Star Trek: Reloaded

The question of where Star Trek goes next is an interesting one. Here's my take:

Obviously, we can't start from where we left off. The Trek universe, at 'present', isn't very interesting.

Here's the current situation: the Dominion is defeated, the Borg Queen is dead, Cardassia has been emasculated, the Romulans are still rebuilding after the Shinzon debacle, the Federation is in a state of détente with the Klingons, the Maquis are gone, and the Ferengi are looking positively benign under the administration of Grand Nagus Rom.

In short, there's nobody left to fight.

Oh sure, the Breen, the Naussicans, and the Tholians are still around. But it's hard to imagine a whole series based around any of these antagonists. They're too inhuman to make it interesting. There are still a few hostiles floating around in the Delta Quadrant—the Hirogen, Species 8472, and the like. It certainly wouldn't break my heart to see the Kazon get their butts whipped a few more times. But those foes are thousands of light-years away. And to be honest, they were of only limited interest in Voyager in the first place.

The Trek universe has become boring.

And to me, that is the real problem. The solution? As Derek suggested, let's go back to a time when things were really interesting. Conflict is at the heart of any good story. And there's plenty of that in the Trek universe of the 'past'.

The Next Generation/Deep Space 9 era is certainly a good candidate for a series setting. It would give potential viewers a sense of familiarity, and there are certainly enough interesting things going on then. We might see the Klingon civil war from one of the other ships in the Federation blockade. Perhaps there were some survivors of Wolf 359. Or maybe, just maybe, there were some interesting things going on back then that didn't involve the Enterprise or her crew in the least.

I've recently been reading some of the Star Trek: The Lost Era books. This would also be an interesting setting. George Takei is almost 80 now, so it may not be practical to show the Sulu-era adventures of the Excelsior. But there are almost unlimited possibilities for Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C. Let's see some action involving Captains Harriman and Garrett. The universe of the Trek Interregnum sounds like a pretty exciting place to me, filled with exploration and confrontation. Bring on the classic nemeses: the Romulans, the Cardassians, and yes, even the Klingons.

Now that we've established the when of the matter, let's talk about who.

The idea of seeing some junior officers, perhaps not even on the Federation flagship, holds some definite potential. Part of the legacy of Star Trek (and most sci-fi TV) is the 'Fairy-tale Syndrome'. Let me explain. Think of any fairy tale that comes to mind, even the animated ones. What do all the main characters have in common? They are all intimately connected with royalty. Cinderella finds her handsome prince. Aladdin finds his princess. Simba is denied his right as king of the pride. Anastasia finds out she's not just a peasant girl but the last surviving member of the Romanov family. And so on. The common folks are typically relegated to supporting roles, if they're seen at all.

So it is with Trek. Consider the Enterprise-D. Think of anyone who could be considered a 'main character', a recurring character whose actions have lasting effects on the ship and/or her crew. I come up with the following: Captain Picard, Riker, Data, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Dr. Pulaski, Wesley, Troi, Worf, Yar, O' Brien, Barkley, Ro Laren, Guinan, and maybe Lwaxana Troi. Fifteen main characters in the series. The stated crew of the Enterprise is just over a thousand. 98% of the overall story involves less than 2% of the crew. And the majority of those people are command-level officers—the ship's royalty, if you will.

Are there any normal people in Starfleet? Of course there are. They're the ones wearing the red shirts. They're the ones who die in the first five minutes of the episode to show how serious the situation is. To wit, the away team beams down to a hostile alien planet: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, and Slobowski. Hmm, who do you think is not going to survive this mission?

Of course every ship has a captain and a command crew. But think about a modern aircraft carrier. The USS Ronald Reagan has a crew of about 6,000. How many of those folks interact with the captain on a daily basis? How many interact with anyone on the command staff? Probably very few. Maybe commanding officers are more accessible to their crews in the future, but I can still imagine a crewman going through an entire two-year stint in Starfleet and never once having dinner at the captain's table.

So let's see how the other half lives. And more importantly, let's focus on the characters themselves, rather than just their rank and/or position. Part of what I like about what I've read of Kurt Buseik's comics work is that he doesn't tell superhero stories. He tells stories about people who happen to be superheroes. To beat the same dead horse once again, the reason that Babylon 5 and Firefly were so good is because the stories were character-driven. So are the best trek episodes, like "City on the Edge of Forever", "The Inner Light", and "The Visitor".

I guess that's ultimately what it comes down to, for me: tell interesting stories involving characters I can care about, and I'll tune in every week.