Different Approach of New Star Trek

[SolitaryJustice]

And guys, I don't even know of Firefly.

As the Doctor would say, "I'm so sorry."

I pitched this on the Captain Worf thread and got a decent response: what if there were a show, a political thriller with intrigue and suspense, that showed Worf and Martok and introduce a new character, showing them post-DS9, purging corruption from the High Council and doing a very cool, murder-mystery, serious, and adult show? Thinking Law & Order or something in that vein...

 

[Brainsucker]

change it to human and it will a good series. But..., I haven't watch Law & Order series (I know it, but never watch it). So what about Zombie strike Federation ala Walking Dead? Klingon Zombie?

 

[Shaka Zulu]

So what we do know about the past Star Trek?

1. A Ship with sophisticated technology belong to Federation
2. Heroic Crews (and maybe the best)
3. Adventure to where no men has gone before although it feel repetitive.
4. Heroes of Federation who save the world from nasty Dominion, Borg, Klingon, and maybe Romulan.
5. Best Crew around who know what they do

I think those are the list that we always witness from what we call "Star Trek Series".

From the day one :
1. Star Ship Enterprise : the first ship that can reach warp 5
2. Enterprise, The best ship around when she launched.
3. Enterprise D, the first Galaxy Class, the best starship around at her time
4. Defiant, the first dedicated warship belong to the Fed.
5. Voyager, a ship that actually can return from Delta Quadrant, annoy Borg to an extend to destroy their lair and return even without any scratch.

Basically, we always witness the best ship that the Federation can offer. We witness the heroes who can handle everything by themselves, and even can do what other people can't.

So why not we limiting this things and take a new approach for a new Star Trek Series. Where we witness the galaxy not from the best of Federation; and their job is not doing the most prestigious mission like 5 years mission or saving the world from galaxy menace, but doing what the previous Star Trek as "Mundane Task".

So here it is
- It is the 23rd Century (to avoid magic things like replicators and holodecks, a non economy / money world and other bullshit things that we get from the 24th Century Series)
- The ship is old, using "out of date" Federation Technology. She is not even equipped with Torpedoes; only beam weapon for self defense.
- Her mission is to hauling cargoes from one planet to other planet, etc. Means, she is a kind of utility ship that missions is not doing the most important or dangerous situation like what Enterprise did.
- Her crew is not extraordinary who are the bravest, the cleverest, etc. They are just ordinary starfleet officers who work just for daily living.
- She doesn't have science labs, etc that make her self sufficient, even her sick bay is only equipped with basic equipments.

Our heroes are even ordinary people who do their job for living

The Captain :
- He served in a prestigious starship belong the Federation before. But because of his fault cause catastrophic result to the mission, he demoted into USS Not Important to do more boring, not important job for Starfleet. Well, he wants a come back, so he swear that he will get the most prestigious ship belong to the Federation; USS Excelsior (although He got beaten by Sulu on that part)

The Navigator / Helm :
- A young and ambitious lad who want to command her own starship one day. But because she kicks / punches the son of an important Starfleet Admiral, so she is thrown into the garbage ship like USS Not Important ( I don't know the name yet, so I call this ship as USS Not Important)

The Engineer
- An old man who should have retired several years ago. But he insist to continue his work in Starfleet just because he need the money for living. Unlike the superstar engineer in the another series, this old man is not the cleverest tinkerer out there. Sometime he can't even do anything to the broken engine. And he can't even learn new technology a fast as the other Chief Engineer in Star Trek Series.

The chief has a grandson that he's proud to. And he always tell the other crews about his family on Earth. The Engineer is not an ambitious man, yet he is very dedicated to his job.

The Doctor
- Just ordinary doctor who have a family on Earth. He loves his family very much. Loyal to his wife, and proud to his kid. He always use his lovely wife as his inspiration, until in a certain episode, he finds that his wife is cheating on him. And it destroy him inside and out.

The Soldier
- Just an ordinary weapon officer that stationed on board of USS Not Important. He do the job not because he passionate into it, but because it is his job. And he is not the most courageous officer out there in the galaxy that can change the odd like what we have seen in previous Star Trek Series. He doesn't even care too much about his job. The Soldier took the job as a starship tactical officer just because his father pushed him to. And... because he has a crush on the Navigator. Plus, he is not even has the quality of a soldier like Mr. Worf and others. His score in the academy was just average at best.

The premise of this series is not about to explore strange new world and doing extraordinary adventure like previous Star Trek series. The crews are just ordinary people who are doing their job because of it is a job, not adventure. Of course, there are bravest men and women out there in the series that can save the world from a space monsters, or Klingon, or Borg, but they are not the crew of USS Not Important. Yet, even doing ordinary things like hauling cargo or repairing a space station will show challenge and adventure if you don't have extraordinary things like Mr. Spock, Miracle Doctor Bashir, or Brilliant Engineer like O'Brien or Scotty, and not equipped with the best / sophisticated weapon and tech like we have seen before in the series.

It will funny, if in one episode the ship is stranded and empty (like we saw in the past series) and it is not one of the crew who save the people, but Kirk and the USS Enterprise (as the guest stars) come to the derelict USS Not Important and save the pitiful crews.

Ok, Season one
- It is like the introduction for the series. The Captain is demoted by his superior to lead USS Not Important (Maybe we should change the name for it). An old Starship that just overhauled and upgraded by Starfleet just because they don't have other new ships to spare for space mission duties. The crews are not the best out there, the equipment and weapon are "basic".

The first job of USS Not Important is bringing supplies to a research station in the frontier. But they are intercepted by a pirate ship. While the pirate ship was a mere problem for the heroes of previous Star Trek Series, in this series, they are a menace. The worst part is that the crew give the captain advice to surrender the goods to save their ass. Well, the Captain refuse and choose to outrun the pirate. In here, the captain must face three problems. The pirate, the crew who think that the captain decision is endanger their live, and the ship's old engine.

The second season is about USS Not Important that stranded in a foreign space (not as far as Voyager, The area can easily be reach by a sophisticated starship like Constitution Class, but a struggle for an old and a bit broken ship like USS Not Important). The dilema is more about their life, and families, Morale, and supply.

The third season is about the Federation - Klingon War. And like always, our heroes are not the heroes / central figure in the war, although the USS Not Important is upgraded and they have a newer engine (the Chief Engineer will struggle on learning this new toy). Their ship is drafted and ordered to join a battle group that led by a sophisticated warship belong to the Federation; a Constitution Class that escorted by several high tech Miranda. And their group is wiped out by a Klingon Battlegroup in a battle. Making USS Not Important stranded behind the enemy line. So rather than witnessing our captain duel against a Klingon General and win the war, it is about how the crew survive in a hostile environment and back to the Federation Space.

. . .The ship is old, using "out of date" Federation Technology. She is not even equipped with Torpedoes; only beam weapon for self defense. . .

If the ship was just overhauled and undergone a refit, why is the equipment obsolete by current Starfleet standards?

. . .Her mission is to hauling cargoes from one planet to other planet, etc. Means, she is a kind of utility ship that missions is not doing the most important or dangerous situation like what Enterprise did. . .

Sounds really unexciting. That'll be sure to draw the viewers in.

If they're that dispirited, why are they still in Starfleet? They should have resigned or been discharged long ago.

. . .The first job of USS Not Important is bringing supplies to a research station in the frontier. But they are intercepted by a pirate ship. While the pirate ship was a mere problem for the heroes of previous Star Trek Series, in this series, they are a menace. The worst part is that the crew give the captain advice to surrender the goods to save their ass. Well, the Captain refuse and choose to outrun the pirate. In here, the captain must face three problems. The pirate, the crew who think that the captain decision is endanger their live, and the ship's old engine. . .

This is a job for ships like Enterprise, not broken down tubs with lackadaisical crews. Old decrepit ships wouldn't be making regular runs to the frontier. Pirates are going to concentrate on trade routes, and those routes are going to be patrolled by Starfleet ships faster than the Not Important, and perhaps only hours away.

. . .The second season is about. . .The third season is about. . .

Better wait to see if the show makes it past 6 weeks before plotting a multi-season bible.

As others indicate, this would have a better chance of working if you weren't trying to squeeze it into the Star Trek universe.

Edit: I'll give you my own example. I originally intended to do animation test footage using some sort of pseudo-Starfleet characters. Then I got the idea to put the focus on civilians, with the military dudes now background characters. This suddenly meant all my Starfleet types were expendable and could die horrible deaths. It was my own fictional universe anyway, and opened up all sorts of new possibilities.

Strip out all the Star Trek references in your concept, and it could work as an original piece.

I'm sorry, but the OP's idea/concept is basically this old 1970s show: Quark

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM4YJ-jNteY[/yt]

 

[T'Girl]

I think a lot's of the objections to this concept could be fixed by simply making the ship part of a private business and crew civilians and not Starfleet.

An older ship owned perhaps by a interstellar shipping line.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think as a general rule, civilian vessels try very hard to avoid putting themselves in dangerous situations and will run from it at the first scent of them, leaving that kind of work to Starfleet. The only exceptions would be pirate and smuggler ships that frequently operate on the other side of the law.

It would be pretty much Star Trek: Firefly, IMO.

 

[T'Girl]

During the "tanker wars" of the 1980's, supertankers still entered the Persian Gulf, even through some were being destroyed. Today shipping still moves along the East coast of Africa, despite the dangers there.

If there's money to be made, companies will risk their ships ... to a point.

In the age of sail, it was common for merchant ships to be armed

 

[C.E. Evans]

Space is still inherently dangerous just like the open sea, with some areas more dangerous than others, but generally you're not going to see civilian vessels carrying on like Starfleet vessels--carrying out Starfleet orders and getting into occasional battles with bad guys (it usually doesn't end well for them).

 

[David.Blue]

I still think the OP has a point, and a nicely sharp one! Not that I have anything against sweeping space opera epics, but to turn the focus "in" rather than "out" seems like a potentially viable premise.

As addressed earlier, this isn't about a bunch of incompetents on an old rust bucket that is just one dropped spanner from blowing up. Rather we're talking about a second (or maybe third) tier starship with a crew of less-than-stellar Starfleet personnel. A captain with an attitude, and maybe a temper, who doesn't like her exec at all. Imagine a chief engineer who doesn't really like people, or a chief medical officer who's like many surgeons in real life--seeing people as machines to be fixed and viewing themselves as virtual gods for doing the fixing. Some genuinely awkward junior officers who might well end up drummed out of Starfleet eventually. Some veteran of an accident/crime who, although good, remains just a shadow of their former self.

Instead of focusing on stories that involve threats to entire civilizations, episodes about how these individuals handle more mundane fare. The race to rescue a ship or outpost really far away, maybe with friends or relatives assigned there. Unexpected first contact with a genuinely bizarre alien race. Local elections insist on involving the crew because they're Starfleet. An archeological expedition resists evacuation.