Federation, the Star Trek Series

[Brainsucker]

This idea is about the struggle of United Federation of Planets against the invasion of new enemy. The title is Federation, not Star Trek, but it happens in Star Trek Universe.

It is the time after Nemesis, an era when the Federation has already capable of creating an artificial worm hole with their ship. The first of the craft that equipped with this technology is the brand new Enterprise F. It's first destination is exploring the Andromeda Galaxy.

The series begin with the Enterprise F maiden voyage ceremonial. The president of United Federation of Planet, Jeanluc Picard comes to witness the new era of space exploration from the Earth Space Station, before suddenly a fleet of unknown alien ships comes to attack the earth.

In that attack, the whole Federation fleet on Earth, including the Enterprise F are sunk; destroyed by the enemy. The President himself is able to safe his life with the help of one Federation Secret Service - Dimitri Warden. They manage to find and run an old Star ship, NCC 1701 A Enterprise that moored inside the Earth Space Station.

With this Starship, Picard, and most of Federation's important people are saved. They leave Earth after realizing that the alien has conquered the planet. From that ship, Picard lead the Federation in the struggle against this new enemy.

Characters :
- President Jeanluc Picard :
Picard's innate in diplomacy make me believe that he will become Federation's President soon or later. So I think, it is safe for me to put him as the president in this new series idea.

- Secret Agent Dimitri Warden (or whatever he is) :
The main hero of this story. He saved Picard's life from the enemy attack and ensure the president safety for the whole story. Later, he will lead the Federation new Special Force under the command of Picard himself.

- Admiral Jeanaway :
I know that in some novel that somebody kill her. But I'm not sure that it is the official Star Trek canon or not. So I put this admiral to this series, as the commander of the entire Federation Starfleet. She will accompany Picard in their struggle to save Federation from it's fate, and command the Enterprise A as her captain.

Characters what may be appear in the whole series :

- Captain Jonathan Riker
He is the captain of one of Federation Flagship, Titan. He will appear in some episode (and maybe become the main character in one episode) in a mission against the enemy.

The focus of this series is not Picard, but the secret agent Dimitri Warden himself, in a series of dangerous secret missions that he is in. Picard, Janeaway and the others old characters will only become the support casts.

 

[T'Girl]

It occurs to me that we know that the Andromeda galaxy is home to a hostile, conquering race called Kelvins. If they discovered (somehow) that the Federation had a "wormhole drive," they might regard this a danger to them.

 

[Brainsucker]

That's mean, this idea is workable for Star Trek Universe. It will have "trek" feature, as the president is on exile / running from the invander in Space with a starship, it fit to the Star Trek Saga because it use Enterprise, even it is the old Enterprise A that has been already moored in the Federation Museum. But it is not just another Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica Clone.

I don't like Picard as he is in Star Trek TNG movies. I love his original character that was represented in the TNG series or in Star Trek Generation. He should be a captain and diplomat, not a fighter or hero.

To limit the old casts influence in this series, the main cast, Dimitri Warden will have a special small starship, as big as a Runabout that belong only to the Federation Secret Service, Section 32 (not Section 31). It will docked in the Enterprise A, and when the agent is in mission will use that to infiltrate behind the enemy line.

The Secret Agent's operation suit will resemble "GHOST" from a video game Tom Clancy "Ghost Recon"; with 24th century high tech gadget that we never seen in previous Star Trek series, and the taste of his secret mission will be like Mission Impossible 1 the movie, like when Ethan Hunt infiltrate to the CIA computer center.

Because the enemy has advanced weaponry and security technology, sometime, our hero must taste a space dog fight with his runabout and tens of enemy's fighters in his tail, like what we saw in Star Wars :P

 

[jefferiestubes8]

This idea is about the struggle of United Federation of Planets against the invasion of new enemy. The title is Federation, not Star Trek, but it happens in Star Trek Universe.
The focus of this series is not Picard, but the secret agent Dimitri Warden himself, in a series of dangerous secret missions that he is in.

This sounds fine as a fan film.
For a CBS Television official canon I think the idea is flawed in that if the UFP is involved then it is Star Trek. A Star Trek TV series has a certain level of type of ensemble cast show interacting. The idea you have given would suit the Star Wars universe more than a Trek universe.

I like the idea of the UFP and a series with 1 or 2 ships doing work for them would be great.
For a TV series running 43 minutes though a single ship and a UFP headquarters formula works very well. A single ship with an ensemble crew of say 8 or 9 principle characters allows for character arcs over a season and series. TOS, TNG, and 'SeaQuest DSV' the underwater competitor to TNG all used that formula for the most part. Trek has a wide age group of fans and I doubt the A & B story telling during an episode would be divided between 2 ships and 2 groups of principle characters adding up to almost 16 which is too many. Even a sci-fi soap opera such as Defying Gravity set on a ship in space and on Earth had a principle cast of 8 astronauts and 6 others on Earth. That was a large cast but still manageable as the other 6 were intertwined with the 8 characters personal and professional lives.

 

[Admiral_Young]

In what way was what T'Girl stated "mean"? She was simply stating that the Andromeda galaxy is home to the Kelvins who might logically be concerned with possible threats to them.

Your idea is I suppose decent. You mention that you think Picard is best personified as a Captain or diplomat. Fine. How does making him a politician improve this? Patrick Stewart would most likely not be interested in returning in a cameo basis. If anything he should be an Ambassador. Why is it that most of the ideas in here always consist of an a mysterious enemy attacking the Federation setting off the chain of events that lead into the series?

Also, Starfleet and the Federation is vast. You mention Earth is attacked. What about the other planets? If exploration has flourished why would Starfleet need to mothball and retrofit an old class of starship? Unless you're implying that Starfleet is crippled in an attempt to defend Earth. Even so there are most likely numerous ship yards across the Federation they could use to build new ships as they did during the Dominon War.


This isn't "Star Trek" to me. "Star Trek" to me is about using science fiction to explore contemporary human issues. Exploring the human condition. Exploring in general. Another "war" story doesn't interest me at all.

 

[BillJ]

Why does everyone try to turn it into War Trek?

 

[Brainsucker]

Because War Trek is fun to be watched, while not everybody like an exploration trek that heavily into drama. At least, I prefer War Trek than Exploration Trek. Well, everybody has their own taste, I think.

 

[The Green Mushroom]

Because War Trek is fun to be watched, while not everybody like an exploration trek that heavily into drama. At least, I prefer War Trek than Exploration Trek. Well, everybody has their own taste, I think.

I have no problem with using a war as the backdrop to a new Trek series. DS9, you know the one with a war, was my favorite of the four series.

The problem is that while not everyone is in to exploration, the ratings say otherwise. If someone is going to spend tens of millions of dollars to make a new series, they are unlikely to dump the ideas that made Trek popular for the new show.

An exploration series can have action episodes for the action fans as well as comedy episodes, dramatic episodes, hard sci-fi episodes and whatever else they come up with.

A war series is going lead to problems: Why are they playing a baseball game in the middle of a war? Why are they wasting resources looking for the fountain of you while their is fighting going on? Why do they have the best officers playing minor league diplomat instead of defending against an invasion?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Deep Space Nine is a good example, and it is also my favourite of the four series, however that doesn't mean we should use it as a template for what a Star Trek audience wants to see. I know a lot of friends and other people who didn't like DS9 as well.

The original poster I think needs to tweak and expand his idea to incorporate more elements of what makes "Star Trek" so special. You say that it does have Trek Features and name stuff that aren't mainstays of the franchise at all. Also something I forgot to harp on earlier....again what is the point of your main character when you have "Captain William Riker" in command of the Federation's Flagship? I don't understand that either.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

This idea is about the struggle of United Federation of Planets against the invasion of new enemy.

You could stop right there, that's a decent premise for a new series. I like the idea of bringing back Patrick Stewart for the premiere episode as the Federation President, but then proceeding with a whole new cast. Forget about Picard for the rest of the series and forget Janeway and Riker entirely.

Now for the hard part: who's going to show it and why will it succeed?

Because War Trek is fun to be watched, while not everybody like an exploration trek that heavily into drama.

Having the series be about a war is a good way to enhance its popular appeal. There aren't very many war-based TV series around as competition.

Another way to go is to bring back the cop-on-the-beat aspect of TOS, which has been largely forgotten ever since. Cop shows are popular, and create an easy premise to build a series around - there's always some miscreant for Our Heroes to fight.

To hedge your bets, make it a war/cop show. Sometimes they're fighting the war, sometimes they have to serve as cops w/n the Federation, sometimes they have to deal with buttheaded alien diplomats and sometimes there's a space ameoba to fight. Now I'm just describing TOS outright.

The original poster I think needs to tweak and expand his idea to incorporate more elements of what makes "Star Trek" so special.

That's easy, the Federation is a nice liberal democracy and the invaders are evil totalitarian jerks along the lines of the Dominion or the Borg. Plus you could have all the usual aesthetics with the uniforms, interiors, spaceship design, computer displays, etc, and all the usual technology and technobabble that communicate Star Trek-ness to the audience.

This isn't "Star Trek" to me. "Star Trek" to me is about using science fiction to explore contemporary human issues. Exploring the human condition. Exploring in general. Another "war" story doesn't interest me at all.

There are moral issues revolving around the prosecution of contemporary wars, that could be explored by this series (hopefully not in a ham-handed fashion.)

A war series is going lead to problems: Why are they playing a baseball game in the middle of a war?

After a thorough investigation of the comportment of the DS9 staff during the recent hostilities with the Gamma Quandrant, the Federation Council has outlawed baseball.

But none of that answers the question of who's going to show it and why will it succeed.

 

[Brainsucker]

Well, my idea was about Federation President on run. A starship captain, and a spy. Is it bad idea? Hmm....

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Okay, here's the worst problem with your premise:

With this Starship, Picard, and most of Federation's important people are saved.

You really think that the only "important" people in the Federation is the mucky mucks of the government and military heirarchy? That's not very Star Trek of you.

Also, it's not very in keeping with the zeitgeist. Have you seen Congress' approval ratings? People hate government. Not the government, or a government - just government as a concept. Best not to try to build a series around something everyone hates. People can relate to characters at the rank of starship captain and below - the people who actually are out there doing stuff, not sitting on their butts in an office and misusing our taxes.

 

[Admiral_Young]

It isn't a bad idea...there just isn't much substance. From your "pitch" one could assume that you intend this series to focus on internal politics and the war story...but then you've also tossed in this spy character who is obviously meant to be your series star and Will Riker as well. I truly don't see Patrick Stewart coming back for occasional episodes as a Federation President in Exile. Also who are these "powerful" enemies that have attacked the Federation in the first place? What is their motivation? Are they from the Andromeda galaxy? Are they from somewhere else? Why did they target Earth? How long have they been watching the Federation and Starfleet to know to target Earth? What is the Federation's response to the attack? It can't just be a random attack. Other than safe guarding President Picard what else does this Dimitri Warden do? Why do you have Admiral Janeway, the C-In-C of Starfleet the commander of a retrofitted Enterprise-A when you've still got Riker in command of Titan? Why does Picard...a sitting President have command of a "secret task force"? If anything this Warden should serve on the Titan under Riker.


From what you've posted it just seems you are interested in gadgets and surface stuff. Like I said no real substance. The majority of Trek fans aren't going to be interested in just surface stuff.

 

[Brainsucker]

The attack was happened in episode 1. It just the opening. I just don't have good enough English to explain my whole idea. Sorry. Let me take some time to compose a better version of my idea.

 

[Anji]

I think they created a series about the founding of the Federation and it was called Enterprise...and we all know how that turned out.

You guys are going backwards. Think forward. No previous characters. New characters. How did we as a civilization become a united planet and how did we rid the world of the major diseases, eliminate the use of money...make a better life for ourselves and our neighbors?

Look at all the stuff we use today that was created on Star Trek. How many of those items became reality?

We must think positive...futuristically. How did we become a good enough people to call ourselves the Federation? Pose it to the writers, pose it to the fans, let's figure out how to become a better people. Star Trek made us better in the 60's, it can do it again in 2012.

 

[Admiral_Young]

My one pet peeve in fan pitches is that they all seem to have reoccurring characters from other series in them. The only "Star Trek" spin off that did this was "Deep Space Nine" with Miles O'Brien. A major series star from a previous show is not going to join the cast of a new series just because a fan wants that character in the show for whatever reason. Also enough with this post-apocalyptic Federation plot device. Although I think something like this would work, ones I've seen here so far seem far too convoluted and not specific enough to work or be engaging.