Bryan Singer's Star Trek proposal

[Emperorjones]

Redjack, were you involved with this?

http://trekmovie.com/2011/04/16/exclusive-details-excerpts-from-star-trek-federation-series-proposal/

My take on it is that it has a lot of good ideas, though I thought some of the changes to the alien species were a little hard to adjust to. I liked the idea of a decaying Federation with human centric focus (finally someone acknowledges one of my issues with the entire series) and the Vulcan-Romulan reunification. I also liked that the cashless Federation was addressed. I thought the idea was stupid when it heard it in First Contact.

Though, I didn't see the need to create a new Kirk character. Perhaps using a member of the April or Decker line would've worked better if they had to tie it TOS (though shouldn't the Enterprise be enough), or pick a name from one of the list of Roddenberry's captain names before he settled on Pike and Kirk. But for the most part it looked pretty interesting. I bet the Scourge were going to be an awesome adversary. And the MAJEL was especially cool.

All in all, its a show I would've loved to see. Hopefully we'll get to see Trek back on the small screen soon, and Redjack if you were involved in this pitch, I hope you're involved in a future series.

[Battle]

I don't even care if it's a great idea, concept or proposal...  if this pitch gets green-lit and actually becomes a television show in the hands of singer, If you thought the Star Trek nerds were harsh with thier disapprovals of the last few Trek TV shows was intense, you ain't seen nothing yet.

I wouldn't even watch the shows, for entertainment I'd be reading the flames of legions and legions of angry Trekkies just tearing the series apart like Zerglings with a metabolic boost upgrade!  

I'm telling you, singer does NOT have a grasp or clue what Star Trek is about.

[Reginald Hudlin]

Exciting document.  Great find, and good work Red.

[Emperorjones]

Battle,

My understanding is that is pitch was thought up before Enterprise came out. It's a dead proposal today. But back then I'm sure the series would've generated discussion, debate, and some fan rage, just like Voyager and Enterprise did. But for the most part, I thought Federation was an innovative attempt to move Trek forward. Not perfect from what I read, but it would've taken Trek in far more interesting places than what Enterprise did. Though I feel some of Federation took the Trek universe a little too far with some of the species like the Klingons and Cardassians, yet Enterprise gave tired, uninispired retreads of the Klingons. I would've liked something more in the middle I suppose, Klingons recognizable but different enough to show evolution. And Federation had a good idea of broadening Klingon culture it seemed, not just to portray the whole society as warriors.

[Redjack]

Thanks guys. If by "involved" you mean "wrote the whole thing," then, yes, I was involved.

here's how the thing went.

Executive Level - The Brians and Chris McQuarrie.  I never met them. One communication. "Shake things up, make it exciting, make it Star Trek."
Editorial level - Rob Burnett - Editor in Chief. Recruited me for this, made sure I didn't go too crazy with the changes (i had some really wild stuff that got nixed). His single edict was "name the captain Kirk."
Creative level - Me. Writer. No oversight. No input from above except the occasional "nope, can't do that."
Creative level - Michael Okuda - design. Same deal as me only with the tech he wanted to do.

[Reginald Hudlin]

Thanks guys. If by "involved" you mean "wrote the whole thing," then, yes, I was involved.

here's how the thing went.

Executive Level - The Brians and Chris McQuarrie.  I never met them. One communication. "Shake things up, make it exciting, make it Star Trek."
Editorial level - Rob Burnett - Editor in Chief. Recruited me for this, made sure I didn't go too crazy with the changes (i had some really wild stuff that got nixed). His single edict was "name the captain Kirk."
Creative level - Me. Writer. No oversight. No input from above except the occasional "nope, can't do that."
Creative level - Michael Okuda - design. Same deal as me only with the tech he wanted to do.

I love this story.  Between this and your posts in the writing section, you are explaining the game to folks.

[Hypestyle]

..I would have loved to see the cat-lady in action, especially played by a sexy actress. hmmm...

[Emperorjones]

Wow, thanks RJ for breaking this down. I hope you stayed involved with Trek.

[Redjack]

Honestly, aside from maybe one more novel i'd like to write and a comic book Todd and I want to do, I'm pretty much done. I want to make my own things.

I'm repurposing the best stuff from that pitch into something for me.

But, you never know.

[Battle]

Honestly, aside from maybe one more novel i'd like to write and a comic book Todd and I want to do, I'm pretty much done. I want to make my own things.

I'm repurposing the best stuff from that pitch into something for me.

But, you never know.

In the meantime, how about sharpening your writing chops on one more franchise namely the Starcraft universe?  There's always room for an experienced writer wanting to expand the Starcraft lore.  
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/writing2010/

I'm reading something right now by one writer who is bringing forth some interesting ideas in a short story called 'Colossus' written by Valerie Watrous and couldn't help but think, "Man, what would RedJack do with stuff like this?"
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/2593442#blog

I'd love to read what wild stuff you could do with the Zerg faction between the other two races, Terran and Protoss.  C'mon, whaddaya say?

[Redjack]

I used to play STAR CRAFT. it's a fun game.

if you want to se what I'd do with my own version of Star Trek, read

TRUTH METRIC in this anthology SPACE GRUNTS

and  THANKS TO CAPTAIN GO in this one. WORDS TO MUSIC


I've been asked to write a third one in an upcoming antho. As soon as I have enough, I'll do a collection.

[Battle]

From the link posted:

Space Grunts is the third anthology of the Full-Throttle Space Tales series. Edited by Dayton Ward, Space Grunts contains 18 hard-hitting tales of soldiers in space, by established and rising-star authors.
"Truth Metric" by Geoffrey Thorne: A commanding officer faces the unpleasant duty of notifying a parent about the death of their son, and explaining how and why he died.




Thanks for the reply!

Sounds interesting...   Will check it out when I get a chance!


EDIT:

Oh, I'm reading some of the customer reviews at Amazon for Words To Music, and I was curious  what songs were you given to write to?

[Redjack]

Words 2 Music was fun. The editor spins his ipad, hits a random song, you listen, you write a story based on the song you hear.  Mine was something called BLACK HOLE SUN from Soundgarden.

It's one of the best stories I ever wrote.

And the book is for charity. I don't make a dime off it.

[Redjack]

Words 2 Music will be available for KINDLE soon. Just heard form the publsiher.