I'm fine with all kinds of different formats for a new Trek show. My own interest is in story and character. Along those lines here's a character of the sort I'd like to see. Note that she offers a point of contact between virtually any kind of Trek fan as well as those only familiar with THE most basic elements of the show.
Lieutenant (JG) Jaime Kirk. Descendant of the brother of the most famous Starfleet officer in history, a burden of expectations she would like to avoid but honestly wouldn't know how to live without. Jaime is the first member of her family to serve in Starfleet for generations. Her immediate relatives are all colonists from Charybdis IV, where her grandparents were among the Founders of a "back to nature" society sometimes referred to (derisively) as Neo-Cowboys (a not totally inaccurate description). It is a tough world, barely Class M, and those who call it home tend to ignore the Federation even exists. Not always successfully. Jaime is one of several siblings, with plenty of cousins, but she is one of perhaps three Charybdites to ever join Starfleet. The other Kirks didn't approve, feeling her intelligence and labor was needed at home.
But Jaime, whose expertise is exo-biology, longed for a diverse set of challenges, the kind only deep space exploration can give. With her aptitude levels, she applied via the tiny UFP office and was accepted into the Academy. Frankly she felt stifled at home--and felt it even moreso when the news of her application got out and people began putting pressure on her to "forget all this nonsense." Kirks as a rule tend to be stubborn so one can imagine how that played out.
Once at the Academy, she had to struggle against a different set of expectations--some positive, some negative, but mostly unwanted. In particular, her decision to pursue Science rather than Command caused more than a few stares of surprise.
Now in her twenties, she's feeling secure enough in her choice of career to have time to actually look at other parts of life. It isn't that she hasn't gone on dates, of course, or had outside interests, but she's very much in the process of answering some fundamental questions about herself.
Jaime riles at being forced into a mold of almost any kind, which some keep interpreting as dissatisfaction with science. She is, for example, an excellent pilot and in a pinch has handled the helm of some smaller vessels (the equivalent of a Defiant class). She's also a very good shot with a phaser. What many don't 'get' however is that she doesn't like to give orders. She can do it, often well, but her passion remains knowledge. The seemingly boundless energy she seems to display remains mostly focused on understanding the complexities of life (although she has a good working knowledge of other fields). If you asked her, being Chief Science Officer on a deep space exploration mission would be a dream-come-true.
What she lacks, however, is much by way of diplomacy. Jaime Kirk can and does shut up a lot of the time (a silence others read loads into) but her opinions when given are cuttingly honest.
Potential actors to portray her: Jennifer Lawrence, Chloe Grace Moretz (in a few years), Sarah Michelle Gellar (a few years ago), Thora Birch, Kristen Stewart.
Lieutenant (JG) Jaime Kirk. Descendant of the brother of the most famous Starfleet officer in history, a burden of expectations she would like to avoid but honestly wouldn't know how to live without. Jaime is the first member of her family to serve in Starfleet for generations. Her immediate relatives are all colonists from Charybdis IV, where her grandparents were among the Founders of a "back to nature" society sometimes referred to (derisively) as Neo-Cowboys (a not totally inaccurate description). It is a tough world, barely Class M, and those who call it home tend to ignore the Federation even exists. Not always successfully. Jaime is one of several siblings, with plenty of cousins, but she is one of perhaps three Charybdites to ever join Starfleet. The other Kirks didn't approve, feeling her intelligence and labor was needed at home.
But Jaime, whose expertise is exo-biology, longed for a diverse set of challenges, the kind only deep space exploration can give. With her aptitude levels, she applied via the tiny UFP office and was accepted into the Academy. Frankly she felt stifled at home--and felt it even moreso when the news of her application got out and people began putting pressure on her to "forget all this nonsense." Kirks as a rule tend to be stubborn so one can imagine how that played out.
Once at the Academy, she had to struggle against a different set of expectations--some positive, some negative, but mostly unwanted. In particular, her decision to pursue Science rather than Command caused more than a few stares of surprise.
Now in her twenties, she's feeling secure enough in her choice of career to have time to actually look at other parts of life. It isn't that she hasn't gone on dates, of course, or had outside interests, but she's very much in the process of answering some fundamental questions about herself.
Jaime riles at being forced into a mold of almost any kind, which some keep interpreting as dissatisfaction with science. She is, for example, an excellent pilot and in a pinch has handled the helm of some smaller vessels (the equivalent of a Defiant class). She's also a very good shot with a phaser. What many don't 'get' however is that she doesn't like to give orders. She can do it, often well, but her passion remains knowledge. The seemingly boundless energy she seems to display remains mostly focused on understanding the complexities of life (although she has a good working knowledge of other fields). If you asked her, being Chief Science Officer on a deep space exploration mission would be a dream-come-true.
What she lacks, however, is much by way of diplomacy. Jaime Kirk can and does shut up a lot of the time (a silence others read loads into) but her opinions when given are cuttingly honest.
Potential actors to portray her: Jennifer Lawrence, Chloe Grace Moretz (in a few years), Sarah Michelle Gellar (a few years ago), Thora Birch, Kristen Stewart.
And if nobody from her family has served in Starfleet in generations, I don't see why her choosing any particular career path should generate "stares of surprise." Being the great-great-grandnephew of Commodore Perry wouldn't be anything more than interesting trivia in someone's bio today, it shouldn't be any different for a Kirk.
