I was watching MTV’s The Hills the other night, yeah, I’ll admit it, I was watching The Hills. I started watching the show when Heidi Pratt turned herself into a living Barbie doll. Now as much as it kills me to admit it the new plastic Heidi is smoking hot. However, Heidi suffers from the same problem that Jessica Simpson and many other overly attractive celebs suffer from, specifically that regardless how hot you are, eventually any guy will get to a point where they are tired of looking at you and will actually want to talk to you. That is where these women fail, and fail miserably.
Despite, Heidi plastic pumped body and air pumped head, there is now an even greater reason to watch the show that I once described as helping the terrorist destroy America. We are now watching The Hills for the same reason we continue to watch a number of other shows that we have long since give up on. This reason I have deemed the Crocodile Hunter Factor. You see the Crocodile Hunter was a pretty good show for a while, but after a while we realized it was just like any other animal show. It got really boring, really quick. Regardless of its boring repetitive nature, we still kept watch the Croc Hunter, why you ask? We kept watching it because we knew that if we just kept watched long enough, that one day we would see Steve Irwin die on TV. And he did.
It is this factor that compels us to continue to watch The Deadliest Catch. I mean honestly, all the show really is is Sarah Palin’s Real American throwing and retrieving pots over and over and over again while smoking and hazing the newbie’s. Even the gruff Mike Rowe narrations fail to keep our attentions, but we keep watching. Then why do we still watch? Be honest with yourselves, we are all just sitting around waiting for one of those ship to go down. Deadliest Catch is not the only show that benefit from the Croc Hunter Factor. Let me ask you this question; Why are still watching Ice Road Trucks? Why are still watching Axemen? Why are you still watching Heli-loggers? Or any number of the Hard-work Reality programming.
While The Hills started out as basically a reality show about rich spoiled kids set to a hip sound track, it has not morphed into something else. I sat there watching the show and was witness to the mental breakdown of Spencer Pratt live in front of my eyes on mostly-national cable television. What makes Spencer’s descent into madness even better is that Heidi is holding his hand and aiding him along the way. She has taken the classic battered wife’s position excusing his actions to everyone; tell anyone who will listen that you just don’t understand him and slowly cutting out friends and family until they are alone on their dysfunctional island.
Watching Spencer repeatedly lose it and almost unleash his unearned anger and frustration on anyone who doesn’t completely agree with him takes this show into the Croc Hunter Factor. I will now continue to watch The Hills because I am waiting around to see Spencer go all Ike Turner on Heidi. Seriously and when he does unleash his craziness on Heidi it will be televised on a Very Special The Hills. Let’s just hope he doesn’t hit her in her face, cause that’s how she makes her money.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
This Is a Nightmare... a Nightmare
Remember when you were a kid and would accidently break something. Then your mom would sit you down, look you in the eyes and say, "Well, I guess we just can't have nice things." After watching this video I feel like some sort of galactic parental figure needs to sit down all of humanity and tell us that if this is the way we are going to act, we just don't deserve a nice planet. And that they are thinking of giving us another planet way in the back where we won't bother anyone.
Wathing this disaster unfold it is really easy to sit back and say that BP is evil or that the Obama Administration is not doing enough, but there is just so much more going on here. In reality, the reason this under-water oil flow is still going is because no one really knows how to stop it. It's that simple and it is that sad. If anyone knew how to cap the flow, they would done so by now.
This accident occurred because of a number of decisions and failures that occurred over the last couple of decades. Of course, chipping away at the regulations little-by-little of the Engergy Industry over the years is at fault. Of course, BP and Haliburton and Deepstar Six, or whatever their name is, are also to blame. Then of course, we must point out that the greatest share of the blame goes to us . . . the American people.
I've heard a lot of people trying to call out the 'Drill Baby Drill" crowd. (I am more upset at these people because of their stupidity in believing that allowing more oil drilling will have an immediate effect on gas prices at the pump.) These simple minded folks are kind of like major corporations who look only to shortterm solutions to long-term problems. The drill baby crowd want more drilling to keep gas prices low but refuse to even address the longterm problem of replacing fossil fuels to address our energy needs claiming that it will kill jobs.
The real group that upsets me . . . and I guess I am one of them, kind of arep eople who talk about how we need to get off oil, both foreign and domestic, how we need to stop buring coal, not the worst idea in the world, and how we need tear down dams and switch over to all green energies. Well, those things are all well and good, but the actions of the people who say these things don't match their words. We can solve our energy problem, but its time we put our money where our mouths are and most importantly, we must find a way to reduce consumption.
Wow, that got a little preachy. Sorry about that, but that is just what I think. Regardless, they really need to cap that oil flow . . . its just getting scarey out there.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Star Trek: The Next Generation Reboot
Intro:
To paraphrase a great line by Wayne of Wayne’s World, “Star Trek: The Next Generation is far superior to the original in many way, but it will never be as good as the original.”
Well, with that said, I think it is time for a Star Trek: The Next Generation had a Reboot of its own, but it will be its own time line, not the one created by the Star Trek film of 2009. In that film the creators picked a point of time before the original series and then split off an entirely new Star Trek universe. These two timelines have been named ST: Alpha and ST: Beta by the fandom. Here, The Next Generation Reboot will be more in line with the Battle Star Galactica Reboot, in that it is a completely different universe with common characters and a common ship.
So here it is.
The Universe:
The United Federation of Planets will of course exist but it will be a much different place. The Federation will have much more political intrigue and backstabbing as the member nations jock for power and to support their different position. This Federation is also heavy dominated by the original four founding members; Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. With the first two on this list dominating, while all other races are seen as late comers to the party. Even though numerous planets belong to the Federation, they don’t all get along, especially the Andorians and Vulcans.
The Federation has three branches: The Executive Branch, located in Paris, with the President at its head; the Judiciary, a nine member Supreme Court headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa; and the Legislative Branch, which is comprised of the Federation Council headquartered in New York City. The Council is made up of two senators from each member planet. The planet are allowed to select their senators in any way they deem fit. This is inline with Federation local rule position. Member Planets are largely free to govern as they wish as long as it is not completely out of line with the Federation Charter.
Starfleet is more militaristic and serve a huge peace keeping roll. Their major enemy is of course the Romulans, who aren’t just hidden behind the neutral zone. The Klingons, while not at war or even a cold war, but there is some open hostility between the two. Specifically, the Romulans and Federation fought a second war about 20 years ago, which was just a continuation of their first war, and not this is a very hot Cold War between the two powers. This Cold War has been labeled the “Silent Theater” as each power has a political presence on each other’s home planet via Embassies. It is not a sealed off Neutral Zone with neither side having any meaningful contact with the other. These two sides are also fighting a proxy war against each other via the Cardassian Bajoran war and occupation. In the previous year this engagement took a major swing as the Federation directly helped in the liberation of the Planet Bajor from its Cardassian occupation.
The one major point about Starfleet here is that the command structure especially the ships captains are almost exclusively human. Starfleet is of course open to all member nations as well as non-member nations citizens who are looking for Federation Citizenship. However, for many years only humans were promoted to command position. The Vulcans have for many years were only focused on the science and exploration. The Andorians are more prevalent in Combat Positions, tactical, security and Fleet Marines and the Tellarites are more commercial, trade and diplomacy focused. Because of these reasons Humans have been promoted to command ranks vastly out of proportion to the other Federation races. This problem is now being addresses, forcibly by the Federation Senate and President much to the anger of older Starfleet Officers (think forced bussing and diversity placement).
U.S.S. Enterprise – B
The U.S.S. Enterprise is not a brand new flash ship as in TNG. Instead, the Enterprise is an old and very famous ship that has just been completely retrofitted and is about to be commissioned on a peacekeeping/public relations/gunboat diplomacy tour. The Enterprise became famous 50 years ago during the first Federation Romulan war.
The Enterprise was supposed to be the first of a new class of space battleships. The Fed/Romulan war started with a Pearl Harbor-like surprise attack by the Romulans on Earth and a number of other strategic Star Fleet Facilities. The Enterprise was supposed to be one of three experimental ships that were intended to be smaller, faster but with greater fire power. However, because of the attacks and the damage it inflicted on so many ships, SF was vulnerable and it was decided that the Enterprise and her two sister ships would be built into one slightly larger ship that was extremely fast and could deliver incredible firepower. At the last moment of construction of the Super ship Enterprise, it was also decided that a large central hold would be built into the ship that was capable of holding a large number of ships for an invasion force.
However, with three ships being built into one, and with the limited time frame, gave the Enterprise two separate warp cores, three different computer systems and all connected by a number of bad wirings, welds and jerry-rigged systems. Therefore, the ship became more of a living organism then a machine, something that had to be constantly watched over at all times like a growing child. The Enterprise got the nicknames, The Trinity, for the three ships build into one, the ‘Prize and The Absorbed Twin.
The Enterprise was quickly rebuilt and sent out to strike at the heart of the Romulan Star Empire. At that time, the Romulans were fighting on so many fronts that their home world was left with very little defense. The Enterprise came under heavy fire getting to Romulus, but under her Captain and Crew she held together and with all her firepower, fighters and personnel carriers punched a whole straight through to Romulus. Once there, the Enterprise it fired directly on Romulus, but most of its great firepower was leveled on Remus the industrial and production heart of the Romulan Star Empire. With its production severely crippled the Romulans were forced to negotiate a ceasefire and that is where the Federation/Romulan conflict stands to this day. This is the beginning of the Enterprise legend.
After the war, she served for a while, but was soon decommissioned because she was too big, need too many crew members and was fuel inefficient. However, the legend of the Enterprise remained and then the universe became problematic with the Second Federation/Romulan war, the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor and the ever present Klingon problem. The Federation made the decision that the Enterprise should be rebuilt and put back into service. The two engines are replaced by one, which is unique as it is the only ship in the Federation with two Warp Cores in one engine room. The three computer systems were to be integrated by the use of supercomputer core, but the bad connections that plagued the Enterprise were not all completely fixed. The outer hull and all its holes were to have an entirely new outer shell put around it, also making it incredibly stronger. Finally, the original bridge was completely stripped out and a brand new bridge was “plugged” into the ship. This bridge is top of the line and is what you would find in the brand new ship of the Federation, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the ship. The Enterprise was rebuilt and retrofitted and put back into commission.
Then the issue of choosing the Enterprise Command Staff arose. Starfleet Command staff having finally adhered to the pressures of the Federation Council in regards to diversity issue of its senior officers and appointed Captain S’Tov, a Vulcan, as the Captain of the rebuilt Enterprise. The Admiral Fleet Operation was able to secure the following compromise with Star Fleet Command and the Federation Council Subcommittee on Star Fleet. Captain S’Tov and the Officers serving under him would get the plum assignment of the Enterprise, but Captain Picard and his Staff would be publicly announced as the second choice. Capt. Picard was very popular on Earth and with the Federation Council but Admiral Fleet Operations doesn’t really want him for this position; he just needs to give the appearance that he was fighting for a Human to get this command. The Admiral feels that while Picard is a great war-time and outer-rim Captain, he is not the right choice for this highly political position.
Capt. S’Tov and his senor staff are place in charge of the final stages of the Enterprise’s re-fit. However, shortly before her re-launch Capt S’Tov is called back to Vulcan for a personal matter. While he is there he is mysteriously murdered in an explosion.
No individuals or organizations claim responsibilities but the Vulcans suspected the Humans and Andorians, the Humans suspected Romulans, etc. The Vulcan High Command demanded that another Vulcan Captain is place in charge of the Enterprise, but they burnt all of their political capital getting S’Tov the Enterprise and now they must live with the Enterprise being commanded by Capt Jean Luc Picard. However, the Admiral Fleet Operations is not happy with Picard either. Therefore, the Admiral calls back from the Outer Rim by himself and to inform him that he will get command of the Enterprise, but he will not get the final say on all the senior staff. Picard does not like this stipulation, but he wants the commission so ultimately he agrees. The Senior Staff that is ultimately selected trained under different Captain, have different styles, have different expectations and serving different interest. The only thing that is assured is that the crews will not get along.
The Enterprise Crew:
The crew will be an amalgamation of a number of different crews that can be essentially be broken into three different camps. So here are the three camps:
PICARD CAMP:
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
The French born captain of the N.C.C. Enterprise - A, he was the second choice, but came to power only when Captain S’Tov was murdered. He was born in the Haute-Saone France to Parents who were the head wine makers on a local winery, but they did not own the winery. They did not make a ton of money and were people of the Earth working with their hands.
Jean-Luc and his older brother Robert had an intense rivalry growing up. Robert followed in his parents footsteps and became a wine maker, but he set off to start his own winery. Unfortunately, his winery was not successful and in a last ditch effort to remain solvent he started distilling Alien Spirits, like Romulan and Andorian Ales. This was seen as a betrayal and completely selling-out to the locals, but his Spirits became very popular. Through hard work he became very wealthy and because of this success the Picard Parents see Robert as the successful son regardless of any accomplishment Jean-Luc achieves.
It was an ideal childhood but as Jean-Luc grew older all he could think about was escape and getting as far away as possible. He tested well and was accepted into Star Fleet Academy. While at the Academy he majored in Modern Military History and Mechanical Engineering. Graduating near the top of his class he chose deep space exploration and once stationed upon the USS Enterprise and quickly moved up.
Deep Space exploration is the wild west of Star Fleet Assignment. Encountering new species, first contacts, most of which turned bad and quickly and the chance for rapid advancement. Using his quick wit, intelligence and his historical knowledge of great space battles Picard displayed to his superiors that he knew how to fight even when pinned in a corner and/or out numbered. He rose up in rank to Executive Officer of the Star Gazer and when the Captain died in battle, Picard took command and was able to safely retreat. However, he was not satisfied with this as he hid the ship, over saw its repair and tracked down the forces that killed the captain and destroyed them. From this he became a media darling back among the Federation planets as the brave and daring Star Fleet Captain that all others should aspire to be. He also became very popular with the Star Fleet politicians
This Picard is more of a loud obnoxious Frenchmen. He loves to drink, not only wine but also finely craft beers and Alien Spirits. He is quite a womanizer and has even had a few affairs with woman under his command including a married Dr. Beverly Crusher. Despite his popularity, he is not that great at the politics of climbing the command ranks of Star Fleet. The only reason he got to where he has is because he rose in rank due to deaths, he was on deep space service which is not the most popular, he was just good at what he did, win battles and command a tight ship.
After his deep space command he came back to Star Fleet Command where he quickly alienated many people, but he was extremely popular amongst his men, politicians and the people as a whole because of the tales of his conquests and battles. As a compromise he was give a new deep space mission back aboard the Star Gazer. He was to map an uncharted area of space, but while in transit to that particular area of deep space he was personally recalled to Star Fleet Command, via high speed jump shuttle. Upon, his arrival at Earth he was given command of the Enterprise.
He performs Cowboy Diplomacy and is loved by humans and is feared by Aliens. When he originally found out about the re-building of the Enterprise he wanted command of it, but he knew he would not get it so he used his political power to get another Deep Space mission. He surprised that he was publicly named the runner-up Captain, but despite its oddity he didn’t think anything would come of it. However, he does get command when S’Tov dies and he is able to bring some of his command staff with him and must infuse them with S’Tov’s crew and those already stationed to the Enterprise.
Lt. Worf
Two major differences here, the Klingons are not like the Klingons we knew before and Worf is woman, a hot and sexy young woman. The Klingons have always been based on the Scandinavian Vikings Warriors so let’s make them that way, actually more like modern Scandinavians. They are a physically large race, strong and muscular, but they are also very beautiful. Gone are the snarled teeth, replaced with piece beautiful eyes and beautiful hair of all different color, not just black. Personal hygiene is very high, almost to a fault. Also, like the Vikings, they are excellent traders, even dealing with a bit of illegal smuggling. Their society is very communal and socialistic and they cities are tight compact living spaces with nearly untouched nature all around them, even branching into their cities. They believe in the purity of their race and do not like the idea of breeding with other races. However, they do respect other races.
They are still a warrior race, but instead of being barbarians they are more like the Samurai of Feudal Japan. Batlaf, knife, battle ax and bow and arrow training are all a type of Klingon martial art. The Warrior Class has almost completely vanished in modern Klingon Society; instead every citizen must do four years of compulsory Military service. The first year is comprised of ancient military training which takes place in the wilderness living near technology free. From there their service takes place in Space where they learn modern warfare. Even though they are an advanced, civilized race Klingons still challenge each other to death when their honor is offended.
Worf, as stated before is sexy woman. Her parents were colonist on the Klingon outpost of Khitomer when it was attacked by Romulans. The colonist fought hard, but when it became obvious that they would lose and would die, Worf and all the other children where put onboard the fast transit ship they had which ran the blockade and made it back to the Klingon home world. This was a shocking development in the Klingon world. The Colony was secretly an outpost for a more moderate group of Religious Klingon who did not believe in the absolutes of their society. They believed that Klingons could live in communion with other races, even breeding with them. While they still considered themselves warriors they rejected the belief that ritualistic suicide should be preferred to suicide. Instead, they secretly smuggled their children back to Kronos and surrendered to the Romulans. They were thought to be dead and only later do we find out they are alive and living in peace with their Romulan captors on a different planet. They ultimately inter-married with their captors.
Upon the discovery of the Colony’s surrender and arrival of the children the entire Klingon society felt shame and embarrassment for these actions. It was unthinkable. As a result, the children, which later became known as the Branded 47 because they were actually branded with their assigned number over a line with the number 47 at the bottom. As if to say an individual was number X out of 47. They were put into status on a sleeper ship and sent out to deeps of space as a form of banishment. The Branded 47 were discovered after only a year by a young Lt. Jean-Luc Picard, who is leading an away mission for the USS Star Gazer. The children are sent back to Earth and are adopted out among the Federation Planets. Picard is held out to be a hero to the Branded 47 and many of them end up joining Star Fleet to honor him.
Worf daughter of Mogh is one of the brightest of the Branded 47. She, like all the others were orphans and were over time adopted and raised by human parents. She is torn, she hates her people for what they did to her and the other 46 children, but she studies their ways and wants to be one of them ultimately. When she became of age she left her adopted home and went to live with other Klingons who were also banished or were refugees. A colony of these displaced Klingons had formed on the south island of New Zealand, where a few of the more modern Klingons had inter-married with native Maori people. Respecting their ancient warrior ways the Klingon Colony had even adopted some of their weapons, fighting styles and the Haka dance. There Worf was trained in the hybrid Klingon/Maori ways, very similar to what she would have experienced on Kronos.
Since, the Klingon Colony is considered displaced peoples its members get special status and allowed to Star Fleet Academy distance learning. After her 4 years of warrior training and extension learning Worf does a final year at Star Fleet Academy. Upon graduation she request and becomes a security officer and a commando, think Space Navy Seals. She specifically requests the Star Gazer in order to serve under Picard. Once there she quickly becomes Head of Security and Tactical Officer.
However, she does have some issues. Because she is a child of two worlds, not fitting in either, she has a death wish and risk herself unnecessarily. She also wants to further humiliate her race by having an inter-species child. Thus she fucks pretty much anything she can, trying to find the most worthy mate to procreate with. She hasn’t found one yet, but she would like to have a child with Picard, unfortunately, she is like a daughter to him so he refuses.
Picard brings her along to the Enterprise where Ta’asha Yaar is already the security officer. After the shake down of the ship and its crew Worf is made head of security and Ta’asha Yaar is made tactical officer.
Geordi La Forge
Geordi is the Chief engineer on the Star Gazer and is brought over by Picard to the Enterprise. He is a little different, to say the least. He is a bit of slob. It sounds odd, but he is not a details man when it comes to his engines, he has people who work under him that do that, instead he more gets a “feel” for the engine and can some how sense where trouble is going to occur. Despite this he is very good under pressure and has been able to handle every emergency engine situation he has faced.
Part of the reason Geordi works on feeling and intuition so much is because he was born blind. His parents did not allow him to get a visor until he turned 11 because their Hindu Sect did not believe in the fusion of Man and Technology. Eventually, they allow him to get a V.I.S.O.R., which he wears all through his teenage years and through his time in college. However, once he graduated from IIT he gets ocular implants which allow him to see normal vision; it also picks up other things that natural human eye sight does not allow.
He became beloved by Picard when, as a young officer in engineering, he had to take command of the engine room when the Chief Engineer died. Under extreme pressure he completely rebuilt the Star Gazers engines and got them battle worthy for a counter attack. He has been with Picard ever since. His intuitive style will be of massive importance with the rebuilt Enterprise as she has new engines that are not exactly match with the ship itself.
Geordi is human. He was born in Durbin South Africa of Indian and Coloured descent. Coloured are the interracial people of South African that have native African Blood, Dutch, English and even Indian Blood in them. He is mostly Hindu Indian. Classically educated in the elite schools of South Africa then received multiple engineering degrees from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the best Engineer schools on Earth. While at ITT he did Star Fleet ROTC and despite not going to the academy he quickly moved up the Command ladder as it became apparent that he was an engineering wizard.
When Geordi arrives on Enterprise with Picard the current Chief Engineer is Lt. Commander Leah Brahms, who is almost the opposite of Geordi, is demoted. She is very anal and detailed orientated. After the shake-down, Geordi is made Chief Engineer as the mash up of the new engines and old ship is kind of a guessing game. Brahms dislikes Geordi greatly, but she is has an over-achieving personality and thus she puts her hatred aside and tries to outshine Geordi in order to get his job. After a while, her hatred of Geordi fades and she ultimately falls for him.
The Riker Camp
Commander William Riker
There are a lot of similarities between this Riker and TNG Riker. They are both Human and born and raised in Alaska by their Father, a widower. However, our Will Riker is a twin, his brother, Thomas Riker. As the Riker twins grew up in a rough and unsupervised in Fairbanks Alaska. This seems like it would be a young boys dream, but Will is a control freak and hated the wild, unsupervised childhood and resented his father for raising him this way. Thomas, on the other hand, loved it.
Their father, Kyle Riker, was a college professor, author and general outdoorsmen. He taught history but found fame with the historical fiction novels he wrote. Interestingly, Picard loves all of his novels, which is one of many reasons why Riker and Picard don’t get a long. Both brothers were over achiever and competed against each other at everything. The major difference between the two was Tom was more out going and generally liked by all while Will was quieter, more bookish and by the numbers control freak.
They both achieved early admission to Star Fleet academy and once there Tom was extremely popular, exceeded in all Leadership areas while William being more bookish and excelled in his studies. Upon graduation, with William graduated ahead of Thomas, the brothers went their separate way. Thomas was stationed at the Federation Embassy on Betazed, while William was stationed to the USS Pegasus.
Thomas Riker started a love affair with a young half-human half-Betaziod Deanna Trio, and they were Imzadis to each other. However, Tom died in a Terrorist Bombing caused by radical isolationist Betaziods who claimed that Humans, who don’t know how to control their thoughts, were mentally polluting their planet. Everyone who knew Tom took his death hard as he was so liked and so beloved. However, what we find out much later is that while the bombing was real, his death was faked by Section 31 so he could disappear and join their ranks. He is later know only by the name T.R. and eventually becomes the director of Section 31. However, in the explosion, Section 31 knew about it and did not stop it because it was perfect timing for his disappearance, but he did lose an eye in the explosion. He refuses to get an implant and thus he wears an eye patch.
William Riker is hit extremely hard by the death of his brother and it motivates him to change his personality and to be more likeable. He picks ups a few social habits, like playing in a jazz band, playing poker and he starts drinking with the crew, which he enjoys more than he should. He became the Officer in charge of Damage Control on the Pegasus and where he has the greatest coup of his young career. When the Pegasus Phase Shifts into an asteroid it is his decisive and quick actions that saves 100s of lives. Since the mission was top secret the commendations go on his record but no explanation of the situation which leads to the myth of Will as a badass.
He eventually becomes an Executive Officer on the Hood under Captain S’Tov. When S’Tov is named Captain of the Rebuilt Enterprise he brought along with most of the Hoods Senior Officers. When S’Tov dies it is decided that Riker should continue to be the XO because he has an excellent record, he is most senior officer who has over seen the rebuild and he familiar most of its crew.
However, he and Picard never get along. Their personalities just class, a risk taker and a calculating man. Riker becomes more than just the XO when the officers who served under S’Tov come to him asking that he advocate for them to retain their commands to the new Captain. Picard doesn’t really like him either and tries to cut him out of all the external issues of the ship. Instead, he keeps Riker focused on the internal running of the ship.
Finally, Riker is never “number one.” He is the Executive Officer or XO.
Commander Doctor Beverly Crusher
Commander Dr. Crusher is the hot, older, cougar-ish red headed Chief of the Medical staff for the USS Enterprise. Her story is very similar, she is a widow, has a son Wesley and she had a romantic sexual history with John-Luc Picard. Here, the history with Picard is a little more intense. When she was a young ambitious Star Fleet Medical Officer she chose a long –term deep space assignment instead of staying closer to her husband and young child, which he raised. The deep space assignment was on the Star Gazer where she met Jean Luc Picard. She left Wesley because she thought he would only get in the way of her career. In addition she resent her husband for getting her pregnant so early in their careers and not being as ambitious as he once was after Wesley was born.
While Beverly was stationed on the Star Gazer she had a long term passionate affair with Jean-Luc Picard. She even talked of leaving her husband and marrying Picard. Then her Husband died in his service to Star Fleet. Picard saw this as an answer to all their problems and relates his feelings and thoughts to Beverly. However, Beverly began to feel guilty about the fair and ends things with Picard. She feels guilty and blames Picard for her feelings.
Shortly-there-after, she transfers back to an Earth based assignment to be closer to Wes, but even though she was physically closer to Wes, she was still an absentee. Wes is grown up and become an adrenaline junkie, gear-head genius, Star Fleet Marine. When Beverly is stationed aboard the Enterprise she gets Captain S’Tov to request Wes’ Recon Marine Platoon to be stationed on the Enterprise. Everything looks perfect until Capt. S’Tov dies and Picard is placed in Command. He is much happier to see her than she is.
Staff Sergeant Wes Crusher, Star Fleet Marine Corps
As stated above, Wes is a little bit older 22 or so. He was raised by his dad until his death then by his mother when she came back to Earth. She wasn’t a very good parent, never really being there and Wes, because he as so smart and bored in school became a Juvenile delinquent. He finally caused enough problems that the Judge said Jail or the Military.
He joined the Star Fleet Marines because it seemed like the biggest challenge and most fun. He tested off the charts and was placed in the Marine Recon where he quickly rose in rank to Staff Sgt. He is a major gear head and can break down any machine and make rebuild it to make it go faster, shoot straighter and have greater “punch.” He is an extremely intelligent Special Forces type who likes to push himself and those around him to the limits. He likes that in others too and he and Worf are drawn to each other.
Lt. Ta’asha Yaar, Security Officer
Ta’asha is an Andorian Female who is safely inside the Captain S’Tov Camp. She and Worf but heads because they are both interested in similar areas, but ultimately, Lt. Yaar becomes the tactical officer while Worf is in charge of security.
Star Fleet Operation Camp
The third camp are those put into place by the Fleet Operation Admiral so that he can keep his eye on Picard. There are many in Star Fleet, especially, the Admiral of Fleet Operations that appreciate Picard’s command style and believe that his semi-recklessness style is necessary on the outer rim and while at war. However, it is not the style that should be in command of such a political mission.
Lt. Dianna Trio
Lt. Trio is a half human, half Betazoid, intelligence officer that was placed on the command staff of the Enterprise when Picard was forced to take command. Lt. Trio grew up on Betazed and was becoming and more and more difficult to deal with after her father, the Earth Ambassador, died. Her mother, Luxwana, became a powerful Cabinet Minister, and swept her problem daughter away by pulling some springs and getting her off world into Star Fleet Academy. There she continued to be a trouble maker until, for reasons that will be revealed later, she straightened out. She graduated with decent grades but because of her high IQ and her Empathic Telepath ability she joined Star Fleet Intelligence, which by the way is not Section 31.
After a number of assignments, she was posted back to Beziad, where she met Thomas Riker and fell in love with him. After his death at the hands of Bezaid extremist, she requested to be temporarily transferred to the Bezaid Internal Security to hunt down his murders. With her help the Internal Security hunted down the Terrorist and she had a hand in their deaths after an “escape attempt” that occurred while they were in transfer. Dianna was so engulfed in hatred and revenge that she could not control her thoughts and was transferred off of Betazed by request by the request of her mother. Luxanna’s daughter was once again an embarrassment to her.
After the death of the Terrorist Dianna did not find the peace she thought she would and transferred to the some of the secretive operations of Star Fleet Operations. One of these was the “Silent Theater,” which is name of the Star Fleet Operation, Vulcan joint operations against the Romulans. She did excellent work there but what really set her apart were her cunning political instincts that she got from her mother. She knew which Admirals at Star Fleet Headquarters should get what information, even playing a few against each other. This is how the Admiral of Fleet Operations got to know Dianna and gained enough trust in her to transfer her to the Enterprise to watch Picard. She was not aware that Thomas’s twin brother, Will Riker was the First Officer. She understandably, has a difficult relationship with him as she once loved his brother and they were twins.
Lt. Commander Data
Data is an android created by Dr. Noonien Soong, who is considered by all as the father of Cyberneticist. Dr. Soong made two androids Data and Lore, who are questionably equal. He also made a few androids that are not publicly known about. Dr. Soong is long dead and many have taken over his work. However, there is something really strange about creating android. They can be made, relatively easily, however, only a very small percentage of them become sentient. No one can explain this nor can anyone figure out which androids will become sentient and which ones just remain very complex robots.
Data and Lore were rescued by Star Fleet Officers after Dr. Soong and his colony were destroyed by the Crystal Entity Form. At this point the two brothers lead very separate lives, Data into academia and later Star Fleet. While Lore went out, saw the universe and experienced life, kind of like a trust fund kid who goes to Europe to discover themselves. Lore became the loveable scoundrel with a hundred great stories and everyone likes him upon meeting him. Data, on the other hand, is a little more bookish and finds it hard to relate to other.
While at Star Fleet Academy Data excelled and was “adopted” by the Admiral of SF Operation. He rises fast within SF, but there are many who are weary of the fact that he is not human, or any other alien being. However, when Picard takes command of the Enterprise, the Fleet Operations Admiral assigns Lt. Data to be Operations Officer.
Command Master Chief Miles O’Brien
Miles O’Brien has much of the same back story; he grew up in rural Ireland, joined Star Fleet to see the world and achieved so much more along the way. His hard-ass nature and attention to detail allows him to move up and be one of the highest ranking NCO’s in all of Star Fleet. Even though he is not an Officer, he is the highest ranking NCO on the Enterprise and a political power player. If anyone has a problem with a non-enlisted member of the Enterprise Crew, they have to go through Command Master Chief O’Brien.
As any Navy man will tell you, CPO’s run the Navy and Command Master Chief O’Brien is in charge of all the CPO’s on the Enterprise. They even have their own mess, which has better food than the Officer’s mess. He is a complete unrelenting hard-ass that just get’s shit done. Also, he is always addressed by his complete title; it is always, Command Master Chief O’Brien or Command Master Chief.
He was placed on the Enterprise before Picard takes over to be the Fleet Operation’s mole. However, after the death of the original captain, his role becomes even more important. Even though he is supposed to be a spy, he grows to like Picard and greatly filters the information that gets back to SF HQ, but he still has an agenda all his own.
The First Mission
The Pilot will be a mash up of the original Pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint,” and “The
Hunter” from the third season. With one notable change, no Q!
Series Rules
1. No Q – Q is a great character, but this series will not play in the world of omnipotent beings.
2. Along these line, No Time Travel or extra-dimensions or parallel universes.
3. There are no food replicators. Everyone on Enterprise eats food cooked on the ship in their proper messes.
4. The living quarters are not large and not everyone has their own personal quarters.
5. Relax on the crazy science, it will not solve the day, nor will experimental medicines cure everything.
6. There are multiple uniform types, and they all have pockets. Specifically, engineering will wear coveralls and vest with a lot of pockets that actually get dirty.
7. Geordi must die sometime during the first two seasons.
To paraphrase a great line by Wayne of Wayne’s World, “Star Trek: The Next Generation is far superior to the original in many way, but it will never be as good as the original.”
Well, with that said, I think it is time for a Star Trek: The Next Generation had a Reboot of its own, but it will be its own time line, not the one created by the Star Trek film of 2009. In that film the creators picked a point of time before the original series and then split off an entirely new Star Trek universe. These two timelines have been named ST: Alpha and ST: Beta by the fandom. Here, The Next Generation Reboot will be more in line with the Battle Star Galactica Reboot, in that it is a completely different universe with common characters and a common ship.
So here it is.
The Universe:
The United Federation of Planets will of course exist but it will be a much different place. The Federation will have much more political intrigue and backstabbing as the member nations jock for power and to support their different position. This Federation is also heavy dominated by the original four founding members; Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. With the first two on this list dominating, while all other races are seen as late comers to the party. Even though numerous planets belong to the Federation, they don’t all get along, especially the Andorians and Vulcans.
The Federation has three branches: The Executive Branch, located in Paris, with the President at its head; the Judiciary, a nine member Supreme Court headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa; and the Legislative Branch, which is comprised of the Federation Council headquartered in New York City. The Council is made up of two senators from each member planet. The planet are allowed to select their senators in any way they deem fit. This is inline with Federation local rule position. Member Planets are largely free to govern as they wish as long as it is not completely out of line with the Federation Charter.
Starfleet is more militaristic and serve a huge peace keeping roll. Their major enemy is of course the Romulans, who aren’t just hidden behind the neutral zone. The Klingons, while not at war or even a cold war, but there is some open hostility between the two. Specifically, the Romulans and Federation fought a second war about 20 years ago, which was just a continuation of their first war, and not this is a very hot Cold War between the two powers. This Cold War has been labeled the “Silent Theater” as each power has a political presence on each other’s home planet via Embassies. It is not a sealed off Neutral Zone with neither side having any meaningful contact with the other. These two sides are also fighting a proxy war against each other via the Cardassian Bajoran war and occupation. In the previous year this engagement took a major swing as the Federation directly helped in the liberation of the Planet Bajor from its Cardassian occupation.
The one major point about Starfleet here is that the command structure especially the ships captains are almost exclusively human. Starfleet is of course open to all member nations as well as non-member nations citizens who are looking for Federation Citizenship. However, for many years only humans were promoted to command position. The Vulcans have for many years were only focused on the science and exploration. The Andorians are more prevalent in Combat Positions, tactical, security and Fleet Marines and the Tellarites are more commercial, trade and diplomacy focused. Because of these reasons Humans have been promoted to command ranks vastly out of proportion to the other Federation races. This problem is now being addresses, forcibly by the Federation Senate and President much to the anger of older Starfleet Officers (think forced bussing and diversity placement).
U.S.S. Enterprise – B
The U.S.S. Enterprise is not a brand new flash ship as in TNG. Instead, the Enterprise is an old and very famous ship that has just been completely retrofitted and is about to be commissioned on a peacekeeping/public relations/gunboat diplomacy tour. The Enterprise became famous 50 years ago during the first Federation Romulan war.
The Enterprise was supposed to be the first of a new class of space battleships. The Fed/Romulan war started with a Pearl Harbor-like surprise attack by the Romulans on Earth and a number of other strategic Star Fleet Facilities. The Enterprise was supposed to be one of three experimental ships that were intended to be smaller, faster but with greater fire power. However, because of the attacks and the damage it inflicted on so many ships, SF was vulnerable and it was decided that the Enterprise and her two sister ships would be built into one slightly larger ship that was extremely fast and could deliver incredible firepower. At the last moment of construction of the Super ship Enterprise, it was also decided that a large central hold would be built into the ship that was capable of holding a large number of ships for an invasion force.
However, with three ships being built into one, and with the limited time frame, gave the Enterprise two separate warp cores, three different computer systems and all connected by a number of bad wirings, welds and jerry-rigged systems. Therefore, the ship became more of a living organism then a machine, something that had to be constantly watched over at all times like a growing child. The Enterprise got the nicknames, The Trinity, for the three ships build into one, the ‘Prize and The Absorbed Twin.
The Enterprise was quickly rebuilt and sent out to strike at the heart of the Romulan Star Empire. At that time, the Romulans were fighting on so many fronts that their home world was left with very little defense. The Enterprise came under heavy fire getting to Romulus, but under her Captain and Crew she held together and with all her firepower, fighters and personnel carriers punched a whole straight through to Romulus. Once there, the Enterprise it fired directly on Romulus, but most of its great firepower was leveled on Remus the industrial and production heart of the Romulan Star Empire. With its production severely crippled the Romulans were forced to negotiate a ceasefire and that is where the Federation/Romulan conflict stands to this day. This is the beginning of the Enterprise legend.
After the war, she served for a while, but was soon decommissioned because she was too big, need too many crew members and was fuel inefficient. However, the legend of the Enterprise remained and then the universe became problematic with the Second Federation/Romulan war, the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor and the ever present Klingon problem. The Federation made the decision that the Enterprise should be rebuilt and put back into service. The two engines are replaced by one, which is unique as it is the only ship in the Federation with two Warp Cores in one engine room. The three computer systems were to be integrated by the use of supercomputer core, but the bad connections that plagued the Enterprise were not all completely fixed. The outer hull and all its holes were to have an entirely new outer shell put around it, also making it incredibly stronger. Finally, the original bridge was completely stripped out and a brand new bridge was “plugged” into the ship. This bridge is top of the line and is what you would find in the brand new ship of the Federation, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the ship. The Enterprise was rebuilt and retrofitted and put back into commission.
Then the issue of choosing the Enterprise Command Staff arose. Starfleet Command staff having finally adhered to the pressures of the Federation Council in regards to diversity issue of its senior officers and appointed Captain S’Tov, a Vulcan, as the Captain of the rebuilt Enterprise. The Admiral Fleet Operation was able to secure the following compromise with Star Fleet Command and the Federation Council Subcommittee on Star Fleet. Captain S’Tov and the Officers serving under him would get the plum assignment of the Enterprise, but Captain Picard and his Staff would be publicly announced as the second choice. Capt. Picard was very popular on Earth and with the Federation Council but Admiral Fleet Operations doesn’t really want him for this position; he just needs to give the appearance that he was fighting for a Human to get this command. The Admiral feels that while Picard is a great war-time and outer-rim Captain, he is not the right choice for this highly political position.
Capt. S’Tov and his senor staff are place in charge of the final stages of the Enterprise’s re-fit. However, shortly before her re-launch Capt S’Tov is called back to Vulcan for a personal matter. While he is there he is mysteriously murdered in an explosion.
No individuals or organizations claim responsibilities but the Vulcans suspected the Humans and Andorians, the Humans suspected Romulans, etc. The Vulcan High Command demanded that another Vulcan Captain is place in charge of the Enterprise, but they burnt all of their political capital getting S’Tov the Enterprise and now they must live with the Enterprise being commanded by Capt Jean Luc Picard. However, the Admiral Fleet Operations is not happy with Picard either. Therefore, the Admiral calls back from the Outer Rim by himself and to inform him that he will get command of the Enterprise, but he will not get the final say on all the senior staff. Picard does not like this stipulation, but he wants the commission so ultimately he agrees. The Senior Staff that is ultimately selected trained under different Captain, have different styles, have different expectations and serving different interest. The only thing that is assured is that the crews will not get along.
The Enterprise Crew:
The crew will be an amalgamation of a number of different crews that can be essentially be broken into three different camps. So here are the three camps:
PICARD CAMP:
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
The French born captain of the N.C.C. Enterprise - A, he was the second choice, but came to power only when Captain S’Tov was murdered. He was born in the Haute-Saone France to Parents who were the head wine makers on a local winery, but they did not own the winery. They did not make a ton of money and were people of the Earth working with their hands.
Jean-Luc and his older brother Robert had an intense rivalry growing up. Robert followed in his parents footsteps and became a wine maker, but he set off to start his own winery. Unfortunately, his winery was not successful and in a last ditch effort to remain solvent he started distilling Alien Spirits, like Romulan and Andorian Ales. This was seen as a betrayal and completely selling-out to the locals, but his Spirits became very popular. Through hard work he became very wealthy and because of this success the Picard Parents see Robert as the successful son regardless of any accomplishment Jean-Luc achieves.
It was an ideal childhood but as Jean-Luc grew older all he could think about was escape and getting as far away as possible. He tested well and was accepted into Star Fleet Academy. While at the Academy he majored in Modern Military History and Mechanical Engineering. Graduating near the top of his class he chose deep space exploration and once stationed upon the USS Enterprise and quickly moved up.
Deep Space exploration is the wild west of Star Fleet Assignment. Encountering new species, first contacts, most of which turned bad and quickly and the chance for rapid advancement. Using his quick wit, intelligence and his historical knowledge of great space battles Picard displayed to his superiors that he knew how to fight even when pinned in a corner and/or out numbered. He rose up in rank to Executive Officer of the Star Gazer and when the Captain died in battle, Picard took command and was able to safely retreat. However, he was not satisfied with this as he hid the ship, over saw its repair and tracked down the forces that killed the captain and destroyed them. From this he became a media darling back among the Federation planets as the brave and daring Star Fleet Captain that all others should aspire to be. He also became very popular with the Star Fleet politicians
This Picard is more of a loud obnoxious Frenchmen. He loves to drink, not only wine but also finely craft beers and Alien Spirits. He is quite a womanizer and has even had a few affairs with woman under his command including a married Dr. Beverly Crusher. Despite his popularity, he is not that great at the politics of climbing the command ranks of Star Fleet. The only reason he got to where he has is because he rose in rank due to deaths, he was on deep space service which is not the most popular, he was just good at what he did, win battles and command a tight ship.
After his deep space command he came back to Star Fleet Command where he quickly alienated many people, but he was extremely popular amongst his men, politicians and the people as a whole because of the tales of his conquests and battles. As a compromise he was give a new deep space mission back aboard the Star Gazer. He was to map an uncharted area of space, but while in transit to that particular area of deep space he was personally recalled to Star Fleet Command, via high speed jump shuttle. Upon, his arrival at Earth he was given command of the Enterprise.
He performs Cowboy Diplomacy and is loved by humans and is feared by Aliens. When he originally found out about the re-building of the Enterprise he wanted command of it, but he knew he would not get it so he used his political power to get another Deep Space mission. He surprised that he was publicly named the runner-up Captain, but despite its oddity he didn’t think anything would come of it. However, he does get command when S’Tov dies and he is able to bring some of his command staff with him and must infuse them with S’Tov’s crew and those already stationed to the Enterprise.
Lt. Worf
Two major differences here, the Klingons are not like the Klingons we knew before and Worf is woman, a hot and sexy young woman. The Klingons have always been based on the Scandinavian Vikings Warriors so let’s make them that way, actually more like modern Scandinavians. They are a physically large race, strong and muscular, but they are also very beautiful. Gone are the snarled teeth, replaced with piece beautiful eyes and beautiful hair of all different color, not just black. Personal hygiene is very high, almost to a fault. Also, like the Vikings, they are excellent traders, even dealing with a bit of illegal smuggling. Their society is very communal and socialistic and they cities are tight compact living spaces with nearly untouched nature all around them, even branching into their cities. They believe in the purity of their race and do not like the idea of breeding with other races. However, they do respect other races.
They are still a warrior race, but instead of being barbarians they are more like the Samurai of Feudal Japan. Batlaf, knife, battle ax and bow and arrow training are all a type of Klingon martial art. The Warrior Class has almost completely vanished in modern Klingon Society; instead every citizen must do four years of compulsory Military service. The first year is comprised of ancient military training which takes place in the wilderness living near technology free. From there their service takes place in Space where they learn modern warfare. Even though they are an advanced, civilized race Klingons still challenge each other to death when their honor is offended.
Worf, as stated before is sexy woman. Her parents were colonist on the Klingon outpost of Khitomer when it was attacked by Romulans. The colonist fought hard, but when it became obvious that they would lose and would die, Worf and all the other children where put onboard the fast transit ship they had which ran the blockade and made it back to the Klingon home world. This was a shocking development in the Klingon world. The Colony was secretly an outpost for a more moderate group of Religious Klingon who did not believe in the absolutes of their society. They believed that Klingons could live in communion with other races, even breeding with them. While they still considered themselves warriors they rejected the belief that ritualistic suicide should be preferred to suicide. Instead, they secretly smuggled their children back to Kronos and surrendered to the Romulans. They were thought to be dead and only later do we find out they are alive and living in peace with their Romulan captors on a different planet. They ultimately inter-married with their captors.
Upon the discovery of the Colony’s surrender and arrival of the children the entire Klingon society felt shame and embarrassment for these actions. It was unthinkable. As a result, the children, which later became known as the Branded 47 because they were actually branded with their assigned number over a line with the number 47 at the bottom. As if to say an individual was number X out of 47. They were put into status on a sleeper ship and sent out to deeps of space as a form of banishment. The Branded 47 were discovered after only a year by a young Lt. Jean-Luc Picard, who is leading an away mission for the USS Star Gazer. The children are sent back to Earth and are adopted out among the Federation Planets. Picard is held out to be a hero to the Branded 47 and many of them end up joining Star Fleet to honor him.
Worf daughter of Mogh is one of the brightest of the Branded 47. She, like all the others were orphans and were over time adopted and raised by human parents. She is torn, she hates her people for what they did to her and the other 46 children, but she studies their ways and wants to be one of them ultimately. When she became of age she left her adopted home and went to live with other Klingons who were also banished or were refugees. A colony of these displaced Klingons had formed on the south island of New Zealand, where a few of the more modern Klingons had inter-married with native Maori people. Respecting their ancient warrior ways the Klingon Colony had even adopted some of their weapons, fighting styles and the Haka dance. There Worf was trained in the hybrid Klingon/Maori ways, very similar to what she would have experienced on Kronos.
Since, the Klingon Colony is considered displaced peoples its members get special status and allowed to Star Fleet Academy distance learning. After her 4 years of warrior training and extension learning Worf does a final year at Star Fleet Academy. Upon graduation she request and becomes a security officer and a commando, think Space Navy Seals. She specifically requests the Star Gazer in order to serve under Picard. Once there she quickly becomes Head of Security and Tactical Officer.
However, she does have some issues. Because she is a child of two worlds, not fitting in either, she has a death wish and risk herself unnecessarily. She also wants to further humiliate her race by having an inter-species child. Thus she fucks pretty much anything she can, trying to find the most worthy mate to procreate with. She hasn’t found one yet, but she would like to have a child with Picard, unfortunately, she is like a daughter to him so he refuses.
Picard brings her along to the Enterprise where Ta’asha Yaar is already the security officer. After the shake down of the ship and its crew Worf is made head of security and Ta’asha Yaar is made tactical officer.
Geordi La Forge
Geordi is the Chief engineer on the Star Gazer and is brought over by Picard to the Enterprise. He is a little different, to say the least. He is a bit of slob. It sounds odd, but he is not a details man when it comes to his engines, he has people who work under him that do that, instead he more gets a “feel” for the engine and can some how sense where trouble is going to occur. Despite this he is very good under pressure and has been able to handle every emergency engine situation he has faced.
Part of the reason Geordi works on feeling and intuition so much is because he was born blind. His parents did not allow him to get a visor until he turned 11 because their Hindu Sect did not believe in the fusion of Man and Technology. Eventually, they allow him to get a V.I.S.O.R., which he wears all through his teenage years and through his time in college. However, once he graduated from IIT he gets ocular implants which allow him to see normal vision; it also picks up other things that natural human eye sight does not allow.
He became beloved by Picard when, as a young officer in engineering, he had to take command of the engine room when the Chief Engineer died. Under extreme pressure he completely rebuilt the Star Gazers engines and got them battle worthy for a counter attack. He has been with Picard ever since. His intuitive style will be of massive importance with the rebuilt Enterprise as she has new engines that are not exactly match with the ship itself.
Geordi is human. He was born in Durbin South Africa of Indian and Coloured descent. Coloured are the interracial people of South African that have native African Blood, Dutch, English and even Indian Blood in them. He is mostly Hindu Indian. Classically educated in the elite schools of South Africa then received multiple engineering degrees from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the best Engineer schools on Earth. While at ITT he did Star Fleet ROTC and despite not going to the academy he quickly moved up the Command ladder as it became apparent that he was an engineering wizard.
When Geordi arrives on Enterprise with Picard the current Chief Engineer is Lt. Commander Leah Brahms, who is almost the opposite of Geordi, is demoted. She is very anal and detailed orientated. After the shake-down, Geordi is made Chief Engineer as the mash up of the new engines and old ship is kind of a guessing game. Brahms dislikes Geordi greatly, but she is has an over-achieving personality and thus she puts her hatred aside and tries to outshine Geordi in order to get his job. After a while, her hatred of Geordi fades and she ultimately falls for him.
The Riker Camp
Commander William Riker
There are a lot of similarities between this Riker and TNG Riker. They are both Human and born and raised in Alaska by their Father, a widower. However, our Will Riker is a twin, his brother, Thomas Riker. As the Riker twins grew up in a rough and unsupervised in Fairbanks Alaska. This seems like it would be a young boys dream, but Will is a control freak and hated the wild, unsupervised childhood and resented his father for raising him this way. Thomas, on the other hand, loved it.
Their father, Kyle Riker, was a college professor, author and general outdoorsmen. He taught history but found fame with the historical fiction novels he wrote. Interestingly, Picard loves all of his novels, which is one of many reasons why Riker and Picard don’t get a long. Both brothers were over achiever and competed against each other at everything. The major difference between the two was Tom was more out going and generally liked by all while Will was quieter, more bookish and by the numbers control freak.
They both achieved early admission to Star Fleet academy and once there Tom was extremely popular, exceeded in all Leadership areas while William being more bookish and excelled in his studies. Upon graduation, with William graduated ahead of Thomas, the brothers went their separate way. Thomas was stationed at the Federation Embassy on Betazed, while William was stationed to the USS Pegasus.
Thomas Riker started a love affair with a young half-human half-Betaziod Deanna Trio, and they were Imzadis to each other. However, Tom died in a Terrorist Bombing caused by radical isolationist Betaziods who claimed that Humans, who don’t know how to control their thoughts, were mentally polluting their planet. Everyone who knew Tom took his death hard as he was so liked and so beloved. However, what we find out much later is that while the bombing was real, his death was faked by Section 31 so he could disappear and join their ranks. He is later know only by the name T.R. and eventually becomes the director of Section 31. However, in the explosion, Section 31 knew about it and did not stop it because it was perfect timing for his disappearance, but he did lose an eye in the explosion. He refuses to get an implant and thus he wears an eye patch.
William Riker is hit extremely hard by the death of his brother and it motivates him to change his personality and to be more likeable. He picks ups a few social habits, like playing in a jazz band, playing poker and he starts drinking with the crew, which he enjoys more than he should. He became the Officer in charge of Damage Control on the Pegasus and where he has the greatest coup of his young career. When the Pegasus Phase Shifts into an asteroid it is his decisive and quick actions that saves 100s of lives. Since the mission was top secret the commendations go on his record but no explanation of the situation which leads to the myth of Will as a badass.
He eventually becomes an Executive Officer on the Hood under Captain S’Tov. When S’Tov is named Captain of the Rebuilt Enterprise he brought along with most of the Hoods Senior Officers. When S’Tov dies it is decided that Riker should continue to be the XO because he has an excellent record, he is most senior officer who has over seen the rebuild and he familiar most of its crew.
However, he and Picard never get along. Their personalities just class, a risk taker and a calculating man. Riker becomes more than just the XO when the officers who served under S’Tov come to him asking that he advocate for them to retain their commands to the new Captain. Picard doesn’t really like him either and tries to cut him out of all the external issues of the ship. Instead, he keeps Riker focused on the internal running of the ship.
Finally, Riker is never “number one.” He is the Executive Officer or XO.
Commander Doctor Beverly Crusher
Commander Dr. Crusher is the hot, older, cougar-ish red headed Chief of the Medical staff for the USS Enterprise. Her story is very similar, she is a widow, has a son Wesley and she had a romantic sexual history with John-Luc Picard. Here, the history with Picard is a little more intense. When she was a young ambitious Star Fleet Medical Officer she chose a long –term deep space assignment instead of staying closer to her husband and young child, which he raised. The deep space assignment was on the Star Gazer where she met Jean Luc Picard. She left Wesley because she thought he would only get in the way of her career. In addition she resent her husband for getting her pregnant so early in their careers and not being as ambitious as he once was after Wesley was born.
While Beverly was stationed on the Star Gazer she had a long term passionate affair with Jean-Luc Picard. She even talked of leaving her husband and marrying Picard. Then her Husband died in his service to Star Fleet. Picard saw this as an answer to all their problems and relates his feelings and thoughts to Beverly. However, Beverly began to feel guilty about the fair and ends things with Picard. She feels guilty and blames Picard for her feelings.
Shortly-there-after, she transfers back to an Earth based assignment to be closer to Wes, but even though she was physically closer to Wes, she was still an absentee. Wes is grown up and become an adrenaline junkie, gear-head genius, Star Fleet Marine. When Beverly is stationed aboard the Enterprise she gets Captain S’Tov to request Wes’ Recon Marine Platoon to be stationed on the Enterprise. Everything looks perfect until Capt. S’Tov dies and Picard is placed in Command. He is much happier to see her than she is.
Staff Sergeant Wes Crusher, Star Fleet Marine Corps
As stated above, Wes is a little bit older 22 or so. He was raised by his dad until his death then by his mother when she came back to Earth. She wasn’t a very good parent, never really being there and Wes, because he as so smart and bored in school became a Juvenile delinquent. He finally caused enough problems that the Judge said Jail or the Military.
He joined the Star Fleet Marines because it seemed like the biggest challenge and most fun. He tested off the charts and was placed in the Marine Recon where he quickly rose in rank to Staff Sgt. He is a major gear head and can break down any machine and make rebuild it to make it go faster, shoot straighter and have greater “punch.” He is an extremely intelligent Special Forces type who likes to push himself and those around him to the limits. He likes that in others too and he and Worf are drawn to each other.
Lt. Ta’asha Yaar, Security Officer
Ta’asha is an Andorian Female who is safely inside the Captain S’Tov Camp. She and Worf but heads because they are both interested in similar areas, but ultimately, Lt. Yaar becomes the tactical officer while Worf is in charge of security.
Star Fleet Operation Camp
The third camp are those put into place by the Fleet Operation Admiral so that he can keep his eye on Picard. There are many in Star Fleet, especially, the Admiral of Fleet Operations that appreciate Picard’s command style and believe that his semi-recklessness style is necessary on the outer rim and while at war. However, it is not the style that should be in command of such a political mission.
Lt. Dianna Trio
Lt. Trio is a half human, half Betazoid, intelligence officer that was placed on the command staff of the Enterprise when Picard was forced to take command. Lt. Trio grew up on Betazed and was becoming and more and more difficult to deal with after her father, the Earth Ambassador, died. Her mother, Luxwana, became a powerful Cabinet Minister, and swept her problem daughter away by pulling some springs and getting her off world into Star Fleet Academy. There she continued to be a trouble maker until, for reasons that will be revealed later, she straightened out. She graduated with decent grades but because of her high IQ and her Empathic Telepath ability she joined Star Fleet Intelligence, which by the way is not Section 31.
After a number of assignments, she was posted back to Beziad, where she met Thomas Riker and fell in love with him. After his death at the hands of Bezaid extremist, she requested to be temporarily transferred to the Bezaid Internal Security to hunt down his murders. With her help the Internal Security hunted down the Terrorist and she had a hand in their deaths after an “escape attempt” that occurred while they were in transfer. Dianna was so engulfed in hatred and revenge that she could not control her thoughts and was transferred off of Betazed by request by the request of her mother. Luxanna’s daughter was once again an embarrassment to her.
After the death of the Terrorist Dianna did not find the peace she thought she would and transferred to the some of the secretive operations of Star Fleet Operations. One of these was the “Silent Theater,” which is name of the Star Fleet Operation, Vulcan joint operations against the Romulans. She did excellent work there but what really set her apart were her cunning political instincts that she got from her mother. She knew which Admirals at Star Fleet Headquarters should get what information, even playing a few against each other. This is how the Admiral of Fleet Operations got to know Dianna and gained enough trust in her to transfer her to the Enterprise to watch Picard. She was not aware that Thomas’s twin brother, Will Riker was the First Officer. She understandably, has a difficult relationship with him as she once loved his brother and they were twins.
Lt. Commander Data
Data is an android created by Dr. Noonien Soong, who is considered by all as the father of Cyberneticist. Dr. Soong made two androids Data and Lore, who are questionably equal. He also made a few androids that are not publicly known about. Dr. Soong is long dead and many have taken over his work. However, there is something really strange about creating android. They can be made, relatively easily, however, only a very small percentage of them become sentient. No one can explain this nor can anyone figure out which androids will become sentient and which ones just remain very complex robots.
Data and Lore were rescued by Star Fleet Officers after Dr. Soong and his colony were destroyed by the Crystal Entity Form. At this point the two brothers lead very separate lives, Data into academia and later Star Fleet. While Lore went out, saw the universe and experienced life, kind of like a trust fund kid who goes to Europe to discover themselves. Lore became the loveable scoundrel with a hundred great stories and everyone likes him upon meeting him. Data, on the other hand, is a little more bookish and finds it hard to relate to other.
While at Star Fleet Academy Data excelled and was “adopted” by the Admiral of SF Operation. He rises fast within SF, but there are many who are weary of the fact that he is not human, or any other alien being. However, when Picard takes command of the Enterprise, the Fleet Operations Admiral assigns Lt. Data to be Operations Officer.
Command Master Chief Miles O’Brien
Miles O’Brien has much of the same back story; he grew up in rural Ireland, joined Star Fleet to see the world and achieved so much more along the way. His hard-ass nature and attention to detail allows him to move up and be one of the highest ranking NCO’s in all of Star Fleet. Even though he is not an Officer, he is the highest ranking NCO on the Enterprise and a political power player. If anyone has a problem with a non-enlisted member of the Enterprise Crew, they have to go through Command Master Chief O’Brien.
As any Navy man will tell you, CPO’s run the Navy and Command Master Chief O’Brien is in charge of all the CPO’s on the Enterprise. They even have their own mess, which has better food than the Officer’s mess. He is a complete unrelenting hard-ass that just get’s shit done. Also, he is always addressed by his complete title; it is always, Command Master Chief O’Brien or Command Master Chief.
He was placed on the Enterprise before Picard takes over to be the Fleet Operation’s mole. However, after the death of the original captain, his role becomes even more important. Even though he is supposed to be a spy, he grows to like Picard and greatly filters the information that gets back to SF HQ, but he still has an agenda all his own.
The First Mission
The Pilot will be a mash up of the original Pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint,” and “The
Hunter” from the third season. With one notable change, no Q!
Series Rules
1. No Q – Q is a great character, but this series will not play in the world of omnipotent beings.
2. Along these line, No Time Travel or extra-dimensions or parallel universes.
3. There are no food replicators. Everyone on Enterprise eats food cooked on the ship in their proper messes.
4. The living quarters are not large and not everyone has their own personal quarters.
5. Relax on the crazy science, it will not solve the day, nor will experimental medicines cure everything.
6. There are multiple uniform types, and they all have pockets. Specifically, engineering will wear coveralls and vest with a lot of pockets that actually get dirty.
7. Geordi must die sometime during the first two seasons.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Why All Superman Movies Suck
American Movies Classic network, a.k.a. AMC, is running a Hero’s movie marathon. It’s running some great movies; Master and Commander (where’s your sequel?), Star Trek: First Contact (the Best of the Next Generation movies by far), Superman and Superman II the Richard Donner Edition. While AMC does liberally throw around the word “classic,” I mean seriously, they are airing K-9 Jim Belushi and a dog. Guess who’s the better actor?
I was glued to the tube watching the first two Superman movies. Not really for the movies themselves, but for memory of how it made me feel when I watched it as a child. It’s the same kind of nostalgia that makes Gen X’ers have ridiculous feelings and expectations about the original Star Wars Trilogy. Watching Superman took me back to the days before DVDs, VHS, even before Betamax when the only time you saw a movies on the TV was when it aired. You sat there in your Underoos and watched movies live and then sprinted to the bathroom during the commercials.
It seemed like there were a few movies that the networks ran once a year, like the Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, The Ten Commandments and yes, Superman. My sisters were way more into the musicals than I was, but when it came to Superman, we were all glued to the tube. We were so into the Superman movie that we actually put a tape recorder next to the TV and recorded the audio. Oh, the days before YouTube.
I have recently re-watched all these movies and most of them stood the test of time, which is more than I can say for all the TV shows I watched as a child. The Wizard of Oz and the Sound of Music are such classic musicals that there is hardly an adult alive that can’t sing-a-long with them. The Ten Commandments, they still show that every Easter weekend and honestly what is not to love about it? Yul Brenner, Charlton Heaston in his best non-ape related role and of course who could forget the original Scarface Edward G. Robinson, “Yeah, see Moses, Yeah.” However, its major downfall is that it is longer than most trans-Atlantic air flights.
Then there is Superman, which is great, well not great, but it is the best of the Superman movie. I think it is time we all need to be honest with ourselves, all Superman movies end up sucking . . . Really . . . Really. Okay, now I need to be honest to all of you, I’ve never really like Superman. To me he was always the good looking, athletic, smart over achiever kid from high school/college. Think Brandon Walsh in a Cape.
Honestly, I have never really understood the draw of Superman; I mean he is just so . . . well, super. I find the mythology and back story around Superman to be way more interesting than the actual character himself. He was created and has been developed into a hero that is so powerful and so perfect that nothing can defeat him. At this part of the argument don’t even start in with that Kryptonite nonsense. An obscure mineral, that is green for some reason, from his home planet that will weaken him somehow. It is just ridiculous.
Before we dwell into the downfall of Super-cinema we must address the mythology of the Man of Steel. If comic are the modern American Mythology, then Superman is its Zeus. He is a God on Earth. An all powerful being that mingles amongst us mere mortals in an attempt to make the human race better. But unlike Zeus, Superman does not have the character flaws that can be preyed upon. He is just too good.
That is my main problem with the last son of Krypton. He is indestructible, he can fly, he has super strength, can run super fast, shoots lasers out of his eyes, can freeze things with his breath and if he puts on a simple pair of glasses he is unrecognizable. I mean seriously, how hard is it to fight crime when you got all this going for you?
As for the Superman movies, I won’t deny that they are entertaining. The first one does a great job of setting up the back story of a sole Alien who is adopted by a barren Kansas couple and raised as a human child. It goes on to address the awakening of his powers, the creation of the Fortress of Solitude, the beginning of his life as a mild-manner reporter in Metropolis, Superman’s unveiling and early adventures and then the movie goes way off the track. We all know how it ultimately ends; Superman sets the cosmic reset button, time travel and fixes everything. Kind of like the end of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
The end of every Superman movie is a little crazy: A big plastic “S” and switching off the super powers of the General Zog Triad, red kryptonite and human/super-computer android, Captain Atom and the awkward flying fight, and most recently throwing a continent made of kryptonite into outer space. Yeah . . . crazy!
Here’s the problem. All action movies have a good guy and all good guys need a bad guy to defeat. The movies need to end with a final show down between the all things good and pure protagonist and the single embodiment of evil antagonist. A fight to the death or worse. But how can a Superman movie end successfully when no bad guy can even come close to defeating him. So what are we left with? Crazy plot twists that test Superman’s intellect or will, whatever they are end up leaving us feeling, well, unsatisfied.
But Superman is not alone with this problem. Most comic book based movies have failed when it comes to the bad guys. They have failed for the same reason as well, the good guy is too good and the bad guy is starting from such a place of deficiency that they can never catch up. The movie that came the closest to overcoming this problem was The Dark Knight. In it the Joker did not match Batman’s intelligence or brawn; instead he put him in a number moral dilemmas that were no win situation.
So for the next Superman movie and we all know it is coming, what should the plot line be about? Well I am guessing it is going to be a continuation of the Brian Singer Superman Return, so we are stuck with Brandon Routch, the skinniest of the Super-actors. First thing to do is get rid of Lois Lane’s boyfriend and minimize the super-son nonsense. I mean honestly, we can’t continue these Lois-is-Just-Not-Into-You/Baby Momma story lines. Do what the Dark Knight writers did; mine the comic books for a couple of the darker classic story lines and mash them together. Just don’t make it too dark. Superman has always been the super-hero for a brighter utopian world.
That, or just make Superman: Red Son into a movie.
I was glued to the tube watching the first two Superman movies. Not really for the movies themselves, but for memory of how it made me feel when I watched it as a child. It’s the same kind of nostalgia that makes Gen X’ers have ridiculous feelings and expectations about the original Star Wars Trilogy. Watching Superman took me back to the days before DVDs, VHS, even before Betamax when the only time you saw a movies on the TV was when it aired. You sat there in your Underoos and watched movies live and then sprinted to the bathroom during the commercials.
It seemed like there were a few movies that the networks ran once a year, like the Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, The Ten Commandments and yes, Superman. My sisters were way more into the musicals than I was, but when it came to Superman, we were all glued to the tube. We were so into the Superman movie that we actually put a tape recorder next to the TV and recorded the audio. Oh, the days before YouTube.
I have recently re-watched all these movies and most of them stood the test of time, which is more than I can say for all the TV shows I watched as a child. The Wizard of Oz and the Sound of Music are such classic musicals that there is hardly an adult alive that can’t sing-a-long with them. The Ten Commandments, they still show that every Easter weekend and honestly what is not to love about it? Yul Brenner, Charlton Heaston in his best non-ape related role and of course who could forget the original Scarface Edward G. Robinson, “Yeah, see Moses, Yeah.” However, its major downfall is that it is longer than most trans-Atlantic air flights.
Then there is Superman, which is great, well not great, but it is the best of the Superman movie. I think it is time we all need to be honest with ourselves, all Superman movies end up sucking . . . Really . . . Really. Okay, now I need to be honest to all of you, I’ve never really like Superman. To me he was always the good looking, athletic, smart over achiever kid from high school/college. Think Brandon Walsh in a Cape.
Honestly, I have never really understood the draw of Superman; I mean he is just so . . . well, super. I find the mythology and back story around Superman to be way more interesting than the actual character himself. He was created and has been developed into a hero that is so powerful and so perfect that nothing can defeat him. At this part of the argument don’t even start in with that Kryptonite nonsense. An obscure mineral, that is green for some reason, from his home planet that will weaken him somehow. It is just ridiculous.
Before we dwell into the downfall of Super-cinema we must address the mythology of the Man of Steel. If comic are the modern American Mythology, then Superman is its Zeus. He is a God on Earth. An all powerful being that mingles amongst us mere mortals in an attempt to make the human race better. But unlike Zeus, Superman does not have the character flaws that can be preyed upon. He is just too good.
That is my main problem with the last son of Krypton. He is indestructible, he can fly, he has super strength, can run super fast, shoots lasers out of his eyes, can freeze things with his breath and if he puts on a simple pair of glasses he is unrecognizable. I mean seriously, how hard is it to fight crime when you got all this going for you?
As for the Superman movies, I won’t deny that they are entertaining. The first one does a great job of setting up the back story of a sole Alien who is adopted by a barren Kansas couple and raised as a human child. It goes on to address the awakening of his powers, the creation of the Fortress of Solitude, the beginning of his life as a mild-manner reporter in Metropolis, Superman’s unveiling and early adventures and then the movie goes way off the track. We all know how it ultimately ends; Superman sets the cosmic reset button, time travel and fixes everything. Kind of like the end of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
The end of every Superman movie is a little crazy: A big plastic “S” and switching off the super powers of the General Zog Triad, red kryptonite and human/super-computer android, Captain Atom and the awkward flying fight, and most recently throwing a continent made of kryptonite into outer space. Yeah . . . crazy!
Here’s the problem. All action movies have a good guy and all good guys need a bad guy to defeat. The movies need to end with a final show down between the all things good and pure protagonist and the single embodiment of evil antagonist. A fight to the death or worse. But how can a Superman movie end successfully when no bad guy can even come close to defeating him. So what are we left with? Crazy plot twists that test Superman’s intellect or will, whatever they are end up leaving us feeling, well, unsatisfied.
But Superman is not alone with this problem. Most comic book based movies have failed when it comes to the bad guys. They have failed for the same reason as well, the good guy is too good and the bad guy is starting from such a place of deficiency that they can never catch up. The movie that came the closest to overcoming this problem was The Dark Knight. In it the Joker did not match Batman’s intelligence or brawn; instead he put him in a number moral dilemmas that were no win situation.
So for the next Superman movie and we all know it is coming, what should the plot line be about? Well I am guessing it is going to be a continuation of the Brian Singer Superman Return, so we are stuck with Brandon Routch, the skinniest of the Super-actors. First thing to do is get rid of Lois Lane’s boyfriend and minimize the super-son nonsense. I mean honestly, we can’t continue these Lois-is-Just-Not-Into-You/Baby Momma story lines. Do what the Dark Knight writers did; mine the comic books for a couple of the darker classic story lines and mash them together. Just don’t make it too dark. Superman has always been the super-hero for a brighter utopian world.
That, or just make Superman: Red Son into a movie.
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