For whatever it is worth... A new ship design. We're probably talking about something not too far from the basic layout as seen in TOS, VOY, TNG but I'm hoping for some cool twist. Of course, odds remain Star Trek Online has already done nearly anything, but still... Ambiguity. By that I mean more than simply "no easy answers" but also an exploration of tensions between equally valid points of view. I would argue for example "In the Pale Moonlight" (DS9 S06E19) one of the best episodes ever, because it explored a terrible moral cost for the sake of a higher good, eschewing formula in favor of a disturbing 'open' ending. Genuinely complex characters. I could point to other shows--some of them space operas even--but instead note that Lieutenant Ro Laran of TNG and Garak of DS9 remain among my favorite characters in TREK, and that the original trio of Kirk/Spock/Bones remain a standard for how real characters interact. Way too many characters in later shows depended pretty much entirely on excellent actors (Patrick Stewart, Robert Picardo, etc.) to make up for the lack of good writing. Less Technobabble. Notice I said "less" rather than "no." The whole particle-of-the-week thing got very weary very quickly, with increasingly the resolution of plots depending on imaginary science a-la-Batman's-utility-belt rather than decisions by characters. Drama. As opposed to melodrama. A very fine author (Stephen R. Donaldson) described once a quick way of distinguishing between the two. Imagine three 'roles' in a story--Victim, Villain and Hero. Obviouisly the Hero rescues the Victim from the Villain in some way applause applause curtain falls. But that remains mere melodrama, because in drama characters change roles. The Victim rescues the Villain from the Hero, then the Villain rescues the Hero from the Villain, and so on. Well rounded alien civilizations. Sorry but I've found it all but impossible to believe in several races in TREK. Klingons and Vulcans in particular seem to be just one thing each as a culture, with Ferengi even worse. But that was nothing to the void we got where the supposedly ancient and complex Bajorn culture was supposed to be. The Cardassians at least seemed like a complete society, to the point where we knew what their novels were like, how the approached family, their sense of architecture and how government was supposed to work, etc. Okay, the Vulcans grew to be tantalizing in ENT, which also for the first time gave us a lot of lovely hints about Andorian culture. But I'm hoping the new show breaks away from the route of an alien race with exactly one dominant trait or flavor in favor of ones that feel real. Part of this would mean some genuine exploration of a such a culture. Religion. Could we please allow people of faith to exist on their own terms without falling into fanaticism and superstition? Not that religion should end up promoted in some way, but treated with respect rather than stereotypes and condescension? This one I suspect is the one that would cause the most controversy--fans of BSG for example by the last season kept complaining that any members of a high tech culture would take a religion seriously, and that to do so was suicide. Well, no. That is not true. Frankly the sneering attitude towards all religion in TREK gets on my nerves, not least because it avoids all mention of any religion humans might still follow. Not that I'm asking for the fuzzy mystic storylines of Space:1999 or Buck Rogers!
Exotic aliens that recur. Arc-based, serialized story-telling. Excellent big name ensemble cast. Multi-genre stories (horror, adventure, murder-mystery, action, thriller)
If the show is episodic in nature than some limited time travel episodes wouldn't bother me if they were good. Some of the best episodes of Star Trek involved time travel, such as "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Trials and Tribble-ations" and "Little Green Men". But, I agree it should not be used to drive the narrative of the show, such as the final episode of Voyager or the the first 3 seasons of Enterprise.
All of this sounds pretty damned perfect to me. But to add: A fresh take on the ideas in Star Trek. A willingness to take chances regarding stories and not staying in the status quo. After all, risk is our business. An optimistic look at the future, but not one that is perfect. Striving for perfection is so much more interesting than perfection itself. Characters who stumble and fall on occasion. ETA: Oh, and not only a lack of technobabble, but a lack of technology being the cure-all to all problems. Give us some human ingenuity.
I'm fine with time travel as long as it isn't lets mess with time however we want and then just say, "Time travel makes my brain hurt" at the end of the episode. What a scam. I'd like to see time travel stories more along the lines of Deja Vu. Meaning you can't change the past, but you can be involved in it. So whatever the characters do in the past is already part of the past. Lets get rid of this suddenly Starfleet disappears and now we have to go back in time and fix it. If you successfully fixed it Starfleet would never have disappeared in the first place. I agree about the religion thing. It doesn't have to be be a shove it in you face thing. But have some humans from earth have strong and diverse faiths. Science doesn't have to be the enemy of faith. For thousands of years they weren't. I would like to see cultural diversity as well. Skin color is only one aspect of diversity. But if all your multi-ethnic crew all come from an American background you've still lost. Let's have some main characters who come from groups with practices we westerners would consider primitive or backwards. How about an African character who comes from a tribe that still practices scarification as a coming of age ritual. Or maybe even have someone from a tribe that eat their dead. Now having said that it shouldn't be played up as the defining characteristic of that character, but it should be portrayed as normal. We have a whole planet of full of diversity. Let's portray some of it.
Occasional time travel works. One of the strengths of the original Trek series was that rather than trying to present the faux history of some future galactic civilization they were interested in doing as wide a range of imaginative fantasy stories as possible: parallel worlds and alternate histories, time travel, horror and riffs on the Cthulhu mythos, etc...
Not one mention of religion would be nice. I hated that they developed Vulcan and Klingon "religion" late in the series. The very idea of a logical civilization with religion is ridiculous.
Did the Vulcan's have a religion. I thought they mainly had ritualistic culture not so much a belief in a deity/afterlife. Though I suppose a deity and an afterlife are not requirements for a religious belief. Also about space. I would like to see more of the grandeur of space. This is an exploration of outer-freaking-space It would be great to feel the awe of it. If any inspiration is needed I'm sure this could help: http://www.space.com/159-strangest-alien-planets.html
Being a logical and reasoning culture, of course the Vulcans would possess religion. Maybe the concept from the TMP novelization and Spock's World could be explored more, that all Vulcans can actively feel the creator. At the same time showing individuals from some species who choosen an anti faith position could also be presented. If there is time travel, then the "big reset button" shouldn't be employed. There should be changes when our heroes return to their own time, and not all positive one either. Some people should be missing, and new one brought into existence, favorable situations omitted. Time travel should hurt. this, no DeForest Kelley on TNG style cameos. However, if the show were to devote an entire episode to a previous character, in a meaningful way, that would be okay. Don't know about this one, a certain amount of "melodrama" would be reasonable and for me expected. We are dealing with (hopefully) realistic characters, with realistic lifes. Show them having lifes. .
Historically people have been saying "religion will be dead in a few years" for over two centuries. In fact lots of brilliant individuals (including lots of scientists) are indeed religious. What will (I believe and hope) diminish with more enlightened societies is fundamentalism. In my own experience, many (not all) atheists see all people of faith as fundamentalists, which is absolutely false. Which isn't to say atheism is wrong. Or that all atheists are grossly misinformed about religion--although many of the more vocal ones certainly are (those who pretend to know what Christian or Muslim theology actually teaches are the worst, generally--which is not to say this means anybody should be Christian or Muslim). To give a nice example of using religion in science fiction--Susan Ivanova's meeting with her Rabbi in the wake of her father's death in Babylon 5. Likewise the same series had a magnificent ep with Brad Dourif as a Catholic Monk.
Myself I have to include "warp engines" "transporters" with "heinsenberg compensators" or "replicators" and "shields" as technobabble.
Those aren't technobabble. They are plot tools that do what their names suggest. The only exception is "Heisenberg compensator", a TNG-era technobabble that makes no sense. What is it compensating for? Uncertainty? You can't compensate for a something built into the laws of physics. Or maybe it makes your meth bluer?
In no particular order (well not after the first point): Prime Trek. Gay Characters (one of which being the Captain or XO) with a developing romance throughout that is this series' Riker/Troi, Dax/Worf, Torres/Paris, Tucker/T'Pol. An older starship, one with a few miles on it, a history and reputation (whether good or bad), something that's not the newest and best and most cutting edge--surely these things have depreciation value Exploration is the focus. Have space battles and phaser fights, but don't rely on them every week for drama and impact. No catsuits. They are never appealing and female characters always look better in uniform anyway. The women! Have a 50/50 split on the number of female and male characters. Lots of aliens both new and old, with humans making up only a third of the main cast, as well as lots of them in the background, I've had enough of these essentially human-only crews. Leave the Klingons and Borg alone. Less episodic. Have events from previous episodes impact on the latest one, have characters evolve and change, do away with the reset button. Besides since people binge-watch more often now (I certainly know I do), having a story that carries on from one episode to the next makes you want to keep watching. No time travel, its been done to death. Plenty of recurring characters. DS9 showed how well they can work, if done right. A darker tone. I'm not saying NuBSG darkness, but a more "realistic" feel to the show (again such as they did with DS9), where there is are more shades of grey, where tough choices have to be made and the consequences lived with. I think that if the show has a darker more 'grown up' feel to it, then the light of Star Trek's optimism and hope for the future shines through brighter (but that's just my opinion). Characters with an expiration date. I don't mean kill them all off, but have people accept new assignments and leave the ship, they can reappear later. Of course some casualties are to be expected. But having the same bunch of people together on a quasi-military ship for five, six, seven years just seems a little hard to grasp (especially if there are career-minded officers amongst them). No Section 31. No, just no. Cut down the technobabble. Of course some will be needed, depending on the episode, but I don't care if the quantum variance of the Okuda compensator is out of alignment which is creating a build up of tachyon particles in the slipstream E-band. I watch Trek for the stories and characters. Also don't make it hard science, after all some of the core technologies at its core make the show highly improbable (if not actually downright impossible) but that's just the way it is. There is undoubtedly more, but this is just my initial thoughts.
Here are some Topics I would like to see handled in the new series: 1) A society in a constant, war like state In the past, wars started, and then ended. Not anymore. What happens to a utopian society, if anyone, anywheer at any time can happen to be a victim of terror? How does a perfect society cope with paranoia? 2) Computional algorithms orchestrating everyday life Basically, Big data is the future in capitalism. Everyone tries to optimize processes, using available data about everyone. What consequences will that have? What will happen to people that deviate from the norm? Will we see societies where the "unproductive" never again have a chance to incorporate themselves in society? One could combine those two. One of my favourite Star Trek episodes is TOS: "A taste of Armageddon". The story is pretty tropey, Kirk destrying a supercomputer that rules a civilisation. But it's core was fascinating: A world, where super-computers fight their wars virtually for the people, and people willingly DYING as "war casuals" to preserve their societies. 3) Drone warfare That may be more point 1.b). But what happens if attacks and acts of war aren't easibly assignable to different powers? 4) Artificial Intelligence We will get closer and closer to artificial intelligence. One thing I find interesting: The Vision from The Avengers had a "soul", as part of a magic gem in his forehead, that Scarlet Witch could sense. But what would happen to real, cold, artificial beings? Imagine a robot, perfectly capable of emotions, and human in all his actions. But Star Trek's telepaths (like Vulcans) can not read his mind or see into his soul. Is he accepted as a "living being" purely because of his behaviour? Or will he be a second-class citizen like the robots in Star Wars? 5) The prime directive I HATE those "don't help in this genocide"-stories Star Trek had lately. But at it's core, the prime directive is right: Giving unexperienced peoples warp technology could easily be worse than giving the Nazis nukes. If they didn't truly understand reality-altering technology, they could easily destroy their whole civilisation. So I'm interested in stories in which the prime directive already has been violated: -A warp capable cargo ship has crashlanded on a pre-warp civilisation. Our heroes have to save both the crew, and civilisation before they can fiddle with the warp drive. Or get radiated. How far can they go? -Other species, that have conquered pre-warp civilisations and used them as slave labours. How will that fold out? 6) REAL space phenomena Time dilatation around black holes. Wormholes, that connect two points that aren't anywhere near the same space or even time. Real space walks. Orbit sciences. Get inspired by films like Interstellar and The Martian. 7) More character driven episodes Not every episode has to involve action and the adventure of the week. I would like to see episodes where routine missions are done. Pre- and post mission meetings. And: people training, repeat, and re-repeat their mission in simulations on the holodeck. People trying to work hard for promotions. People flying training manouvers. Stuff like that. 8) Characters instead of species I want to see a Ferengi merchant, a klingon lawyer and an Andorian scientist in episodes centered around completely different things. I don't want a 'Ferengi-episode'. 9) No total war scenario If I want to see WWII, I watch a WWII- movie or series. If I watch a sci-fi series I don't want to see soldiers on the ground and the cost of war in every freakin episode. 10) The Bug war Well. Okay. If there's a war (and it really should be only a minor one), how about an interesting one? What if the enemy is completely different from us? If they don't have individuals? If they don't honour the value of life because they don't understand it? How can we fight a just battle against them? And more importantly, how can we end the war? How can you make peace-negotiations with someone who has done unspeakable things, but you cann not win without doint unspeakable things yourself? 11) Don't take yourself to serious Stargate hit the right tone. Funny, occasionally self-aware, but without getting ridicilous or stop being serious.
It's interesting to me that any homophobic comment about future civilizations immediately gets a smack down from the mods...but religiophobic comments are just fine.