Details Revealed on Bryan Singer's STAR TREK: FEDERATION Series

It was revealed recently that filmmaker Bryan Singer pitched a new Star Trek TV series called Star Trek: Federation, but it ultimately never happened, which is a shame because it sounds like it would have been a really good series. Singer is a big Trek fan and he even appeared in an uncredited role on Star Trek: Nemesis. 

According to a great report from TrekMovie, in 2005 Singer was having dinner with screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and director Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise) one night. During that dinner the three of them started talking about the idea of pitching a new Star Trek series that would fill the gap left by Star Trek: Enterprise, which had just been cancelled. So Burnett recruited screenwriter Geoffrey Thorne (Leverage) to help create a 25-page series proposal outlining the show, and what it would be.

According to Burnett "they wanted to create an allegory both to the decline of the Roman Empire as well as to the 21st century 'American Empire' which had started showing strains. The premise has a new threat facing the Federation with a brand new USS Enterprise (and a brand new Kirk) trying to return Starfleet to the glory days." Here is an excerpt from the document: 

The Federation hasn’t had a flagship in over two hundred years. They haven’t done anything either scientifically or in terms of exploration that comes near the deeds done in the long ago Age of Expansion.

There is no sense of true unity in the Federation and unity will be required if these new aliens return in force. The people need a symbol to remind them who they are, what they mean to each other and that there are prices to be paid for living in paradise.

They need, in short, a sense of Enterprise…
- from "Star Trek: Federation" series proposal

I love what the plan was for this series and it really is a shame that it never happened. They wanted to tell more complex serialized stories, and they wanted to take Star Trek back to it's roots telling "compelling stories about our world today instead of just telling stories more about the Trek universe itself." That's what the original Star Trek series was, it told stories about what was happening in our world but in a fun sci-fi setting. 

Here's the plan that was laid out for the series:

Let STAR TREK breathe. Let it return to the marketplace in the hands of people willing to write the sort of stories that confront and entertain today’s audiences. Let’s grapple again with the issues of the day- issues of diversity, government power, gender frictions, a controversial war on foreign soil, and a host of other things. Embrace modern television storytelling techniques. Most importantly, as with the original STAR TREK and THE NEXT GENERATION audiences must recognize the world they live in today in the far-flung future, then take the show’s concepts and lessons with them back into their everyday lives.

The great strength of STAR TREK is the very Universe in which it’s set. The Characters. The Starships. The Aliens. The stories.

Gene Roddenberry himself provided the perfect example how to create a wildly successfully new STAR TREK series…

Acknowledge what’s come before, but then set your stage far enough in the STAR TREK future when everything old is new again.

Turn the STAR TREK Universe upside down. Shake vigorously.

So how did they plan to shake it up? 

Utopia as a goal is like the fire in a nuclear engine. Utopia in practice is stagnation; it’s dry rot; eventually it’s death. Which is precisely where we find the United Federation of Planets a few centuries after the last Age of Discovery.

Here are some key changes in the Star Trek universe six centuries after Picard.

• Earth’s Humans have become "fat and happy" but this has led to complacency where humans are "giving up exploration for incremental colonization and focusing more on the rightness of their own cultural view over all others"
• Many younger members of the UFP have left, eschewing this "human-centric" Federation
• Vulcans have been disengaging from the Federation and have reunified with the Romulans, spending most of the last 3 centuries focused on creating a new "joined society" overseen by two "quasi-religious clerics who rule according to logic and what is best for their unified peoples, combining Romulan Machiavellian politics with Vulcan logic.
• Bajorans have withdrawn from the Federation to become insular in order to focus on their religion and communing with the Prophets. Bajor is now "like a planet sized Tibet", handing over all temporal concerns to the Ferengi
• The Klingons have undergone a "massive reformation" moving away from their Viking-like brawling to become a "civilization of warrior mystics" akin to the Tang Dynasty), now flying "sleek" and "serene" ships and while they maintain diplomacy with the Federation they have returned to expanding the Empire via conquest
• The Cardassians have transformed into a "society of artists and philosophers" who now "walk the path" and are now dedicated to a philosophy with "the view of the galaxy as a place created solely to test the faithful."
• The Ferengi are no longer a "joke" but have become "quite powerful". Equality for females (including a female Nagus) is "the only concession they have made to progress" and with "the Greater Federation’s cashless society as a restriction, the Ferengi Alliance is now able to shine in its full capitalist glory." The Ferengi are also making big bucks marketing the Bajoran religion around the galaxy, including pilgrimages to the Bajoran Wormhole.    
• Starfleet has been reduced to a "mere peace-keeping force" protecting fringe worlds from aliens and from fighting each other, with starships are old and spread out too thin

A new ruthless and power enemey called "The Scourge" is also thrown into the mix. They confronted the Federation ship USS Sojourner and this was the key pivot point of the story. The ship is lost along with two colonies and the one survivor becomes a key player in the future of the Federation.

Lieutenant Commander Alexander Kirk is the only survivor of the “Sojourner Incident,” as it’s come to be known in the press. And he has no clear memory of the events themselves. Attempts to “help” him remember cause him to become irrational and violent. All he has is images of carnage and death and a hidden malevolent presence lurking behind it all. When called before his superiors, he paints a picture of the enemy that is scarcely believed and which, if true, might tip the already fracturing Federation Alliance into true collapse.

So according to TrekMovie this incident leads Vulcan, Bajor, Betazed and other members to pull out of the Federation leaving it with just twenty systems and surrounded by the Klingons, Ferengi, Cardassians, etc. Kirk is also drummed out of the service.

After all this happens a admiral jumps in and commissions a new USS Enterprise to be built. This would be the first Enterprise to exist in over 300 years. The mission will be publicized as a traditional return to the era of exploration and discovery, but the real mission will be to find the truth behind "The Scourge" and to save the Federation.

Now why in the hell did this series never happen!? This would have been great! It could have ended up being one of the best series if they did it right, it sure sounds like they were on the right path. I love where they wanted to take this universe, it would have breathed new life into a franchise that a lot of people love, and given us something completely new and different to enjoy. It's just such an interesting and compelling concept. I'd like to think that there's still hope for this series, that there's still a chance that it could happen. Unfortunately it most likely wont.

There is still a ton of details over at TrekMovie that you should go check out if you haven't already. There's some great stuff there, including a break down of characters and short descriptions of the first four episodes. 

What do you think of this Star Trek: Federation series concept?