group of super heroes called squadron supreme. so i say he track record for reviving franchises is pretty good and might be able to put a good star trek out.


"I know I know ive been exposed permeant psychoses..
at least the colors are nice"- Aeon Flux

[Tilebreaker]

I haven't read many of comics he's written, but I read "rising stars".  I thought it started off great, but by the end it just seemed to be running on Fumes. I expected it to end big, but it never did.   I recently picked up the "squadron supreme" trade and thought it was pretty good.  The story has been repeated, or revamped, in a few titles here and there, but it's still a classic. Don't know why anyone would want to revive them.

[JohnL]

>Do you think JMS could revive Star Trek?

I think it's a possibility, but only if Paramount can resist the urge to screwup what he writes. Of course if you believe the studio, nothing could revive ST, because the public is just tired of it. I believe it's because the shows just aren't as good, but the studio would never admit that.

I do like Enterprise though. I think part of the problem is that people are too used to the more advanced Star Trek shows, so it may be hard for them to accept a show where everything is supposed to be "new", like the transporter. Also, the producers seem to forget that Enterprise takes place before the other shows, therefore they should avoid using aliens that supposedly make their first appearance in the other shows, like the Borg. Anyone want to take bets on how long it will be before Q makes an appearance?

[Fearless Freep]

Do you think JMS could revive Star Trek?

Probably not.  Since Roddenberry died, it seemed no-one has really latched on to what Roddenberry's vision for the future really was.  ST-NT was fairly close and he was stilled involved in it, but it rather bogged down by fairly simplistic writing and it almost always pulled punches in the action area.  It still aspired to a certain vision of humanity and how we relate to the universe, etc... though.  What made ST really work was that is was a character study with sci-fi as a backdrop; I haven't seen much in the same vein since then, and while sci-fi geeks may want to see aliens, lasers, and space battles, most people want to see people they really care about fighting sace battles against aliens with lasers.

However, the real problem is that Star Wars had some intelligent writing but was never much more than campy sci-fi entertainment that happened to strike a chord.  A "b" movie that happens to strike a chord with people and becomes very successful is very hard to follow up intentionally with any success.

[raj]

If anyone could do it, it would be JMS.  I think he'd get back to having conflicted heroes,  rulebreaking, and a lot of grey area, rather than the prissyness of TNG and Voyager (never saw DS9).  I do like Enterprise though, it  is fun.

[Flangepart]

JSM could pull it off. If they let him. I liked B-5, so the character work would improve.
I have lost intrest in TREK. Sad, realy......but as an old timer, who misses the days of Kirk, Spock and Bones, i guess thems the breaks.
And may all your Tribbles be small ones....

[trekgeezer]

If those are the things you want to see then you need to watch DS9.  It has so many wonderful recurring characters.  There is constant conflict  and the first Federation ship made just for kicking ass (also has a cloaking device).  

The commander is a bitter guy who hates Picard in the pilot (his wife was killed by  Locutus and crew when the Borg were heading for Earth).  

If you liked Babylon  5  you'll like DS9 and like B5 from the 4th season on you pretty much have to watch every episode to know what's going on.

It has so many good characters  you just have to watch it  to appreciate it.  The first two seasons were mostly pretty pedestrian with some stand out episodes, but with the introduction  of the Dominion  and the USS Defiant things really took off.

Rick Berman treats this series like a  Trek step child because he had little to do with it after the second season. He was off with Braga ruining Voyager.

[raj]

Thanks, I'll have to check it out.