IMO, the best elements of the best series (TNG and DS9 IMO) were good characters, good acting and excellent enemies. Regarding enemies, there has already been a super-enemy (the Borg) who are near invincible. There already was an enemy (the Dominion) who wished to annihilate the Federation. I think in a new series, why not make the enemy other humans? It doesn't have to be Federation members/citizens, but it could be a rogue group, or even a grouping beyond Federation borders. The basic setting would be a new Starfleet ship class, the Blitzen-class. It would have a compliment of 500, and will be equipped with limited transwarp drives (in the form of jumps from sector to sector) and can sustain warp 9.9 for 400 light years straight. In the pilot episode, the crew are testing the transwarp jump capability of the USS Champion, a new Blitzen-class vessel recently commissioned by Starfleet. This is towards the end of the ship's shakedown cruise, but a malfunction in the drive send the ship of an intended course, and 8000 light years beyond the furthest exploration the Federation had made at that point (which is about 9,000 from the Federation border). In general, it is towards the far side of the Alpha Quadrant, away from the Beta Quadrant border. The crew detect signs of sapient life in a star system 10 light years from their new position, and seeks out to investigate. It happens that they discover human life signs on an M class planet in this system, and are quickly hailed by the inhabitants. They speak in modified forms of ancient human languages, such as Latin, Sanskrit, etc. and open fire on the Champion. The humans appear warp capable, and send a message stating that they wish to avenge the kidnappings of their ancestors. Whilst under attack, the Champion temporarily loses its shields, and part of the ship's database is downloaded by the humans. The Champion manages to reach Federation space again, but informs Starfleet Command of a new threat, this time being other humans. This will be a recurring enemy, with an arc within the final season outlining them finding who is responsible for taking them from Earth. Other sub-plots in the series length will be tension between the Federation and the Klingons, the Cardassians signing a treaty of protection with the Federation (due to Cardassia Prime being almost destroyed by the Dominion), the Romulans signing a memorandum of understanding with the Federation, and the Federation mediating wars between minor powers (the Tzenkethi overthrowing the Talarians would be an example). As for characters, the CO would be human, and have a strong grounding in engineering. The XO would also be human, but be female, and have experience in tactical tasks. The CMO would be a hologram, but fitted with an internal mobile emitter, similar to the one the Doctor had in Voyager. The Security/Tactical officer would be Andorian, whilst the flight controller is Tellarite. Moreover, there would be no ship's counsellor as a principal character, and the chief engineer would be human also. The chief engineer would also be the Ops officer, since these roles largely overlap, and require the same skill sets/competencies to perform. In this case, the chief engineer would be present on the bridge to a large degree, and have a team lead (who is not often seen on screen) to manage things in the Engineering section when he she (,i.e. the chief engineer) is not present there.
So basically it's about a super-ship and whoever they're fighting. Does this take place in the era after the Dominion War and before the Fall of the Federation?
Interesting notion. I'm less interested in the details about their spaceship than their backstory: do you envision them as long-ago colonists to other worlds who simply lost track of Earth or cut themselves off deliberately? Are they the descendants of Boomers? How did they get far enough out there in the cosmos that humanity has never encountered them before? Did they spend 100 years travelling away from the Milky Way on generational ships? It might be fun if in the hundreds of years since they left, they formed the nucleus of a shadow Federation, making alliances with their own local aliens, but not having the happy-face liberal political structure of the Federation. Were the Goa'uld involved?
Why does the OP have so many user names? Every idea for a new series seems to be posted by the same person with a different name.
The humans were taken from Earth millenia ago by an unknown race for slave labour. The humans eventually overthrew their masters, but they left behind warp technology, and other advanced items and have made their own empire in local space. When they made Federation contact, they assumed it was other humans who kidnapped their ancestors. A series-spanning arc would show the humans battling the Federation and in the final season the true nature of the humans' abduction will be revealed. And the point about languages, well it made sense since these would have been spoken millenia ago lol. That and the commanders on their ships would say "Kree!" if their subordinates questioned an order.
One thought, depending on what you mean by millenia ago, (ie. how long do you mean) spoken language does not stay stagnant.... or at least it shouldn't. One other thing you mentioned earlier about the EMH's holo emitter Doc got his from someone from the 26th century. Even if you are in the 25th, I doubt you can just duplicate those things. Given the time line, you might have a more hefty device like a backpack or a belt that performs the same function. It would just be another 100 years before the device could be shrunk down to arm band size.
I was worried for a moment - early or late 25th century, or 26th, might have been a problem. It's important that the ship's phasers represent a major technological advance for the Federation.
Uhm ... what? I'm sorry, but that makes not much sense. I like the idea of antagonistic humans who are not part of the federation, but they should have better reasons for fighting than being retarded. Who with even half a brain would look at previously unknown members of his own species and -knowing his ancestors were kidnapped by aliens- jump to the conclusion that they must be responsible for the kidnappings? Logically the first theories should be "They are from the original homeworld!" or "They must have been kidnapped, too!".
Given that these humans sound like the Kazon, maybe they really are that slow on the uptake. But yeah, this is a major problem with the idea. Their entire reason for being antagonistic to the Federation makes no sense at all. Who are these people and what do they want? Im not sure I get that yet. They are humans who want revenge against those who wronged them. Ok. "Humans" is generic. Taliban, Puritans, Bolsheviks, Conquistadores, etc were all "human" but they have important differences. And revenge is a motive, but why would they attack the Federation?
I'm not sure revenge against anyone would be a good motive in the first place, they already defeated and kicked out the kidnappers, stole their technology and built a friggin empire. I'd say being kidnapped and enslaved worked our pretty good in the long run. It's not like anyone would be interested in packing their belongings, turn the lights out in the empire and move back to earth after they finally got revenge. After several millenia they should give a rat's ass about earth, that's enough time for most of their new planets own history to be forgotten by the average person. Maybe it would be better if they just saw the federation as an expansionist rival, the fed-humans would be naturally interested in their "cousins" and would want to solve the mystery of who the kidnappers were, while the other humans are just like "Don't care, go away and don't touch our future territory!" They can still fight, get along better after some time and solve the mystery at the end.
Yes, I agree that their desire for revenge even agaisnt those who did actually kidnap them is questionable since, as you say, they already do seem to have gotten a measure of it against them. But revenge against the Federation is what makes no sense at all. They might have some lingering animus toward their abductors and want to find and attack their homeworld out of some disproportionate sense of vengeance. But the Federation as an enemy is what falls absolutely dead flat. They need some other reason for that. I dont know, they might want to know what happened to the world their ancestors came from. Humans do seem drawn to having a connection with their roots. But if they are to have some antagonism toward the Federation, there needs to be some reason for it. They have some puritanical religious ideology to spread the Truth. Or like the Borg/Cybermen they want to "upgrade the universe" or like (early)Species 8472/Daleks they want to stomp out the imperfection/infection of other species, or somesuch. Right now, theres just nothing there.
The conflict over the seven seasons would arise from the ancient beliefs of the humans, since they believe that the race who abducted them came from the co-ordinates of Earth's solar system. This would be a mis-understanding between the distant humans and the Federation, and will be resolved in season 7, when an arc would involve the distant humans finding out who abducted them. It's just a idea I thought of at random, since as I said one element of the best Trek series was an intriguing enemy.
Thats what isnt believable. The Federation didnt exist thousands of years ago. That would be painfully easy to demonstrate. And since these ancient humans were themselves from Earth you would think that they would have known that their own people didnt even have the airplane, let alone starships to take people to other stars. Youd have to say that they didnt realize that the coordinates they had were the coordinates of Earth. Rather they thought that these were coordinates of the alien species that abducted them. And either they didnt know where Earth was, or thought it was somewhere else. Then they encounter the federation, and learn that one of its many planets has the coordinates that think think is not Earth, but instead is the abductors. Therefore it must have been the Federation that abducted them. Then it somehow takes them seven years to figure out that "Earth" is the planet at those coordinates. A five minute conversation with anyone from the Federation would clear that all up. Not only would none of Starfleets ships, markings, history or languages be a match for the aliens, but their own Earth languages would be recognized immediately as Earth languages by the Starfleet people. Tricorder would show the DNA, etc. It would be too easy to learn that Earth is their home, Earth is the planet at those coordinates, Earth is in the Federation, The federation didnt exist thousands of years ago. Etc etc. You could have a group of humans to set out on their own for any number of reasons. They were genetically engineered, and believed in maximizing human potentional through it. Or you could have groups from any number of radical religious or political ideologies. THere are lots of other ways to get conflict between the Federation and other humans or breakway groups and factions. The one above is DOA.
It would make for an interesting series during the closing weeks of the Dominion War. It would make an interesting twist that The Dominion were responsible for (some of) the abductions of DY-era humans. Or, "flash frozen" financially well-off pre-WW3 humans, that died of AIDS or other diseases. Preserved in the hopes of a future cure, their satellite somehow ended up gently tumbling through interplanetary space well out of reach of the old fashioned AM/FM band "recall" signals. Humans that just so happened to be in the right place to encounter a cloaked Vorta scout or other Dominion subject-race. The Humans of the DY-era found themselves revived from long term stasis by Dominion technicians after the Founders sent forward scouts (in addition to Odo's brothers and sisters,) through various subspace underspace corridors, etc. to find resources of all kinds. They latched onto these primitive vessels, frequently towing them home to Dominion Space to discover the status of the sleeping/preserved crews aboard. The Founders realized there must be more where these humans came from, and continued to encounter more generation ships / warpships from the rest of the races of the Alpha & Beta quadrants. Fuelled by the Romulan-Earth War, the Dominion studied their new lab-rats closely. However, as time went by, the Humans and others won their freedom or so the Founders wanted them to believe. In time, The Dominion kept their heads down and their mouths shut, playing their cards close to the chest. The Founders learned and adapted, sat and listened, as did the humans and other 'lab rats' they'd been abducting/studying as the Founders mimicked their encroaching adversaries.
It is a good idea, but I have another idea that involve another Human faction. If you don't mind that I take several of your idea to mine.