I'm really supportive of Discovery as is, although my 'pie in the sky' wish was for another future jump, 70-100 years post Nemesis. Or, a contemporary show with the Kelvin movies, set in that universe. I think nearly any premise can work well with the right writing staff though. And the best premise in the world won't save a poorly written show.
IIRC, that far into the future is around the time of the Enterprise-J and Daniels and all that. Honestly that time period is TOO far into the future to interest me. If they wanted to do something really different, I'd want a spinoff of some kind, like a Lower Decks show or a Starfleet Academy animated series.
I've wanted to see a complete Star Trek reboot. New main characters, new Enterprise, new continuity. Think of a version of Trek where the Romulans become the enemy turned ally. Or where the version of Romulans and Klingons as presented early in TOS was what moved forward.
Sorry, sometimes I think in weird ways... I saw this thread title, and thought "Well, when it comes to civil court, an alternative to discovery is settlement..."
I voted other. If I had complete control (including actors as I wished) I'd want a series with the Abrams crew. A logistical impossibility, of course, but that's what I'd want. Absent that, I'll give anything Trek a chance (I've seen them all). Not overly demanding apart from wanting to be entertained. I've been entertained by each iteration so far, albeit not equally.
Anthology show. All of the proposed show concepts from the last 5-10 years seem to want to be darker, and heavily serialized. I've always thought an anthology show would be great. It wouldn't have a wide audience though. You can get just as invested in many of the characters in the original twilight zone in a single episode as you can in many "serialized" shows. And for Star Trek, it would be a bold, new direction. But TV execs wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole, unfortunately.
I would have gone just a little Post-Nemesis and had them send a new crew on a deep space mission to explore the Andromeda galaxy. The nice thing about this premise is that you could say, we have good enough engines now to get to other galaxies but it still takes us a couple months. So they could communicate with Starfleet but it'd take days to receive a response, and they'd have no reinforcements, so like the original Star Trek it'd really have the 'Alone exploring new horizons' feel. Also it'd have the benefit that it's virtually impossible to contradict any canon since you're in a physical location completely removed from all existing canon.
Out of curiosity, I would have liked a nuBSG type reboot of TOS. Recast the general characters, and re-create the same general story...but recreate the universe, stories and continuity. I don't mean make it dark and brooding like nuBSG (quite the contrary)...but I wouldn't mind seeing TOS updated to a new universe with a completely different approach.
I had a similar idea while Smallville and Enterprise were on the air, except focused on a young Lieutenant Kirk after the academy on his first deep space assignment on the Enterprise. Of course, Bones and Spock would be there as well. Kinda like a longer version of the '09 movie. My title for the show: Early Voyages. The theme song: "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling. As for what I'd do instead of Discovery, I'd hard reboot the original series. Maybe Kirk's a pansexual played by Oscar Issac. McCoy is a black woman. Make Spock more alien. If we can have a Superman in the movies and a Superman on TV at the same time, we can have another group of actors playing those iconic roles at the same time.
Interestingly, this was the song used for the pre-release trailers promoting "Enterprise" back in the day.
There was a trekbbs though, at least when ENT came out. Before then there was usenet, aol, msn etc. Social media isn't new. Here's a complain from 30 years ago: And another
I have to say I'm surprised how many people want to reboot or redo existing canon (Ex:TOS). I just do not see the appeal of it. Personally as a very amateur writer and someone who considers themselves creative I wouldn't want to redo anyone else's creation. If I was coming on to a franchise I'd enjoy following what has come before me and then adding my contribution to the franchise canon. Otherwise I'd just go and create something original. I think long running canon and mythology is a wonderful, unique, and rare commodity nowadays. I also believe if Gene were still alive and had control he'd push us forward into the future just as he did with TNG 30 years ago. I think it takes one of those truly legendary visionaries to accomplish this. It's similar to Star Wars. They're still struggling to push that beloved franchise forward into the future. They still want to do prequels (Rogue One, Han Solo) and even the first true sequel in Episode 7 was basically a a reboot/reimagining of some of the original trilogy movies. This should come as no surprise since JJ did the same thing during his trek films. Say what you will about Lucas' prequels but they were something new and visionary that added to Star Wars lore. I think a lot of Hollywood is struggling right now with people who don't know what to do but mimic stuff that came before. There are no Roddenberrys and Lucases growing on trees I understand that but I'd settle for a Berman lol. Trek needs a true visionary to help set them up for the next 25 years as he did in the late 80s. Since ENT has went off the air we've had the kelvin universe films and now this prequel show that basically says we're only going to pick and choose what canon we follow and even the stuff we do will most likely be "reimagined." To me it just seems illogical.
Oh, is that a reference to it streaming? Discovery is airing on TV in Canada, so from my perspective, Star Trek is returning to TV.
TV should be becoming obsolete in a few years, right? No, I was actually referring to the fact that, despite the name, Discovery does not appear to be Star Trek. Though I reserve the right to change my mind when it is actually is available to watch.
A reboot of TOS, or a spinoff a hundred years in the future that examines the fallout from all the things found during TOS.