Punch It: Writing In Star Trek

All the captains were written uniquely and all the actors had inputThe captain has always been the main focus of the story, until recently. In Star Trek, they command the crew as well as the show. But the beauty of it is there is no one set mold for what is a captain. Kirk is different from Picard. Picard is different from Sisko. Sisko is different from Janeway and so on and so forth. How were they written differently to make them unique? How much input did the actors who portrayed them have in their development? Listen to hear us analysis this and a whole lot more.

Punch It continues its writing analysis of Gilmore Girls with season 6?When Punch It changed formats to being a Star Trek podcast, we promised that we wouldn't abandon certain themes we've been working on. Our Gilmore Girls series review was one of those and we are keeping our promise. This week we tackle season 6 and all its divisiveness. Love it or hate it, it drastically changed the story for all those involved; especially our girls. What did you think of season 6? Sherman-Palladino right on the money or a complete waste of a season?  

Depression, Mental Illness, and Trauma in Star TrekThe above realities have been dealt with more than you think in Star Trek. Sometimes better than others but at least they've been given a face in our favorite franchise. Every single iteration of live action Trek have dealt with these concepts in some form or another. This week, we discuss what has worked and what hasn't from a writing standpoint. Discovery is what sparked this conversation and you will hear us discuss the above as well as sexual assault in a respectful manner. At the top of the show, Charlynn opens up about her most recent Trek like treatment for depression. Click here for more information on TMS. Go here for more information on mental health services. ?

Star Trek story-on-the-fly about the Defiant?Finding the gaps in Star Trek and creating stories in-between is one of the many great things about being a fan. Char and Tristan love being able to ask "What if?" and develop interesting stories around that question. This week we talk about the summer break between seasons 2 and 3 of Deep Space Nine. What did Benajmin Sisko have to go through in order to get the Defiant? Did he even want it in the first place? 

A Star Trek story written on-the-fly about Cartwright and Valeris Star Trek fans love a good continuation. We live for stories of the minutia and that are around the corners from the characters we know and love. That is where we are with Admiral Cartwright and Valeris. What happened to them the moment Undiscovered Country ended? We explore that in this week's episode.John Mills joins Tristan Riddell this week while Charlynn Schmiedt takes a brief sabbatical. 

The many different types of story arcs in Star TrekStar Trek is known to be heavily episodic by nature. TOS, TNG, VOY and even early DS9 and ENT were all episodic. DS9 and ENT both slowly turned into a serialized show but they definitely didn’t pioneer it within the realm of Trek.This week Punch It looks at all of the major story arcs of all of the iterations of Trek. With a focus on feature-length episodes, two-parters, and even three-parters.?What are some of your favorites? 

The Writing Styles of Star Trek's Bottle Shows Whether you know the technical term or not, you are aware of the concept as a Star Trek fan: Bottle Shows. It's where the production team tries to save some money and has their intrepid crew stay put on the ship. They don't go to a new planet, they don't meet a new alien race (for the most part), and the special effects are minimal.Some people consider these episodes boring but Char and Tristan think that with constraint comes creativity. Due to this outlook, they examine how you can get a more intimate character driven story without the pew pew.

Rewriting Star Trek: Voyager's "Threshold"This is the first episode of the rebranded Punch It! We are now Punch It: Writing in Star Trek. We hope you join us as we take this trek through the stars have more of a focus on the final frontier. Don't worry, we'll have plenty of "Away Missions" to other galaxies. This rebrand just gives us more of a license to talk about what we love and hold dear: Star Trek.As our opener, we tackle one of the most infamous episodes in all of Trek. You guessed it, "Threshold". Do we keep the lizard babies? Does Tom rip out his own tongue? Listen and find out.

Star Trek: Discovery Writing StyleWe're four episodes into Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access and boy do people have differing opinions. Regardless of opinion, CBS brought in some heavy hitters when it comes to the writers room. But is the talent that they brought in enough to tell a 2017 paid for story and have it brought to life? Char and Tristan start the show with a discussion about a possible format change on Punch It. Listen and let your opinion be heard in the comments below or at our website. 

Gilmore Girls Season 5 Writing AnalysisWe've done this 4 times before and we still have more to do and we couldn't be happier. Char is continuing her first-time watch of Gilmore Girls and she is knee deep in Stars Hallow. A lot happened this season with the Gilmore girls. Rory ditched Dean and found Logan, Lorelai found Luke, lost Luke, then found him again. Emily lost Richard, then found him again. Is the writing getting repetitive or are we just experiencing the normal ups and downs of the lives of a college student, an inn owner, and a socialite?Listen and let us know what you think.

Part II of our Star Trek: Nemesis RewriteLast week we postulated what could have been better with Star Trek: Nemesis. Turns out that a whole lot could have been improved. We set the stage and gave the story some bones but we weren't even close to finishing. Like a Raptor in space swooping down to destroy so does our rewrite. We hack at the script, replace some characters, but keep a surprising amount of themes. You'll never guess who we bring in to replace Shinzon. 

Rewriting Star Trek: NemesisThis topic was suggested to us after we decided to tackle Star Trek: The Next Generation's premiere episode "Encounter at Farpoint". We thought it had an agreeable symmetry to it and so we soldiered on with this herculean task. To say that this is not beloved by the fanbase would be a gross exaggeration. It is often referred to as one of the worst Star Trek movies made. Why didn't it work? Why did fans hate it so much? More importantly, how could we make it better? We answer all this and more in this episode. 

Part II of our rewrite of Star Trek: The Next Generation's PremiereWe finish what we start here on Punch It and so here is Part II of our Encounter at Farpoint rewrite. This section focuses heavily on Q and what his game is. Does he still put humanity on trial? Does Farpoint station still exist in the end? Does Q still rock the red cloak and badass jewelry? Listen and find out.

What if Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 2017?Encounter at Farpoint is the worst of all of the Star Trek openers. There, I said it. It might have worked in 1987 in order to continue the series but boy does it not hold up today. Star Trek: The Next Generation is not only arguably the best Star Trek series, it is arguably one of the best TV series of all time. But its premiere episode is extremely wanting. On this week of Punch It, we rewrite Encounter at Farpoint from a 2017 sensibility but keep all of the stuff that would matter later on intact. What do you think of Encounter at Farpoint?

What would a sequel to Tron: Legacy look like?There are rumors of a reboot of Tron starring Jared Leto but sadly a Tron: Legacy sequel is most likely dead. Or should I say derezzed? Char just saw Tron for the first time as well as Tron: Legacy and she loved them. She was lucky enough to actually see the original with a live introduction from the man who played Tron himself, Bruce Boxleitner. Since Tron 3 won't happen in real life, we do what we do best here at Punch It. We take a concept and punch it up! Listen to what we think would be a great addition to the Tron universe as we write this movie on-the-fly.

Gilmore Girls Season 4Where you lead, I will follow. Here we are again and it's season four of this great and dynamic show. Char is going through the show for the first time and Tristan is on watch 99.  We've reviewed the writing/direction of the previous seasons and Char and Tristan are loving every minute.Rory is off to Yale, Lorelai is building her own inn with Sookie, and Luke? Well, Luke is having his own issues. Listen to us analyze the writing styles of the fast paced comedy/drama as we dive deep into what a Gilmore relationship is like when they're separated. 

John and Tristan write a Star Wars standalone on-the-flyChar is out this week and so it is up to John and Tristan to write a Star Wars movie on-the-fly. This is not like the show's fictional sequel to the original 1977 film. This is a self-contained story set in that galaxy far, far away.We've gotten Rogue One already and soon we're getting a Han Solo picture. Even a Boba Fett story has been rumored. But what if a movie came out that was not focused on a central event or main character that we already knew about? What if it was set on a world that was removed from the galactic conflict, until now?

Some of our favorite fictional female charactersThey make up over half of our population but yet don't come close to that when it comes to representation in the media. Everyone in the world is related to one and knows them but for some reason, they are rarely written well. As unbelievable as that may sound, we're talking about female characters in pop culture. It's hard to find good female representation in the media but it is getting better. This week we discuss what it takes to write a woman well and who are some of our favorites.Who are some of your favorite female characters?

Our continued story of the Enterprise-C and her crewLast week we explored what a prequel Star Trek show could look like if it was focused on the Enterprise-C. We fleshed out the show's mission statement as well as her captain, Rachel Garret. We promised that this week we would develop the rest of the crew and we asked you guys to help out. A lot of you emailed, tweeted, and Facebooked us and we appreciate it. We were able to incorporate some of your ideas and we're excited to share them with the rest of you.What will the first oficer look like? Will the doctor be a hot head? Will we have an alien engineer? Listen and find out.

Developing a Star Trek Enterprise C Prequel ShowNot much is known about Rachel Garrett and her valiant crew of the Enterprise C. All that we know is that they sacrificed themselves in order to avert a war between the Federation and the Klingons, saving millions of lives. This storyline was made famous in The Next Generation's "Yesterday's Enterprise". The rest is all up to speculation.This week, Char and Tristan develop what a television show based around the Enterprise C would look like if it was made today instead of Discovery.Is this a show you would watch?