If this is a new Star Trek series, then hell, I scrap the idea of Federation. I don't like the concept of Federation. It's like, a single country rule over everyone on Earth. No, I prefer a more multipolar world. Where countries still exist even in this new Space Exploration Era. The political situation in this new story follow our today reality. Where more countries emerges as "Space" Countries (like India and China). Then everyone of them (the Space Countries) agree to take aside their different and work together in Space. Everyone agree that no one should rule over the other planets. So every Space Project will be lead by United Nation of Space Program, and all colonies out there will administrate by the Directorate of Human Colonies. Every rich nations, like Western Europe, China, Russia, United States and India will donate their resource and material for this humanity huge projects. Thus, a multi national Star Fleet is born. Our story happen in 22nd century, where humanity has reach another star system and WARP DRIVE has been developed and implemented to everyone Starships; but still at it's earliest level of technology. Alien, which was a myth in 21st Century has been found, and we have conducted first contact with them. But because of the great difference, communication is still almost impossible and distrust make the tension arise. The members of Space Program and Multi National Starfleet urge that everyone increase their space military budget to fill the void with Earth presence. Our hero is happen to Jonathan Archer, the captain of USS Enterprise. Unlike Star Trek Enterprise and TNG canon, USS Enterprise is basically the United States Starship. She is the member of Multi National Starfleet, just like the other ships from EU, China, India, Japan and Russia. Their original task was to explore new star systems. But after the spectacular First Contact, the ship is weaponized; in case that the Alien is hostile and she has to answer the fleet do defend the Earth Interest. The Enterprise is one of few ships from the Earth that equipped with WARP Drive. But because the engine is still considered as experimental, sometime it cause problem and even danger to the crews. Despite of that, Captain Archer menage to survive even after they face monstrous danger that they must face in the other star system. The Season 1 will focus on the Starship Enterprise exploration mission to the final frontier. There won't be Alien of the week. Instead there will only 1 intelligent Alien being that they'll find in the mission. The danger that they face will not only come from the Alien. But also come from the space itself. The Enterprise is not the 24th Century Enterprise D that can withstand everything that throw into her. It does not even equipped with the super medical technology that can cure everything. People can die anytime, even Archer himself, and no one can save them if they die in the process. Like modern era technology, the Enterprise is equipped with drones and other highly advanced technology. The crews won't go outside and go down to the planet without any safety precaution. But the danger that they face still can kill everyone on board. And first contact won't be an easy task that the captain must face. The difference between species make the communication become almost impossible. The Earth already feel that their plate full with 1 space capable Creature that they met in previous contact. Another contact with space capable Alien can cause hysteria on Earth.
I revisited my idea, and think that there were some flaw in it. So I change it now The story is still the same. Started in 22nd Century; the main character is Jonathan Archer. He is the captain of the Enterprise. A United states of America Starship. She is one of the earliest Starship that is equipped with Warp Drive technology. Eventually, ever ships from Earth will equipped with Warp Technology. The Enterprise is just one of the earliest. Like my original idea, there won't Alien of the week. Well, actually there will Alien of the week. But not Intelligent Alien of the week. Most of Alien that the ship find will be animal level of intelligent Aliens. Some of them are friendly, but a lot of them just simply predator that hunt down the crews when they are doing away missions. But the space faring Alien? It's only one. Human had a harsh first contact with them. Because this alien is simply too different than us. Both side have distrust and suspicious to another, lead into miss understanding, and unintended conflict. There are even some fire fight between the Star Fleet and their ships. But because both side doesn't know the other home world, so there is only border skirmish in the front line. Jonathan Archer and his crew biggest achievement in the Season 1 will be their capability to understand this Alien, and how they facilitate a peace treaty with them. Of course, this intelligent species won't be the only danger that the crews will face. Even a mere oxygen leak will cause a huge problem that can kill some of regular casts. The Enterprise will start with crew of 50. But when they return to Earth, it will decrease significantly. I don't know how many. Maybe there will only have 10 to 20 survivor.
^^ I don't mean to rain on your idea, but candidly a Jonathan Archer series isn't likely to get much if any traction. Beyond the core fandom he simply isn't known to the broader public. People know Kirk and Picard, but Sisko, Janeway and Archer are essentially question marks and will get you mostly blank looks.
Dumping Archer, the very concept of Archer and who he is, would probably be a important initial step. A brand new and unknown character in the commanding officer's position would be (imho) preferred, someone the writers can build from scratch, and the audience can get to know over time.
Well, honestly I just randomly pick his name. It is not because I want Captain Jonathan Archer be there. So my apology for that. BTW, I'm not good at making a name, so everybody can put a random name for the captain in this idea
ahaha, maybe you right Nerys The point of my idea is, that all the regular casts can die in the series. Only the captain will stay; just like Rick in the Walking Dead series. But that's because he's not Archer or Kirk who stupidly go down into danger just because he has a plot shield. Most of his time will be spent in the bridge, coordinating his crew from the safest place in the ship. If it survive the season 1, the idea will expand into that the Alien is actually not a single government entity. They have a lot of factions. Some hostile, the others friendly. They war to each others. And the Earth Governments will eventually got split for some time. As some of them will befriend one Alien Faction, the other side with the opposing Alien faction. Because the story is taken from the American point of view, then the Alien faction who side with them will be considered as the protagonist, while the opposing force will be considered as hostile to the plot. I like an idea where the Earth send their businessmen / traders to the Alien homeworld to open new investment there. We can show two traders here. From USA and from China. The China trader will think about how to sell a flawed but cheap goods to the alien, the American will always complain that his / her government forbid them to sell almost everything in the name of National Security; and he blame his Chinese Friend for that. And for the technology level, both human and the alien are comparable. They have some advantage at some tech, we have another advantage at different tech. The season 2 is also foreshadow for the third highly intelligent Alien. That has a society like Ants. Where there is a queen who give birth to everyone in the colony, while the others live just for her sake.But they are humanoid creature, not a bug. A humanoid creature with a female who's job only give birth to a lot of their span, and the male work as the ant worker or soldiers beneath her. They talk not using their mouth, but the antenna of their head, just like an ant. This idea come from a strategy game where the dwarf born from a single fat queen.
Well, this idea still has a lot of flaw, as I write it when I have a splash of idea inside my head. So somebody who has actually has a better idea can throw his / her in here. To make the idea better.
Or this, since you propose not having multiple alien species, with all the interactions and occasional conflicts they bring, have the nations of Earth not co-operate. There's no central authority, the nations are each going their own way in space, establishing their own colonies and even empires. Here would be the interstellar interactions and conflict. Dozens of separate Star Fleets, every space faring nation has one. Jolly good. Nahhh, they all have it.
Fit Girl, I like what you think about that thanks, Yes, a multipolar universe is better than a single Federation. But I have one problem in here. If every nations have their own starfleet and their own space property, it will eventually lead into a conflict between some of human civilizations. The problem is, because this show will take from USA POV, then some countries will become the bad guy. The problem is, if Star Trek wants to gain new fans, they have to expand to international market. The country that to be considered as the bad guy won't be happy. And no audience like to see their countrymen or soldiers being massacred by the protagonist. For example, a Chinese audience will dislike Star Trek if they see China to be portrait as villain and watch their soldiers to be massacred by the American Rambo... err protagonist. I dare to say that you (if you're an American) don't like to see your country to be painted as the bad guy in a movie, and seeing that your soldiers to be massacred by the protagonist like Rambo kills the Fodders. Because I don't like it either. So I prefer a neutral approach. There will conflict between some countries, but it won't start a war. Everyone can feel that their nation is the part of the protagonist in Star Trek, not the villain. Well, maybe there will be some rogue officer, like rogue American, rogue Russian, rogue Chinese, etc but no more.
Had to give this some thought. For the "enemy" countries, TPTB could create fictional countries without being too specific as to where on Earth they are. When the show The West Wing wanted to have the United States bomb a Middle Eastern country they invented Qumar. In-universe the country could have came into existence between today and when the story takes place. Countries that are mere rivals could be existing ones. Having rivals occasionals win against the Heroes would place them on an even footing and prevent "bad feelings." This would also prevent the Heroes from being depicted as omni-capable supermen who always win. War no, but the possibility of war could be hovering in the background between countries. Tension. I've always found the character of John Rambo to be a interesting and internally complex man. Someone like Rambo might be a useful addition to the cast of characters on the ship, a highly intelligent man who down plays that attribute, a problem solver. And if you're going to have multiple countries (and no universal translator?), having a polyglot like Rambo on the team would be good.
Ah, it is an excellent idea. I like it. The hero is a kind of one man army like Rambo, or is it the characteristic of John Rambo himself? Universal Translator.... I'm still thinking. Should the Trek tech like Universal Translator, transporter, etc should be exist? Maybe it is not Universal Translator, but I guess that a computerized auto translator for Earth language is a good idea. A device that can translate every language in our Earth. But like Google today, it won't be perfect translator. So it can confuse the casts sometime, and they can say "Ah Google Translator, that's way..." when they meet a confusing translation when they meet other country Starfleet Officer. BTW, do you have more idea to add / make the OP idea better?
More the total package, than the narrow one man army aspect of the character. In some ways John Rambo reminds me of Reg Barkley, a capable man with a confidence problem. A fictional starship with a crew composed solely of "the best and the brightest" would become stale fairly quickly, for story telling purposes, it's better to have a crew with some quirks. Like a crewmember with a confidence problem.
That a very good idea. But who should has that quirk? A crewmember with a confidence member? Because that kind of quirk sometime can cause a disastrous outcome in some mission. Like when he needs to do something critical, suddenly he lost his confidence and can't decide anything. It can kill the other crewmember in a crisis time. Like for an exemple, when Kirk fall from the Nero drill ship and Chekov need to capture them. He has only one chance to save Kirk life. If without any confidence, he can't decide and then, Kirk died.
The entire crew would have a collection of different quirks, like Picard's difficulty with children, or Hoshi's obvious (first season) fear of being on a starship.