C'mon, let's boldly go

Oops. It looks like Star Trek: Discovery has been released already, and that means I sat on my own Maybe Pitch for a Trek series for way too long. Now, I still haven't seen Discovery yet, so I wanted to take this last opportunity to post my series pitch here before I officially enter the world of "too late".

I've been a Star Trek fan for decades and have probably made dozens of characters and concepts for an imaginary series both in my own head and with friends (remind me to tell you about the USS Wasp some day).  When the new series was announced, I got to thinking about it myself and put together some ideas for how I'd lead a Trek TV revival.

When I first heard of Discovery, I was surprised to realize they weren't spinning off from the recently-rebooted feature films. But then I realized I personally didn't much care for what had been done over the course of those movies and, if it were up to me, I'd ignore them too. In fact, if I had to pick any version to continue from, it'd be from the point of my new favorite series, Star Trek: Enterprise. No, seriously. I don't know why this show got so much flack, but it got in the way of me taking the time to watch it until just recently, and now I'm totally hooked.  There's something about how the closer timeline makes the show more relateable and of how it reins in the technology that had become so magically overwhelming over the course of a couple hundred years of tech lore. But I also really appreciate how it focused on humanity and our own steps into the stars as the original series did, rather than a broad spectrum of aliens and genetic super-humans.

So my Maybe Trek series will follow on from Enterprise and sort of bridge the gap between that timeline and the Original Series, and it will tentatively be called...


Star Trek: Frontiers


After four years of war with the Romulans, and the founding of the interplanetary organization knows as the Federation of Planets, elements within Starfleet are looking to pick up the torch of space exploration that was sidelined during the conflict. This faction has taken the time to refit one of their battle cruisers for long-term scientific study, and sent it off into the big black to see what's out there.

USS Constitution (NCC 311)

Visually, the ship itself is based on the planned but unused refit show leads had intended for Enterprise during its never-to-be 5th season. It took the basic shape of the NX-01 saucer and nacelles and added a lower body section, getting us one step closer to the Original Series ship. 

For our purposes, we'll say the Constitution and other ships of its class were in construction as a proposed next phase deep space vessel when the Romulan War began. Construction quickly changed to adding more combat elements to these ships and off they went. Now, I may be futzing with canon here, but after successfully serving in the war for four years, the Connie gained recognition as the flagship from which the peace accords were transmitted. Its place in history was established, and its former captain, now admiral, wanted to take advantage of its fame by making it the lead of the new exploration mission. Not everyone who has heard of it will see it as a symbol of peace, though, and the new captain will have his hands full living down the ship's war past.

It's plenty sturdy, as most warships should be, but some of its weapons systems have been gutted to make way for additional sensors and science labs.

The Crew

Capt. Mick Polama - Commanding Officer
Robbie Magasiva

Nobody's more surprised about his promotion than Polama himself. There were no great battles he won, no ship maneuvers named after him. Rather, his first command was of a frigate assigned to harry the Romulan's supply lines far from the spotlight. Admiral Barry, however, looked at all he'd achieved with minimal fleet oversight and realized this was the kind of captain the Constitution would need.

Polama's command style could best be described as "stay flexible", which doesn't jibe well with his first officer's more by-the-book approach. He's also hesitant to take on hostile postures. For example, he may hold off on raising shields when encountering a new vessel and insists landing parties take the type 1 "palm" phaser rather than the larger pistol model unless something specifically warrants the extra show of power.

One of my first goals when "assembling" the crew was to look at Earth cultures that weren't as well represented. Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of a single Polynesian character in any of the previous shows and realized the Constitution had to have one. When I came across Magasiva and saw his stage presence, I knew I had a commanding officer on hand. Fun fact: Robbie's little brother, Pua Magasiva, was the Red Ranger in Power Rangers: Ninja Storm. I foresee some guest appearances in the future.

Cmdr. Sarah Asher - Navigator
Mamie Gummer

One of the ship changes from the NX class to this new class (which I should probably name some time) is the addition of a navigator station. The idea is that by incorporating the tactical station into the helm controls, a ship could be more effective in combat. A duty navigator was added to take some of the piloting duties off the now much busier helmsman. The station also takes on the duties of managing ship's shields (an outgrowth of the navigation deflectors) as well as scanning (because the 'gator would have to know what was out there in order to plot a course, right?)

Asher was Capt. Barry's 2nd in command and had expected to 'fleet up' into the command chair when he left. That Barry picked somebody else to lead was a bit of a shock. Truth is, while she's an amazing Starfleet officer and an inspiring leader, she lacks the initiative Barry felt was critical to the mission's success "out there." He did offer her the option of leaving Constitution for her own command closer to Earth, but she opted to stay on Connie, even if it means an extended absence from her husband back on Earth.

I knew from the start I wanted my 2nd in command to contrast with the captain, but not so much that they come to blows. I think the fun will be in seeing how their two styles mix well together rather than seeing how combustible they are. I also decided to use her to introduce some of the elements of the 'career officer' and how that can affect families, and gave her a husband back home. 

As for casting, I may be aiming a bit high in actor choices here, but as long as you're fancasting something, you might as well put Meryl Streep's daughter in it, right?


Lt. Cmdr. Jagir Singh Anand - Chief Engineer
Waris Ahluwaria

Anand was Polama's engineer on his previous ship and he talked him into transferring with him to the Constitution. For most of the crew, the new captain is an unknown entity, but to Anand, he's an old friend.

There's not much to say about what a chief engineer does. He does the same things CHENG's have done on four other Star Trek ships. I would, however, like to see engineering be more of a hands-on, mechanical work environment. While everything by the Next Generation seemed to be fixed by pushing buttons on a screen, I much prefer the idea of engineers grabbing tools and poking at circuit boards and conduits.

The character of Anand initially just came from the idea of how neat a turban would look in a Starfleet uniform. You know, how they're allowed to keep symbols of their cultures even while serving in this greater body. When I did a little research about turbans, though, I fell down the rabbit hole of reading about Sikhism and realized this would be a great opportunity to touch on how faith and religion survives into a future of space travel and intelligent aliens. Ahluwaria was one of the first actors I came across in my reading and even remembered him from the movie 'Inside Man.' I guess he made an impression on me and I signed him up on the spot.


Lt. Cmdr. Devon Lucci - Ship's Surgeon
Kelly Mantle

Another new arrival to the ship. When the previous surgeon retired after the war, Barry started casting about for a replacement and decided an expert in xeno-medicine would be a valuable resource for a ship heading into uncharted space. Barry had met Lucci during the war, treating refugees and remembered his genius when the time came. As for Lucci himself, his home on the Earth colony of Alpha Eridani was one of the first targets destroyed by the Romulans at the start of the war. Although he lost almost everything, it's a credit to his humanity that he didn't develop an unreasoning hatred for the Romulans, but rather an enhanced compassion for the victims of the war.

Out the gate I knew that I wanted to broach the subject of gender identity and how future humans would handle it. There was a brief idea of a hermaphroditic crew member, but that seemed a cheat. To best represent a gender fluid population, the character would have to be truly gender fluid, not just racially/genetically designed that way.  Lucci is almost completely androgynous, able to identify with either gender with equal ease. This actually enhances his bedside manner and his patients find understanding no matter what their own gender is. Obviously the hope here is to showcase a future where such differences are accepted rather than ignored or looked down on.

It's from Kelly Mantle himself that I first heard the term 'gender fluid' and realized nobody else should play the role of the androgynous doctor.



Lt. Kav - Helmsman
Ricky Kim

Even after the founding of the Federation of Planets, there's still a tendency for Starfleet ships to be crewed by a single species. Some argue that's through biological necessity of a common, survivable environment, but others still push for more integration among what are now supposed to be equal members.


Given the high profile mission of the Constitution, there was a big push to include some of this integration, and the ship's Andorian helmsman was the result of a lot of political jockeying on his home world. The 2nd son of a noble family, he was granted the position both as an honor for his family but also to keep him out of local politics and upsetting royal succession. He's almost boringly regal, with a greater sense of etiquette than other crew members. At the same time, he's from a war culture and doesn't hesitate to go onto a war footing at the first provocation. It's almost ironic that Capt. Polama often calls on him for his advice in first contact etiquette while at the same time has to often reign him in from starting a fight they don't want.

To be honest, I've had Rick Kim's headshot saved since an initial Trek draft involved a Korean crew member just for the sake of being able to showcase a future Korea where the North and South are united. That character didn't pan out, but Kim is still a fine actor and one I had no trouble painting blue when it came time to introduce and alien crewmember.


Lt. Lupe Acosta - Communications Officer
Natalie Morales

I kind of hate the idea of continuing the bias that only women can be communications officers, but I've been a fan of Morales since 'Middleman' and I think her sassy, sarcastic patter would be hilarious in the role of the comms officer. She would constantly be giving her cynical, unsolicited input on the aliens they just met, and it'd be even more frustrating for the captain when she's usually right.

Linguistics used to be a science division, but with the divorcing of the sciences during the Federation's war footing, it transferred to Operations. It does much the same job it always has, but with advances in Universal Translator software, the position has grown more technical in using and maintaining communications equipment over linguistics and cultural interpretation.

Like I said above, Morales needs to be in my bridge crew, and I would have invented a position if comms officer wasn't already so perfect for her.

Prof. Christa Holtzmann - Science Director
Gina Ravera

From the first inklings of the character, I'd intended for him or her to be German, but I'm not ashamed to say that the character of Prof. Holtzmann was also inspired by the cast of 'Hidden Figures'. I figured there was no harm in combining the two, so here she is.

Prof. Holtzmann heads a civilian attachment of specialists and graduate students brought on board the Connie to perform scientific studies in the absence of a dedicated Starfleet science department. As such, she's a bit outside the military chain of command. To be honest, she'd expected her team to just be stuck in a hold somewhere and forgotten about, but it wasn't long before the captain started coming to her for advice and even inviting her into mission briefings and away teams.

Gina Ravera has a couple decades acting experience on film and television. I've no doubt she can successfully blend the wonder of space exploration with the discipline of leading a science team. I guess my only real question is whether or not she can learn German. I'd like to think that she can.


Uniforms
"Canon" says the Star Trek: Enterprise coveralls were in use right up to the foundation of the Federation, but that's based on the hokey "holodeck novel" story from the show's finale and I'm willing to call that "artistic license". For Frontier, I'd like to see the coverall (which is awesome) evolve a step closer to the uniform worn on the original series, first by turning it into a jacket/pants option, and then adding a color-appropriate shirt underneath the jacket.

A relaxed uniform would just have the colorful shirt, while a pants option would allow for the introduction of the miniskirt uniform. A quick search of the internet shows that something similar to what I wanted was already created, so I swiped the illustration. I'm sorry to say I don't know who created this or why, so apologies for the theft.




Show Bible
I'm not going to do a key episode breakdown or anything, but in general the show would follow the pattern of ST: Enterprise and the original series with the basic direction of going "out there" and seeing what's up. A recurring element would be not just discovering new civilizations, but overcoming a stigma of warfare that precedes the Federation vessel. Even cultures who haven't met humans yet have heard of the 4-year war against the Romulans, and there's a bit of fear about the species that fought that conquering race to a stand-still. Reparations might also be an issue, as the Constitution and her crew are called on to aid survivors of the war (on both sides).

There's room for some heavy-handed political stories about "exit strategies" and "peaceful occupations", but that's not the real goal here. It's mostly just a showcase for overcoming a reputation and recognizing that the strength to defend yourself should also include the strength to defend others as well.