Another Star Trek Pitch

 I haven’t seen all Star Trek that exists, so I do risk when I make pitches like this recapitulating something that in fact already has been done. For instance in my previous pitch that the next Star Trek should be about rebelling against the Federation grown corrupt and evil, I definitely was concerned that maybe Discovery in fact WAS that show, since most of it was produced under Trump’s first administration, and I legitimately did not know more at the time than the plot of the first two seasons and that the remaining seasons took place in the future, and also that the future Federation was somewhat compromised. I have now finished the third season and it doesn’t seem like it is going that way, although it remains to be seen - my opinion of Discovery is that it is an interesting show, and a frustrating one, and one that if it was not named Star Trek I’d probably like more, but it is undoubtedly my least favorite Star Trek - although I have not yet seen Picard, or Strange New Worlds, or Lower Decks, or the Animated Series. I probably dislike the reboot movies more I guess, Into Darkness especially.

Anyways, I’m getting side tracked. My point is, I have not seen every Star Trek in existence, but one thing that I am fairly sure hasn’t been done in more than a single one off episode is having a series where the concept is essentially the same as TOS and TNG - that is, an episodic series with relatively little ongoing plot, although I’d be fine with a DS9 level plot where each season has some major events but most episodes are purely episodic and just use the major plot as a setting backdrop - and where specifically they are on an ongoing exploratory mission. Instead of exploring the Alpha and Beta quadrants as in those series though, or the Gamma and Delta as was done in DS9 and Voyager, although neither series focused on exploration, but in new galaxies entirely. Introduce some new technology that allows galaxy hopping, and then have that be the premise.

This opens up a big opportunity for writers to do whatever the hell they want, similar to the promise of Voyager, although hopefully the writers would take better advantage. Discovery could have, and perhaps should have been this series - its name heavily implies it would be about exploration, and it is the first Star Trek series set explicitly on a science vessel, but instead Season 1 was about a war and Season 2 about evil AI and time shenanigans and Season 3 was about an apocalypse, none of which have anything to do with Discovery, but I’m getting side tracked, because the biggest reason that Discovery could have been this series is the spore drive. We don’t really know that much about the mycelial network, and in at least the first three seasons it is never shown capable of doing that, but since it IS capable of going to the Mirror Universe and damage to it there damages it in the Prime Universe, I think it is safe to assume the Spore Drive could do it. I am under the vague impression that at the end of Season 5 of Discovery the Spore Drive is retconned out of existence somehow, put in a box and never seen again, but if that is wrong, then the obvious time to set such a series would be after Discovery, coterminous or right after Starfleet Academy, and certainly even with a different technology, any technology capable of travel between galaxies should probably be set after the existing Trek series, since such is not shown as common in them - although again, that did not stop Discovery from introducing such a Trek before The Original Series timeline and then retconning it as classified and sent to the future, so 🤷‍♀️.

This should be the first ship sent outside the galaxy to explore for an extended period - IIRC there is a TNG episode where they are teleported outside the Galaxy by Q, and an early TOS one where they attempt to just fly out at Warp 1 (and someone becomes a god because of it?!?) but to my knowledge none where that is the basic premise ongoingly. I think the technology also should be fairly limited in power - this is the only prototype, and using it should require enough resources of whatever kind they cannot use it as an easy escape button. Watching The Original Series I am struck by how limited the tech is and how refreshing that actually is in a Star Trek series - while most problems in any Trek are solved by a paragraph of fake science and some keypresses, it comes up a LOT in TOS that they simply cannot do something due to lack of resources, time, equipment, etc, far more than even on Voyager, a show explicitly about being stranded notorious for ignoring it constantly, and its honestly a great source of conflict. Even in a far future setting, a galaxy hopping ship would constantly be facing such challenges, and thats a good thing for writers of the show. Even something as simple as the engine requires a cooling down period between uses could make things interesting - Sliders essentially did a version of this with the portals opening and closing at random times, leaving them stranded between. One Piece has a similar mechanic with Log Poses needing to acclimate, although that is one of the few elements in One Piece that never comes back; IIRC its mentioned in Little Garden that it would take 100 years, and I think its occasionally mentioned in context of “We can do X while it acclimates” or “Don’t worry this isn’t a real island so we won’t lose our log pose magnetism” but is never actually a source of conflict again. Anyway, point being, limitations are interesting, and even in a far future setting, writing in some excuses to give limitations is smart.

Thats about it for the pitch. Set it in the future so it doesn’t need to worry about contradicting future lore, let them galaxy hop, and basically let writers make whatever crazy setting and problem of the day for each episode, a new frontier wild west in space helping the needy with the power of conversations around a conference table, with a fresh concept but an old formula. Thats what Star Trek really needs to please old time fans, in my opinion - or at least this old time fan - and I think if its good, you can find ways to attract young fans without reinventing the wheel. Just having hot young characters and making them kiss works, especially young hot queer characters. You could also cast famous people. But bring the formula back to a version of what it was, and free it from all this legacy baggage that has plagued this prequel series.