See... It becomes immensely apparent that Trek only has two options that will creative satisfy continuing from this point. Either what Fuller is doing, or some variation... Or a
total reboot. I've said it before, go all the way back to the original Gene outline/pitch and rework the DNA of Trek from the ground up for the 21st Century. Hang on to a few of those great superficial elements that make Trek, Trek. IE: Vulcans, The Enterprise...etc, but just put everything else to the side. That was then, this is now.
Option 3, of course, would be to set the "next Trek" out into the future, but you'd have to "time war" Star Trek ala Doctor Who. Something big and dramatic has to basically shatter the course of events and completely reshape the galactic landscape. By the end of Nemesis, Trek felt narratively boxed in. The galaxy felt much smaller, less grand, and less interesting overall.
TNG was a success, however it also was a little safer than it could have been because Trek fans needed to still feel the essence of TOS in TNG. It's still the same stuff, but a little further down the line. It still did what Trek had done previously though, and that was to think of new technological concepts and try and push things in that regard. A reborn Trek would have to look at the world around us and see not only what is new since the 1960s, but also what will THIS world see in 250 years. The technology we are seeing come about now is going to dramatically alter the flow of our society. The kinds of questions our society will face are way past what we thought they were going to be 50 years ago.
In some ways that's thanks to Star Trek. It's not just hype when people say Trek influenced tech. It helped inspire a whole generation of engineers. It inspired the creator of the brick cellphone, Steve Jobs and the entire ipad craze, virtual reality... To say nothing of post-60s medical science which took a lot of inspiration from the "no scalpels, no needles" approach of McCoy's sick bay. For years they've been trying to get the hypospray for those of us who suffer from a condition like diabetes. "Imagine! No more needles... Just like in
Star Trek!"
So just imagine a re-imagined Star Trek that takes into account the new kinds of materials, technologies, cultural philosphy etc we are just now starting to tinker with. The new ways of doing things that are in their oh-so-primitive state today. Micro-engineering, Carbon-nano-materials, drones, microscopic robots, quantum computers, semi-sentient computers. A post-scarcity society where every single home is self-sustaining, and the kinds of "car" we drive are completely green. Industrial sized printing fabricators drawing up the homes of the future. Integrated computing systems in our body, allowing us to directly interface with a "computer" network. But even then, in that world not everyone may be comfortable with having computers integrated (drama!) so you'd have super miniaturized and ultra powerful versions of something like a PDA or a computer. The size of a pen, you pull it open and a "holographic" display is there, allowing you to access the "future internet" and do all kinds of things.
I'm a huge fan of, I guess what Gene called "technology unchained." I love the depictions of future tech where it's not depicted as either SUPER SCIENTIFIC STUFF or MAGIC, but instead it's just part of the world. Someone sits in a seemingly semi-contemporary room, on their couch, and they make a gesture, and poof up comes the news out of seemingly thin air right in front of them! You could have these smart 3D displays that you could move around and "place" on any surface. You could have smart materials where any wall can be a window, or turn itself reflective so you can check your hair on your way out the door. Even nuttier than that. This is just me spit-balling off the cuff in five minutes. Trek could take the Utopian world Gene was trying to sell and actually make it a semi-plausible world with what technology and society is showing us today.
You might say "Well gee, that's a lot of tech talk, what about character? What about story?" Well, exactly. You build a lush world like that, and the kinds of stories you can tell will be fresh. Just imagine the reworking origins of the Borg in that kind of a world. Instead of a far-flung "other", The Borg could be the result of a type of AI-virus that infects part of the subspace network. Entire colony worlds become psychologically "fused" to this AI and begin
violently reworking themselves as the "collective" servants. The Federation has to basically quarantine entire sections of it's own territory behind "firewalls" and use ships to patrol those borders because the Borg start trying to spread across the rest of the network.
But, I digress...
I'm sure Discovery is going to be great fun.
