Top Ten Star Trek Spinoff Ideas

There’s more Trek on the air at once than ever before, with Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard all current shows, Brave New Worlds coming soon, and some kind of Starfleet Academy show in the works. But if Paramount Network wants all-Trek, all the time, they need more shows! So, here are the best ideas for things no one has suggested is in the works, to create enough different Trek to not overload, while maintaining weekly new episodes year-round. (Mild spoilers for existing shows, so if you aren’t up-to-date on a show and don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read this!)

10. Deep Space K-7

Tribbles. Klingons. Organians. There’s a lot here that would be fascinating to look at, perhaps in the Picard or even Discovery Season 3 eras.

9. Embers

Episode 1 begins in the middle of a multi-sided starship skirmish in an inhabited system. Then, the Burn hits, and all the active ships detonate. Only the ships that were disabled in the fight survive, and now none of them can manage on their own. The system is cut off from the galaxy, and will be for a century. The fate of one system may not matter to the long-term fate of the galaxy, but for the ships’ crews and billions of lives on inhabited systems that can no longer benefit from stellar trade, there’s a real question to whether or not they can survive in the embers.

8.Starfleet JAG

Yes, a scifi show about legal issues is a tough sell. But Star Trek has had several interesting legal drama episodes (on more than one of its series), and a think, for example, a Federal Mobile Circuit Court Ship, going from place to place to sort out complex legal issues (and get into trouble now and then, like all legal procedurals seem to nowadays) could be very different, but also very fun.

7. Mudd and Jones

Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd And Cyrano Jones aren’t friends. They aren’t allies. They definitely aren’t champions of justice or peace. But they ARE resourceful, and after they booth end up in the same Orion prison they are given an opportunity for full pardons, and a considerable payday, if they work together to solve a major issue. Which turns out to be more complex, and go deeper, than anyone expected. Smuggling, piracy, illegal goods, the fringes of society, shadow ports, all places we know Star Trek has, but have rarely seen, become the backdrop of these two’s reluctant adventures and, despite themselves, occasional heroics.

6. Phase II: The Animated Adventures

Yep, do Phase II of the original Starship Enterprise as a serious animated show, with visuals matching the original cast and voice actors doing their best representations of their voices. And maybe include a horta navigator, and a Gorn attaché, and other weirdness that’s cheaper to draw than do live.

5. sQuires

Ten thousand “lower-cases,” young Qs (written as ‘q’s” and ‘queues’) have been unleashed from the Continuum Nursery into the Lower Planes… and while they lack the cosmic power they’ll eventually grow into, and are often influenced by cultural beliefs and legends on the worlds and ships they find themselves (often limiting their potential to become full Qs as they become sidelined into acting as Greek Gods, for example), these q’s can still disrupt the entire galaxy. Most will eventually fade back into the Continuum, a few will evolve into full Qs, but the Continuum is not willing to allow them to be destroyed, or let them run rampant. Trelane, just recently evolved to full Q status, is assigned to wrangle them, and he adopts a merchant ship, the Free Trader Squire, to act as his primary agents in finding, talking down, and if need be quarantining the queues. Whether the crew of the Squire like that, or not. With as many guest appearances by John De Lancie as he feels like sparing.   

4. Assignment: Earth

Set in the modern day, with Gary 7, Carl (Gateway of Forever), and touching on the ongoing repercussions of various Time Wars (and how they created alternate timelines), without being *about* a time war. A hopeful show about how well humanity can do with a little help.

3. Real McCoys

The USS McCoy is a Medical Frigate with a reputation for solving the most perplexing and dangerous galactic medical issues. Totally unarmed, trust deflectors and diplomacy to keep it safe, it often enters hostile territory and missions of mercy, and is so well-respected that even active foes of the Federation over escort it safely through their space.

2. Honor of the Empire

A Klingon-focused show, possibly with a Federation officer assigned to Qo’noS as the fish-out-of-water POV character. Could be set anytime, with characters in a Qo’nos-orbit starbase if it’s after the planet has been evacuated.

1. These Are the Voyages

An anthology series focusing on a different starship, captain, and crew for every episode. These Are the Voyages isn’t tied to one specific time period, timeline, crew, or culture; the episodes are only united by the fact they are all in A Star Trek universe, and they all focus on a ship and its crew. Some could be showing us the later adventures of characters we know (Captain Sulu! Captain Worf!), others could be non-Federation ships, historic events we know must have happened (the Romulan/Vulcan split, the first Gorn ftl flight, Mirror Universe Spock’s fall, since we have a new Spock actor or two), and even Anaxar.

PATREON
If you are enjoying any of these, please consider adding a drop of support through my Patreon campaign!, or dropping a cup of coffee worth of support at my Ko-Fi (which is also filled with pics of my roommate’s cat).

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About Owen K.C. Stephens

Owen K.C. Stephens Owen Kirker Clifford Stephens is a full-time ttRPG Writer, designer, developer, publisher, and consultant. He's the publisher for Rogue Genius Games, and has served as the Starfinder Design Lead for Paizo Publishing, the Freeport and Pathfinder RPG developer for Green Ronin, a developer for Rite Publishing, and the Editor-in-Chief for Evil Genius Games. Owen has written game material for numerous other companies, including Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, White Wolf, Steve Jackson Games and Upper Deck. He also consults, freelances, and in the off season, sleeps. He has a Pateon which supports his online work. You can find it at https://www.patreon.com/OwenKCStephens

Posted on February 2, 2022, in Musings, Silliness and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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