How I Would Write The New Star Trek Series

STAR TREK UNITY

(How I Would Write The New Picard Series)

So, a month ago, we got the exciting news that Patrick Stewart has returned to the epic role of Jean-Luc Picard. This means Star Trek is returning to the prime timeline in the 24th century. With that announcement, I thought I'd shoot out some ideas. First of the ideas, is the title, Unity. This new series has an opportunity to bring characters from TNG, DS9, and VOY back into the fold and unify the characters from various series into one storyline. First, they can have brief cameos, then spin off to continue handling whatever story or crisis brought them together. I see Unity as a launching point for two or three other Star Trek series.

One of Jean-Luc Picard's regrets in life is that he never had a child or family, and the death of his family in the fire meant the end of the Picards. So, as his ship is ready to depart from space dock for its return trip to New Romulus, Admiral Janeway makes a last minute new assignment, a young tactical officer named Lieutenant JG Rya Daddara (preferably starred by Troian Bellisario). Picard at first protests having someone assigned to his ship without his say. Janeway says he'll want to make an exception for this one. Rya comes aboard accompanied by Beverly Crusher, who discovered her during a medical examination. Genetically, Rya is the daughter of Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc humself didn't father her, Shinzon did in a dalliance with a human female he encountered during the Dominion War. While she is not his progeny, Jean-Luc sees this as a chance to be a father and continue the Picard legacy. Rya's hesitant, stubborn, and bullheaded, reminding Picard of both himself and Ensign Ro, but eventually comes around, realizing Picard is the only family she has left.

After the destruction of Romulus, and the presumed death of Ambassador Spock, Jean-Luc Picard made it a mission of his to continue where Spock left off in the reunification of the Vulcan and Romulan people. The memories and wisdom of Sarek and Spock remain with him and guide his quest. Because of his history with the Romulans, and good terms with select members of the Romulan Empire after defeating Shinzon, Picard was also tapped on the shoulder to bridge a closer relationship between the Romulans and the Federation, with the end goal being Federation membership.

The Klingons wanted to take advantage of the weakened state of the Romulans and held strong resentment towards the Federation for taking their side when the Klingons tried to claim Romulan territory. Tensions ran high and the Klingons once again ended their alliances with the Federation. Picard reached out to an old friend and urged Worf to be a voice of reason to the Klingon Empire. Worf helped prevent war, but friction builds with time. This will be an ongoing story as Picard tries to maintain peace between the Federation, Romulans, Klingons, as a new threat awakens and emerges from the furthest corner of the Beta Quadrant to destroy them all. Wesley Crusher will return to warn Picard of the new threat and desperate need for unity in the Alpha Quadrant. At first, people won't believe them. But when the threat surfaces, everyone will stand behind them.

This new threat is a highly advanced artificial intelligence, the Niaro, awakened unintentionally by a Starfleet vessel on a deep space assignment. The Niaro view organic life as parasites, primitives, consistently bickering and with no other purpose than to consume, replicate, and die. A rogue element of the Niaro are what created the Borg and briefly interacted with V-ger (Star Trek: The Motion Picture). This would be the first artificial intelligence that wouldn't be seeking to be more human, but snubbing its circuits at humanity and pointing out the superiority and versatility of the machine. (Starfleet's only hope of brokering peace with the Niaro may rely on the resurrection of Commander Data.)

Unexpected alliances would include teaming up with the Cardassian Union, featuring a cameo of Garak and the new and old crew of Deep Space Nine, and the remnants of a new Dominion, forever changed since Odo joined the Founders and finished healing them through the great link.

Another arc (and potential series), connected to the new threat, is the studying of a new means to travel throughout the galaxy. After Voyager traveled through the transwarp hub and found their way back to Earth, engineers and scientist invested the next two decades trying to figure out how to build something similar. Commissioned as part of this team of engineers was Seven of Nine, the expert on Borg technology, Geordi LaForge, Reginald Barclay, and Miles O'Brien. The creation of a transwarp conduit will open new possibilities for travel throughout the galaxy, leaving openings to meet new species as well as revisit old friends and enemies in the Delta Quadrant.