This. I don’t want to see a corrupt Federation - I can see that on the nightly news. The great thing about Kirk was that he both kicked ass and made ethical choices. Though sometimes he got confused, like in Errand of Mercy.
Let’s have a show where a fundamentally good Captain and Federation have to make really tough choices. Which sometimes come out unsatisfactorily.
And let’s have a bit of humility, unlike Picard.
They could call them “Starkiller” ships. That would be kewl.
Let’s introduce a Trade Federation that’s working to bring the system down via manipulation of marginal tax rates!!
I’d like to see things that happen stay having happened. I’d also like to see names like David Gerrold, David Brin, and Michael Swanwick under the ‘Written by’ credit.
I’d also like to see a beautiful Enterprise. The 1701-D was ugly as sin. William Shatner’s and Chris Pine’s starships, on the other hand, are lovely pieces of hardware.
The Federation has always been a capital ship based system. What if they introduced fighters?
I’m personally hoping for something compelling, but somehow fundamentally different from the time-worn ship cruising the galaxy saving the day by dint of superhumanly competent crewmen. DS9 was a welcome change from that, but the other Trek series and movies have basically revolved around that basic premise.
And, I’ll add that I DON’T want to see something like a police procedural or detective show set in a starbase, nor do I want a hospital drama set in a starbase. Or any of the half-dozen other standard drama show types… set on a starbase.
About the only way I’d be interested in something like that is if they approach it from a very different perspective- like having the super-badass ship roaming the galaxy, but have the show center around a very junior officer, or maybe around an ensemble cast of people who are NOT calling the shots or knowing all the information. No department heads, no senior officers, etc… just maybe have a recurring character who bunks with the main characters be part of the bridge crew or something like that.
They’ve done 3 shows set in the 24th century already. Maybe its time for another time skip like TOS to TNG?
NCIS:Starfleet
Little House on the Nebula
The Riker Bunch
Psych! - TNG
.
No motherfucking TIME TRAVEL!!!
Have Phaser Will Travel
Buffy the Romulan Slayer
The Good, The Bad, The Ferengi
For a Few Quatloos More
It’s not a bad idea in theory, but I don’t think you could sustain a series. As an audience, we need “the big picture”. I don’t think you get that from following the behind the scenes people.
In real life, these people do good, important work, but they also understand the world they live in. If Ensign Na’mless helps find a useful piece of Klingon Kultural data that helps solve the crisis of the week, she already understands the subtlties of Klingons. But we as the audience don’t necessarily - we need someway of bringing us into the big picture, hence the use of big picture people like Kirk for the audience to follow.
In more conventional TV terms, we don’t want to have a show written around Det. Profaci’s (L&O) or Daniels’ (The Closer) or Q’s (Bond, not TNG) perspective, people that don’t leave the office much. They don’t know what’s going on. They just know their little bit. It’s not good drama.
Or, in other words, Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead makes a good movie, but not a good TV show. Hamlet is not a play about a gravedigger that meets a prince any more than Star Trek is a show about the engine room drone that rewires deflector dishes all day.
How about a series about the Sgt. Bilko of StarFleet?
The hologram of the doctor on Voyager led to some interesting questions about sentience, and what they could be forced to do, etc. This has interesting legal possibilities.
Starfleet Legal. Heck, William Shatner could play a descendant of both Kirk and Denny Crane. James Spader could show up too, voicing an AI who opposes the Federation’s views on his fellow AI’s.
Scripts practically write themselves…
I really want this series to go back to basics. Trek has been off TV for so long it doesn’t need any craziness:
A positive, optimistic future.
A starship staffed with interesting characters explores space.
Easy Peasy.
TNG had one very good episode like this, “Lower Decks.” Yes, it would be a good approach.
I’d like to see a “Species of The Week” series. Where each week they pic a different species and revolve around that. Like for instance, one week could center around the Borg, and what they were like as a society before they became “hive minded”. How did all that play out? I’d love to know.
And then next week could be all about the Dominion or whatever other random species.
Or you could do entire season arcs. Where each season is dedicated to one species.
Oh my god get hired by Paramount/CBS like now!
I would totally watch this!
My show concept: Star Trek: Parallels, in which the ship, trying out a new propulsion method bounces from one alternate reality to another. Sort of ST meets Sliders. One good thing, you wouldn’t have pointless debates about what timeline it should be set in.
At the end of the series premier, they encounter a Borg cube that invites them to visit and says “Compliance is voluntary”.
Rashomon: The Final Voyage
James Spader as a recurring Klingon antagonist.