Next Series - Less Main Cast

[Anwar]

I agree that a smaller cast works better. Voyager would have been better if the central cast was Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor with Kes, Kim, Torres and Neelix as secondaries. ENT half-tried this with the Archer/Trip/T'Pol thing but didn't try hard enough.

Smaller Central casts with larger Secondaries is the better formula.

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't think cast size matters too much. What the next series should focus on is actually bringing in characters with a purpose. Enterprise's problem was that they just filled all the spots on the ship's senior staff without really bothering to develop those characters beyond their position. "Captain, check. XO, check. Engineer, check. Doctor, check. Security offcier, check. Helmsman, check." You get the idea.

 

[milo bloom]

I don't think cast size matters too much. What the next series should focus on is actually bringing in characters with a purpose. Enterprise's problem was that they just filled all the spots on the ship's senior staff without really bothering to develop those characters beyond their position. "Captain, check. XO, check. Engineer, check. Doctor, check. Security offcier, check. Helmsman, check." You get the idea.

Well, that's kinda the point of the idea of having less cast members. You pick a couple of character archetypes that you want to use, and just start writing up some stuff for them, and then see where they fit into the senior staff positions. Fill out the rest with extras and let them grow (or not) like the all the extra DS9 characters as someone mentioned upthread. You can avoid what you just said about "filling slots on the ship".

What would really be ballsy, is to have the lead of the show be something like the assistant chief engineer, or the third officer (usually only on the bridge for the night watch or something), or heck do a "big three/four" like this. All in secondary positions, and let them work their way up as the show goes on. Start us off rooting for these lower deck guys so the captain and first officer characters don't get stale, or overstay their welcome coughRikercough.

And don't be afraid to recast. I sometimes think the TNG producers should have recast Ro when Forbes made it clear she didn't want to be tied down. There was a lot that could have been done with that character.

 

[williams9394]

I do hope a future Trek series only has about four or five main characters, with the rest being supporting characters that may not appear in every episode or even appear only once in a while. That doesn't mean there can't be episodes that may occasionally spotlight those supporting characters, though...

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[Art Vandelay]

My ideal Star Trek series would just have two regulars, for I'd really like a follow-up to Assignment: Earth.

The lead would be an agent of the Aegis like Gary Seven, and he'd have a human sidekick from the 20th century just like Roberta Lincoln (or Rain Robinson, with whom Greg Cox replaced Roberta in the novels).

The agent would go deep undercover to make sure that certain key events in Star Trek's fictional history happen the way they are supposed to. Each mission should be a season-long arc.

He could pose as a Vulcan who is part of the first delegation going to earth after Cochrane’s warp flight!
As a Romulan during the Earth-Romulan war!
As an Andorian serving on a Constitution-class starship!
As a Klingon on Narendra III!
As a Cardassian helping to rebuild his homeworld in the aftermath of the Dominion war!
As a diplomat accompanying a transwarp mission to the Delta Quadrant, tracing back Voyager’s journey home!

The decades in-between missions would be spent in cryonic hibernation, meaning that he is no time traveller - so there are no reset buttons, no do-overs.

I think this would be incredibly exciting while at the same time paying homage to all different incarnations/eras of Trek.

 

[Rom's Sehlat]

Art, your idea is epic. The budget would have to be big to support each era. And the whole show, not just seasons, would have to be planned extensively if they went in-universe chronologically.