A New Trek Series Concept

A New Trek Series Concept

All the recent talk of the franchise’s uncertain future and where Trek should go next has got me thinking.  A few years ago I did a basic breakdown of an idea I had for a new Star Trek series.  It would be a prequel, but set in 2196-2202, squarely between Enterprise and TOS.  This would help fill in a big "lost era" gap in the Star Trek timeline.  The show (I don’t have a name for it) would be mostly episodic with broad overarching story arcs (a-la DS9) and would see Starfleet and the Federation in the Federation’s formative years.  When I came up with this idea I wasn’t really considering Discovery, however in light of its first two seasons some of the ship classes from Discovery season 1 might be seen as background ships.  The ship design aesthetic and visual styling would be somewhere in between ENT and TOS, but closer to ENT.  The main ship initially would be a Daedalus class ship, with obvious visual cues from Enterprise.  I recently went back and brought this concept out of mothballs and have fleshed it out a bit.  I made up names for some but not all of the main characters.  

Season 1, set in 2196-2197 would see the Daedalus Class starship USS Helena NCC-185, an older ship nearing the end of its service life and its crew, mostly older, seasoned officers, many of whom have served together for years or even decades.   The captain, Hugh Greene and the CMO Dr. Joseph Edward “Rod” Rodzinski would be old friends, both having served in Starfleet since the Earth Romulan War.  The season would focus mainly on establishing the series, the crew, the ship, Starfleet at the time, the state of the Federation, etc.  We would see a good bit of exploration rimward of the Federation, including sometime during the season first contact with planet Argelius.  Most of the season would consist of standard Starfleet missions (exploration, charting, rendering assistance to other ships, diplomatic missions, etc.  

Season 2 (2197-2198) would start with more establishing the Federation at the end of the 22nd century.  First contact with the Bolians would also happen during the season.  One episode could show chief engineer Lt. Cmdr Leoti Swimmer, a Cherokee Indian, reunited with members of her family on a colony ship (they are and she was) part of a group of Native Americans who left Earth 25 years ago to find a new planet to lay down roots on.  About midway through the season would begin an overarching storyline involving the Tholians, starting with a dispute over a sector claimed by the Federation containing an Earth colony.  This arc would see the USS Helena working with the fleet to counter the Tholian threat and would end (along with the season) with a détente reached between the Federation and the Tholians following a major fleet operating at the colony world, after which the USS Helena would not be ordered to join the rets of the fleet but instead would be recalled to Earth and decommissioned (it’s the last Daedalus class ship still in service, it was originally planned to be decommissioned 2 years ago.)

Season 3 (2198-2199) would introduce a new ship, the Bonaventure class ship USS Bonaventure NCC-1000.  With the new ship some of the crew from USS Helena come over (XO, Security/tactical officer Lt. Cmdr Kovac, CMO), some new crew come aboard (including Chief engineer Dirk Agnarssen, a designer of the Bonaventure class and a new science officer, Lt. Walter Briscoe), Captain Hugh Greene gets promoted to admiral ( and hereafter is the one giving the mission orders), the xo is promoted to captain.  The early episodes of the season would focus on establishing the new ship and the new crew dynamic between the older officers from the Helena and the young new officers fresh out of the academy (ensigns Caridad “Cari” Montoya, Samuel Burke, Thelav Shy’lan and Lieutenant Jeffrey Parker (a medical officer) that have been assigned to the new ship.  One of the new characters, Ensign Thelav is the first Andorian to graduate Starfleet Academy.  The early episodes of the season will also see the testing/shakedown of the new ship (working out the kinks).  No later than midway through the season the Tholian arc will conclude, an agreement will be made allowing the colony to stay.  The rest of the season would contain more exploration.

Season 4 (2199-2200) will open with more exploring, including first contact with Betazed.  The season will heavily feature character growth, with the older more seasoned characters being mentors to the newer younger characters (Dr. Rodzinski and Lt. Parker, Commander xo and Ensign Burke).  Throughout the season we would see the Bonaventure finding its place in the fleet.  We would definitely see more exploring, as well as dealing with Nausicaan pirates accosting cargo ships during freight runs.   The season would also see upgrades to the ship, including adding the new deflector shield systems adapted from Andorian technology.  Shortly before the seasons end (5 or so episodes) we would see the beginning of a mini-arc focusing on the Interspecies Crew Exchange Program: one officer from the Bonaventure (Chief engineer Agnarssen) goes to serve on a Vulcan ship for several episodes, another (Science officer Briscoe) will serve on an Andorian ship, while Andorian and Vulcan officers come to serve on the Bonaventure.

Season 5 (2200-2201) would begin by concluding the interspecies crew exchange program arc, the Starfleet officers in the program would return to the Bonaventure.  In addition to exploring the season would feature a run-in with the Kzinti and first contact with the Caitians.  We would also get something that I personally really want to see (and that we’ve never really seen in Trek), a visit to a colony world.  This would take the form of an episode showing the Bonaventure visiting the Ophiucus colony, established nearly a century ago, before the Federation and even Starfleet were founded.  The season would give us ample character development,  especially showing us the younger officer characters starting to grow and mature.  We would also see more of the Bonaventure and Starfleet, i.e. the Bonaventure as part of the fleet, working with the fleet on larger scale operations.  This would segue into the season finale, the Bonaventures involvement with the construction of Starbase 12 (an arc that would continue for the rest of the series.)

Season 6 (2201-2202), the final season would completely consist of the Starbase 12 arc: following the construction and commissioning of the base.  This would include defending against Klingons in the area (D4 or D5 class ships), escorting cargo shipments to the planet on/around which the base is being constructed, and in general working with the fleet.  The season would also start to see the younger officers taking on more major roles, for example Ensigns Montoya and Burke in charge of an away team and maybe even the bridge briefly during a crisis).  We would still see some exploration during the season, perhaps discovering an uncharted system in the vicinity.  The season arc (and series as a whole) would end with Starbase 12 completed, commissioned and its systems brought online, and the Bonaventures current captain assigned as station commander and promoted to commodore.  The Bonaventure would be assigned to Starbase 12 as its home port.  The Bonaventure’s current xo would be promoted and made captain.  Some of the senior officers would stay aboard while others (Kovac, Briscoe) would transfer to the station with their former captain.  The Bonaventures (formerly Helenas) CMO Dr. Rodzinski retires, Dr. Parker, his mentee/protegee for the last 4 years succeeds him as CMO.  Burke and Montoya are promoted to Lt. and become a bridge officers.  The finale would end with the ship leaving Starbase 12 with its new crew for future adventures.

What I envisioned for this series would be seeing the Federation's formative years, the explorations, the growth and expansion, the growing pains, the core species beginning to serve together, all while filling in a hole in the timeline and giving us some backstory for things like Federation-Tholian relations.  The series would also give us some good looks at the inner workings of the Federation (colonies, fleet operations, the main ship working as part of the larger fleet and seeing it's place in the flee,t and building a Starbase for example).