Let's look at the poast of trek a little for some advice:
TOS-It had some epidsode that were very good, as well as other that were very bad. What really defined TOS and made the overall series good were the episodes concentrating on the issues of the 60's. That is what made TOS sucessful. But you have to admit that many of TOS's stories were often times tachy, and probably wouldn;t pass on today's trek.

TNG-TNG's first few years weren;t necassarily that great, with many episode's that were simply rewritten TOS stories. But within a few years, TNG was pop culture, becoming one of television's most popular shows. What made this possible? Well, TNG was pretty much the only sci-fi show of its time. It also was under the leadership of the very famous Mr. Roddenbery, and also possed an excellent writing staff. The trek universe was also pretty new and open to TNG, allowing the writers to pretty much do wahtever they wanted. We were introduced to a romulan empire, peaceful kilngons, visocu cardassians, and the borg in their most frightening form. But by the 7th season, the writers admit that they started to run out of ideas for stories.

DS9- I have a book call "The Making of Deep Space Nine," which details the development of the show. Originally, it was entitiled Star Trek: Starbase 362, and was to be set in a kind of Federation Hong Kong situated on the surface of a recently freed Bajor. And that was to be the setting, with no wormhole. However, the producers realized that the cost of bulding and outdoor city set were too high, and so changed the setting to a space station. Then they added the wormhole to bring more space travellers to that station. We all know what this lead to: internal Bajoran conflicts, conflicts with the cardassians, conflicts between many interesting characters, and fianlly conflict with the dominion that split the quadrant apart and lead to some of the best stories ever written for trek.

And fianlly, VOY- Orignally, VOY was going to bring two conflicting crews together on a long, lonley journey home that could include ever chainging threats and stories materiazlising with the final release from the well-known alpha quadrant. But that's not how it happened. The series pretty much just didn;t work, just coming out with ever repeating sotry lines. This might not have only been because the writers were bad. There havne;lt been anythiung for Voyagers stories to be about except there little ship and its survival. That's why every story has been about Voyager's survival. Because there's been nothing for Voyager to help in the survival in. At least TNG and DS9 could deal with threats to the federation or its allies. But Voyager has just been about threats to itself.

So, the next series has to have a good storng base for sotries. DS9 was the only series that really had alot of sotries left to tell when it ended. So, perhaps that next series having some type of stationary setting such as DS9 would be a good idea. A Starfleet Academy series might work for a stationary setting, but I think I would find a bunch of wesley crusher's running around as annoying. Someone I know has proposed a differnt kind of show based on Earth. Some type of special ops team, based on Earth, could be assigned starfleet's most important missions right out of starfleet command. However, what I immediatley found flawed about this series was that earth was too far from the federation;s frontier for a show like this. But what if starfleet discovers an alien ship with a transwarp drive. Its technlogies are far ahead of the federation's and barely understood. Its so advancd that Starfleet reserves it for the federation;s most important missions. It could be stationed on Earth, and travel out to the edges of the federation within days via iyts transwapr drive. W could also get a glimpse into federation civiilian life on Earth, as well as insights into starfleet command and the workings of the federation's government. Put in a post-dominion war setting of a dead Cardassian Empire, weakened Klingons, some internal moral issues in the federation, a suddenly more powerful romulan empire, and a stable wormhole to the gamma qudrant still running and I think you got yourself some good story possibilities. There's even a frightening villian that is still out there somewhere: the alien infiltrators from "Conspiracy." And this alien transwarp vessel, designtated USS Infinity, could get involved in all of these stories.

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USS Infinity
NX-100239
First Transwarp Ship of the Fleet
Epsilon Omega Shipyards

"It's like I said, the more things change, the more they stay the same."-Unknown Vulcan Philosopher

What do you need? Talented actors and writers with vision. That's all.

There was alot of worry that DS9 would be too stationary, but they totally made the best of that and focused on Bajor's problems.

I agree with the above comment about having a continuing storyline, something that can branch into other things but always revolves around an overall story arc.

Yes this would require alot of forethought on the part of the creators. Don't hold your collective breath.

and these writers:

Ira Stephen Behr
Rene Echavarria
Ronald D. Moore
Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Hans Beimler
Naren Shankaar

for starters.

(That I know their names shows you how much I admire their work.)

You could also add in there the two who did "The Visitor", Michael Pillar and Peter Allan Fields.

(Go and watch "Progress" again... some good stuff.

Of course, that means good actors, good writers who can actually plan story in advance, not just "make it up" along the way.

Sorta like "Gargoyles" if you ask me. That's the kind of scope we need. Great story, great caracters, and at the end everything falls logically into place.

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-If you ask me, I think continuity is highly overrated...
*Brannon Braga*

-Give me Good Trek or give me Death!
*Me*

Strike one! Current Voyager writer Michael Taylor wrote "The Visitor" to have it slightly rewritten by Rene Echevarria.

And Joe Menosky. Definitely Joe Menosky (but Shankaar might be able to go...).

Well, this is a wishlist, no?

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When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum