I freakin love this idea! I have thought for a long time that a trek anthology series would be awesome, but I think it would be cool to include all the time periods of trek. That being said, I would love to see it done ala TOS anyway.
And then there are those who should NOT have anything further to do with Trek. Based on PD, I'd say that TOS is the Trek that Fuller's style would be most compatible with. The colorful, surreal aspect of Trek came thru best with TOS and was abandoned by the other series. Now whether Abrams is continuing that sort of tone is another matter... A Trek series back on TV would be a risk even if the movie is a hit so an anthology series is not the way to go. There are no successful ongoing anthologies on TV; there are no successful space operas on TV (sorry, BSG's ratings are too small to count). There's no sense in adding risks to an already risky proposition.
I'm showing my age here, but does anyone remember Police Story from 1973-1977? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069620/) It was brought back again in 1987 & 1988 as MFTV movies but most if not all were just remakes of popular episodes from the first incarnation. Created by Joseph Wambaugh, an author of numerous best-selling police novels, it was an anthology of stories about members of the LAPD. Some were good guys, others bad, but many were somewhere in between. It showed the human side of police officers, which included divorce, alcoholism, infidelity, PTSD, close friendships, heroism, etc. Anyway, a Star Trek: Antholgy series could be done in a similar way in that weekly stories could all be set in the same era but with different characters every week. Sometimes they would be on ships, others they would be at outposts, on space stations, on Earth, at Starfleet Academy, at the Vulcan Science Academy, or on assignment any number of planets. Sometimes we would see things from an alien perspective. While most would be set in the same era, there's no reason why the stories couldn't be set in "the past" of the future. Like Police Story, popular characters might show up once or twice more or there would be two-parters. TNG episode Lower Decks is a good example of how it could be done successfully. On occasion, such as sweeps weeks, we might even see familiar characters show up played by their associated actors if the series was set post-NEM. Or we might see younger versions of familiar characters played by younger actors. Maybe then we'd see what Picard was up to all those years between the loss of the Stargazer and his assignment to the E-D. Or see Bashir as a child prior to his genetic enhancement and then afterward. Or maybe we'd see young Worf with a huge chip on his shoulder getting in fights at SFA. I would want those types of episodes only occasionally. This could work.
Yes, different characters each week but with a small core of regulars. Maybe they can be alien observers or watchers or travellers.
He wrote "Fury"... that alone is enough for me, but the fact that just about every one of the episodes he wrote is spot-on for my liking has me yearning for Fuller to helm a new series. I'm not a fan of this whole prequel/reboot thing, I want post-Nemesis, but I'll take what I can get.
The ENT sets are the only ones that could be usable. The rest were built before HD and would look cheap when shot with an HD camera. But they still couldn't afford to build mini sets like they did for Flashback and IAMD. Those sets used more than an episodes budget. It was only after spreading the cost out over a season and including other bottle shows that they could afford them. A weekly cost of sets like that would blow a budget out of the water. Also, any new Trek series will need to work on a smaller budget. Ratings are down across the board on broadcast TV. Any new Trek show would have to be affordable on ratings similar to ENT. At best you could hope for late VOY/early ENT ratings. Projecting anything higher than that would be unrealistic.
If an anthology was set mainly in one time period, the new sets would need to be modular. The Bridge for all Starfleet ships could have a few different captain's chairs and the work stations could be modular in that larger ships would have more that interlock and fit side by side. There could be one main viewer that has a removable middle section so that it could be made smaller for smaller ships. Trim and wall panels could be done up in a few different colors and they could be used for Ready Rooms, crew quarters, lounges, Academy dorms and class rooms, living rooms, etc. A tall warp core could be lit with various lights and have panels that make it appear smaller when necessary. With so many options to mix and match, dozens of ships and other locations could be depicted rather inexpensively. Of course there are green screen options as well.
The bigger issue is anthology series don't do well on tv anymore. CBS would be starting off with an extra burden to overcome on top of the struggles Trek has had on its own.
An anthology will never happen, at least not any time soon, because the conventional wisdom in TV right now is that audiences want continuing narrative storylines. They don't even like doing episodic shows, for the most part, even when they have the same cast from episode to episode. The big hits - The Wire, The Shield, Damages, Lost, Heroes, Desperate Housewives, etc. etc. etc. - are have arc-based, long-form narratives. So there's pretty much no way CBS is going to roll the dice on a Trek-based anthology. If they do bring back the show at any point in the next few years, IMO, expect a Battlestar Galactica-type approach with extreme arc-based storylines. And if the movie is a hit, it will also certainly tie in with that era.
They should just use the Star Trek movie sets, already made, a sequel might not ever happen, just change them a little and good for a new show.
Yet some of the other big hits are episodic shows like the various CSIs, NCIS, the Law and Orders, Cold Case. As for televised Trek, I'd prefer it to stay in the domain of films for now. Too much again might the same previous problems of the franchise. However, should Trek return to television, I can't think of anyone better than Fuller. If I had my druthers, I'd do a series that was sort of like the Hornblower minis that aired on A&E in the US and Channel 4 in the UK. Follow a young officer, start him/her off at Lieutenant, and follow them up through the ranks over the course of the series until he/she gets their own command. It'd give the series a destination but be open enough for a variety of different episodic stories. I'd set the series in the same continuity as the new movie or before it on the Enterprise before Pike or Kirk. Although, John Byrne is doing something similar for IDW comics.
Isn't Fuller the one who infamously stated that 'this is not a soap opera,' when asked if Voyager would end in a multi-episode arc like DS9 did?
Arc's are the way to go right now. One of the reasons why I love the shows that I do are because they continue on where they left off. Even Enterprise is season 3 went to an arc type method instead of stand alone episodes -- and season 3 for me was some of the best trek to date.
I liked the Xindi arc well enough, but I also liked the format of Season 4, with a few 3-episode arcs. I would not mind a season of, say, 4 or 5 3-episode arc stories with stand-alones filling in. That would be a nice balance for me.
Except that the serialized shows continue to struggle on TV. Heroes is in trouble, Lost never really bounced back, 24 has a make or break season, BSG has abysmal ratings. The serialized fad worked initially, but the problem is the shows can't build an audience over time. Whatever you get for the premiere is what you're stuck with. All you can hope is to keep that audience and not lose them too quickly. The CBS procedurals get a lot of criticism, but they're the top rated non-reality shows on TV. Since CBS owns the TV rights to trek, an episodic procedural on CBS is the way Trek will be going.
3 Seasons (so far) About to air Season 5 About to air Season 7. Yeah, sounds like trouble. Most shows don't get 2 seasons.
Name a new serialized show this season. Those shows came out during the serialized fad and are trying to hang onto their audiences. I'm not arguing for a return to reset button of the week, but the serialized fad of one story never ending has come to an end.
If we are using serialized to include shows with plot threads running through individualized episodes (like BSG which you mentioned above): Fringe, My Own Worst Enemy, Life on Mars