Hypothetical Star Trek Show that will never be created

[Scalenex]

I like all Star Trek except for STD, but I really like Deep Space Nine more than the others. I was rewatching the series and just for fun, I started writing down every unspeakably awful thing that happens to Miles O'Brien. If you really hate spoilers, and haven't watched DS9 stop reading now because I'm going to build on DS9 a lot.

It's a testament to his strength of spirit that he is a highly competent Starfleet officer and not gibbering to himself in a padded cell.

There was an episode where Mile's eight year old daughter, Molly, falls into a time anomally and ends up 300 years in the past. She survives ten years by herself on a wilderness planet and came back a feral wild child. Because it involves a time anomally they were able to hit the reset button and return Molly to eight years old. Still, I couldn't help thinking. "This girl is a badass surviving that long in the wilderness completely by herself." She was also a great athlete and capable of beating people up.

I thought, what if she kept the indominantible spirit and boundless creativity and combined it with formal Starfleet training? She would be a demigod. If she inherits her father's trait of being a cosmic magnet for interesting but difficult life events, there would be infinite story potential for her.

I want an adult Molly O'Brien to be the lead character on a Star Trek series that is a direct sequel to Deep Space Nine, probably as the captain, but I would be okay if she were the first officer.

So Commander Molly O'Brien is the anchor for the cast. What is the main story? Exploration or Politics?


Both

A Plot

At the end of Deep Space Nine, the Dominion surrenders to the Federation and presumably stops brutalizing people with the Jem Hadar.

This means the Gamma Quadrant is now fully safe for the Federation and their allies to fully explore, but it also means that all the petty warlords, criminals, and despots that until recently were kept in line by the Dominion are now unleashed.

If you feel like you absolutely need to create a new megavillain to replace the Dominion or the Borg, then you can easily justify a new Big Bad in the Gamma Quadrant.

B Plot

At the end of DS9 there was tons of positive wheels in motion.

-Bajor is on track to become a full member of the Federation and they are moving towards peaceful cooperation with their old enemies Cardassia.
-The Ferenghi are turning over a new leaf and showing more compassion
-The Cardassians are turning over a new leaf and respecting individual freedom and peaceful diplomacy more.
-The Klingons are trying to root out corruption and focusing on real honor and not just the pretext of honor.
-The Romulans are to a lesser extant, trying to be more open and less duplicitous.
-The Breen used to exist on the fringes, now they can't hide in the background anymore.
-The Federation has begun building purely military ships. They are also trying to purge Section 31 from their ranks.
-The Dominion has begun acting less interventionalist

All these things are generally positive, but every one of these societies is going to have hardline Conservatives that want to return things to how they were before. They are each going to have hardline Progressives who want to see much larger reforms. There are going to be third party groups poking around the territories of these powers hoping to get power, and wealth by playing factions against each other.

All these disaprate groups are going to be pushing against each other. You could have civil wars and emerging terrorist groups. Not every conflict need be violent. You can have meddling beuaracrats, slimy con artists, and cold hearted mercenaries stirring up trouble.

There is no shortage of political conflict and it would be very easy to set up red herrings. You can also have a lot of reluctant allies of convenience. What if Bajoran and Cardassian extremists opted to work together to sabotage their own governments so they could get back to killing each other unknowing that the Breen and Romulans are pulling their puppet strings?


While I think Molly O'Brien would be a fantastic protagonist. Star Trek needs an ensemble to be at it's best. I'm figuring Molly O'Brien would daring and prone to taking risks. It's tradition to make the captain and the first officer compliments with different styles. The deuteragonist, should be cautious and methodical. That's sort of the Star Trek formula. The captain and first officer have opposite but complimentary personalities.

I would be thrilled if the previous cast members of DS9 made cameos once in a while, but I don't think we need to put any on the main cast. The most logical character to reintroduce after a 20 year time skip would be Nog because his career was just taking off. The problem is, Aron Eisenberg, the actor who plays Nog, was actually older than most of the rest of the cast and played young. He's in his fifties now. It mgiht be weird for him to play somone in his thirties or he might be sick of Star Trek by now. I would not be opposed to giving him a protege. The second Ferengi in Starfleet has to fight through all the Ferengi prejudice, but would get less coddling because he (or she I suppose) is not the exciting first one.

Worf's son Alexander might be an interesting foil to Molly O'Brien. Molly is a human with the soul of a warrior and Alexander is a Klingon with the soul of a diplomat. But the fan base doesn't really like him much, so that's probably not a good casting choice.

I really didn't like Ezri Dax, but she's much older now. I might like her more as a wise matron than a wide eyed youth.


I really want to follow Bajor's growth, so I'd like to see a Bajoran on the main cast. How about make the doctor a Bajoran. The Bajoran doctor would be very knowledgeable but also prone to pray for healing too. This could create a philosophical divide with the chief engineer or the chief science officer but eventually they become friends and respect each other's viewpoints.


Most versions of Star Trek have a Pinnochio character of some sort or someone with split heritage. On some level Molly has split Japanese/Irish heritage but in the Star Trek universe that is not a big deal. You could justify adding a friendly changeling to the cast, but it woudl be hard to top Odo. I would add a Jem'hadar or Vorta that is trying to assert his/her independence. Though one could easily invent a new alien or shake the dust off one of the one-off forgotten aliens.


If we need a split heritage character, I would create a Bajoran/Cardassian half-breed who doesn't fit into either society very well and hoped to find a new identity in Starfleet. He or she (probably she because Star Trek's handlers like to make halflings sexy females) would be a great way to introduce subplots from both Bajor and Cardassia.


Star Trek doesn't like to introduce non-sexy female characters, but a female Ferengi in Starfleet that is doubly pushing against her societal norms might be interesting though I'd be concerned that her character arc would get completely hijacked by SJWs in a bad way.


I liked Garok and Quark providing an outsider's view of the Federation in DS9. I liked Kes and Neelix providing an outsider's view of the Federation in Voyager. I think I would like to add a mostly friendly but not fully trusted Romulan character for this story niche.


With all these exotic characters, it's probably okay to round out the cast with some normal humans, as long as they have good actors and reasonable character arcs.

So the captain is the fearless and bold Molly O'Brien

The first officer is a no-nonense by the book human. Maybe s/he can be much older than Molly but he is outranked by Molly because he joined Starfleet late in life as a second career. It just so happens that he has some skeletons in his closet from his first job that will come up from time to time.

Chief Medical officer is a spirital Bajoran who believes in holistic medicine in addition to advanced science.

Chief science officer is a human. Maybe a love interest to Molly O'Brien or the chief medical officer.

Head of security is a new breed of Jem'Hadar created to mend fences with the Alpha Quadrant.

The loveable scamp is a miserly Romulan quartermaster.

Fill in two or three more characters and we got a show.

 

[pendrake]

I always wanted a Trek show that followed a flotilla, or a Destroyer division. A little group of ships that work as a team.

 

[pendrake]

...This girl is a badass surviving that long in the wilderness completely by herself." She was also a great athlete and capable of beating people up.

I thought, what if she kept the indominantible spirit and boundless creativity and combined it with formal Starfleet training? She would be a demigod...

I don’t see any way of retaining Fierce Molly and also retaining continuity of timeline with the first, original DS9 series.

They erased that fierce Molly O’Brien. She was forged by ten years alone in a wilderness.

The Molly that grows up post-DS9 in the same timeline is a different person. She has ten years of Root Beer and Replicators and all the trappings of the Federation to look forward to between age 8 and 18.

 

[Aginor]

Yeah I also think that wouldn't quite work.
Such a character would be cool to have, and I like O'Brien, but the environment is what builds most of a character, not genetics.
A Molly with a loving home and all the stuff Star Fleet has... she would probably be a lot less badass.

Otherwise some nice ideas there!

 

[Scalenex]

I always wanted a Trek show that followed a flotilla, or a Destroyer division. A little group of ships that work as a team.

That sounds kind of kickass. I can imagine each commander of one of each ship would have a different personality and a different appetite for risk.

You wouldn't even have to base the series around this. You could have a single season like this, perhaps the season finale before it the main cast had to abandon their original flagship or space station.

Yeah I also think that wouldn't quite work.
Such a character would be cool to have, and I like O'Brien, but the environment is what builds most of a character, not genetics.
A Molly with a loving home and all the stuff Star Fleet has... she would probably be a lot less badass.

They erased that fierce Molly O’Brien. She was forged by ten years alone in a wilderness.

The Molly that grows up post-DS9 in the same timeline is a different person. She has ten years of Root Beer and Replicators and all the trappings of the Federation to look forward to between age 8 and 18.

This is a nature versus nurture question. I still say most eight year old children would not thrive like she did, so the potential for greatness is there.

Also, she is daughter of Miles and Keiko O'Brien.

Miles has had numerous weird and unspeakable things happen to him. I can pull up my complete list but some highlights include
-Every friend he has except for Julian Bashir dies. One friend was replaced by a Cardassian spy.
-He got infected by weaponized plague...as a reward for helping a troubled world
-He had to fight his own clone
-He got drafted into being the messiah for a Bajoran town attacked by a weird monster
-He got drafted into being an undercover mole against the Space Mafia
-Caught in a time loop, he died three times.
-When the crew's imaginations were coming to life, Miles was haunted by the only unpleasant appartion
-He got tortured and put on trial for his life by the Cardassians
-He got sentenced to 20 years of simulated torture by a Gamma Quadrant alien
-He gets beat up a lot.
-He found out Klingon bachelor parties are not nearly as much fun as they sound.

Keiko was possessed by an alien entity at least twice. She was also caught in a time anomally and thrown into a child's body with an adult intellect, gave me in a turbolift shaft, and a variety of other things.

Rootbeer and Replicators or not, I'm sure Molly will experience something else that will galvanize her into steel. Perhaps the traumatic and exotic death of her Rasputin-like father. When Mile's story is not going to end with "then he died peacefully in hi sleep."

 

[pendrake]

Why is it so hard to do nested quotes?

I always wanted a Trek show that followed a flotilla, or a Destroyer division. A little group of ships that work as a team.

That sounds kind of kickass. I can imagine each commander of one of each ship would have a different personality and a different appetite for risk.

I have always imagined it as three to seven ships. The lead character is always the CO of a starship that is the equivalent of a Destroyer Leader or a Light Cruiser. The other ships are Scouts, Tugs, Destroyers, Science Ships.

I have had fun imagining that they are ships of Kirk’s era. (Although it could work in other eras.) And that they have the thankless task of wandering around the galaxy in Kirk’s wake cleaning up the messes he left behind. Examples:

Eminiar VII and Vindicar : 37 months later an actual shooting war has broken out.

Cestus III : they have to remove all traces of the colony, salvage Tech and Weaponry; recover remains. The Gorn have set a deadline per terms of a cease fire agreement.

Gamma Trianguli IV : tribal warfare; wild climate swings; starvation; all because Kirk destroyed Vaul; what the Federation broke, it has to fix.

Omega IV : There is a derelict starship in standard orbit; there is a planet full of humans who are descended ...somehow... from Earthmen; there is a horrible, deadly, deadly, uncontained bio-weapon (near 100% kill ratio in humans) present on the starship and everywhere on the planet. (And it must not ever! fall into the hands of the Romulans or Klingons...) Something needs to be done.

 

[pendrake]

Further scenarios...

Star Trek: Revisited
One five year mission equals at least Ten years of damage control...

Planet Amerind : An M Class planet mysteriously populated with pre-warp humans, fauna, insects, and flora from Earth. Includes an artifact filled with alien technology which functions as an asteroid deflector. Alien artifact needs to be thoroughly scanned for its technology; who was responsible for duplicating Earthlife on the world?

Earth Prime : An identical copy! of Earth found at great distance from the original. Tiny remnant population of pre-warp humans, virus-based plague endemic to the planet messes with the aging process but eventually kills the host. Needs to be investigated: can it be cleansed of the virus; how (or by who) was it duplicated?


Omega IV, Amerind, Earth Prime, and possibly other locations are evidence of some sort of bizarre tampering with Earth history or perhaps its timeline by aliens or agents unknown. An ongoing story arc could involve standing orders to investigate this and gather archeological or other evidence that might reveal who or what responsible.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

I like all Star Trek except for STD, but I really like Deep Space Nine more than the others. I was rewatching the series and just for fun, I started writing down every unspeakably awful thing that happens to Miles O'Brien. If you really hate spoilers, and haven't watched DS9 stop reading now because I'm going to build on DS9 a lot.

It's a testament to his strength of spirit that he is a highly competent Starfleet officer and not gibbering to himself in a padded cell.

There was an episode where Mile's eight year old daughter, Molly, falls into a time anomally and ends up 300 years in the past. She survives ten years by herself on a wilderness planet and came back a feral wild child. Because it involves a time anomally they were able to hit the reset button and return Molly to eight years old. Still, I couldn't help thinking. "This girl is a badass surviving that long in the wilderness completely by herself." She was also a great athlete and capable of beating people up.

I thought, what if she kept the indominantible spirit and boundless creativity and combined it with formal Starfleet training? She would be a demigod. If she inherits her father's trait of being a cosmic magnet for interesting but difficult life events, there would be infinite story potential for her.

I want an adult Molly O'Brien to be the lead character on a Star Trek series that is a direct sequel to Deep Space Nine, probably as the captain, but I would be okay if she were the first officer.

So Commander Molly O'Brien is the anchor for the cast. What is the main story? Exploration or Politics?


Both

A Plot

At the end of Deep Space Nine, the Dominion surrenders to the Federation and presumably stops brutalizing people with the Jem Hadar.

This means the Gamma Quadrant is now fully safe for the Federation and their allies to fully explore, but it also means that all the petty warlords, criminals, and despots that until recently were kept in line by the Dominion are now unleashed.

If you feel like you absolutely need to create a new megavillain to replace the Dominion or the Borg, then you can easily justify a new Big Bad in the Gamma Quadrant.

B Plot

At the end of DS9 there was tons of positive wheels in motion.

-Bajor is on track to become a full member of the Federation and they are moving towards peaceful cooperation with their old enemies Cardassia.
-The Ferenghi are turning over a new leaf and showing more compassion
-The Cardassians are turning over a new leaf and respecting individual freedom and peaceful diplomacy more.
-The Klingons are trying to root out corruption and focusing on real honor and not just the pretext of honor.
-The Romulans are to a lesser extant, trying to be more open and less duplicitous.
-The Breen used to exist on the fringes, now they can't hide in the background anymore.
-The Federation has begun building purely military ships. They are also trying to purge Section 31 from their ranks.
-The Dominion has begun acting less interventionalist

All these things are generally positive, but every one of these societies is going to have hardline Conservatives that want to return things to how they were before. They are each going to have hardline Progressives who want to see much larger reforms. There are going to be third party groups poking around the territories of these powers hoping to get power, and wealth by playing factions against each other.

All these disaprate groups are going to be pushing against each other. You could have civil wars and emerging terrorist groups. Not every conflict need be violent. You can have meddling beuaracrats, slimy con artists, and cold hearted mercenaries stirring up trouble.

There is no shortage of political conflict and it would be very easy to set up red herrings. You can also have a lot of reluctant allies of convenience. What if Bajoran and Cardassian extremists opted to work together to sabotage their own governments so they could get back to killing each other unknowing that the Breen and Romulans are pulling their puppet strings?


While I think Molly O'Brien would be a fantastic protagonist. Star Trek needs an ensemble to be at it's best. I'm figuring Molly O'Brien would daring and prone to taking risks. It's tradition to make the captain and the first officer compliments with different styles. The deuteragonist, should be cautious and methodical. That's sort of the Star Trek formula. The captain and first officer have opposite but complimentary personalities.

I would be thrilled if the previous cast members of DS9 made cameos once in a while, but I don't think we need to put any on the main cast. The most logical character to reintroduce after a 20 year time skip would be Nog because his career was just taking off. The problem is, Aron Eisenberg, the actor who plays Nog, was actually older than most of the rest of the cast and played young. He's in his fifties now. It mgiht be weird for him to play somone in his thirties or he might be sick of Star Trek by now. I would not be opposed to giving him a protege. The second Ferengi in Starfleet has to fight through all the Ferengi prejudice, but would get less coddling because he (or she I suppose) is not the exciting first one.

Worf's son Alexander might be an interesting foil to Molly O'Brien. Molly is a human with the soul of a warrior and Alexander is a Klingon with the soul of a diplomat. But the fan base doesn't really like him much, so that's probably not a good casting choice.

I really didn't like Ezri Dax, but she's much older now. I might like her more as a wise matron than a wide eyed youth.


I really want to follow Bajor's growth, so I'd like to see a Bajoran on the main cast. How about make the doctor a Bajoran. The Bajoran doctor would be very knowledgeable but also prone to pray for healing too. This could create a philosophical divide with the chief engineer or the chief science officer but eventually they become friends and respect each other's viewpoints.


Most versions of Star Trek have a Pinnochio character of some sort or someone with split heritage. On some level Molly has split Japanese/Irish heritage but in the Star Trek universe that is not a big deal. You could justify adding a friendly changeling to the cast, but it woudl be hard to top Odo. I would add a Jem'hadar or Vorta that is trying to assert his/her independence. Though one could easily invent a new alien or shake the dust off one of the one-off forgotten aliens.


If we need a split heritage character, I would create a Bajoran/Cardassian half-breed who doesn't fit into either society very well and hoped to find a new identity in Starfleet. He or she (probably she because Star Trek's handlers like to make halflings sexy females) would be a great way to introduce subplots from both Bajor and Cardassia.


Star Trek doesn't like to introduce non-sexy female characters, but a female Ferengi in Starfleet that is doubly pushing against her societal norms might be interesting though I'd be concerned that her character arc would get completely hijacked by SJWs in a bad way.


I liked Garok and Quark providing an outsider's view of the Federation in DS9. I liked Kes and Neelix providing an outsider's view of the Federation in Voyager. I think I would like to add a mostly friendly but not fully trusted Romulan character for this story niche.


With all these exotic characters, it's probably okay to round out the cast with some normal humans, as long as they have good actors and reasonable character arcs.

So the captain is the fearless and bold Molly O'Brien

The first officer is a no-nonense by the book human. Maybe s/he can be much older than Molly but he is outranked by Molly because he joined Starfleet late in life as a second career. It just so happens that he has some skeletons in his closet from his first job that will come up from time to time.

Chief Medical officer is a spirital Bajoran who believes in holistic medicine in addition to advanced science.

Chief science officer is a human. Maybe a love interest to Molly O'Brien or the chief medical officer.

Head of security is a new breed of Jem'Hadar created to mend fences with the Alpha Quadrant.

The loveable scamp is a miserly Romulan quartermaster.

Fill in two or three more characters and we got a show.

I’m interested in this idea - I’ll make some comments:

First of all, I believe Garak became the leader of the Cardassians after the Dominion War ended (after Damar and Gul Dukat both died at the end of the 7th series) - certainly in a novel I’ve been reading (‘Enigma Tales’) Garak is the Castellan of the Cardassian Union, so like we have Sisko and co interacting with the leaders of various races in DS9, we could have our protagonist interacting with Garak in a similar fashion, helping him to solve problems and vice versa.

Concerning a Cardassian-Bajoran hybrid, we already had Ziyal in DS9 and she died - do we want another one? Maybe it would be interesting to include another one, but I’d rather see some different alien species in the crew. In fact I would rather not see a Bajoran in the crew at all because I honestly disliked most of them and they also follow one of Star Trek’s evident mantras that ‘aliens with a more human appearance are nearly always good guys while aliens with less human appearance are nearly always bad guys’ - I would prefer to get away from that, but of course it’s your idea and your show so you can overrule me if you wish. I like the idea of a new breed of Jem’Hadar created by the Dominion and distributed to the Federation to try and make amends - that’s a nice touch - but I would personally like to see more alien crewmen involved. The secretive and cunning Romulan is a good character idea too, although would Starfleet vessels have a Quartermaster given that we’re in the 24th Century with replicators? I’m unsure on that one. Perhaps instead of a Cardassian-Bajoran hybrid, we could have a pure Cardassian, perhaps an exile from their people who was thrown out by Gul Dukat or Damar, who has in the meantime been setting up a new life in the Federation and has joined the ship after a hefty amount of training in Starfleet Academy, perhaps as First Officer as we haven’t had an alien First Officer before (unless you count Spock but he was more Science Officer in my point of view), and you have the relationship dynamic where the human captain is trying to keep their domineering Cardassian First Officer under control.

Also we’ve already had several fearless and bold captains (Kirk, Janeway, Archer) who solve all sorts of things by themselves and to me at least it’s getting a bit of a cliche - I would personally prefer to see another by-the-book Captain like Picard (perhaps because I’m a by-the-book person), although perhaps a younger by-the-book captain rather than an older one this time.

In terms of a Bigger Bad, we’ve already seen a lot of the Borg in TNG, VOY and a bit of DS9 as well as First Contact. I’d personally like to see more of Species 8472 (perhaps because I’m a Tyranid player), because Species 8472 have a similarly relentless feel to the Borg, yet are completely different, indeed they are even stronger (if it hadn’t been for Voyager uniting with the Borg before Species 8472 would have annihilated them). I’d like to see more of their Bioships and their command structure and so on. We had Captain Janeway making peace with them in VOY, but what if a separatist Species 8472 faction arose that wanted to destroy the corporeals’ universe, breaking the race into two? We don’t know if they’re commanded by a Hive Mind like the Tyranids in 40K or in some other way - that could be something worth exploring.

Anyway, some initial ruminations from me, and I’ll think about some more later on.

 

[Scalenex]

one of Star Trek’s evident mantras that ‘aliens with a more human appearance are nearly always good guys while aliens with less human appearance are nearly always bad guys’

For that reason, I would like to see a Tellarite become a member of the senior staff on the next Star Wars show. Tellarites are the least human-looking of all the founding members of the Federation but they are arguably more human (in the sense that they are not ALL alike) than most other Star Trek aliens.

Most Star Trek species take one thing humans value and elevate it above all other values. Ferengi value profit, Vulcans value logic, Bajorans value spirituality, Cardassians value a strong state, etc.

Tellarites are huge free speech advocates. Arguing is considered polite. They believe strongly in discussing all views and view to not do so is a sign of close mindedness. In a way they view this a means of averting war. Better to fight over ideoloogy with words than with weapons.

That general attitude would put them big on the Federation's ideals of multi-culturalism and inconclusiveness but it would be interested to see how it would play out a Federation military starship. I imagine a Tellarite would be a huge asset during brainstorming sessions but would be a minor liability during tactical decisions where split second decisions must be made.

What little I know about Tellarites comes from this video. A single major Tellarite character would of course open the door for their culture to be fleshed out more.

Also, Tellarites are supposed to be very mechanically inclined and I was having trouble coming up with a hook for the chief engineer, so make him or her a Tellarite. I noticed the video doesn't mention gender dynamics at all. I'm GUESSING they are egalitarian, but most of the characters that show up seem to be male. As a Federation Founding member that wants to hear all views of all issues they are probably egalitarian and the reason we don't female Tellarites is because Star Trek's handlers avoid showing female aliens that are not sexy.

The downside is a Tellarite could easily become hated by the audience if he or she is constantly questioning a more popular character. To get around this, you need to have the popular characters be wrong often enough that the Tellarite can save the day by coming up with a better idea, but not TOO often often so they don't becomea new Wesley. On that note, I guess I'd rather the hypothetical Tellarite character be female so she is not accused of mansplaining.

It's very common for characters to form unlikely friendships with opposite personalities. In this case we would want to pair our Tellar off as a plutonic couple with an alien race known for always being right. There are many options: Bajoran, Vorta, Vulcan, Cardassian, or possibly a Romulan.

 

[pendrake]

... I'd rather the hypothetical Tellarite character be female so she is not accused of mansplaining.

Man-whatting?

They fleshed out Tellarites a little on Archer’s show: grumpy, combative, smelly (to Vulcans), I’ll-tempered males, ...the lot of them.

Here is a slightly radically different take:

I think it would be refreshing to double-down on Tellarites usually being male. I think it is getting a little clichéd to have each race being big into equality of its genders where any character could randomly be male or female.

What if Tellarites are 80% male? Only 20% of the population are female. The females being more rare, are more valuable, and it falls to males to be starship crew, diplomats, soldiers, traders, explorers, or miners (which is all we’ve seen so far). The females (birth ratio 2 in 10) get higher ranking, more important jobs usually back home. Therefore 99% of Tellarites seen off-world are male.

 

[pendrake]

Tellarites are huge free speech advocates. Arguing is considered polite. They believe strongly in discussing all views and view to not do so is a sign of close mindedness. In a way they view this a means of averting war. Better to fight over ideoloogy with words than with weapons...

This is an exceptionally positive spin on Tellarites. I don’t think it is congruent with the few appearances Tellarites have made in the show.

2¢: “Tellarite Diplomat” is pretty much an Oxymoron. Due to their combative, argumentative nature and instinctive habit of ritual insult, being assigned to the diplomatic corps is considered nearly as hazardous as soldiering (for a Tellarite).

 

[Scalenex]

What if Tellarites are 80% male? Only 20% of the population are female. The females being more rare, are more valuable, and it falls to males to be starship crew, diplomats, soldiers, traders, explorers, or miners (which is all we’ve seen so far). The females (birth ratio 2 in 10) get higher ranking, more important jobs usually back home. Therefore 99% of Tellarites seen off-world are male.

Good idea. To expand on this lopsided sexes, they could also have liters to make up for this with twins and triplets being the norm. Single births might be superstitiously viewed as bad luck. OR what if males are nearly always born as twins or triplets and females are usually born singly.

They would of course have interesting mating customs. The logical outcomes would either be polyandry or extremely status conscious mating where only the richest and most prestigious males get to breed.

Sort of makes me think of Selonians in the Star Wars expanded universe. They have no biological compulsion for their mating practice but it is unusual.

Males and females are born at a 1:1 ratio. About one in a dozen females becomes a mother. The vast majority of the males work to take care of the children and the females that get pregnant once per year.

The other females are the ones that go off planet, fight their battles, fly their starships, trade with humans, etc. It might be a contributor but female Selonians have a sexual dimorphism sort of like hyenas. The females are noticeably bigger and stronger than the males.

Sadly, despite playing A LOT of Star Wars RPG games with many different characters, no one found a Selonian interesting enough to play as a character despite their slew of powerful traits: high Dexterity, high movement rate, functioning claws.

No one wanted to play a furry character that wasn't a Wookie or Defel (Defel's are amazing at stealth able to literally mimic shadows). In fact, I think we had three games where Wookies and Defels made great tag team. The Wookie draws everyone's attention while the Defel sneaks in and hacks the computers or robs the vault.

Tellarites are huge free speech advocates. Arguing is considered polite. They believe strongly in discussing all views and view to not do so is a sign of close mindedness. In a way they view this a means of averting war. Better to fight over ideoloogy with words than with weapons...

This is an exceptionally positive spin on Tellarites. I don’t think it is congruent with the few appearances Tellarites have made in the show.

Well, they are overdue for an overhaul. Particularly if we want to review the trend about non-human aliens always being evil that @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl pointed out.

Nothing humanizes a character more than explaining the perfectly valid explanation for why they act the way they do.

Also, it's topical. A lot of the biggest advocates for free speech come off as jerks.

2¢: “Tellarite Diplomat” is pretty much an Oxymoron. Due to their combative, argumentative nature and instinctive habit of ritual insult, being assigned to the diplomatic corps is considered nearly as hazardous as soldiering (for a Tellarite).

That would be an interesting dichotomy to explore with a Tellarite character. Especially if a new show looked like TNG where fighting and diplomacy were both needed.

 

[pendrake]

Well, they are overdue for an overhaul. Particularly if we want to review the trend about non-human aliens always being evil...

The overhaul happened to an extent in the final season involving NX-01, Archer’s Enterprise. Have you viewed any of it? That, plus the two Kirk era appearances are what I am going on. I can’t recall any other speaking parts.


Aside: I am unconvinced of that trend. Three counter examples pop to mind very quickly, wait, four... five...

 

[pendrake]

Good idea. To expand on this lopsided sexes, they could also have liters to make up for this with twins and triplets being the norm. Single births might be superstitiously viewed as bad luck. OR what if males are nearly always born as twins or triplets and females are usually born singly.

This is about what I was thinking. Births are typically 2-6 with one female being the norm with 3 or more. I was thinking a single birth is extremely rare, a single female birth unheard of**. One girl three or four boars being the center of the bell curve.

**Or, so unique as to be fulfillment of a prophecy or a dire portent...

The less I were to learn about Tellarite mating rituals the better, I say keep it vague: but it is a big part of why they are always a bit bellicose and trying to assert dominance.

 

[Scalenex]

Inexplicably, Star Trek Discovery was renewed for a third season. The dark ages of Star Trek will continue for another year.

Mahrlect Kelvin timeline...

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

Inexplicably, Star Trek Discovery was renewed for a third season

I guess some people really that dumpster fire. The worst Star Trek series in my opinion.

 

[pendrake]

Inexplicably, Star Trek Discovery was renewed for a third season. The dark ages of Star Trek will continue for another year.

Thanks to my cable-free existence I cannot usefully comment......I only saw episode one.

 

[Scalenex]

I guess some people really that dumpster fire. The worst Star Trek series in my opinion.

I believe it is most popular with non-Star Trek fans.

Thanks to my cable-free existence I cannot usefully comment......I only saw episode one.

It's an exciting space adventure but it is not really Star Trek and the creators are deliberately trying to radically change the Star Trek continuity which has made nerds point out to me so I can point out to you that STD along with the recent movies is set in the Kelvin timeline which is not the same timeline with the original series, TNG, DS9, and Voyager.

 

[Aginor]

For me Star Trek ended with Voyager.
I did enjoy the new movies (I was pretty surprised I did because they also contain a lot of things that I dislike) but I couldn't get myself to watch the "Enterprise" show nor do I want to watch the show that shares its abbreviation with sexually transmitted diseases.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

I believe it is most popular with non-Star Trek fans.

That makes sense because it doesn't really feel like Star Trek.

but I couldn't get myself to watch the "Enterprise" show

Enterprise was okay. Not as good as the ones that came before but leagues better than STD.

nor do I want to watch the show that shares its abbreviation with sexually transmitted diseases.

Smart man. I watched the first season and was not impressed at all.