I suppose the more interesting thing about such a show is the small cast. You wouldn't have a bunch of extras running around.
Loving it, loving it, loving it!!!...keep writing, keep writing...I am putting in the pizza and falafel with Hommous is going on the table right now, so you all better get over here to the U.A.E. so we can bang this thing out!!! ...you think the Sub-Enterprise should look more like seaQuest DSV or the Seaview, or even more claustro?...Das Boot or K-19?...the Red October?...it is writing itself!!!!!
Well, now...let's not get too carried away...we gotta have a couple a "red-shirt equivalents" so they can go flying around when we roll or get shot at...maybe they could just go flying out of their 4-stack bunks, or at the table in the crowded crew mess...
I don't know what the ship would look like, but I'd want its exterior and interior designs to remind us of a submarine. Preferably designed by Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda, since I think they really helped refine what a Starfleet ship looks like. And they'd get a chance to try something retro. Retro Deco, whatever that would be.
I think that the focus has gone to much to what ship it is set on, who should play the captain, what villians should we have. Star Trek is about building a better future for humanity. I can't see a better way of showing that, then to set a show 5 years after First Contact, when we now from canon humanity was doing better, but still not perfect. It could be the show not about where we'll end up, but how we got there. Fine, drop a ship in there every now and then, show us humanity's first steps out there. But like Picard said; "I envy you, taking these first steps into a new frontier." To me, he was never talking about humanity's first steps into outer space. He was talking about humanity's first steps into finally becoming what they can be. Yeah, that would be a show I'd watch.
^ Apparently shows about the politics and bureaucracy of running a space program are a harder sell. I think that sort of thing done right could be interesting, myself, but I'd be more interested in seeing the space adventure done right first. A lot of people forget that Sixties Trek was not the Trek Roddenberry dreamed of making; it was the Trek he was stuck with making by the budgets, technology and network politics of the time. There's further yet to go.
I rather liked the Defiant on DS9. YMMV. Interstellar Exploration, in the established fictional history of Trek Humans started exploring within a few years of the first warp flight. . Colonization, multiple colonies predate Enterprise. Interactions with aliens, aliens are living on Earth before Enterprise. The Kzinti war (wars?). Some parts of Earth would still be in bad shape, part of the hero ship mission would be to locate resources to prosper Earth and look for trading opportunities for new technologies (Vulcans aren't helping). Interesting, but might be taking things too far. Having most of the officers with a room-mate and the crew in barracks might be better. *** A work around for what was seen on Enterprise is that the Enterprise's warp five engines were such a accomplishment because they were indigenous Human designs. The hero ship's engines in ProtoTrek are basically alien imported technology, certainly the plans were, with Humans actually doing the construction. This will let the hero ship move at a reasonable rate of speed. Lot's of modern countries on Earth have jet aircraft, but most of them imported the planes and engines. It would be like that. Having the hero ship simply be exploring the galaxy on the opposite side of the solar system from Andoria, Tellar and the Klingons would explain why they never encounter Humans before. Lot's of aliens out there, we can meet some new ones (not just the same tired previous ones). No, not at all. What Star Trek is actually about is adventures in space and interesting character interactions. A show that centered around depicting the rebuilding of war torn Earth would (with respect) suck donkey anus. Occasional references to such would be fine, but should be background info. No, center the show on the ship and crew. For me, one of the things that absolutely kill the last season of Enterprise was the excessive references about building the "Coalition of Planets."