My fandom seriously drifted off as DS9 came to an end. I kind of followed Voyager, but just found Enterprise silly. It's a bit tough to do a prequel series with obviously better tech than TOS. Then all the timeline re-writing... :roll: You'd think if sci-fi writers learned anything from B5 it's that the fans like continuity... heck we even prefer it!



As for what I'd like to see in a future Trek. I'd like to skip ahead about 500-1000 years to put the current generations even farther in the past than we are to TNG. Make the setting a galaxy spanning civilization struggling with creating unity and the forces trying to tear it apart. Make the "good guys" the folks trying to forge the fragile pan-galactic "federation" for peace and freedom and the bad-guys shadowy figures attempting to sow dissent and terror for personal gain. You could even introduce a nebulous dark force from another galaxy at some point. Nasty badguys like B5's Shadows intent on grabbing power through trading favors and supported seemingly minor roleplayers in exploiting each other.

Or... turn the whole idea on its head. The bad guys are the ones attempting to forge a pan-galactic hegemony. Maybe even using the ideals of the mythical federation as the basis for their crusade. The hegemonists are perfectly willing to subvert the freedoms and independence of entire civilizations (let alone individuals) to exact their highly conformist versions of stability and "peace". The good guys are the freedom fighters striking from settlements between the stars trying to preserve individual and species based self-determination. The irony is that the "good guys" look a bit like terrorists and are put in a position to seemingly be fighting against the ideals expressed in the older series. The nebulous extra-galactic others are a moderately helpful force trying to get the independents to use less destructful and more enlightened means to fight their battles against a massive and implacable enemy (a serious concern in an age where battles may obliterate entire star systems?). The outsiders will give advice but no active help; kind of like their own Prime Directive is in effect, seriously frustrating the heroes (be great to see that rule turned around I think wherein the protagonists are the ones not getting help). If you want you can still introduce extra-galactic badguys as well. Maybe a nasty civilization that has spent millions of years conquering the local group (of galaxies).

And if you really want to make it interesting: start with the first premise that the hegemonists/federalists are the good guys fighting these terrorists and extra-galactic forces, but slowly show us how they are kind of bad and the independents are the good guys trying to preserve some modicum of species and personal individuality. You could do this through the idealistic eyes of a new recruit who witnessed heavy handed federalist tactics and maybe eventually even some hints of deliberate genocide of non-cooperative civilizations. Such a person full of patriotic fervor might eventually come to see his side as wrong and seek out contacts among the rebels. Perhaps an extra-galactic infiltrator is the one slowly training his thought process and aiding his intellectual rebirth (which he and the viewers won't know for a while). What is his reaction the first time he sees or is asked to do something he finds questionabe? What happens the next time he is asked to do something he now believes to be wrong? Will any of his former friends feel as he does? Will his attempts to find rebel contacts tip his hand to his superiors, or will suspicious rebel contacts think him a spy or plant and kill him? What happens the first time information he gives to the rebels results in someone he knows being killed? Or when a number of federal citizens die as a result of his help to the rebellion? How does he deal with the conflicting loyalties and consequences? Is he a traitor or an idealist? Good question to explore if his/her/its story line persists.

Just a broad framework of the kind of story I might like to see.