It was easier on Deep Space Nine to have a variety of characters as the cast included characters who were not in Star Fleet. There was also a realistic reason to have a Bajoran, who might not be as resistant to conflict as the typical Star Fleet officer. It is one thing to have a character who is mentally unstable. It would be less realistic to have them actually be a member of the crew.

We’ve always seen cutting edge ships with top-of-the-class graduates of the academy for crew compliment.  But what of the crews made of those that were not top of the class?  I’m sure they would exist and would make up the majority of the Federation crew compliments.  The best and the brightest being assigned to the best ships with the most dangerous assignments.

I think it would be refreshing to see what the average ship and average crew of the Federation would do facing situations that called for a higher class ship with a better capable crew.  My only real gripe is that the producer is trying to do too much with the crew, creating a ridiculously tense environment that the Federation would not allow regardless of where the crew was assigned.  A contingent of Klingon exchange personnel I can buy given the events of DSN and the Federation’s desire to foster better relations.  It would also make sense that this contingent would be sent to a smaller, average ship rather than a cutting edge starship where the possibility of espionage would be a huge issue.

The fact that there would not be one but two Romulan defectors is a tough sell.  Especially when one is clearly intended to be mentally unstable.  I don’t see the Federation welcoming Romulan “defectors” into a Star Fleet crew given past relations with these people.  A tough sell to say the least and my biggest concern is that the producer is trying to manufacture as much drama as possible putting unlikely personnel together to see what happens.  I fear that fans will quickly tire of the incessant in-fighting with this crew which would detract from any external developments and tensions that are really at the heart of Star Trek.

On the sbject of size, I don’t understand the argument that you need a bunch of faceless red shirts for the series to work. By keeping it small, we see everyone on the ship, from the captain down to the guy who scrubs the plasma conduits. This means anyone we lose is a deep personal loss.

Secondly, I’m upset by how many people here obviously haven’t been to the website, or read much about the show. Some of these complaints aren’t based on anything. Some of you have taken small parts of the description, expanded them out of context, and complained about them.

My one problem is that this is being billed as a ‘fan created series,’ and while he is a fan, and it’s based on his interaction, he’s actually an established writer, so marketing himself as an outsider seems like a bit of a marketing ploy.

I agree, we want to see the Federation, not just one small area.

However, there is no reason to be upset by this. First of all, this is one person’s proposal and not anything planned. Secondly, DS9 was also limited to an area, but turned out to be one of the better spin offs, and wound up involving much of Federation space.

I imagine that one thing that makes it hard to write ST stories is that they are generally in the same settings as the various shows. Having a new show with a new ship and crew set sometime after DS9 would be easier. There would still be a lot of history to try to avoid contradicting, but the day to day situations would be a lot different than writing stories with the crew from STTNG.

We’d have to see the details of the stories, but also agree that a sustained war could take us away from what most like about ST. It might work more as a cold war type situation in the background while other types of stories are also told.

As this is only a speculative discussion of where a new show might go, Cardinal was adequate for this purpose. There is a fair amount of information available, and it is being discussed on various SF sites.

My bet is that nobody is going to even think of buying a new Star Trek series until we see how the upcoming movie is received. I also doubt that someone without a lot of experience (and connections) has a shot at something as big as Star Trek.