Ron Moore Would Love To Take Star Trek Back To Television

[Andy Chalk]

Ron Moore Would Love To Take Star Trek Back To Television

Battlestar Galactica rebooter Ron Moore says Star Trek needs to return to television and he'd love to be the one to take it there.

J.J. Abrams has done big things with the Star Trek movie franchise but its roots are firmly in television. It's a more intimate medium that requires a focus on characters and story rather than bombastic effects, which is really what Star Trek does best. Ron Moore, the guy who masterminded the hit Battlestar Galactica reboot of a few years ago, knows a thing or two about it, too.

"I think the features are good and I really admire what J.J. Abrams has done with the last two films - I think it's great - but the heart and soul of that franchise demands a return to television," he told Digital Spy. "The TV shows were morality plays, they were more thematic, they were examining society in different ways. Sometimes the stakes were just one crew member's life, sometimes the stakes were just one alien world or the Enterprise. You could do a story that was just about Data (Brent Spiner) or a story that was just about McCoy (DeForest Kelley) or about the characters who lived below decks on the Enterprise."

Moore said he believes that if Star Trek is going to remain a viable franchise, it's going to have to go back to television, a job he'd love to take on and one he has some familiarity with: He's written numerous episodes for past Star Trek series including the final episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also worked on the screenplays for the Star Trek films First Contact and Generations. But he doesn't sound quite ready to jump into it just yet.

"I'd love to do Star Trek again, in all honesty. But I also don't have a great new Star Trek idea," he said. "I'm not saying I know exactly how to do a new TV show - I don't. Maybe I shouldn't do it until I have that great epiphany!"

Source: Digital Spy [http://www.digitalspy.ca/ustv/tubetalk/a548825/star-trek-the-sci-fi-sagas-heart-is-in-television-says-ron-moore.html]


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[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

As long as it doesn't have anything to do with the reboot movies. Fuckin' Jar Jar Abrams and his stupid shit.

 

[Something Amyss]

As long as it doesn't have anything to do with the reboot movies. Fuckin' Jar Jar Abrams and his stupid shit.

I'd rather it be associated with Abrams than anyone on Battlestar.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

I'll take that deal, but only if it's Season 1 Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore, not the finale's "I literally have no idea how to tie up these fucking plot threads, so fuck it, Starbuck's a ghost or an angel or something, because fuck you" Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

"J.J. Abrams has done big things with the Star Trek movie franchise"

not "with" but "to"

and all of them are BAD.

 

[J Tyran]

I'll take that deal, but only if it's Season 1 Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore, not the finale's "I literally have no idea how to tie up these fucking plot threads, so fuck it, Starbuck's a ghost or an angel or something, because fuck you" Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore.

Cant disagree with this, that first season of the new BSG had some great episodes with some great moral tests like 33 where the tense and fatigued crew and fighter pilots where faced with the dilemma of shooting down an unresponsive human ship that was either a trap for the fleet or filled with refugees. The series as a whole had some great drama but the early episodes where better, it went downhill after the escape from New Caprica for me.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

This guy sounds like he gets what Star Trek is about, which I think is a good thing. I'm still annoyed over the ad campaign for the rebooted Star Trek that said, "This isn't your father's Star Trek" while explosions were going off everywhere. I knew right then that it wasn't Star Trek.
I also like that this guy admits that he doesn't have a good idea yet, so he's not going to jump straight in. Taking time to come up with something good instead of rushing ahead with nothing is usually a good plan.

 

[Yozozo]

I'll take that deal, but only if it's Season 1 Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore, not the finale's "I literally have no idea how to tie up these fucking plot threads, so fuck it, Starbuck's a ghost or an angel or something, because fuck you" Battlestar Galactica Ron Moore.

Cant disagree with this, that first season of the new BSG had some great episodes with some great moral tests like 33 where the tense and fatigued crew and fighter pilots where faced with the dilemma of shooting down an unresponsive human ship that was either a trap for the fleet or filled with refugees. The series as a whole had some great drama but the early episodes where better, it went downhill after the escape from New Caprica for me.

Don't forget the "We determined who the cylons were by focus testing which had the biggest shock value, nevermind that there is evidence in show to contradict these very points!"

Sounds just like the people I want to bring Star Trek back.

Oh wait. No.

As far as I'm concerned they destroyed the Galactica franchise forever, and they can keep their mitts off of Star Trek. Heck, I'd trust Michael BAY with Star Trek before I let Moore ever come back to doing anything for the series.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"I think the features are good and I really admire what J.J. Abrams has done with the last two films - I think it's great "
Reading that made me want to slap this guys hands SO far away from a Star Trek related writing desk they'd snap off his wrists...

But then I read this:
"He's written numerous episodes for past Star Trek series including the final episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also worked on the screenplays for the Star Trek films First Contact and Generations. "

And this:
"I'd love to do Star Trek again, in all honesty. But I also don't have a great new Star Trek idea," he said. "I'm not saying I know exactly how to do a new TV show - I don't. Maybe I shouldn't do it until I have that great epiphany!"

Now, that is sounding quite respectful!!!

If you didn't really meant that Abrams comment (which is likely!), please brood on that great new idea!!!!

 

[Jumwa]

Oh yes please! Ron Moore and Star Trek belong together. Make it so.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, as long as you're not the one doing it, Moore.

 

[Ace Morologist]

I'd like a new Star Trek show too, and while I'm indulging in fantasy-times, here's how I'd do it if I could.

I'd set it on a huge new Enterprise (bigger than the D) and send that ship out on another five-year mission to explore and seek out and boldly go, all in the name of the Federation and its ongoing peacekeeping efforts.

I'd have different ensembles on different parts of the ship to tell different sorts of stories with. (Each with their own writer or writers.) You focus on the captain and the command crew for the more political and diplomatic style stories. You focus on a Marines contingent for away missions and on-planet action. You focus on the crew of pilots and mechanics of a huge bay of shuttles and fighter craft for space-opera action. You focus on the corps of engineers and the science labs for harder sci-fi stories and scientific ethics stories. You focus on the sick bay staff and the ship's counselors for medical dramas and "human" drama stories.

You'd have limited crossover between ensembles for different types of stories as necessary. (For instance, a character from the sick-bay ensemble might go planetside as a medic with the Marines ensemble. The head counselor might consult on a diplomatic matter for the command ensemble. The fighter-bay ensemble and command ensemble might have to coordinate and share spotlight when the ship has to fight off a hostile force.) But you don't have the same ensemble of nine guys doing everything every week for every kind of story.

For updating the setting, I'd have the Romulans as new members of the Federation, though it's so recent there's still lots of tension. I'd have the Borg hybridized with Data's technology at some point in the past to create a new half-mechanical "race" (more like a culture, I guess) that's all streamlined and organic-seeming on the outside but full of nifty gadgets under the surface. They accept new members into their Collective, but they don't try to forcibly assimilate everything anymore. (At some point in the past, Data -- or B4 or whatever the crap -- got through to them and almost single-handedly changed their ways.) Their Collective now consists of two strata. At the bottom are the clunky, no-free-will workhorses like the old Borg. At the top are newer consenting converts who look like Data looked but encompass members of all kinds of Star Trek species. Those ones have free will most of the time, but must serve the greater needs of the Collective when compelled. As in, the Collective can override their free will at any time and act directly through them. As a result, they're not allowed in the Federation.

As for the politics, I'd have had a recent ideological schism sunder the Federation, with the main gripe being a disagreement over how necessary and logical the Prime Directive actually is in this day and age. At the head of the breakaway segment are the Vulcans who've culturally convinced themselves that it's more logical to use the galaxy's more advanced technologies to aid the less-advanced cultures as long as they do so responsibly and with control. With them are the Ferengi, who not only bring this new technology to needy worlds but help integrate younger races into the galactic economy. They also act as cultural ambassadors, spreading style and refinement to the unwashed barbarian hordes.

So yeah. I think it would be pretty good.

--Morology!

 

[Soviet Heavy]

If you got Michael Taylor to come back with you Moore, I'd be all over a new Star Trek series. The work that Moore did on DS9 was probably his best stuff with Star Trek. I know most people enjoy TNG more, but DS9 was always my Star Trek. We had the technobabble and the best of humanity. It was time to show them put to the test.

 

[Omegatronacles]

I'd just like to put forward that I would watch the shit out of a Star Trek series built around the SCE.

With regard to the recent reboots... A TV show built in the same universe could work very well, on the proviso that they let someone else do it. One of my biggest issues with the reboot is that it's come before the series. Traditionally in Trek, the show creates the personalities and characteristics of the cast, and the movies build on them and expand from there. This new series has no show to build on, so we have actors trying to do justice to an idea that hasn't been had yet.

Let the TV show define who we are watching, and maybe the next Star Trek movie can then be more that "Wrath 2 - The Khaninantor"

 

[Illesdan]

I just don't know.

I am a big ST fan, but I just don't think this is a good idea. The latest movie was absolutely horrible. And now they want to bring it back to television.

Seriously, guys, have you forgotten how 'Enterprise' went over? Go ahead, Wiki it, Google it, IMB it, I'll wait.

Finished? Yeah... wasn't great, was it?

If they can get away from the whole Enterprise/boldly going fuckall nowhere premise, it could stand a chance. Get some talented actors (read: NOT Scott Bakula) and stop screwing up established timelines, histories, characters, planets, aliens, and everything else us older people recognize AS Star Trek, and by God, it just might work.