The Next Deep Space Nine

[Forbin]

Here's my old idea from about 20 years ago (again), presented in the form of TV Guide ads. An anthology of four different series, rotating in a weekly time slot.

Alternately, pick any one of them and dump the rest .

Other thoughts:
Something set during the 80 years between Generations and TNG - there's a lot of time to cover there, including the adventures of the 1701-C. Though I would prefer to see a "non-Enterprise" series - there must be other ships out there .

 

[Orphalesion]

It'll be teenagers going on adventures and saving the day, just like Buffy and Smallville. They've done whole comic book and novel series' set at the academy with similar stuff happing. No Hellmouth or kryptonite powers needed.

I'm going to have to see how this works in action, because my imagination's not coming up with any good reasons why students should be getting into thrilling Star Trek adventures. I mean assuming their teachers aren't sending them on shuttle rides to hostile alien planets every week.

Why not combine the Academy series idea with the return of the Conspiracy Symbiotes? The Symbiotes take over the staff of Starfleet Academy in order to take control of the next generations of Starfleet Officers, but one group of plucky students fights back against the Symbiotes in-between relationship drama and love triangles.

 

[Phil123]

I'm going to have to see how this works in action, because my imagination's not coming up with any good reasons why students should be getting into thrilling Star Trek adventures. I mean assuming their teachers aren't sending them on shuttle rides to hostile alien planets every week.

yeah I would find this hard to swallow.

 

[1001001]

I suppose there’s always a possibility an Academy show could be good.

My fear is that it would turn out to be Starfleet 90210.

Without missions and action, would it focus too much on interpersonal melodrama? I guess you never know until it happens.

I would rather just pick up in the “current time” with ongoing ship-based adventures.

JMHO

 

[Oddish]

"Kids at school" worked Ok for the Harry Potter series.

 

[Citiprime]

A series from a non-Federation, non-human perspective.

In some ways, "Prodigy" gets close to that idea, but it's still centered on a Federation starship.

Some of the most interesting aspects of "Deep Space Nine" were when the non-Starfleet characters would give their perspective on humanity and the Federation (e.g., the Federation's similarities to root beer, Quark's comparison of human and Ferengi history when it comes to slavery and concentration camps, etc.).

 

[Orphalesion]

I mean I'm not the biggest fan of the "Starfleet Academy" idea in general (especially not if its about already established characters)
But...remember that training ship manned by cadets in that DS9 episode? How about a show set on something like that? A training ship manned by cadets, under the supervision of a couple of instructors?
I think hat could work, since they could strike a balance between the "school" aspect, interpersonal drama and planet/anomaly/crisis of the week storylines.

Also I say right now, X-Men: Evolution was possibly one of the best incarnations of that franchise, and was heavily focused on school and relationships, so it can definitely work.

 

[1001001]

But...remember that training ship manned by cadets in that DS9 episode? How about a show set on something like that? A training ship manned by cadets, under the supervision of a couple of instructors?
I think hat could work, since they could strike a balance between the "school" aspect, interpersonal drama and planet/anomaly/crisis of the week storylines.

So, Prodigy?

 

[Orphalesion]

So, Prodigy?

Yeah I figured that out after posting. But in my defence, I don't watch Prodigy, so it's not something that's on my mind, even when my brain is in "Star Trek Mode". Similarly I might accidentally suggest things that already have happened in PIC or DISC, since I dont' watch those shows either.

 

[Iamnotspock]

An ocean going research ship in 2032, exploring the impact of climate change on the oceans, charting sea lanes, cataloguing sea life, dealing with freedom of navigation issues, piracy, migration etc.
There‘s a permanent navigational crew and recurring guest scientists and specialists for the varying missions.

Don't forget the talking dolphin.

 

[fireproof78]

Read Space Cadet.

Adapt to Star Trek as needed.

Follow the career of an officer from cadet to upper ranks.

???
Profits.

 

[Phil123]

"Kids at school" worked Ok for the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter is great but it’s a totally different thing. I’d hate for Star Trek to go in that direction. I like ST that stays in the realms of plausible realistic future.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Yeah, it sounds weird to say that Star Trek's more plausible than Harry Potter, but I agree. Star Trek is a universe where you should have to go out of your way to find weekly space drama, or at least live next to a wormhole to unknown space.

 

[F. King Daniel]

They could just lift stories from Starfleet Academy YA novels and comics made in the 90's (TNG/DS9/VOY characters) and 10's (ST'09). Cadets using illegal perfonance enhancing drugs, training missions which always go awry etc. The DS9-era ones even had Captain Pike and Talosians in one memorable story. And one Kelvinverse one had Kirk, McCoy, Uhura and Gaila thwart a Borg scout that landed on Earth (albeit one very creatively reimagined)

Harve Bennett wrote a TOS prequel movie which could have been fantastic, and had a backstory of the Federation's expansion leading to the end of slavery common on many worlds all while Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest all met, got up to hijinks and nearly washed out before taking matters into their own hands and saving the day when a major crisis occurred.

Without missions and action, would it focus too much on interpersonal melodrama? I guess you never know until it happens.

Smallville and Buffy were 90% interpersonal melodrama, and they were quite popular (Smallville was of course hated passionately by some in exactly the same way every version of Star Trek is)

 

[Richard S. Ta]

We have a lot of different shows now. Like, a very diverse spread that it seems fans pick and choose from.

If the idea of a Starfleet Academy series that focusses on interpersonal relationships between cadets over adventure is repellent to some, it doesn’t matter. There are several flavours of Star Trek available.

I think it sounds great. The more diversity in the stories being told, the better. Right now we have:

1) Star Trek in the far future (DSC)
2) A post Nemesis show (PIC)
3) Animated comedy (LDS)
4) Adventure show aimed at younger audiences (PRO)

Very soon through SNW we will be able to add ‘Traditional Star Trek Show’ to that list.

The kids are covered. The old school fans are covered. Why not a Star Trek show that hits the OC/90210 demographic?

I think it’s all gravy. Star Trek has never been in a healthier place. Relationships make for good drama and genre stuff can roll with that as Buffy/Doctor Who/Smallville have proven.

 

[Ottens]

I wouldn't be very interested in an Academy or cadets show. To me, part of the appeal of Star Trek is that it's about professional people solving complicated problems. I don't think that's something you can do with adolescents just starting out their Starfleet careers.

 

[Arpy]

The problem wouldn’t be the stakes. Whether it’s to get ahead of a rival in your class or win the goblet of fire or get the girl or what have you. It’s about the skill and disposition of the writers to be able to shift the overall form of the show and then really pull off all those things.

I could see them building a season of drama to get to the first field mission. Have interpersonal issues, holodeck scenarios, and local competitions (racing the rings of Saturn, exploring the ancient alien caves beneath Mars, etc), having students wash out, then get to a survey mission on the Tholian border gone awry and people start disappearing or being infected with alien babies. Each season/school year the stakes and tests get bigger, the class gets smaller, and finally we have graduation and Starfleet officers.

But I’m thinking Buffy/Smallville arcs with 25 episodes a season and dozens of memorable episodes. These days, it’s all one mediocre drawn out story that despite being less than half as long as previous shows manages to only peter along between episodes primarily focused on phony feelings-offs between paper-thin characters on self-satisfied actors. Okay, this isn’t relaxant to this thread, but I’m just disappointed after the promise of the first season especially and a lot of the second to see how uninteresting the past couple of DSC has been, for me anyway.

 

[Orphalesion]

Yeah lately the shows aimed at the Older Teen/Young Adult crowd haven't been that good. And that's not just me having grown out of the demographic. Buffy was objectively a lot better and more cleverly written than Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or Fate: A Winx Saga (though Sabrina started out reasonably strong). Though it's also worth noting that Buffy was also quite a bit of much higher quality than its contemporaries. Like...Smallville had a lot of the same problems Riverdale has.
I'm sure they could make a Star Trek version of Riverdale, and it would probably be unintentionally hilarious for a bit, but would it be successful?
In some ways the Young Adult demographic is also covered with the Lower Deckers.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

In some ways the Young Adult demographic is also covered with the Lower Deckers.

Well, one side is covered. I think lower Decks manages to straddle a lot of different demographics at once.

I'm sure that demographic might like a show that speaks to them about the issues they are going through in some meaningful way.

I'd be up for a show with little 'adventure' in it. Go all in interpersonal. I'm sure they'd never go the Spock route, but a character like that who struggles to integrate with the class but is carrying a lot of (ahem) emotional baggage from back home is drama that writes itself. Let's see the exams and the proms and the training. It's something we've never really seen in detail before. What is Starfleet Academy like?

We are in the greatest period of experimentation in the franchises history. I think anything is possible right now and that can only be good. If a given fan doesn't want to watch it then that's all good. It doesn't have to appeal to everyone. Just the demographic it's aimed at.

 

[publiusr]

Buffy took place over a Hellmouth

Anyway here's my pitch for a new Star Trek series: a team of people discover an ancient Iconian gateway complex

The same—DS9 had the wormhole.

I might want something extra-galactic.

I have this image of a cliff of stars surrounded by an inky blackness deep in a void between galaxies. There would be a wormhole there…far…far from the Milky Way….perhaps in the Cold Spot…a texture…a Boltzmann brain….

I remember reading that the Northern Hemisphere really faces out into the void.

I want to magnify that. Sci Am had an article on a straggler of a galaxy or three leaving a void far from the local group…and how that and other groups will become super-galaxies as our light horizons recede…leaving us to think our island universe is all there is…which is what we thought to begin with.

I want to play around with these concepts