Details on Star Trek: Federation Series Proposal

Trek Movie has posted a look at the idea of a new TV series called Star Trek: Federation that never got pitched due to the decision to re-launch the franchise with JJ Abrams. The series proposal was initiated by Bryan Singer (X-Men) and written by Robert Meyer Burnett and Geoffrey Thorne. The core thrust of the series is it takes place in year 3000 when "Utopia as a goal is like the fire in a nuclear engine. Utopia in practice is stagnation; its dry rot; eventually its death. Which is precisely where we find the United Federation of Planets a few centuries after the last Age of Discovery."

The concept is around a 600 year leap forward in the Star Trek universe that has humans declining, Vulcans united with Romulus, Klingons, Bajorians and Cardassians using mystician and religion in new and unexpected ways with the Ferengi merging as a major power. The result is a future that isn't quite Federation versus everyone else but a mixture of politics that has to deal with a new threat called "The Scourge" that an old and decayed Starfleet is not currently capable of defending the universe against. At least until a Starship Enterprise and a Kirk enter the scene. The full details of many of the characters and the first few episodes can be found here.

The overall concept strikes me as one of the most ambitious Star Trek ideas put to the table yet, far outstripping Deep Space Nine in a wiliness to explore the darker side of the Star Trek universe and the complexities with acknowledging the "grays" that we truly live in. It is a concept that probably would have angered long time Star Trek fans but that in itself is probably a good thing as the franchise's storytelling formula was clearly pass its prime by the time Enterprise entered the scene. That series tried to mix it up by season four but by then the irreparable damage was done. This concept would actually make for a fantastic Star Trek book series but even that is sadly on the decline so the odds of this concept or anything remotely similar reaching the light of day is highly unlikely. Which is our loss.