By Trevor Law
Star Trek is awesome. I have been a fan since I could watch TV. Some of my earliest memories are watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was launched the year I was born. That series spawned four movies, and three more Star Trek series came after it, and this is not including the three season of the original series, or the six movies. In fact, Star Trek is the most successful, and longest lasting franchise out there.
For a series that is so old, and has such a loyal following it seems odd to me that it is languishing the way it is. Oh sure, there are the reboots but they don’t meet the massive demand for Star Trek that the fans crave. No, what the fans what is a new show, but because CBS owns the rights and refuses to both sell them, and make a series fans are left with the rebooted Star Trek, and fan made projects like phase two, Axanar, and Renegades.
If you look at the three projects I have just mentioned, you will realize none of them intend to make money. Zero dollars. Nada. Nothing. Some of these are freaking huge with a ton of Trek alumni. The only franchise that could even compare to this kind of fanatical devotion is Dr. Who. CBS is literally throwing money away and if they were to launch just one Star Trek series it would get a ton of viewers. At its height TNG was raking in over 11 million viewers every night, and while that was at a time when there were less options, this isn’t taking into account the multiple platform idea. Several shows running with people eagerly watching each and every one. The Walking Dead is a huge franchise making millions and it doesn’t have nearly the fan loyalty of Star Trek. (Not knocking anyone, I’m just saying Trekkies are a whole other breed of fan) It would be hugely profitable for numerous reasons, not least because of the massive fan base already built in. To that end I made a list of some awesome ideas.
Starfleet Medical
The idea for this show is Star Trek meets ER or MASH. Its about a medical ship as it travels all over the galaxy dealing with all sorts of crazy medical problems and mysterious. “Captain, I know what is wrong with him, his pregnant!” The doctor genre as proven it as staying powering and throwing a dose of scifi would make for an interesting mix.
Star Trek Temporal Affairs
An episode of Deep Space Nine mentioned this, but the idea is their is an agency that goes around cleaning up all the problems that occur when someone goes back in time. It would sort of be like Timecop, but not silly. They would deal with the crazy time paradoxes the Kirks and Janeways of the world keep causing.
Star Trek Orion
This idea is borrowed from Renegades but to be honest I’m not a fan of a lot of element of the show. This would deal with a crew of outcasts and undercover Starfleet officers as they deal with the Orion Syndicate. A criminal empire so powerful they control whole star systems. This would be part spy drama, and law and order. I really think this as a ton of potential and could be so interesting to watch.
Star Trek Exploration
This is very much in the vein of TOS or TNG. A crew of explorers on the edge of known space dealing with the galaxy and getting into all sorts of wacky adventurers. I keep hearing rumors that both Micheal Dorn, and Johnathan Frakes want to do a show like this, but CBS keeps turning them down. Whatever the case this would be the flagship show.
Star Trek Cartoon
The idea is of an animated and kid friendly version of Star Trek. You could deal with all the cartoonish sides that Star Trek sometimes can make. (I’m looking at you Mudd) At the very least it would be a fun idea worth exploring and since it would be voice acting would make it much easier for the aging cast of the various Star Trek shows to come back one last time for a series.
These are just a few ideas but overall what makes Star Trek is the characters. Interesting and diverse crews all working together to try and better humanity, or just seek adventure. No matter what the idea the number one priority would be to create a cast that we would enjoy watching and rooting for. The Star Trek universe is so big and has so many different races, what happened to the Borg? Are the Klingons and Federation still allies? How have the Romulans reacted to their home world getting blown up? What are those wacky Ferengi up to now? There are so many different options and paths all of these could go down and each one would be amazing to see on the small screen.
By now I’m sure you are wondering why I’m not asking for more Trek movies but the truth is, that isn’t where the best of Star Trek comes from. Most of the best moments have been in the show, not the movies. Star Trek should be episodic, instead of trying to make a blockbuster every two or three years. It is there you can tell the strange off the wall stories, instead of the big epic moments. Its in those small moments, Spock going home because of Pon Far, Picard living an entire lifetime in a few seconds, Sisko wrestling with being the emissary, that Star Trek truly shines. You can’t get a lot of those in a movies, only in a show. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, and while I doubt a new show will happen then, that doesn’t change my hope, that one day, I’ll get to sit down and watch a new Enterprise, with a new crew, boldly going, were only my dreams can.
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