New Game: Think up a new idea for Star Trek series VI

[Newspaper Taxi]

They CANNOT be one of the following ideas:

* Starfleet Academy Series
* 'Just another Ship' Series (Be it Enterprise, or not.)
*'Just another Station' Series
* Timeline as a stunt -- Between TOS and ENT, TOS and TNG, or Nemesis, but not using the timelien as more than 'just another ship' fodder.
* Series based on a spin-off series books. (Titan, New Frontier, SCE, etc.)
* Series based on ENT's Temporal Cold War Arc
* Section 31 Series
* Mirror Universe Series
* Q's Wacky Adventures
* Anthology Series

Now these ideas aren't bad, per se, but they make up the bulk of the ideas presented by people on Star Trek message boards and get repeated over and over. that's why I thought it would be interesting to challenge people to come up with ideas outside of these areas. You can include elements of those forbidden subjects in your series idea but you have to justify how your 'just another ship' series is fundamentally different than ENT/TOS/TNG/VOY and the other proposed ship series.

Now this is difficult task. I know it's hard on my brain too. I'm going to try to think up a series idea or two as well, but I spent a good portion of my Internet time today doing this.

Good luck, and may the Force be with you. (The creative force.)

 

[tenmei]

I've proposed part of this concept elsewhere - but the focus would be a random Starfleet ship (the class and crew compliment unimportant except it would need to be big enough to plausibly conduct the mission and have enough crewmembers to do the mission - so, for example, an Intrepid Class but not a Defiant) which we'll call the USS Calcutta, working a humanitarian mission in some kind of crippled sector where the races operate on subsistence and democracy is haphazard for some and a distant dream for others. This ship operates on behalf of the Federation equivalent of MSF, Project Raleigh and the World Health Organisation.

Think of the episodes of ER where Carter and Luka went to Africa to work for MSF, the show would be a Trek equivalent of that - we'd get pirates assaulting the ship to steal our technology and/or medicine one week, planetary bodies holding visiting crewmen hostage in others as well as standard exploration stories in yet others.

 

[Admiral2]

It cannot be a "just another ship" series?



I wish that once, just once, people who say things like this would look up the definitions of the words Star and Trek. Just once.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

^

Again, this is an exercises in thinking out different things Star Trek could do. The 'Just Another Ship' has been suggested to the point that it gets excluded from this game. Chances are that this series would have a ship or multiple ships in it or whatever. That's fine. But if all the idea is merely a list of characters than it doesn't count.

 

[Dayton3]

Star Trek: Special Forces.

This series focuses on an elite Starfleet unit that serves as a surface military force when needed, a special investigative unit, protection during diplomatic meetings, et cetera.

They operate anywhere that they can put the soles of their boots on. Including on non Class M planets.

Of course, a ship has to transport them to their destination and serve as a base for their air support, but in general all the action takes place planetside.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

A series based around a ship that gets sucked back in time 200,000 years to the time of Iconians.

 

[The Mule]

i've often kicked around an idea about a starship that gets stuck inside a Dyson Sphere (not necessarily the one from "Relics" (TNG)) and has to interact with the inhabitants who are unaware of the existance of an outside universe. including some who view FTL travel and communication as "a blasphous mockery of the Godsun and his Light"

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I would base a series around a ship that's helping a group of civilians establish a colony out of the range of the Federation. Set just after the Dominion War, this would mean that most of the characters would either be bitter and shaken by war or extremely young and inexperienced. Also, Starfleet's ratio of Officers vs. Enlisted and NCOs would be flipped due to the unique post-war circumstances.

You'd have

-The "lead" Starfleet ship (Where about 50-60 percent of the action takes place)
-The colony
-A series of civilian vessels attached to said colony
-A smaller Starfleet survey ship working in the sector


The show would have a larger main cast than most Trek shows, with:
-Starfleet Senior Staff(s)
-Colony leaders and influential colonists.
-Plus, a secondary cast that would make DS9 green with envy in it's size.

I'd try to diversify the personalities of the Starfleet crewmembers a little more. TNG-era folk seem a little too deadpan and serious.

That's my little idea.

 

[tenmei]

Eeek, we'd be looking at a BSG/Lost style cast for that show, Kitty!

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

^I like the thought of a show more planet based than previous ones.

I promised I'd play too, so here I go. There'd be this Federation space station that's on a boarder area of the Federation. However, the biggest trade route in the quadrant, starts to cut into the Federation at that point. It's like the equivalent of The Silk Road that went through Asia way back when. So the station has to keep track of all of the ships and groups coming into the Federation, and again, when they leave, if they do. It's also a rest stop. The Federation offers some repair plans out of hospitality and welcoming-ness. There's also an area on each deck which contains a large room that recaptures the environment of a planet. One floor has a Earth-like park in it with real grass and flowers; another floor has a more desert one, etc., etc.

The storys would mostly be in arcs of three and four.

A major difference would be that there would be a cyclical nature to the cast of the show. About half the characters are permanent and live on the station, while the other half focuses on travelers. A group of characters would be in Episodes 1-4 at the start of the season when they come into Fed Space and then pop up again in episodes 14-16 when they're on their way back home. You'd have a grounding part, but then something to keep shaking it up. The fluidity of the cast could be great fun -- especially if some of the actors want to keep their characters passing by. Think of seven years worth of reoccurring characters! That'd be fun.

Story wise I was thinking two to four parters, and occasional one parters for breathers. Some example story ideas would be that After a ship of friendly aliens pass through, they find out that the ship was carrying a terrible space Plague and that everyone on the station are infected, and they have to close the boarder, find a cure, and not allow anyone to leave. Another example could be that a species is bringing a relic on the route with them, but another species doesn't want to let them bring it through, since they think the relic has an evil demon in it. So suddenly they have a holy war on their hands. Or a spacial anomaly opens up in which whenever a ship tries to leave the area, they end up arriving in it again. There could also be a major arc that has an allegory with the United States and it's current situation with immigrants.

Oh...and there wouldn't be too many Ferengi. The Ferengi's rules of Acquisitions would tell them that greater profits await you when you try to carve your own path, as opposed to following others. So the only Ferengi that would pop up would be ones considered cowardly or meek.

 

[Brainsucker]

What if Star Trek : Reboot

The Prologue take the time of the last 21st century when the Earth is invaded by an alien called Vulcan. Their purpose is to clean the earth from filthy human who will destroy the entire galaxy with their "power hungry and egoistic nature". But Vulcan has no intend to destroy humanity, they just want to altered the human mind with their advanced technology.

The time begin at the last of 22nd century, in a brink of galaxy war between Vulcan and other alien. The main hero is a captain of a garbage ship who ordered by Vulcan to clean the space around Solar System. The story begin with the incoming of Vulcan enemy in Solar System. With the help of our hero, these "friendly" Alien is brought to Earth. There, they meet the Human leader and promise people that they will help Human if Human decided to free themselves from Vulcan.

Although a lot of human leaders refuse to cooperate with this aliens, but some do. And this is their story. He has great leadership capability and ship combat skill.

Main character 1 : A captain of a garbage ship. He is the one of few starship captains that belong to Earth.

Main character 2 : One of Earth leader. He refused the Alien help because he think that they might betray Human. But, after the time being, he will cooperate and help the struggle of independence.

Main Character 3 : He / she is a young diplomat who interest with the new alien who come to Earth. So he / she decided to join the Alien starship to see the new world.

Character 4 : The Alien Admiral who ordered to Solar System by his Lord. His quest is to weakened Vulcan power in the galaxy.

Character 5 : Vulcan Earth Leader.

Character 6 : A Vulcan noble (Female / Male), he / she is the son / daughter of character 5. He / she support Human struggle of indepence.

Main idea :

You see that the main theme of Star Trek that we know so far is about sea faring and exploration. Like the European did in 15th - 16th century. So, it is the time for us to move ahead of time and tell the story of America Independence.

See
Human = US
Vulcan = British
The blue skin Alien = France

Later after the independence of Earth, the Federation will formed and the exploration of human kind will begin. Just like US, they will help the other planets and make them join the cause. While in the galaxy the war is about erupted. A great General from Blue Skin Alien (Napoleon) will rise in power and attack the entire civilization. That time, Human will come to stop them along with Vulcan and other, and stop the conqueror.

What do you think? (sorry for my bad English)

 

[tenmei]

Interesting concept. Is there a way this could be made to work with Trek history as we know it, though?

 

[tenmei]

I've also had an idea for a Trek series that would reboot the franchise. A bit more obviously based on TOS, though, which I'm calling Ultimate Star Trek after the Marvel franchise.


ULTIMATE STAR TREK


It is some point in the future - far enough for space travel to be as common place to our heroes as sea travel and air travel are to us - and mankind has become part of an organisation known as the United Federation of Planets.

The Federation is analogous to the United Nations, a political entity but not a military one, with each member having their own space faring military forces.

Starfleet, the space faring military force of Earth, has launched a new ship, the USS Enterprise. It is massive, designed as a battlecruiser it has been retrofitted with extensive science facilities - which leads to friction between the scientists and the military personel who see each other as infringing on their mission.

In command of this ship is CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK who is given command in spite of, or perhaps because of, his cowboy nature and in charge of the massive ships new science department is a middle aged curmudgeon, DOCTOR LEONARD MCCOY, who is - much to everyones relief - an old friend of Kirks so this makes the science/military friction a bit less openly hostile.

LT COMMANDER HIKARU SULU is the First Officer of the ship, a brilliant mathematician who also functions as ships Helm Officer and Senior Navigator, who fancies himself a cavalier swordsman. LT COMMANDER HEATHER SCOTT is the fiery red headed Scottish Chief Engineer of the Enterprise who is fiercely protective of her engines and has a reputation as a miracle worker.

CADET JANICE RAND is only supposed to be on the Enterprise for six months but her eagerness and brilliance soon have Kirk requesting she remain - but is it just her brilliance he likes?

DR CHRISTINE CHAPEL is one of McCoy's medical personnel, LT JOHN KYLE is a transporter technician (and Lieutenant Commander Sulu's long term boyfriend) and DR CAROL MARCUS is a brilliant theortetical scientist working under McCoy.

As the Enterprise prepares for departure, a message arrives for Kirk that dispatches the Enterprise to the fringes of known space where a Federation science team has uncovered alien ruins that are suspected to be eons old. Enterprise will rendezvous with the VCS Shi'kar under COMMANDER SPOCK whilst they will also take onboard AMBASSADOR UHURA a renowned diplomat from the Earth government.

Spock is a Vulcan, a member of a race who believe in controlling emotions and are highly intelligent. Spock has always had trouble with controlling his emotions but cannot understand why - a reason which we will discover is the fault of his father.

AMBASSADOR SAREK, a Vulcan diplomat and Spocks father, is also a member of a secretive Vulcan cult known as the Romulans who believe in the teachings of a figure known as Romulus who believe that logic must be either forced upon those who do not posess it, or those who refuse it must be eliminated.

As the series begins, the Romulans have just been revealed to have been responsible for the deaths of thousands on an Earth space station. Some of the crew on the Enterprise can't see past the pointed ears and struggle to work with Spock - but he eventually wins their trust.

On the planet, Spock, Kirk and McCoy come to work together after Spock's ship is destroyed by a KLINGON VESSEL that has been stalking both the Enterprise and the Shi'kar. The Klingons are a formerly powerful Empire that has fractured - formerly a cohesive military power, the various houses that make up the Empire have fractured into smaller and constantly shifting alliances most of which view the United Federation of Planets as both a threat and the reason for their Empires collapse.

The alien civilisation threatens the Enterprise and the Klingons but they're able to recover a map of alien planets which may be the sites of further ancient ruins.

Starfleet want Enterprise to explore those planets on behalf of the whole Federation but the Enterprise must keep the database of those planets secret in case they fall into the hands of the Klingons or the secretive Tholians.

In the end, Kirk invites Spock to remain onboard the Enterprise as advisor and Spock accepts, something he is prompted to do by his mysterious father for reasons unknown.

As the pilot finishes, the Enterprise is assigned a five year mission to seek out new lifeforms, new civlisations and to boldly go where no human has gone before ...

 

[Brainsucker]

Interesting concept. Is there a way this could be made to work with Trek history as we know it, though?

No, it is purely New Star trek.

We use the name of Star Trek because it use :

1. Star Trek ship designs
2. Star Trek Alien Concept
3. Star Trek known Technology (like Transporter, Phaser, Torpedo, etc)

If the last Star Trek called Star Trek : Stardate Era, this Star Trek will called Star Trek New Era. The timeline will use different name of date (not Stardate, but something else)

 

[AlxxlA]

Here are a couple of ideas I've come up with:

• A 29th Century series with Voyager tie-ins, where we see the early development of the Mobile Emitters, sub-nanoscale engineering, and where intergalactic and time travel are commonplace
• A starship where the crew mutinies, steals advanced weapons technology (from the future?) and proceeds to cross the Romulan Neutral Zone to attempt a one-ship offensive against the entire Romulan Empire.

 

[tenmei]

No offense, dude, but the first one sounds like it could be incredibly dull and boring. The problem with all that advanced tech is it means bugger all if your story is no good and we know little about the pitch apart from that it's on a ship with advanced tech in the future. So what?

The second one sounds more interesting, but I doubt it could sustain a whole seven years of a series. It might work better as a one off tv movie, though.

 

[Nedersong]

I still love the idea of the Temporal war based series. After all, they even hinted at one in TOS episode with Gary 7.

And I believe that episode was actually to be used to launch a new series that dealt with that war.

And since it would be temporal, we could many different kinds of futuristic vessels.

 

[captainkirk]

Starfleet finds an old Iconian portal and doesn't destroy it but instead gets teams of explorers to go through to different
worlds across the galaxy. The headquarters are known as Starportal command where they send SP teams through the portal. The series could be called "Star Trek SP-1".

 

[Balthier the Great]

I've also had an idea for a Trek series that would reboot the franchise. A bit more obviously based on TOS, though, which I'm calling Ultimate Star Trek after the Marvel franchise.


ULTIMATE STAR TREK


It is some point in the future - far enough for space travel to be as common place to our heroes as sea travel and air travel are to us - and mankind has become part of an organisation known as the United Federation of Planets.

The Federation is analogous to the United Nations, a political entity but not a military one, with each member having their own space faring military forces.

Starfleet, the space faring military force of Earth, has launched a new ship, the USS Enterprise. It is massive, designed as a battlecruiser it has been retrofitted with extensive science facilities - which leads to friction between the scientists and the military personel who see each other as infringing on their mission.

In command of this ship is CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK who is given command in spite of, or perhaps because of, his cowboy nature and in charge of the massive ships new science department is a middle aged curmudgeon, DOCTOR LEONARD MCCOY, who is - much to everyones relief - an old friend of Kirks so this makes the science/military friction a bit less openly hostile.

LT COMMANDER HIKARU SULU is the First Officer of the ship, a brilliant mathematician who also functions as ships Helm Officer and Senior Navigator, who fancies himself a cavalier swordsman. LT COMMANDER HEATHER SCOTT is the fiery red headed Scottish Chief Engineer of the Enterprise who is fiercely protective of her engines and has a reputation as a miracle worker.

CADET JANICE RAND is only supposed to be on the Enterprise for six months but her eagerness and brilliance soon have Kirk requesting she remain - but is it just her brilliance he likes?

DR CHRISTINE CHAPEL is one of McCoy's medical personnel, LT JOHN KYLE is a transporter technician (and Lieutenant Commander Sulu's long term boyfriend) and DR CAROL MARCUS is a brilliant theortetical scientist working under McCoy.

As the Enterprise prepares for departure, a message arrives for Kirk that dispatches the Enterprise to the fringes of known space where a Federation science team has uncovered alien ruins that are suspected to be eons old. Enterprise will rendezvous with the VCS Shi'kar under COMMANDER SPOCK whilst they will also take onboard AMBASSADOR UHURA a renowned diplomat from the Earth government.

Spock is a Vulcan, a member of a race who believe in controlling emotions and are highly intelligent. Spock has always had trouble with controlling his emotions but cannot understand why - a reason which we will discover is the fault of his father.

AMBASSADOR SAREK, a Vulcan diplomat and Spocks father, is also a member of a secretive Vulcan cult known as the Romulans who believe in the teachings of a figure known as Romulus who believe that logic must be either forced upon those who do not posess it, or those who refuse it must be eliminated.

As the series begins, the Romulans have just been revealed to have been responsible for the deaths of thousands on an Earth space station. Some of the crew on the Enterprise can't see past the pointed ears and struggle to work with Spock - but he eventually wins their trust.

On the planet, Spock, Kirk and McCoy come to work together after Spock's ship is destroyed by a KLINGON VESSEL that has been stalking both the Enterprise and the Shi'kar. The Klingons are a formerly powerful Empire that has fractured - formerly a cohesive military power, the various houses that make up the Empire have fractured into smaller and constantly shifting alliances most of which view the United Federation of Planets as both a threat and the reason for their Empires collapse.

The alien civilisation threatens the Enterprise and the Klingons but they're able to recover a map of alien planets which may be the sites of further ancient ruins.

Starfleet want Enterprise to explore those planets on behalf of the whole Federation but the Enterprise must keep the database of those planets secret in case they fall into the hands of the Klingons or the secretive Tholians.

In the end, Kirk invites Spock to remain onboard the Enterprise as advisor and Spock accepts, something he is prompted to do by his mysterious father for reasons unknown.

As the pilot finishes, the Enterprise is assigned a five year mission to seek out new lifeforms, new civlisations and to boldly go where no human has gone before ...

Kribbing TOS doesn't count as a new series. Ceiling Spock is not amused.

My series would be based around a medical ship. Call it whatever you want, but my vote goes to USS Galen, but whatever.

There's some sort of plague out there, and Galen is on the fron lines of fighting it, even though there is no cure yet.

A few things to mess with crew wise: A vulcan and a romulan on the same ship, interacting. Kinda a logic yin yang thing. If that makes sense to you. A klingon doctor who hates war because he's seen the damage it does (maybe from the Dominion War). Maybe the first nonhuman captain.

I think you could bring up a lot of interesting medical topics: Stem cells, who gets the available medicine if there's not enough, stuff like that. Maybe an issue about whether the health risks to the manufacturers of said drugs. Or the ethics of taking land that contains a needed ingrediant. All kinds of stuff.

And it would be rather different from what's gone before.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It cannot be a "just another ship" series?



I wish that once, just once, people who say things like this would look up the definitions of the words Star and Trek. Just once.

The funny thing is, Star Trek has always been mis-named. A "trek" implies some sort of journey to a destination, like a real wagon train to the stars. But TOS was really more about the cops on the beat, keeping the Federation safe. They also served scientific, military and diplomatic purposes but one thing they were not doing was finding some new place to live. There was never any assumption that they would fail to return home on a regular basis. They had no set destination, they were just flying in circles.

In this forum, someone posted a radical idea to have a series about colonizers who are leaving the Federation, never to return, to live in the far reaches of the galaxy or some such. That's a true "star trek" but such a radical departure from what we know as Star Trek that I think it should just be called something else.

You see that the main theme of Star Trek that we know so far is about sea faring and exploration. Like the European did in 15th - 16th century. So, it is the time for us to move ahead of time and tell the story of America Independence.

The Sci Fi channel is supposed to be working on a space series that uses the Revolutionary War as its governing metaphor, called Revolution. So with any luck, we might actually see this story happening.