Reading the thread, I notice a lot of ideas are based on an era. I don't mind which era a new show is in but I would love to see a Star Trek show that focuses more on the crew: the personnel drama, the relationships, trust and betrayal, rivals and families. What if you had a Lord of the Flies scenario happen on a star ship? That would be incredible to watch as a crew of children form packs or cliques and vie for control of the ship while trying to survive the borders of unknown space. I think today's Trek would have to follow the success of the newer shows like Madmen, Thrones, Breaking Bad, etc. People expect dramatic suspense, twists, treachery, and general surprises.
Hmmmm... I posted this notion before, because it still strikes me as potentially the most successful. STAR TREK: TO BOLDLY GO Adventures of the USS Enterprise-G, exploring uncharted areas of the Alpha Quadrant (the galaxy is huuuuuuuuge--and it will take tens of thousands of years to explore even half of one quarter of it). Our main characters are a group of very promising junior officers who will rise in the ranks as the series proceeds. Probably three or four such, at least two of whom were in the Academy together and so have some baggage. One or more of them end up on a fair number of away missions. Among these is a young lady named Jaime Kirk, a relative of the most famous Starfleet officer ever (she's descended from George, James Kirk's brother) and having to live up to this, despite her own interest in science rather than command. Imagine Jennifer Lawrence or someone like her in the role. She and her fellows would be "on the line" as far as threats and problems, much as the Wild Cards in Space Above and Beyond (but not as a fighter squadron). They would be "hands on" in terms of rescue missions of planetary surveys, be armed with phasers to find the BEM that devoured an earlier away team, etc. The senior officers would be secondary characters, much as Sulu and Uhura in TOS--recurring and mentioned a lot, but not the main focus. Not unlike Skinner on The X-Files. Just because, I'd like to see an Andorian captain. In terms of overall story arc, I'd like to see a prolonged first contact with a Federation-like entity that is fundamentally alien and seemingly malevolent, but not really. This Commonwealth has at its heart a transcendent race of aliens like the Metrons or Organians, virtually worshiped by some, but who in fact are wise enough to simply help these diverse races get along. One of them is a hyperwarrior race that make Klingons look like a bunch of easter bunnies. Another is a genuine hive race, one collective mind that has an open invitation for anyone who wishes to join them. In other words, most folks in Starfleet will panic slightly upon hearing of or having the most basic encounters with them. A situation that tests the vaunted tolerance of the Federation and its citizens. Nor does it help that the rivals the Commonwealth paint a very unflattering portrait of them. Which is not to say the Commonwealth is without fault! But the story does not have a Big Bad per se, a la the Dominion or the Borg. Rather it is a perilous situation in which mistakes are made and have terrible consequences, but can still be rectified to some extent. Our central characters (the ones that survive) will ultimately have key roles to play as they mature and grow into the kinds of people who shape their era of history.
This intrigues me. But I'm afraid it might work better as a series of novels than for TV. Still, it's an interesting take on things and something I would probably watch.
A mirror crew in the Federation universe could be interesting. Perhaps interesting enough for an arc? A fleet of Terran imperial warships emerges from the Bajoran wormhole.....
The Quark in the Mirror Universe made a suggestion that sounded rather like an Underground Railroad, or people surmounting the Berlin Wall. People would escape from the mirror universe into the Federaton universe. Perhaps the Mirror Universe has an alternate timeline. The Terran Empire was over run twenty years before. At the time of the fall, during a period of chaos, some young Star Fleeters managed to melt into the population, avoiding the concentration camps; a few older officers managed to do the same. The young adults who grew up under the occupation are hard bitten. Would these mirror people view the Federation as decadent? Meanwhile, in the Federation Universe, a peace loving Federation is in danger. As in the movie "Into Darkness", the Klingon Empire is coming its way, an empire at its most savage.
I understand that Roddenberry pitched Trek as "Wagon Train to the stars" to the network. Perhaps a new series could be set in an expansive era, not only of exploration, but also of colonization.
I would have liked to have seen the Daedalus class in that ENT two-parter, the one set in the Mirror Universe.
I think it would be cool to have astronauts trekking through the stars in the future, seeking out new life and boldly going. That said, it doesn't have to be all action/adventure. Some comedy and some drama will do nicely too.
I don't know what I want in a new Trek, but I know what I don't want. Leonard Nimoy. Nothing says fresh start quite like putting your new series far in the future or rebooting, then dragging the original Spock into it. Time travel. With time travel so common, a new series episode would last long enough for the characters to appear from the future to tell themselves what to do. Let's make it dark and gritty. Like all those other science fiction shows which have been popular for half a century? Transporters. Like time travel, transporters can solve any problem, hence the constant transporter breakdowns. Proud warrior races that don't do anything else. Bumbling bumpkin humans guided on their journeys by a condescending alien. Being proud of how much you don't know about the series. A ship called Enterprise doing and discovering pretty much everything. Relevant social commentary being used like a ten pound hammer. Space refugees, space smugglers, and space bounty hunters.
EraTOS. It can fit in with the new continuity without being jarringly different from the old. In either case, it isn't constrained by the more fleshed out events of the 24th century. Setting: war with the Klingon Empire with the Federation operating out of a colonized area. Ship/Crew: In a departure from other series, they should focus more on the colonists in the sector and the main Starfleet presence would come in the form of the local squadron assigned to explore, aid, and defend the sector. Dramatis Personae: -Local Starfleet commander. His concern is balancing his role as the defender of the sector with that of the mediator between local leaders and the Federation. He should be non-human (maybe a Tellarite or other established major Federation species) to make it a little more interesting and to break away from the human commander archetype, and should definitely not be the typical Evil Admiral. -Federation science officer. He should be the show's protagonist for most episodes. -Black market trader. Make it an Orion pirate or something. This character is there to provide an alternative to the Federation for the colonists' supplies, travel, and sometimes even their defense. Can have ties to mafia-like organizations that adds conflict into the show. -Local sentient species representative. They'd actually be better with a few of these. They should be recurring and different from what we've seen before. i.e. they aren't reskinned Bajorans. How to avoid repeating TNG/DS9 Unlike DS9, the war is simply a fact of life and not necessarily the focal point of the show. If Star Trek was originally a wagon train to the stars, then this is about the settlements out there amongst them. The war can feature prominently from time to time, but the concerns of the characters are as various as their own personalities. The scientists should still be making discoveries and seeking to learn more about the planets they inhabit, and this can either segue into the bigger picture or conflict with it, as necessary. No one-off planets or alien species that have no relevance outside of their own episode. This only worked in TNG because of Enterprise's diplomatic role. The less new humanoids, the better. No modern day analogies or allegories. I'm not interested in seeing another show about terrorists or cold wars or anything like that. Life is more uncomplicated on the frontier, and it frees up space for new plot lines and drama. To boldly go...or entirely new stuff I think the lasting appeal of TOS is that it was really not as formulaic as TNG would become. A few of those tropes carried over into TNG, but they should limit forays into time travel, demigods, and space politics. I think Trek showed how worn out its usual method of first contacts and politics had become with the Enterprise episode where the aliens thought that eating was obscene. Budgets, instead of going to space battles or cosmic wonders should go instead to set design and the creatures. Lets see more of the actual planets they explore...ones that actually have some lore behind them that we want to learn about. I'd like to see the characters getting more use out of their space suits and not just beaming down to the surface for a quick foray. I think that this is one area that Trek lags behind other science fiction simply because they are following a pattern that is a holdover from TOS with 60's studio technology. Battles that fall into the narrative rather than drive it. They can have an over-arching plan for how the war is going to play out, and they can have engagements here or there to help pan out the story. I'd like it better if, instead of getting it all firsthand from the supreme command, the flagship, or key strategic positions, it should be relayed down to the characters. You can do a lot with characters having different reactions to broadcasts, enemy threats, and new developments in their own sector without having to make it all climactic. Maybe even have the colonists and local Starfleet crews band together to refit miners and obsolete ships to fight against an enemy battle group or something. I don't see a problem with outlaws, bounty hunters, and the like. The more diverse the various types of characters, the better. As long as they aren't all archetypes or foreheads of the week. Have at least one writer who knows how to make female characters interesting.
sounds like you don't want Star Trek... I know! It would be like asking Law & Order to stop making episodes featuring the secret perverted life of a housewife.
Time travel. I would agree here, a total moratorium on time travel Transporters. I would restrict them to straight forward transportation devices. Basically point A to point B. Proud warrior races ... Have no problem with such, as long as that isn't all they are. Bumbling bumpkin humans ... Definitely no cameos by Jonathan Archer, or his dog. A ship called Enterprise doing and discovering pretty much everything. The hero ship is going to be the center of the story, but I would want there to be a feeling that there's a fleet out there too. Relevant social commentary ... Keep this, maybe increase it. Space refugees, space smugglers, and space bounty hunters. Keep them all.
How about a group of still studying academy students of all classes on a training mission on a galaxy class refit(uss kelvin) with a familiar acting captain, a week into it they get a mysteriously transported to the other end of the alpha quadrant with no way home, they get brought into a plot by an unknown species, the academy students must become the crew for the first time, with help of course by the already on board staff, they all must work together and work out how to get back
Good idea but with the JJ trek already being young people, I'd like to see a series about older people. I'm talking an entire Picard/Jellico aged crew. Also if you have a young crew you risk Star Trek being picked up on the CW network.
I wouldn't mind having a traditional starship/ensemble crew setup as long as it was well cast and produced some good stories. I don't think a new series would need a far out premise to be successful.
I'd rather just have more Science Fiction stories. TOS is mostly remembered for the zany episodes, but it did have a lot of contemporary sci fi authors working on it and explored a lot of things that didn't really have anything to do with the balance of power in the galaxy or in Starfleet's importance. DS9 was the polar opposite of that but it did very well. Enterprise was a total missed opportunity because it fell into the formula of superior series without doing anything creative. Wouldn't it have been interesting to show how various species came to possess similar levels of technology? Nah lets just show the Andorians roughing things up and failed diplomacy and other things we've already done... It irritates me to think that Star Trek is becoming less and less about sci fi and creative ideas and more about fitting into a pre-established framework. It's like the writers have ignored all of the good books that have come along in the past 50 years.