how about a threat from within starfleet itself?
Works for me, but this is the part where people start carping about the Section 31 idea of conflicts within Starfleet = Starfleet isn't the purely idealistic exploratory organization that some fans insist that it be.
Personally I'm willing to give drama from any source a chance. And if that source means that Starfleet has feet of clay, I won't reject it out of hand.
Star Trek can have shades of grey - it just should stop well short of
BSG-dom, simply so that it doesn't lose the "boundaries" that define it as
Star Trek and not something else.
Throw them into such a weird and realistic environment on their quest to find something there (a cure), that their very survival and success there becomes the source of conflict and adventure--
That story isn't about exploration. It's about stopping a threat. That's why I keep saying that
Star Trek isn't really about exploration at all. It's about fighting and managing threats, which sometimes are discovered in the course of exploration, and sometimes not. Which is why complains about
Star Trek war stories are so off target. Even when
Star Trek isn't "about a war," it's about the stuff that makes up wars (fighting and managing threats) so why quibble about semantics?
Idea: Kirk and Co. encounter Mudd doing something illegal. Mudd mentions something about "Mysterious Space Thing". Starfleet seems interested, so they send Enterprise to see "Mysterious Space Thing". Also, the Klingons (or another villain) learn of "Mysterious Space Thing" and want it too. Hijinks ensue.
Cold War vs. the Klingons which spills over into the occasional hot war. Sure, that's a good idea for a story as well. Back to the basics.
