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The
next Star Trek series on TV will be Excellent
News has leaked
out to the 'Nest concerning Brannon and Berman's new Trek universe
series, you know, the one planned as the follow-on to DS9 and eventually
Voyager when it's retired shortly.
Here's the
scoop. You know all that stuff about Star Trek Flight Academy. Forget
it. That ain't the plot.
Apparently,
the new Trek is going to feature a Star Fleet vessel called the
USS Excellent.
The action
is going to be set at the far end of the Federation frontier from
where the Klingons, Romulans etc hang out - nice excuse to trot
out some new races & faces.
We're not fountains
of Trek lore, so some fans might be able to help us out here, but
apparently in STTNG there were references to some 'good people'-type
political alliance at the nub end of the Federation that takes 6
months in Warp to reach.
The analogy
being if the Federation is the USA, then this other lot are the
European Community.
All very settled
and civilised, all rather peaceful and boring. No Trek stories to
date have ever focused on this area of space - I guess trade deal
arguments over tariffs on Romulan Ale don't an interesting plot
arc make.
Well, apparently
the EC analogue is being threatened by a newly discovered hostile
alien super-power and large swathes of it quickly falls to their
guns.
The Federation
needs to make a decision. Do they support their previously friendly
neighbour and risk all-out war with the new kids on the block, or
do they let their chums fall and invite a deadly new enemy to camp
on their distant borders.
The enemy
(we weren't leaked the name) is being described as nomadic space
barbarians - fairly primitive and gothic, possibly even steam-driven
ion drives for in-system travel, but hordes and hordes of the buggers.
Sounds like
Orks in space to us.
Because this
area of space has been as exciting and as dangerous as Sweden for
over a hundred years, the Federation has hardly any warships in
the area - only trading stations, science ships, research posts
and small police action capable vessels one size bigger than runabouts.
The one exception?
The USS Excellent, a new class of mega-ship that has been sent to
take part in an extensive joint Federation/EC knowledge & experience
exchange program.
Yep, they're
the only Federation vessel worth a spit on the ground - and likely
to remain that way for 6 months - and the future of the UFP hangs
on their actions.
Sounds like
a good opener.
Our source
was cagey about the casting choices because it's still going on,
but there might be a few interesting species choices on the vessel
following Paramount Chief's concerns that Babylon Five was out-gunning
them on the realistic alien aliens front.
Do we detect
a whiff of CGI in the air? Just as long as Jar Jar Binks doesn't
make a crossover appearance, we will be more than satisfied.
More of the
new Trek series from our Deep Throat source as we wheedle it out
of him (or her).
The
latest Star Trek Books
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