Starfleet Academy: The Premise

Last week, I started a new series where I’m going to outline some ideas that I have for a new Star Trek TV show. This is all hypothetical, obviously. It’s a work of fanfiction for my own amusement…

…although if there’s someone from Paramount that wants to make a show and they like what I’ve come up with, then call me. We’ll do lunch or Skype or whatever.

Anyway, I know that last week, I said we’d talk about how the Star Trek universe had shaped up since the last iteration… er, actually, the last one chronologically. But instead, I think we need to take a detour first and talk about what my overall premise for the show would be.

Normally, a Star Trek show is about boldly going where no one has gone before. That’s been the case in four out of five times. But how do the people of Starfleet learn how to boldly go? What is the formation process like? What kind of adventures do they go on before they head out to the frontier?

That’s what this show would explore. We would start with an incoming class of new cadets, young men, women, and…well, otherwise that have come to Earth to train at the Academy. We’d follow a core group of four to six cadets who are just starting out, and then follow them and their friends as they learn and grow, discovering their destinies. Part of the series would be set at the Academy. Some of it would be field assignments, either simulations or on Starfleet vessels. The cadets would learn, they’ll maybe fall in love, some of them will drop out or maybe even die (gotta keep that possibility open!), and in the end, we’ll see them graduate and get posted to their first assignments.

Now I realize that that sounds a little…well, light. Watching a group of people boldly go to class like so many have gone before would get old quickly. So some of the show would have to be focused on their relationships: with their families, their instructors, their idols, and each other. But at the same time, they would also find themselves falling into a larger adventure, one that extends beyond the grounds of the Academy and into the heart of Starfleet and the Federaton itself, a larger adventure that would be the overarching story of the series.

And no, it would not involve any form of temporal cold war.

The other thing that I would want to include is this: one of those core characters will be destined to become the next great Starfleet captain. One of them will take his or her place as a leader along the lines of Kirk or Picard or Sisko or Janeway or Archer. But to find out which one, we’d have to keep watching.

So that’s the basic premise. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Oh, and if you like what you’re seeing, please feel free to share this series with your friends. I’m curious to know what other Trekkies think.

Next week, we will go into my vision for the storyworld. It’s a little on the long side, but then, there’s a lot of ground to cover. Come on back now, y’hear?