I'd love a follow-up to Enterprise......30 years later. The Federation just celebrated its 30th birthday so to say. Colonies are being set-up, but with warp drive not being as fast as it is during TOS and TNG, range is still a thing. Colonies are more Independent, talking about becoming separate states. Starfleet is still working on integrating all the divisions from member worlds, finding its way between a military force (considering this not long after the Romulan War and incidents with the Klingons) and a exploratory force.
Long range communications isn't as easy as during TNG, back-up isn't always 1 lightyear away. Captains and crews are more independent and have to often work solo to get things done like Archer and crew, even though there is a larger fleet now.
I'd love to not see the birth of the Federation, but the growing up of it.
I completely agree. This is the way to go in regards to the Enterprise era for three reasons.
1. Follow-up on various ENT stories through a new lense.
- Vissians & Cogenitors
- Early days of the Federation-Romulan Cold War
- Suliban-Tandaran relations
- The Xindi
- penal colony Canamar
- corruption plagued planet Agaron as mentioned in "The Seventh"
- Automated repair station from "Dead Stop"
- The Malurians prior to being wiped out by Nomad in TOS
- Valakians and the Menk
- Kreetassans and the symbiotic lifeform seen in "Vox Sola"
- cultural expansion of the Orions and Tholians
- the early days of an established Prime Directive
- status of the first Earth colonies
- an expanding Starfleet/Federation
- Denobulan-Antaran relations since “The Breach”
Literally each potential story here could be a two-part episode, and last two seasons total. I think a season comprised of solely two-part episodes is unprecedented in the Star Trek franchise too.
2. The original setting of the TOS era
“The Cage”, TOS, TAS, and the TOS Movies seen in a lense of a viewing audience prior to the very first airing of TNG place them in the late 22nd- early 23rd century (i.e Khan brought out of stasis 200 years after the end of the Eugenics Wars in 1996). Obviously, those stories have since been retconned to the mid-to-late 23rd century. But revisiting some of the less known stories, species & concepts brought up (the Delta Triangle, Phylosians/Caitians/Edosians, aquashuttles/life support belts, Ambassador-at-large, USS Bonaventure, etc.) as origin stories, as well as some dropped concepts for TOS (i.e. Starfleet Marines as an actual institution that exists at one point in Starfleet history) with a different crew set in the 2190s is an interesting though experiment to see played out.
It would also be a good setting to see the precursors to what becomes the Constitution-class and Excelsior-class ships. Much like there was the Phase II USS Enterprise that was eventually used for DSC, there are unused models of the Excelsior-class that could be used for such a series. There are also unused TOS shuttlecraft models that would fit too. At least, I think they would.
3. It can also be commentary reflecting back on the early 2000s period, much like a show set between TOS and TNG can be commentary reflecting back on the 1990s.