8 Sci-Fi Writers on Where Star Trek Should Go Next

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Popular Mechanics inquires of 8 Sci-Fi Writers on where they would take Trek next.

8 Sci-Fi Writers on Where Star Trek Should Go Next

We asked 8 sci-fi writers what Star Trek show they would write if given the chance.

Star Trek is a show that spans countless worlds, involves the lives of hundreds of species, and tackles themes of war, love, loss, humanity—and whatever happened in that one where Deanna Troi turns in a fish. Star Trek: Discovery, the first Trek series in a dozen years, is now exploring that universe. But now that the franchise is back on TV, we couldn't help but wonder what adventures other sci-fi writers would like to see. So we asked them.

[WaveMan]

As I have said before I would love to see future Trek, well past the 24th century. The entire franchise seems to be mired in 22nd-23rd century these days, and I think it needs to advance and get away from this constant revisionist rubbish we are subjected to over and over again. I am sick to death of seeing old Trek revamped and revised (and in turn having the timeline and tech level bastardised)

I would love the Sphere builders war to be explored (so 26th century) or just say stuff it and jump into the 29th-30th century or even further and go full on and explore the Federation in the 33rd century. But to be honest I wouldn't mind them doing a series revolving around the next Enterprise the Enterprise F (so early to mid 25th century) and get back to good sci fi plot, story and character development rather than all this focus on flash and cheap hollywood action.

[Tricky]

Going forward is the only option that makes sense for Trek. But, like you said, everyone is in "prequel mode", which doesn't expand the universe and creates all sorts of canon. Take Enterprise: they did try to keep things limited to a pre-federation setting, but then they started bringing in the Borg, the Ferengi, and gave us an interesting race like the Xindi, but then that left us with why you never saw them again. And then Temporal Cold War.

Wouldn't the TCW storyline be better from Daniel's perspective: time traveling agents trying to prevent the corruption of the timeline? Sure, it's a little Doctor Who, but a show focusing on the 31st century Temporal Agents, or the 29th century timefleet would be interesting, and allow them to explore topics in other eras.

But, since Star Trek gets more like Time Trek as the series get going, keeping things more 3D than 4D, just doing what they did with NG, moving things almost 100 years forward would be better story wise then trying to shoehorn in what happened 3 1/2 years before another Trek series. Since the FED is usually a stand in for America or the UN, you could take a page from the modern world: Maybe things aren't so bright in the galaxy anymore; political strife at home and abroad; new challenges in the shape of a new Romulan Republic, built from the ashes of the Empire, but quickly becoming a galactic super-power again, without the FED; perhaps a new enemy has come out of unexplored space, or from outside the galaxy, or even has formed inside the Federation itself.

[WaveMan]

exactly Tricky, Trek in the future is the only way I can see the entire franchise progressing, and IMHO Temporal Trek would be fascinating. While the main plot line would always revolve around time travel you could still do good old space exploration and the other aspects of Trek storytelling (social commentary, political issues etc). As far as enemies, temporal enemies would be the obvious choice, but extra dimensional or as you point out "perhaps a new enemy has come out of unexplored space, or from outside the galaxy, or even has formed inside the Federation itself" would all be very good.

[Owen E Oulton]

I'm going to surprise everyone and agree with Waveman. Go forward - the next logical step is the 25th century. The 25th century uniforms already established in Voyager should be discarded, though, as they absolutely sucked, but then future timelines are always speculative. Current events always change the future and events subsequent to Voyager's return could influence how Starfleet progresses. While some measure of temporal shenanigans are fine in my book, I'd advise against making them the focus, as they've tended to be badly received by Trek fandom, possibly because they're so inconsistently handled by the Trek writers. That's best left to Doctor Who, where it's their core schtick. In the interests of pure continuity, deal with the aftermath of the Hobus supernova and te destruction of Romulus, but as a continuing background sub-arc. This could result in some interesting stories and keep the JJ-fans happy, but it's the only concession that needs to be made there.

[Tricky]

Well, Star Trek Online shows the result of the Hobus supernova (and who caused it...dum dum dummmmm ).

If they took trek into the future, one thing I'd love to see is little easter eggs, like members of former enemy races as crewmen on the new ship (Cardassian, Vorta, maybe a Borg).

[The Tatterdemalion King]

If you really wanted to 'go forward with Star Trek,' you wouldn't call it Star Trek, you'd just make an episodic science fiction show starting from what we know, fear, and wonder about now and leave the brand name aside.

[WaveMan]

there are plenty of future Trek story plots already developed, I particularly like the Star Trek Renaissance arc, though feel the story should be set in the 26th century, rather than the early 25th. It centers around the Phoenix-class Enterprise-G and showcases the integration of recovered Voyager technologies into the fleet and main story arc is the Sheliak war.

http://www.st-minutiae.com/stories/r.../tm/index.html

The other story line I could get behind is the Solanae Dyson sphere and its exploration. That would reintroduce the Voth as well.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Solanae_Dyson_Sphere

"In the 25th century, two Dyson spheres were discovered when the Romulan Republic and her allies activated a series of Iconian Gateways in the Tau Dewa sector block. The first of these, christened the Solanae Dyson sphere after the race that created it, was located just inside the Delta Quadrant. The second, the Jenolan Dyson sphere, had originally been located in the Alpha Quadrant but had relocated itself to a new position deep within the Delta Quadrant. When the latter became accessible via another Iconian gateway within the Solanae sphere, it became the base of operations for the Delta Alliance in their efforts to explore this largely unknown region of the galaxy. A third Dyson sphere was discovered when Sela lead members of the Alpha Quadrant Alliance to an Iconian gateway leading to it. It was revealed to be the home base of a massive Iconian invasion force. It jumped from the Andromeda Galaxy to an area in Iconia space."

Although for me, personally I would love to see Khan Ascendant realized. I found a very interesting Star Trek Alternative Universe on page 34 of All Our Yesterdays called Khan Ascendant. This gave me the idea for an Alternative Universe that, for me depicts somewhat how I envision real life may eventually pan out (with humans embracing Trans-humanism and developing like FutreTimeLine predictions postulate. Basically I melded the two concepts, FutureTimeLine and Star Trek) I have developed a somewhat revised timeline then presented, but for me it works. I have tracked this timeline all the way through to when the Commonwealth (the organisation that eventually forms) becomes a Type 2 civilization (Kardashev scale). This is where I started my "adventure", 3202CE and the launch of the Citadel-class and just before the second Dominion war.


http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...Khan-Ascendant

http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm