Well, a Captain Picard series could work, but his captaincy of the Stargazer then.
This.
Give the Stargazer a face lift with a true deep space assignment, put some characters that wouldn't quite be "flagship of the Federation" material aboard and I think you have an interesting premise for a series.
Captain Chekov or Kira or Chakotay or Reed simply don't interest me.
Agreed. While I doubt very much it would ever happen, I would like to see a young Picard series. I think it might be better to see him as a young officer, PRIOR to being captain, actually, but still the focus of the show. That right there would be different, as in every series the CAPTAIN is the focus. How about a junior officer we know is destined for greatness one day (a la Lower Decks), with the series ending (or waiting until late in the series) with Picard as captain.
The captain of that series should be someone Picard respects and looks up to, something like he ends up becoming himself. If he were still alive, I think someone like Don S Davis would be perfect for that. But they could draft Faran Tahir, and cast him as a different captain (Trek has done that before!)...maybe even Robau's son or grandson? (hey, it could work...in the pilot of TNG, PS was in his late 40s, yet Picard was supposedly in his late 50s. Tahir is only 51, but the script could easily put him in his late 60s early 70s...it IS the future, and maybe people age slower 300 years from now!)
It would be better to probably base it in the Abrams timeline, too, so it is not constrained by the previous series. Also, since
TNG was originally a recycle of
Phase II, I always thought/suspected Picard was very Kirk-like when he was young, so if we saw that side of Picard, it would be fun to watch a young, brash Picard mature into the seasoned, diplomatic and wise officer we know, over the course of the series.
Also, a redesigned Stargazer that looks similar to the Kelvin with more engines would be NEAT!