My Star Trek origins story idea
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:02 pm
I posted this on another board and thought I'd share it here as well.
It's no secret that I don't care for the Abrams Trek reboot at all. But what would I have done instead? Well, first of all I wouldn't have rebooted the franchise. I would stay true to the established continuity of the Trekverse. So in order to tell an origins story, I would adhere to what's been said in canon. There are still enough unexplored time periods (except in some of the non-canon novels) that could be used to fill in a story or two. However, once things get going with the five-year mission (say, after Where No Man Has Gone Before), there wouldn't be much new things to tell apart from self-contained aliens-of-the-week stories. So I'd essentially stop there, after the first adventure on Kirk's Enterprise or at the latest just prior to WNMHGB.
I've sketched two parts that could maybe be the first and second half of a movie, or two different movies depending on plot details and story. A third part would deal with the real first adventure just after Kirk has been made Captain of the Enterprise.
The first part essentially deals with the Academy years and the first assignments for Kirk and Spock. The second part (which has one tie to the first part) takes place ten years later and deals with the heroics that made Starfleet promote Kirk to Captain.
I researched both The Star Trek Encyclopedia and Memory Alpha (and Memory Beta) to get the dates right on important events, such as when people were born. Some is conjecture. I hated that everyone were roughly the same age in Abrams Trek. This means there will be no Sulu, Uhura or Chekov in this, except maybe in the third part, as they're approximately ten years younger than Kirk.
Notable years:
Ca. 2160 The Klingon Chang is born (conjecture)
2222 Montgomery Scott is born
2223 The Federation/Klingon Cold War begins after decades of disastrous hostilities (conjecture)
2227 Leonard McCoy is born
2230 Spock is born
2233 James T. Kirk is born
2235 Gary Mitchell is born (conjecture)
2245 Enterprise is launched with Robert April as CO, George Kirk as XO
2249 Spock enrolls in Starfleet Academy (19 years old)
2250 Kirk enrolls in the Academy (17 years old), later on training mission on the USS Republic
2251 Christopher Pike becomes CO of the Enterprise
2253 Spock graduates (23 years old), assigned USS Enterprise; Kirk is a student instructor; Mitchell enrolls in the Academy
2254 Kirk graduates (21 years old), assigned USS Farragut as Tactical Officer; Enterprise experiences the incident at Talos IV (The Cage)
2255 Kirk on the Farragut at Neural
2257 Farragut crew killed, Kirk survives
2264 Kirk becomes CO of Enterprise (31 years old)
2235 The first five-year mission begins; Mitchell is killed (WNMHGB)
2267 The Organian Peace Treaty (Errand of Mercy)
2293 The Khitomer Accords (The Undiscovered Country)
More to come...
It's no secret that I don't care for the Abrams Trek reboot at all. But what would I have done instead? Well, first of all I wouldn't have rebooted the franchise. I would stay true to the established continuity of the Trekverse. So in order to tell an origins story, I would adhere to what's been said in canon. There are still enough unexplored time periods (except in some of the non-canon novels) that could be used to fill in a story or two. However, once things get going with the five-year mission (say, after Where No Man Has Gone Before), there wouldn't be much new things to tell apart from self-contained aliens-of-the-week stories. So I'd essentially stop there, after the first adventure on Kirk's Enterprise or at the latest just prior to WNMHGB.
I've sketched two parts that could maybe be the first and second half of a movie, or two different movies depending on plot details and story. A third part would deal with the real first adventure just after Kirk has been made Captain of the Enterprise.
The first part essentially deals with the Academy years and the first assignments for Kirk and Spock. The second part (which has one tie to the first part) takes place ten years later and deals with the heroics that made Starfleet promote Kirk to Captain.
I researched both The Star Trek Encyclopedia and Memory Alpha (and Memory Beta) to get the dates right on important events, such as when people were born. Some is conjecture. I hated that everyone were roughly the same age in Abrams Trek. This means there will be no Sulu, Uhura or Chekov in this, except maybe in the third part, as they're approximately ten years younger than Kirk.
Notable years:
Ca. 2160 The Klingon Chang is born (conjecture)
2222 Montgomery Scott is born
2223 The Federation/Klingon Cold War begins after decades of disastrous hostilities (conjecture)
2227 Leonard McCoy is born
2230 Spock is born
2233 James T. Kirk is born
2235 Gary Mitchell is born (conjecture)
2245 Enterprise is launched with Robert April as CO, George Kirk as XO
2249 Spock enrolls in Starfleet Academy (19 years old)
2250 Kirk enrolls in the Academy (17 years old), later on training mission on the USS Republic
2251 Christopher Pike becomes CO of the Enterprise
2253 Spock graduates (23 years old), assigned USS Enterprise; Kirk is a student instructor; Mitchell enrolls in the Academy
2254 Kirk graduates (21 years old), assigned USS Farragut as Tactical Officer; Enterprise experiences the incident at Talos IV (The Cage)
2255 Kirk on the Farragut at Neural
2257 Farragut crew killed, Kirk survives
2264 Kirk becomes CO of Enterprise (31 years old)
2235 The first five-year mission begins; Mitchell is killed (WNMHGB)
2267 The Organian Peace Treaty (Errand of Mercy)
2293 The Khitomer Accords (The Undiscovered Country)
More to come...