I haven't read this, but I know it, so I must ask:

What color will the Star Trek season DVDs be now? OTL, it's Yellow season 1, Blue season 2, Red season 3 for the three departments. It all lines up. In this timeline, you have two extra seasons, so what would they be? Maybe the three color scheme would be totally screwed up, meaning completely different design.
 
I leave you with one question to consider: is this really the end of Star Trek in That Wacky Redhead...? There's only one way to find out! :D
Well, you have hinted that Star Trek may soon burst into a new field of merchandising heretofore untouched by the franchise and fairly new in general...;)
 
Shevek23 said:
I think the point of Trek in this timeline is, it gets a longer, deeper, better run in its original form, but it doesn't get half a dozen post-TOS spinoffs. It has a deeper impact in its day but that day ends much sooner, with none of the hope of endless life and eternal possibilities we get OTL. By today, 2013, Trek as a currently living fan phenomenon is of the past. There are a few Trekkies or Trekkers or whatever the ATL term is lurking about, but not too many.

...were I in the timeline I'd be one of those diehards hoping for resurrection of what we OTL call "the franchise."
This is the part of this TL I find the weirdest--& TBH the most unpleasant. I'm so used to having gotten a regular "Trek" fix for so many years, when "ST:E" went off OTL, I went into withdrawal (of sorts). TTL, many of the things I liked best about the franchise never happen.:eek:
Shevek23 said:
It doesn't matter if Sulu lives or dies; there will be not much more than fanfic about the characters that "survive." Trek won't be a future history spanning centuries after TOS
I do wonder if that's true. Even without the OTL early cancellation, how much of the passion in the fanbase remains TTL? I have a feeling there's still going to be fanfic, just in different format: More novels? More fans getting into comics? (It's not like fanfic didn't turn pro at times; recall Roy Thomas, to name just one.)
Shevek23 said:
If Milk evades his OTL fate, he and Takei are pretty much doomed to be each others' allies.
:cool::cool: If Milk IRL is anything like the biopic, that's gonna boost his profile enormously: enough for him to run for Governor?:cool: And make George his Chief of Staff, or something?:cool:
Shevek23 said:
I have to wonder--If Reagan substituted for Carter in 1976
Presume he does: what does that mean for Iran? Still a hostage situation? Still Eagle Claw? Does it go better? Or does Reagan in charge mean a different, more effective, response? I have my doubts: Eagle Claw was a clusterfuck for institutional reasons having nothing to do with who was PotUS...:rolleyes: I'd expect any "response" would be plagued with the same problems.

I wonder about Democratic (or -leaning) Reagan & the 3 strikes law. Does it still pass? (If it got butterflied, it would be immensely good for California--which wouldn't end up spending more on prison than university.:eek::confused::confused::rolleyes:)
Brainbin said:
There is no Carol (nor, obviously, David) Marcus ITTL.
:cool: I never liked her. And Buttrick was a dildo.:rolleyes:
Brainbin said:
The teasing probably went a good deal further ITTL (not crossing any line, mind you, but even IOTL Spock did show occasional interest in Nurse Chapel, in that Vulcan way of his). The Spock/Chapel relationship also serves as a microcosm for Sarek/Amanda
I never saw that. I always read it as understanding what she felt, tho he didn't (or couldn't) share it (at best, not express it, tho I never got the sense it was mutual). He was, however, capable of sympathy & kindness, in an aloof Vulcan way.
Brainbin said:
Chapel, upon receiving her M.D., returned to the Enterprise as Chief Medical Officer
I know this is canon, but I've never understood it. Not every nurse secretly aspires to be a doctor.:rolleyes: And and a really good head nurse can actually have more clout than a doctor.
Brainbin said:
conceived seven years after "Amok Time"
:mad::rolleyes: Why does everybody conclude Vulcans are only capable of any kind of sexual performance every seven years? (Or do you presume fertility only every seven? Which might make sense...) Which leaves in vitru...:rolleyes: And considering the differences in Vulcan & human biology, that's really the only viable option, despite the persistent (canon) nonsense about interspecies breeding.:rolleyes:
Brainbin said:
Not to mention he gets to direct his own scenes!
He gets to direct everybody's.:cool:;)
Brainbin said:
as mentioned in previous updates
:eek:
Brainbin said:
they went kaboom at the end of "These Were the Voyages"
Bein' dead never kept a good bad guy down yet.:p All you need is a writer with a good explanation.
Brainbin said:
I suspect it'll become a running joke in the fandom: everything always ends with a ship exploding and then the crew of the Enterprise getting promoted :D
Along with, "And the ship survived a five-year mission? How?":eek::p
Brainbin said:
It seemed only right that the greatest second banana in television history have her swan song opposite her old comedy partner.
It was. Sometimes you can give history a gift OTL didn't get.:cool:
Brainbin said:
Scotty's only child, and he's a very overprotective father
Oh, no argument: I was thinking from the actor's POV, not the character. In-character, he'd happily spend his entire remaining career aboard.
Brainbin said:
Thank you! It's also a way to avoid the common criticism, IOTL and ITTL, of the Enterprise being "the only ship in the quadrant"
It was never made clear OTL in "TOS", but Whitfield made out there were only about 12 ships in the same class as Enterprise so, like a supercarrier, there ought to be only one around. (She also ought to only be doing the very highest priority tasks, instead of doing the "cavalry patrol" duty she ended up on.)
Brainbin said:
Consider OTL Star Wars and Harry Potter fans, whose fandoms are so mainstream that they don't even have universally accepted nicknames, let alone disputes over them.
As a Trekker, Caskett, & reformed Marvel Zombie, I feel really, really sorry for them.:p
 
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No, Winston did not appear as Kyle. Though he did appear in a serial co-written by D.C. Fontana :D

Intriguing. Have the contacts made during the Who/Trek Crossover encouraged the Beeb to commision Who scripts from Trek writers ?

A fine corollary, although one that sets the bar a good deal higher - other than Star Trek (whose parodies have even become pop culture icons), there aren't that many properties which would meet your criteria. But it's a good way to gauge longevity and consistent popularity, which helps to define a true phenomenon.

The famous Punch cartoon about the trouble Daleks have with stairs may count. It has been referenced by other cartoons, such as this one, as well as in the series itself.

Cheers,
Nigel.
 
Intriguing. Have the contacts made during the Who/Trek Crossover encouraged the Beeb to commision Who scripts from Trek writers ?
Since the Dr Who continuity is the main hope in this timeline for more Trek continuity on screen, this is an interesting question!
The famous Punch cartoon about the trouble Daleks have with stairs may count. It has been referenced by other cartoons, such as this one, as well as in the series itself.

Cheers,
Nigel.

Of course the revived Welsh Who series, which is my major knowledge of the whole canon, addressed it in the first-season episode "Dalek." Which is among my favorite single episodes.
 
...
It was never made clear OTL in "TOS", but Whitfield made out there were only about 12 ships in the same class as Enterprise so, like a supercarrier, there ought to be only one around. (She also ought to only be doing the very highest priority tasks, instead of doing the "cavalry patrol" duty she ended up on.)...

Sorry, I've lost track of who "Whitfield" is?

A carrier is a very poor analogy to what the Constitution-class cruisers do. To begin with, it's very risky to operate with only one carrier in a task force, since many things, not just enemy strikes but simple accidents, can take a carrier flight deck out of operation for days or weeks. (During the Vietnam war for instance, a crash on the deck, or maybe it was some other kind of accident, took a US carrier running strike operations on Vietnam out for a long time). They operate in pairs, whenever possible, so the aircraft that happen to be airborne in case this happens to one deck have somewhere to land, otherwise that temporary loss of one deck leads to losing all those planes that would have to ditch in the sea. So if the modern USA has only 12 supercarriers, we can really only operate 6 task forces, and since some are always in dock for refitting or just normal shore maintenance, it's less than that.

Second of course, carriers are indeed our top of the line capital warships, and they are very expensive. They exist to have major warfighting capability, and in peacetime to project the power of the mighty superpower that can afford them--just one really, nowadays. (Insert whatever sort of smiley you like here, I can't decide on one.)

Starfleet on the other hand shouldn't be thought of in the same terms as a Great Power navy. It has to do that job too, but what it really is is a Coast Guard on steroids. The Federation is not so stupid as to be confident they will never be in a serious war--I believe they have been, a number of times, since the Romulan War that catalyzed its formation. But they hope to deter it, and meanwhile there's a lot of work to be done, most of which is very far from the job of a naval task force. They certainly do have to fight, a lot, but also lots of missions of peace. Exploration into the unknown; errands of mercy for distressed ships and colonies. They "show the flag" in many ways, many of which are not warlike at all.

Hence in military naval terms, the Connies are called "cruisers" advisedly. A 20th century naval cruiser, drawing on analogies of earlier types of capital ships, was meant to be able to either serve in a larger battle group in cooperation (with other cruisers and also a range of other types, smaller and larger) or to operate independently, and in peacetime that's most of what they did. The Connies are glorified Coast Guard cutters. Relative to a cutter they are much glorified indeed.

But something as vast and sprawling and involved in many diverse relations as the Federation can hardly be relying on a grand total of twelve (less with accumulating losses, TOS OTL showed the losses of three or four I think, in just 3 years) to get the job done. I can't believe they have less than a hundred, and if someone wants to assert thousands, I'd support it if they showed the Federation population numbers in the trillions. Twelve is absurdly few!

I'd weasel out of any canon remarks about "just twelve in her class" by legalistically interpreting "class" very very narrowly, to refer to say just one construction block over say 5 years, which my head canon says happened for the Connies in the late 2240s or early 2250s. Meanwhile there'd be many older blocks of slightly less advanced cruisers kept in operation, with only the very oldest being retired as the newest get built, and at that the Federation is expanding, so either the new blocks of construction get bigger or the retirement of the old ones is much deferred.

OTL canon, beginning with Wrath of Khan, fleshed this out more by showing additional classes of ship, both smaller than the Constitution cruisers. The small Oberth science ships (the Grissom) wouldn't be worth much in a fight, but the Miranda-class Reliant had some punch.

And there might be bigger ships though canon never showed anything but newer, bigger cruiser classes--fandom aside, we never see a "dreadnought." But there might be a handful, maybe indeed just a dozen, of those on hand in any generation, but we never see them make it to an actual fight. (Given the Dominion War arc of DS9, that makes it quite unlikely Starfleet ever goes in for them). Since we never see them even in the battle royales shown against Borg and Dominion, it would seem the Federation is resolved to address the issue of achieving suitable firepower against a big foe by building more cruisers. A strong case could be made they should have some dreadnoughts, ships not only bigger than a cruiser but dedicated exclusively to fighting, but apparently they don't. OTOH a lot of smaller ships are indeed dedicated fighters.

The cruisers need to be dispersed in peacetime, exploring and doing Coast Guard like rescue missions, circulating throughout the Federation and roaming around its bounds; when some Threat big or small appears that is too much for one cruiser, they group up into fleets and task forces and acquire auxiliary support from smaller ships.

If there were dreadnoughts, they'd be your carrier analogs. I guess Starfleet doesn't have them because they have no peacetime role, and if they did have them we wouldn't see them in operation because of that. They'd be hangar queens, lounging around central Starbases waiting for a call to large-scale mobilizations where they might actually be needed. You can't even use them for diplomatic missions, as they are too muscle-bound threatening. That's why they don't exist I guess.

Of course if this timeline's canon were to be extended, there's a chance some military advisor would point the way to including them when appropriate and the fans would see them and stop having to make them up out of sheer speculation!:p
 

Thande

Donor
Consider OTL Star Wars and Harry Potter fans, whose fandoms are so mainstream that they don't even have universally accepted nicknames, let alone disputes over them.

I always liked "Potheads" myself...

I think an issue is that Star Wars never went through that period of being kept alive by a dedicated fanbase like Star Trek was--well technically it was, but they weren't as loud and visible as Star Trek's--so there was no need for a disparaging nickname.
 
Of course the revived Welsh Who series, which is my major knowledge of the whole canon, addressed it in the first-season episode "Dalek." Which is among my favorite single episodes.

It was referenced in the original series as well. In Destiny of the Daleks, the Doctor escapes by climbing into a vent and taunts the following daleks by calling, "If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?".

In Rememberance of the Daleks, a dalek levitates up the stairs to chase the Doctor.

Cheers,
Nigel.
 
Guys

Given the fact that ST has a longer and more distinguished run that OTL with a bigger fan base and the potential for marketing that means I can't see new films/series not being made at some time or another. It might be that the mini-series means nothing else happens before the TL ends but almost certainly there will be a new generation series of some sort. It will be new generation because the original cast will be getting too old and also many won't want to, while also new actors will be cheaper. However it will be Star Trek based because that already has the back-ground at least partially built, saving costs and effort and tying in with the existing fan base.

Steve
 
Given the fact that ST has a longer and more distinguished run that OTL with a bigger fan base and the potential for marketing that means I can't see new films/series not being made at some time or another. It might be that the mini-series means nothing else happens before the TL ends but almost certainly there will be a new generation series of some sort. It will be new generation because the original cast will be getting too old and also many won't want to, while also new actors will be cheaper. However it will be Star Trek based because that already has the back-ground at least partially built, saving costs and effort and tying in with the existing fan base.

Right now, I'd say the question is whether TTL's production studios get "remake-mania" they way they have at times IOTL. If so, the same minds that IOTL decided to remake, say, "Mission: Impossible" may decide that it's time to dust off a proven classic.

...of course, that may prove just as frustrating to classic Trek fans ITTL as most remarks are to fans of the original in any universe. :)
 
Right now, I'd say the question is whether TTL's production studios get "remake-mania" they way they have at times IOTL. If so, the same minds that IOTL decided to remake, say, "Mission: Impossible" may decide that it's time to dust off a proven classic.

...of course, that may prove just as frustrating to classic Trek fans ITTL as most remarks are to fans of the original in any universe. :)

MI wasn't a remake, it was a continuation. A sad one in what it did to Phelps.
 
Brainbin,

You mention makeup overhauls for the series, but what about more non-human aliens? Does Henson return for puppet work? Anything particular notable new creatures (or returning? Horta FTW!).
 
Wow! This latest update seems to have brought out a lot of familiar faces, and new ones, which is just the way I like it :) I really appreciate your enthusiasm!

I believe that this TL will end with the annoucement of [verboten].
You can keep on believing that if you like, but you'll be in for a big disappointment, I'm afraid.

Maybe somehow the Catholic Church decides not to site their rehab center in White's district through butterflies? Or White doesn't develop depression?
Welcome aboard, Francisco! I'm glad you're reading, though obviously I cannot comment further on your speculation at this time.

I get the feeling that in his TTL career between the series ending and now, he's turned into a That Guy (because people will recognise him from Star Trek, but not remember who he is or who he played).
Glad you're still reading, Maltaran! You have it exactly right - Winston has become one of the leading character actors of the 1970s, working a type based largely on the skeletal Kyle persona ITTL; mild-mannered, overburdened, and sometimes in harm's way, but never without an unwavering sense of duty.

It could end with her announcing in the interview that she's playing the Captain of the Enterprise-X in Star Trek: The Next Generation. And ceding control of Desilu to Rick Berman. ;)
Sheesh, vultan, I'm glad you aren't writing your own timeline - hey, wait a minute... :eek:

Hey, Brainbin! When you get to circa 1984, I hope you discuss Miami Vice.
Well, we shall have to see when we get there, now won't we?

I haven't read this, but I know it, so I must ask:

What color will the Star Trek season DVDs be now? OTL, it's Yellow season 1, Blue season 2, Red season 3 for the three departments. It all lines up. In this timeline, you have two extra seasons, so what would they be? Maybe the three color scheme would be totally screwed up, meaning completely different design.
Glad you're still reading, Your Imperial Majesty! To answer your question: technically, DVD technology will not be beyond the conceptual stage by the conclusion of this timeline. However, in the event of CED season-long boxed sets by then, there are two possibilities other than each season's packaging having an associated colour scheme: each season, and thus the entire series, could have one (which would be consistent with the colours chosen for all previous releases, starting with The Best of Star Trek); or the releases might be done without regard to a colour scheme (for example, IOTL, the Beta and Laserdisc releases favoured a transporter room backdrop).

Well, you have hinted that Star Trek may soon burst into a new field of merchandising heretofore untouched by the franchise and fairly new in general...;)
Excellent point, LordInsane! And yes, whether or not Star Trek gets a screen continuation, we will be covering additional spinoff media before 1986.

TTL, many of the things I liked best about the franchise never happen.:eek:
I admit, I do lament butterflying The Wrath of Khan. And parts of The Search for Spock. And most of The Voyage Home. And... that's all :cool:

phx1138 said:
I do wonder if that's true. Even without the OTL early cancellation, how much of the passion in the fanbase remains TTL? I have a feeling there's still going to be fanfic, just in different format: More novels? More fans getting into comics? (It's not like fanfic didn't turn pro at times; recall Roy Thomas, to name just one.)
I've mentioned fan fiction in the past, and I'll have cause to do so again; as IOTL, it is the bread-and-butter of creative expression within the Star Trek fandom.

phx1138 said:
Bein' dead never kept a good bad guy down yet.:p All you need is a writer with a good explanation.
Even in science-fiction, it's hard to come back from being disintegrated by a massive explosion (clones and duplicates notwithstanding).

phx1138 said:
It was. Sometimes you can give history a gift OTL didn't get.:cool:
Well, that is why I started writing this timeline, after all... :)

Intriguing. Have the contacts made during the Who/Trek Crossover encouraged the Beeb to commision Who scripts from Trek writers ?
Yes and no. D.C. Fontana was eager to spread her wings as a freelancer after Star Trek ended in 1971, and this was one of the first gigs she got in that capacity.

NCW8 said:
The famous Punch cartoon about the trouble Daleks have with stairs may count. It has been referenced by other cartoons, such as this one, as well as in the series itself.
Other examples include many elements of James Bond (particularly Blofeld, and that cat of his), and Star Wars (including Hardware Wars and, of course, Spaceballs).

(If you can read this, you don't need glasses.)

I think an issue is that Star Wars never went through that period of being kept alive by a dedicated fanbase like Star Trek was--well technically it was, but they weren't as loud and visible as Star Trek's--so there was no need for a disparaging nickname.
It helps that Star Wars fandom always skewed younger - thus, as the years went by, the original trilogy came to be seen as purely nostalgia, or perhaps as a rite of passage, with the super-nerdy aspects of the fandom (such as the Expanded Universe) being kept to a tiny, "hardcore" subculture. In fact, structurally, the Trekkies ITTL probably most resemble the Star Wars fandom of 1983-97, with their hardcore, of course, being the "Puritans" - though the mini-series has no clear analogy IOTL, obviously.

Given the fact that ST has a longer and more distinguished run that OTL with a bigger fan base and the potential for marketing that means I can't see new films/series not being made at some time or another. It might be that the mini-series means nothing else happens before the TL ends but almost certainly there will be a new generation series of some sort. It will be new generation because the original cast will be getting too old and also many won't want to, while also new actors will be cheaper. However it will be Star Trek based because that already has the back-ground at least partially built, saving costs and effort and tying in with the existing fan base.
Intriguing insight, Steve. We'll just have to see how right (or wrong) you are! :cool:

Right now, I'd say the question is whether TTL's production studios get "remake-mania" they way they have at times IOTL. If so, the same minds that IOTL decided to remake, say, "Mission: Impossible" may decide that it's time to dust off a proven classic.
Now there's an idea, remaking Mission: Impossible. Now, which studio owns that one again? ;)

Andrew T said:
...of course, that may prove just as frustrating to classic Trek fans ITTL as most remakes are to fans of the original in any universe. :)
And yet there are a number of prominent exceptions IOTL, most of which (appropriately enough) have been genre properties! Go figure.

MI wasn't a remake, it was a continuation. A sad one in what it did to Phelps.
If we're talking about the film, indeed so. As bad as Kirk's OTL death was, I must admit that Phelps had it even worse. At least Peter Graves wasn't playing him.

Tell that to the Potterheads. :D
Glad you're still reading, Lizzie! Though "Potterhead", ironically enough, seems to post-date the heyday of the fandom; if anything, "Pottermaniac" was the dominant of the terms jockeying for position at the time, though it seems to have faded from popularity with the decline of Harry Potter itself from the limelight (logically enough).

You mention makeup overhauls for the series, but what about more non-human aliens? Does Henson return for puppet work? Anything particular notable new creatures (or returning? Horta FTW!).
Excellent question, e of pi! Yes, Jim Henson and his crew returned, along with Janos Prohaska (who did not die in a plane crash in 1974 ITTL), and Wah Chang. This contributes to the impression that the mini-series is in some ways a continuation of the fifth season, being seen as far more style than substance.

(And yes, the Horta get a cameo; as do the Gorn, along with - naturally - the Tribbles.)

Only the movie. The TV remake kept Phelps...in fact, I got into MI (sort of) via the remake TV show.
Indeed so - Phelps as played by Peter Graves, in fact. A shame it only lasted two years... as you can tell, the late 1980s were big on revival shows, IOTL.

One great thing about being the author of your own timeline: only then do you truly realize how much fun being cryptic can be :cool:
 
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Shevek23 said:
Sorry, I've lost track of who "Whitfield" is?
That's from The Making of Star Trek.
Shevek23 said:
A carrier is a very poor analogy to what the Constitution-class cruisers do.
I wasn't meaning to compare function, just cost & importance.
Shevek23 said:
Second of course, carriers are indeed our top of the line capital warships, and they are very expensive. They exist to have major warfighting capability, and in peacetime to project the power of the mighty superpower that can afford them
Which was my impression of the intent of the Connies in "TOS".
Shevek23 said:
Starfleet on the other hand shouldn't be thought of in the same terms as a Great Power navy. It has to do that job too, but what it really is is a Coast Guard on steroids.
No argument. The main strength wouldn't be in big, expensive ships like Enterprise, but in ships like Reliant.
Shevek23 said:
Hence in military naval terms, the Connies are called "cruisers" advisedly. A 20th century naval cruiser, drawing on analogies of earlier types of capital ships, was meant to be able to either serve in a larger battle group in cooperation (with other cruisers and also a range of other types, smaller and larger) or to operate independently, and in peacetime that's most of what they did.
I'd agree, there--but I always imagined them as elevated to a special status, a special rarity. If they aren't, if every ship in the fleet is saving the universe on a routine basis, it's a hell of a lot more dangerous in space than I ever imagined.:eek::eek: If only the "big boys" face existential threats, & there's only a couple dozen of them in all, OTOH...Kirk & Co saving everything makes way more sense--they're the firemen sent to put out the "Chicago Fires", the SF fire after the '06 'quake, not the guys sent to the structure fires with the paramedics (so to speak:p).
Shevek23 said:
But something as vast and sprawling and involved in many diverse relations as the Federation can hardly be relying on a grand total of twelve (less with accumulating losses, TOS OTL showed the losses of three or four I think, in just 3 years) to get the job done. I can't believe they have less than a hundred, and if someone wants to assert thousands, I'd support it if they showed the Federation population numbers in the trillions. Twelve is absurdly few!
It may be 12 actually operational, which might mean 50 built. If it was 12 Enterprises (her class, same spec), with maybe 50 almost exactly like her (so Matt Decker's Constellation is a Porpoise or Salmon, & Ron Tracey's Exeter a Tambor, to her Tench, or even Tang), I have no problem with that.
Shevek23 said:
I'd weasel out of any canon remarks about "just twelve in her class" by legalistically interpreting "class" very very narrowly, to refer to say just one construction block over say 5 years, which my head canon says happened for the Connies in the late 2240s or early 2250s. Meanwhile there'd be many older blocks of slightly less advanced cruisers kept in operation, with only the very oldest being retired as the newest get built, and at that the Federation is expanding, so either the new blocks of construction get bigger or the retirement of the old ones is much deferred.
That's always been my thinking, too, tho there's a body of opinion (including at Memory Alpha, if you can believe it:eek:), which holds they're all the same class--even with over 600 contract numbers between them.:eek::eek::confused::rolleyes:
Shevek23 said:
OTL canon, beginning with Wrath of Khan, fleshed this out more by showing additional classes of ship, both smaller than the Constitution cruisers. The small Oberth science ships (the Grissom) wouldn't be worth much in a fight, but the Miranda-class Reliant had some punch.
I always believed there were. For any fleet to function, there have to be: specialist supply ships, smaller "corvettes" or "frigates", tugs, so forth. These are just the "ships of the line", the prestige ships.
Shevek23 said:
OTOH a lot of smaller ships are indeed dedicated fighters.
IMO, that was one of the stupidest things the franchise did. Ships as sophisticated & powerful as Enterprise should have made "fighters" a nonsense. And those battles in "DS9" with thousands of ships are preposterous.:rolleyes:
Shevek23 said:
The cruisers need to be dispersed in peacetime, exploring and doing Coast Guard like rescue missions, circulating throughout the Federation and roaming around its bounds; when some Threat big or small appears that is too much for one cruiser, they group up into fleets and task forces and acquire auxiliary support from smaller ships.

If there were dreadnoughts, they'd be your carrier analogs. I guess Starfleet doesn't have them because they have no peacetime role, and if they did have them we wouldn't see them in operation because of that. They'd be hangar queens, lounging around central Starbases waiting for a call to large-scale mobilizations where they might actually be needed. You can't even use them for diplomatic missions, as they are too muscle-bound threatening. That's why they don't exist I guess.
I agree with your first proposition, they'd be sent on varying duty (to which I'd add, it'd be only the very top priority, or they'd sent a Reliant or something), but not the second. Starfleet never had dedicated warships, so that kind of hangar queen is a non-starter, nor am I suggesting for an instant that's the correct parallel.
Shevek23 said:
Of course if this timeline's canon were to be extended, there's a chance some military advisor would point the way to including them when appropriate and the fans would see them and stop having to make them up out of sheer speculation!:p
That's something IMO "TOS" really, really needed: a tech advisor who'd know this stuff. Plus production people who'd listen, & fix it. Read David's comments on the problems with the script of "The Menagerie", then watch the episode: none of the problems were fixed...:rolleyes:
ceding control of Desilu to Rick Berman. ;)
That would be a dystopia.:eek::eek: And a catastrophe.:eek::eek:

Brainbin said:
I admit, I do lament butterflying The Wrath of Khan. And parts of The Search for Spock. And most of The Voyage Home. And... that's all :cool:
Philistine.:p
Brainbin said:
Even in science-fiction, it's hard to come back from being disintegrated by a massive explosion (clones and duplicates notwithstanding).
You'd be surprised: tears in space, undiscovered wormholes, warp bubbles around escape pods...& that's just off the top of my head.;)
Brainbin said:
Well, that is why I started writing this timeline, after all... :)
:)
Brainbin said:
Now there's an idea, remaking Mission: Impossible.
"M:ITNG"?:p (What's Michael Dorn doing...?:p {He'd be used to all the latex.:p} Just pick Suzy Plakson or Elizabeth Dennehy for the Barbara Bain role, 'kay?)
 
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Both of the Peladon stories would have aired during the Yank Years ITTL

Actually, the Peladon stories might not have aired at all. It seems that The Curse of Peladon was written as an allegory of Britain's entry into the Common Market. Since ITTL, Britain stays out of the Common Market, this story and its sequel would not be written.

The Monster of Peladon was also influenced by the 1973 Miners Strike, which might also be butterflied (or at least delayed) by having Labour in power instead of the Conservatives

Cheers,
Nigel.
 
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Thande

Donor
Glad you're still reading, Your Imperial Majesty! To answer your question: technically, DVD technology will not be beyond the conceptual stage by the conclusion of this timeline. However, in the event of CED season-long boxed sets by then, there are two possibilities other than each season's packaging having an associated colour scheme: each season, and thus the entire series, could have one (which would be consistent with the colours chosen for all previous releases, starting with The Best of Star Trek); or the releases might be done without regard to a colour scheme (for example, IOTL, the Beta and Laserdisc releases favoured a transporter room backdrop).

Ah, CED, the most obscure video format ever, it makes Laserdisc look positively mainstream by comparison.

If they want a bright colour scheme, yellow and black or blue and black like the opening text would make sense, or they could do it white and red to fit the colours of the Enterprise's hull, or shiny gold and black like the chest insignia... The TOS-R DVDs logically enough use gold, red and blue for each season to fit the different division colours, but there are more than three seasons in your TL so that doesn't work.
 

JSmith

Banned
Brainbin-I love your timeline. I noticed of course you have a major change in Colorado by having the 1976 Olympics take place here as planned. I have another suggestion that is related to the movie Argo and would seem to fit in your timeline where science fiction has more cultural currency.


http://www.westword.com/2013-01-17/news/argo-golden-globes-science-fiction-land/
Argo is as hot as Science Fiction Land might have been

See also: The symbolism in Argo's wisecracking script is impossible to miss

Comments (0) Thursday, Jan 17 2013

Ben Affleck's Argo surprised some film critics by taking home the Best Drama and Best Director awards at the Golden Globes last Sunday. The movie tells the little-known, mostly true 1970s story of how CIA agent Tony Mendez rescued six American embassy workers hiding from the Islamist militants who had taken 52 of their co-workers hostage in Iran. To do it, Mendez disguised the six as the Canadian film crew of a science-fiction movie called Argo and then ushered them home on a commercial flight.



See also: The symbolism in Argo's wisecracking script is impossible to miss

But there's an even lesser-known story behind the tale, one that's left out of the Affleck version. The fake movie that the fake film crew was supposedly making was a real screenplay — and it was slated to be filmed at a massive theme park called Science Fiction Land, to be built in Aurora.
In the Affleck telling, Mendez finds the script for Argo in a pile of cast-offs; it's described as a Star Wars rip-off full of aliens and spaceships. In real life, the script was called Lord of Light, and it was based on Roger Zelazny's best-selling 1967 novel of the same name and written for the silver screen by an eccentric named Barry Ira Geller, who imagined building Science Fiction Land at three times the size of Disneyland, complete with a 38-story Ferris wheel, a holographic zoo, a 1,000-lane bowling alley attended by robots, security guards equipped with jetpacks, a heated dome, and fourteen Las Vegas-style dinner theaters.
Geller assembled a team of well-known collaborators, including comic-book artist Jack Kirby, author Ray Bradbury, architect Buckminster Fuller, and a Vegas promoter and stuntman named Jerry Schafer. The plans were big news in Colorado in 1979, but within weeks, the project came to a screeching halt when it was revealed that Schafer had lied about having $400 million in financing and four Aurora officials were indicted for trying to use inside information to buy land adjacent to the proposed park.
A documentary, directed by Judd Ehrlich of New York City and titled Science Fiction Land, hopes to tell that part of the story. "I'm really elated," Ehrlich told Westword's Melanie Asmar last November after raising more than $54,000 on Kickstarter to finance the film. Launching the Kickstarter campaign at the same time Argo hit theaters "was a really effective way to get the word out there...that there is more to the story."
Since the Kickstarter campaign ended, Ehrlich says, he's spent much of his time packing and shipping the prizes promised to donors, including Science Fiction Land T-shirts, mugs and posters. He plans to use the money to continue filming, including some scenes in Aurora.
"It's really exciting for us that Argo is continuing its run," he adds. "The longer it stays in the public's consciousness and its mind, the more interest there will be in the real story."





http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/04/science_fiction_land_aurora.php


Science Fiction Land could have been Aurora's biggest tourist trap, if its backers weren't crooks


By Melanie Asmar Mon., Apr. 9 2012 at 2:59 PM


Big photos below.Tomorrow, the Colorado Economic Development Commission will hold its first public hearing on the six projects vying for big-bucks sales-tax rebates under the state's Regional Tourism Act. They include a 1,500-room hotel and conference center in Aurora. The hotel would be the city's biggest tourism draw -- a distinction that, had things turned out differently, could have gone to an amusement park called Science Fiction Land.
As explained in our cover story about Aurora's new tourism strategy, "Wish You Were Here!", Science Fiction Land was the brainchild of a Hollywood stuntman named Jerry Schafer, who showed up in Aurora in 1979 with a plan for an amusement park three times the size of Disneyland. It was to feature a 38-story Ferris wheel, a holographic zoo, a 1,000-lane bowling alley attended by robots, security guards equipped with jetpacks, and the "Pavilions of Joy," made up of fourteen Las Vegas-style dinner theaters. The park, Schafer said, would also serve as the set of a $50 million sci-fi flick called Lord of Light, which was to be the most expensive movie ever.

This rendering appeared in the Rocky Mountain News on December 9, 1979.Here's how the Rocky described the project in a November 30, 1979 story:
The film...is based on the 1967 Hugo Award-winning fantasy novel by Robert Zelazny. As (writer Barry Ira) Geller described it, the movie is about a "very advanced civilization" that journeys to a new planet and "takes over the technology." They, in effect, become godlike heroes and take control of the earth. One of these superheroes revolts against his colleagues and attempts to "bring technology back to mankind." This results in "a struggle of epic proportions," and presumably, in a battle scene the likes of which the world has never seen.
The Rocky also described the project's questionable funding:
Schafer said that this $50 million movie -- and $400 million theme park -- will be financed from sales of plots in the Science City project, a 10,000-acre section of land about eight miles east of the I-225-East Colfax Avenue intersection. Starting with only $500,000, but with an "irrevocable letter of credit" for $400 million from the Royal Bank of Canada, Schafer said, the company plans to bring in a steady income to finance the film.
The park, meanwhile, was to be located "13 miles east of Denver on a plot that stretches from East Colfax Avenue to beyond East Sixth Avenue, and bordered by Picadilly Road on the west and Gun Club Road on the east," the Rocky reported.
But it turned out to be a scam. Schafer never had a $400 million line of credit. A December 9, 1979 Rocky story revealed that he'd declared bankruptcy in 1978. The Rocky also did some digging on Geller, the L.A. scriptwriter tapped to write Lord of Light:
Until several months ago, Geller lived in a dilapidated, cockroach-infested basement apartment in downtown Hollywood. While Geller lived in the building, vacant flats there were rented to men who watched pornographic movies with streetwalkers, building manager William Deanyer said last week as he showed a News reporter Geller's former apartment. Within the past year, Deanyer recalls, he told Geller he would have to pay his rent in cash because he once bounced a $175 rent check.
"I don't see how Barry Geller could do such a movie," Deanyer said. "When he was here, he had a leased typewriter and drove a leased yellow Mercedes, which he told me he had to give up because he was so short of money."
Schafer and Geller's lies soon caught up with them. On December 14, 1979, the Rocky reported that Schafer had been arrested for securities fraud. Local authorities claimed that he and Geller had "convinced an immigrant who speaks only broken English to give them his life savings -- $50,000 -- to help finance the park," the Rocky reported. An arrest warrant had been issued for Geller too, but he'd "left the country."
By the end of the investigation, Schafer, Geller and a third man associated with Schafer, Larry Chance, would be charged with eleven felonies, according to the Rocky. Aurora officials got caught in the scandal, too. Four, including former mayor Fred Hood, were indicted for trying to use inside information to buy land adjacent to the proposed park in the hope of making a profit. One accused city councilman resigned in disgrace.
And so Science Fiction Land, with its jetpack-wearing security guards and holographic zoo, never came to be. But thankfully, its dramatic saga is chronicled forever on microfiche at the Denver Public Library.
And if you're interested in hearing more about the (for reals!) proposed 1,500-room hotel and conference center in Aurora, stop by the Colorado Economic Development Commission hearing tomorrow in the Denver Post building's auditorium, 101 West Colfax Avenue in Denver. The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more on when the commission will make its decision, check out this timeline.


Flip the page to see Science Fiction Land headlines from 1979 and 1980.

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/04/science_fiction_land_aurora.php?page=2
 
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JSmith

I can't see it ever being done, except as a Hollywood mess possibly but a film of Lord of Light!:D:D:D:D That would be exquisite. However while the book is nowhere near as long as LoR I think it would still be bloody difficult, if not impossible to get the real details and plot into a move. Possibly a trilogy.

Steve
 
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