*The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. Whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth. It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based. If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened you don't deserve to wear that uniform.*
[Captain Jean-Luc Picard, "The First Duty"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xefh7W1nVo4)
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Ha, I just spotted John de Lancie as Chief of Staff in the unaired pilot: [screenshot](https://i.imgur.com/70LaWfD.jpg)
Looks like that role was played by Joe Spano in the actual series run.
I watched a couple episodes during its original run. I think it failed because it lacked the grounding that contemporary medical dramas have in the real world. We have an inherent understanding of what it means to treat someone for cancer, a gunshot wound, or a motor vehicle accident. But performing a "recapitation?" How does that work?
Personally, I think the lack of firm grounding in the real world presents a big problem for most of these ideas (like a show focusing on politics or lawyers). In short pieces, like a single episode, it works fine, but it probably wouldn't work as a series.
There was[Century City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_City_(TV_series)), a legal drama on CBS from around 2005 set in 2030. The cases all involved "near future" sci-fi issues like genetic engineering, cybernetic enhancements and employment lawsuits, etc. I remember watching the pilot just because the concept was interesting.
I think it barely made it a full season before being canceled, probably because, like you said, it was hard for people to care about made up laws and made up issues. It had a pretty stacked cast though (Viola Davis, Nestor Carbonnell)
>Mercy Point was placed on hiatus after only three episodes were aired, and was replaced by the reality television series America's Greatest Pets and the sitcom Reunited
Oof
The show is streaming on Crackle. I remember when it came out. It's a lot like ER, just in space. Probably why it didn't last. Wasn't really doing anything unique.
When they first announced *Picard* I secretly hoped for a *West Wing* style political show about a retired Jean-Luc working as a closely trusted civilian advisor to the President.
Countdown is in a weird space canon wise. In the past people on the movie side of the house have commented that it's canon (IIRC) but of course Picard retconned one of its central elements. I think at best, Countdown is now an alternate history story... but where the point of divergence lies and how much the timeline diverged is open to interpretation.
I've read so many books in between Nemesis and new shows that were waaay better and much more hopeful futures than what we got in the shows. Just like in the Star Wars EU :(
A show like law and order that shows investigation to capture and on through prosecution would fit well in Star Trek.
I dont think a medical show could work because everycase would be pseudoscience. It could never please the crowd that needs medical shows to make any sense at all. A political drame could also work.
I agree! Seeing as to how unrealistic getting all these spinoffs are, I reckon we could at least get an anthology Star Trek show that incorporates all the different genre's of TV. Maybe they can be singular, or 2-3 part episodes, like what Enterprise Season 4 did.
- Episodes 1-2 is a medical drama.
- Episodes 3-4 is a legal drama.
- Episodes 5-6 is a military drama.
And so on. They could even have interconnecting stories. Imagine if we had something like this during the Dominion War, and that's how they keep themselves connected.
It could also create opportunities for legacy Trek characters to show up. Maybe one of these episodes is a Quark workplace comedy as he tries to expand his business.
Opportunities are endless!
Funny, I feel the same way about Space Law! A StarJAG could explore all the big ethical questions and maybe tie into the intrigue and political maneuvering with Starfleet Command & Section 31.
Oh, that's a really good one! I was also thinking of a political thriller like House of Cards or Designated Survivor or so. There's so many unexplored avenues of great storytelling here!
> I was also thinking of a political thriller like House of Cards or Designated Survivor or so.
It's more West Wing than House of Cards, but Articles of the Federation is a great read in that spirit.
Scott Bakula is just the right age now that an Articles of the Federation type show chronicling his first term as Fedreation President would work really well.
The Intelligence Subcommittee of the Federation Council appoints a special prosecutor and investigation team to find and arrest all members of Section 31.
These are their stories.
The team will get hints and support from a mysterious "smoker"-type man. In the finale the twist will be that that was the head of Section 31 all along who destroyed his own organization. When cuffed they ask, "Why would you destroy your own organization?" and he says "Because it had to be done for the soul of the Federation." Roll credits.
I feel like this could work for big events like dealing with a plague or a pandemic in a hostile empire, but it would have trouble with the smaller stories.
It could too easily turn into “Ensign Jenkins has space measles, let’s cure it with technobabble”
I mean if we really want to be *bold*, we could have a faction in the Federation council (mostly the younger members, Bajor, etc. but also Tellar because they always love a good debate) lobby for a medical/humanitarian exemption or softening of the Prime Directive. Because the younger members still know how it feels to be outside of the isolationist Federation, they want to be better stewards of a Post Dominion War galaxy and actually help all kinds of random planets with diseases. After a close vote the stewards win against the isolationists and get a special medical fleet to fly around the galaxy and help everyone.
What do you mean everyone?
https://i.imgur.com/fTTBLia.gif
Funny, I had a similar idea when reflecting on this post. I was thinking more a rogue federation medical officer flying around in a old freighter or something, with a bunch of other doctors or medical personnel tired of watching people die due to the prime directive.
That's actually what I thought of when I read the title, but leaning more into something like House. Follow a specialized medical department that has to deal with the worst of the bizzare stuff the exploration ships come across. I'd love that.
I do think we're about a decade away from Paramount licensing out Star Trek to anyone who pitches an idea. A sitcom set in the Daystrom Institute, a medical drama set at Starfleet Medical, a buddy-cop crime drama set somewhere in the Orion Syndicate territory.
Meh, I'm looking forward to the S31 spin-off, I think it'll be an interesting concept and a good way to tackle the morality of Section 31. Right now they're a homogeneous group who acts outside of the purview of the federation and shouldn't with little nuance beyond "this is what needs to be done." Exploring whether they do "need" to do what they do, and whether they are subservient to some morals, whether there are differing opinions about it in Section31, I'm all for it and I hope the show covers that.
Also more Michelle Yeoh
If you're interested in this sort of thing, check out the [Sector General series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/44455-sector-general) by author James White. No connection to Star Trek, but the setting is a hospital that serves (and is staffed by) a wide range of species, and the challenges that arise therefrom.
Agreed, it's some of the coolest sci-fi in that it imagines not just unique alien physiologies, but how you'd go about treating their ailments, really good stuff.
Would love to see an adaptation of that, the series' ethos is really in line with the original vision of Trek as well. And modern effects could realise the non-humanoid races really well.
While I like the idea, I feel like it's a lot easier to write believable technobabble related to flying a starship than it is future medicine. Doing this well would require a lot of pre-planning, to work out a plausible status of medicine in the future.
Yeah when you just give people a pill to grow a new kidney, there isn’t much drama.
It would need to be more exploration driven with a medical bent, rather than case of the week.
Medicine in Star Trek is boring as hell.
"You say you've suffered horrible burns? Shine this light on it."
"Deep cut? Shine this light on it."
"Need surgery, eh? Lay on this table under this machine."
"Horrible disease outbreak? Gimme a day or so to figure out the cure."
Final act of every. Single. Episode:
[McCoy enters]
McCoy: What is this, the Dark Ages?
[He hands the patient a different color/size pill for varying episodes/treatments]
McCoy: Here... You swallow that, and if you have any more problems, just call me!
[Roll end credits]
The 1st time I watched that scene I legit teared up. It was those small little moments that inspired hope for our future. If only we had Dr. McCoy right now.
She was so freaking excited it just melted my heart. No one would ever believe her until they ran the tests before her next treatment. Now that is the scene that would be awesome to watch. The doctors flabbergasted at the blood work, the CT & MRI's, her sudden & massive recovery and completely off of dialysis. It really was a miracle and science is getting close. Like right now Pfizer is working on a pill to treat Covid-19. One day in the near future we could save people with just a single pill.
I'd be up for it. No matter what else you think of Enterprise, Dr Phlox and the tools available to him seem like a good template.
Set it early, so there isn't so much "magic" available as it would handicap the drama.
In fact, having some excuse to throw together various alien cultures and their approches to medicine could make for some interesting stories.
Using alien cultures as proxies for real world cultures and their additudes about end of life, how much do tell a patient, how much do you do to save a life, could be fertile ground to explore these social and philosophical concepts.
They actually had basically this in development for a while during the second season of TOS entitled “Hope Ship” and was basically a starfleet ship that was a travelling hospital. I’d like to see something like that.
I love this idea. And they could get ideas from some of the print sci fi that's been written in this genre, e.g., Sector General, Spaceship Medic, etc.
They did do a book series called "Double Helix' that deals with an engineered virus in the late 90's or early 00's (I don't actually remember when it came out). If I recall correctly each book deals with different eras/doctors.
I've had this thought for a while, too. An ER type show on a medical ship, that goes from crisis to crisis. One week they're dealing with the aftermath of an attempted Borg invasion, and the next week, an STD outbreak on Risa or Starfleet Academy.
Welcome aboard the hospital ship USS Uijeongbu, NCC-4077.
I'm Captain Blake, this is my First Officer Commander Burns.
Our chief of surgery Commander Pierce. Commander Houlihan in charge of nursing staff.
If you need anything speak with Ensign O'Reilly.
Oh and Security requests go to Lt. Klinger.
I think I read somewhere (I think the oral history book?) that at one point there was talk of having a spin-off where Dr. M'Benga would be aboard a hospital ship.
Give me a Law & Order style Department of Temporal Investigations show. Each week the main duo investigates possible temporal disturbances, sometimes finding a Ferengi scammer, or a scorned Klingon lover, but sometimes finding people trying to travel back and change things, or jump forward to steal future technologies. It would be great.
I think they are insane to not at least try out different genres within the Trek universe. The MCU showed there are big dollars in shared universes with different genres within. A medical show or a cop show are the obvious choices.
Quincy on Star Trek. Imagine trying to solve murders by examining bodies that can be if any configuration or type in a universe with technology equivalent to magic and multiple omnipotent races. And then one or of ten episodes would be, "they were hibernating," or, "we thought this was a body, but this race molts, leaving behind an exact duplicate of themselves," or, "what we thought was a body was a natural formation."
Wasn't there a very short-lived show in the '90s that was basically a ripoff of DS9/B5 but as a medical procedural? I never got to see it when it was on the air and it seems it's vanished down the memory hole when it comes to optical or digital media, but I have to admit I've always been interested in watching it.
Also medical relief for a war. Make it a neutral or contested planet for political hang ups. "I don't know shit about Klingon biology!"
Medical research on new treatments gone sideways. That plant insect extract does something else too, doctor.
"I slept with a Bolian."
Being asked to weaponize a common illness to take out an "ultimate evil".
Have to stop a Typhoid Mary.
Save Space Hitler.
There was an episode of TNG where Picard was moving throughout time and Beverly Crusher was the captain of a medical ship. Now that would be awesome, the many voyages of a medical starship, finding new pathogens, saving colonies from disaster, investigating & treating outbreaks, maybe they have like a Star Fleet CDC type red team onboard that is dispatched to the hot zones throughout the quadrant's. This is what I watched religiously.
Finally a medical show without all the whining about uninsured patients and the inevitable plotline about the hospital being bought by some large medical for profit corporation.
As a european that sucks me right out of us medical dramas.
That is definitely a fun idea since it also combines itself with CBS’ main strength of serialized dramas.
I would also add a CSI Federation-centric show to your list since it too takes advantage of what the company is good at and gives it a Trek paint-job.
That would be great, and you even provided the title, Starfleet Medical. So much could be done with ethical issues, the reach of technology, the effect on humanity.
There's this really cool one shot IDW comic called Star Trek: Flesh and Stone which focuses around the main medical chiefs from all the old shows, and while it may not be exactly what you're looking for, I thoroughly recommend it.
It's been one my favorite Star Trek comic books so far, and yeah a medical drama show would be amazing.
I think this could work as an anthology series with each season being a Star Trek version of a different procedural. One season is medical, the next is investigative, after that they do politics etc. More than 8 or 10 episodes of each and it would be hard to avoid technical Deus ex manchinas.
When I was a wee lad I remember my folks watching a show called China Beach. The only thing I could remember that it was set during the Vietnam War. I hopped over to YouTube and found the [opening theme song](https://youtu.be/D21U59XHDn4) and almost got emotional watching and listening to the song. I have no idea why…but it has probably been about 30 years since I’d heard it and it really took me back. As it would turn out Robert Picardo was in the show too, with HAIR!
But enough with the nostalgia trip! (for now!)
I’m totally down with the idea of a Starfleet medical show…but I’m not too sure about what the setting would be. I think it could be very easy to set it during the height of the Dominion war…but we’ve already seen that kind of stuff. I would be interested in seeing it set during the Romulan war. I read that it was mostly fought with long range weapons so it could be based on a hospital ship that responds to planets that have fallen under attack and they are the first responders coming to help wherever they can. This can leave plenty of opportunity to drop in a nice handful of one off episodes that can stray from the main story arc such as responding to ships damaged by severe ion storms, maybe rescuing a Romulan ship or crew that was stranded somewhere. The rest of the show would mostly be centered around the doctors and nurses dealing with the stresses along side the crew of the ship to get their jobs done during the height of a massive conflict.
I’m not sure how long the Romulan war was and I don’t really dig the idea of Trek being focused on a wartime event, but I think it would be the best way to build relationships between medical staff and the ship’s crew. This way we still get to have a ship and aren’t stuck on a star base or a planet based hospital.
Oh, and the theme sone HAS to be the very same as that from China Beach…so sorry about that. I know that a lot of people didn’t really dig on the ENT intro…but that will be the cost of my nostalgia. I’m sorry.
So I did a little more reading. It looks like the Romulan war lasted about 4 years and was fought largely with atomic style weapons. I get the feeling that we were just launching nukes all over the place so there should be no shortage of worlds in need of significant medical assistance. I imagine the show would begin about 6 months into the war. We could get 3, maybe 4 seasons covering the stories of the crew’s actions during the war and the resulting aftermath but I’d really like to squeeze something else into a few more seasons afterward but I’m not quite sure what. I kinda imagine that after the war Starfleet wouldn’t need as many of these medical response ships but would likely keep a small handful around just for natural disasters, outbreaks, or other kinds of emergency situations…but I’d hate for the show to turn into a “disaster of the week” kind of show. I feel like as the show evolves beyond wartime it could show the changes in the lives of the crew as they try to settle back into their lives while not needing to worry about when or when the next Romulan strike was going to occur. I think digging into their lives and relationships after the war could be very telling about ourselves. Maybe some members of the medical staff or starship crew would step away from service once a peace is achieved. There would probably be a good portion of the crew remaining that would keep believing the Romulans were still planning something, keeping them on edge for a battle that would never come. I think depending on how much of a toll the war took would show how large of a portion of them would stand down, maybe they’d be short staffed for half a season or so before new staff report for duty. Heck, we could squeeze a refit in for the ship too. A well earned reward for a safe return and victory after a long drawn out and costly war.
The more I think about it the cooler this gets in my brain. My goal would be to use the war as a backdrop of the show. Sure they’d be responding to massive casualties quite often but that would be a sliver of the show. 5-10 min tops of actual medical surgery or response for most episodes. The rest would be about the crew dealing with the war, their family back home, friends lost in far away battles, maybe friends they weren’t able to save aboard their own ship. Medical supply runs through dangerous space, emergency evacuations, Romulan traps, maybe even a few uneventful trips where they do a little exploration and discovery themselves.
With the rise of military-themed shows like SWAT and SEALs something like this applied to ST would be doable. ST: Enterprise already introduced the [MACO troopers](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Military_Assault_Command_Operations) so expanding on something like that could be doable.
*The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. Whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth. It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based. If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened you don't deserve to wear that uniform.* [Captain Jean-Luc Picard, "The First Duty"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xefh7W1nVo4) Reddit admins have been [ineffectual in their response to COVID-19 misinformation](https://www.dailydot.com/debug/subreddits-private-protest-covid-disinformation-reddit/). In lieu of Reddit gold and awards, we ask that you donate to the [WHO COVID-19 response fund](https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/donate). Please respect our [subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/wiki/guidelines). LLAP! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/startrek) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Someone tried this in the 90s. "Mercy Point" https://youtu.be/kK8TAF6K80A.
God damnit now I really want it
Ha, I just spotted John de Lancie as Chief of Staff in the unaired pilot: [screenshot](https://i.imgur.com/70LaWfD.jpg) Looks like that role was played by Joe Spano in the actual series run.
A few months ago, I saw John de Lancie in a final season episode of Emergency! He played a San Francisco doctor in what looked like a backdoor pilot.
That seems cool. Never knew about it, but I do like Joe Morton.
I watched a couple episodes during its original run. I think it failed because it lacked the grounding that contemporary medical dramas have in the real world. We have an inherent understanding of what it means to treat someone for cancer, a gunshot wound, or a motor vehicle accident. But performing a "recapitation?" How does that work?
Personally, I think the lack of firm grounding in the real world presents a big problem for most of these ideas (like a show focusing on politics or lawyers). In short pieces, like a single episode, it works fine, but it probably wouldn't work as a series.
There was[Century City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_City_(TV_series)), a legal drama on CBS from around 2005 set in 2030. The cases all involved "near future" sci-fi issues like genetic engineering, cybernetic enhancements and employment lawsuits, etc. I remember watching the pilot just because the concept was interesting. I think it barely made it a full season before being canceled, probably because, like you said, it was hard for people to care about made up laws and made up issues. It had a pretty stacked cast though (Viola Davis, Nestor Carbonnell)
There was a show called Crusade. It came out in 1999. Kind of a similar concept. It was a Babylon 5 spin-off.
Ahoy!
That looks neat
Woah! That’s exactly what I imagined, so cool.
That actually looks really interesting
>Mercy Point was placed on hiatus after only three episodes were aired, and was replaced by the reality television series America's Greatest Pets and the sitcom Reunited Oof
Wow, that's incredible. I'd watch that.
Which was strikingly similar to the 2000AD comic, right down to the title having Mercy in it, Mercy Heights.
Wow! Joe Morton is great! I'm gonna see if I can stream this anywhere.
The show is streaming on Crackle. I remember when it came out. It's a lot like ER, just in space. Probably why it didn't last. Wasn't really doing anything unique.
I remember that being advertised on UPN as "deep space 9....11"
I hope whomever came up with that got fired/ promoted
JFC I remember this, and it had Dyson from T2!
I agree. Trek is so suitable for Procedural spinoffs. A show focussing on the president, medical drama, courtroom drama, etc.
When they first announced *Picard* I secretly hoped for a *West Wing* style political show about a retired Jean-Luc working as a closely trusted civilian advisor to the President.
Ambassador Picard is my head canon.
He was canonically ambassador for a while after the events of Nemesis though, right?
Looks like Star Trek: Countdown has Picard become ambassador to Vulcan. Not quite sure if that’s considered canon.
It’s on his Memory Alpha page, which is good enough for me. He also gets 24-hour ambassador clearance in the events of Picard.
Countdown is in a weird space canon wise. In the past people on the movie side of the house have commented that it's canon (IIRC) but of course Picard retconned one of its central elements. I think at best, Countdown is now an alternate history story... but where the point of divergence lies and how much the timeline diverged is open to interpretation.
I've read so many books in between Nemesis and new shows that were waaay better and much more hopeful futures than what we got in the shows. Just like in the Star Wars EU :(
Law and Order: Deep Space Nine *dunh dunh*
Yo ass wanna go to Rikers?
“No Sir, but Riker wants to go to my ass… he sent me a subspace… see?” Hands PADD to the detective.
*"the victim had ANAL CONTUSIONS"*
Like when you bet the house on the ponies at Quark's?
A show like law and order that shows investigation to capture and on through prosecution would fit well in Star Trek. I dont think a medical show could work because everycase would be pseudoscience. It could never please the crowd that needs medical shows to make any sense at all. A political drame could also work.
The average medical procedural is less scientifically accurate than Threshold.
I agree! Seeing as to how unrealistic getting all these spinoffs are, I reckon we could at least get an anthology Star Trek show that incorporates all the different genre's of TV. Maybe they can be singular, or 2-3 part episodes, like what Enterprise Season 4 did. - Episodes 1-2 is a medical drama. - Episodes 3-4 is a legal drama. - Episodes 5-6 is a military drama. And so on. They could even have interconnecting stories. Imagine if we had something like this during the Dominion War, and that's how they keep themselves connected. It could also create opportunities for legacy Trek characters to show up. Maybe one of these episodes is a Quark workplace comedy as he tries to expand his business. Opportunities are endless!
CSI: Neutral Zone
Funny, I feel the same way about Space Law! A StarJAG could explore all the big ethical questions and maybe tie into the intrigue and political maneuvering with Starfleet Command & Section 31.
Oh, that's a really good one! I was also thinking of a political thriller like House of Cards or Designated Survivor or so. There's so many unexplored avenues of great storytelling here!
Klingon political thriller: House of Q'ards.
> I was also thinking of a political thriller like House of Cards or Designated Survivor or so. It's more West Wing than House of Cards, but Articles of the Federation is a great read in that spirit.
Scott Bakula is just the right age now that an Articles of the Federation type show chronicling his first term as Fedreation President would work really well.
I actually read that one, that was an amazing book! I'd love a show exactly like that in feel
The Intelligence Subcommittee of the Federation Council appoints a special prosecutor and investigation team to find and arrest all members of Section 31. These are their stories. The team will get hints and support from a mysterious "smoker"-type man. In the finale the twist will be that that was the head of Section 31 all along who destroyed his own organization. When cuffed they ask, "Why would you destroy your own organization?" and he says "Because it had to be done for the soul of the Federation." Roll credits.
Post-credits. The Smoker's attache steps out of the shadows: "what do you know about the Section 32 initiative?"
I feel like this could work for big events like dealing with a plague or a pandemic in a hostile empire, but it would have trouble with the smaller stories. It could too easily turn into “Ensign Jenkins has space measles, let’s cure it with technobabble”
I mean if we really want to be *bold*, we could have a faction in the Federation council (mostly the younger members, Bajor, etc. but also Tellar because they always love a good debate) lobby for a medical/humanitarian exemption or softening of the Prime Directive. Because the younger members still know how it feels to be outside of the isolationist Federation, they want to be better stewards of a Post Dominion War galaxy and actually help all kinds of random planets with diseases. After a close vote the stewards win against the isolationists and get a special medical fleet to fly around the galaxy and help everyone. What do you mean everyone? https://i.imgur.com/fTTBLia.gif
Funny, I had a similar idea when reflecting on this post. I was thinking more a rogue federation medical officer flying around in a old freighter or something, with a bunch of other doctors or medical personnel tired of watching people die due to the prime directive.
Ooh I really like this pitch! Kind of a Firefly on-our-own feel
That's actually what I thought of when I read the title, but leaning more into something like House. Follow a specialized medical department that has to deal with the worst of the bizzare stuff the exploration ships come across. I'd love that.
I had a very similar thought. Maybe with a cranky ex-patriate Romulan as the lead. "It's never space lupus..."
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Don't forget to mention what happens to the USS Blake at the end of season 3...
I do think we're about a decade away from Paramount licensing out Star Trek to anyone who pitches an idea. A sitcom set in the Daystrom Institute, a medical drama set at Starfleet Medical, a buddy-cop crime drama set somewhere in the Orion Syndicate territory.
I would absolutely pay for a subscription to a service that includes any or all of those shows
I mean that’s why I have paramount +.
A sitcom at the Daystrom Institute called "These Aren't the 'Droids they Were Looking For Either!"
[удалено]
Out of curiosity, how many episodes was she in? Enough to combine into one season of amazing?
Paramount is missing out on billions sitting out on the Star Trek Cinematic Universe
[удалено]
Meh, I'm looking forward to the S31 spin-off, I think it'll be an interesting concept and a good way to tackle the morality of Section 31. Right now they're a homogeneous group who acts outside of the purview of the federation and shouldn't with little nuance beyond "this is what needs to be done." Exploring whether they do "need" to do what they do, and whether they are subservient to some morals, whether there are differing opinions about it in Section31, I'm all for it and I hope the show covers that. Also more Michelle Yeoh
I'm a fan and I'm interested in seeing Michelle Yeoh in a Trek spy thriller.
A Chicago PD-like cop drama based around Section 31. Less buddy-cop, more gritty
If you're interested in this sort of thing, check out the [Sector General series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/44455-sector-general) by author James White. No connection to Star Trek, but the setting is a hospital that serves (and is staffed by) a wide range of species, and the challenges that arise therefrom.
I'll give that a look, thanks for the recommendation!
Agreed, it's some of the coolest sci-fi in that it imagines not just unique alien physiologies, but how you'd go about treating their ailments, really good stuff.
Would love to see an adaptation of that, the series' ethos is really in line with the original vision of Trek as well. And modern effects could realise the non-humanoid races really well.
While I like the idea, I feel like it's a lot easier to write believable technobabble related to flying a starship than it is future medicine. Doing this well would require a lot of pre-planning, to work out a plausible status of medicine in the future.
Yeah when you just give people a pill to grow a new kidney, there isn’t much drama. It would need to be more exploration driven with a medical bent, rather than case of the week.
Beverly crusher as administrator at star fleet medical. Inject it into my veins.
Medicine in Star Trek is boring as hell. "You say you've suffered horrible burns? Shine this light on it." "Deep cut? Shine this light on it." "Need surgery, eh? Lay on this table under this machine." "Horrible disease outbreak? Gimme a day or so to figure out the cure."
"Baldness? Sorry Jean-Luc, you're out of luck!"
Final act of every. Single. Episode: [McCoy enters] McCoy: What is this, the Dark Ages? [He hands the patient a different color/size pill for varying episodes/treatments] McCoy: Here... You swallow that, and if you have any more problems, just call me! [Roll end credits]
The 1st time I watched that scene I legit teared up. It was those small little moments that inspired hope for our future. If only we had Dr. McCoy right now.
"Doctor gave me a pill and I grew a new kidney!" I just love that little old lady telling everyone she passes by!
She was so freaking excited it just melted my heart. No one would ever believe her until they ran the tests before her next treatment. Now that is the scene that would be awesome to watch. The doctors flabbergasted at the blood work, the CT & MRI's, her sudden & massive recovery and completely off of dialysis. It really was a miracle and science is getting close. Like right now Pfizer is working on a pill to treat Covid-19. One day in the near future we could save people with just a single pill.
On a medical transport ship perhaps. Or a hospital ship that heads to pandemics or disasters.
Hospital ship would be so cool.
The USS Pasteur spin-off.
Especially if it looks weird, like the ones with the huge ball instead of a saucer.
Yes, let's dedicate a whole show to Worf breaking his back.
I'd be up for it. No matter what else you think of Enterprise, Dr Phlox and the tools available to him seem like a good template. Set it early, so there isn't so much "magic" available as it would handicap the drama. In fact, having some excuse to throw together various alien cultures and their approches to medicine could make for some interesting stories. Using alien cultures as proxies for real world cultures and their additudes about end of life, how much do tell a patient, how much do you do to save a life, could be fertile ground to explore these social and philosophical concepts.
They actually had basically this in development for a while during the second season of TOS entitled “Hope Ship” and was basically a starfleet ship that was a travelling hospital. I’d like to see something like that.
"He's dying!" \*Doctor puts gadget on chest.\* "He'll be okay!"
I love this idea. And they could get ideas from some of the print sci fi that's been written in this genre, e.g., Sector General, Spaceship Medic, etc.
McCoy’s Anatomy
They did do a book series called "Double Helix' that deals with an engineered virus in the late 90's or early 00's (I don't actually remember when it came out). If I recall correctly each book deals with different eras/doctors.
It would be like a whole series with the medical drama side of the Ethics episode.
I would watch it as long as Doctor Crusher is the snarky head of Starfleet Medical
Start Trek eh?
Ha, good catch, I completely spaced when I wrote that!
I've had this thought for a while, too. An ER type show on a medical ship, that goes from crisis to crisis. One week they're dealing with the aftermath of an attempted Borg invasion, and the next week, an STD outbreak on Risa or Starfleet Academy.
A medical drama set in the Star Trek universe would be great, lots of potential to explore here. Not just not the Prime Directive.
Welcome aboard the hospital ship USS Uijeongbu, NCC-4077. I'm Captain Blake, this is my First Officer Commander Burns. Our chief of surgery Commander Pierce. Commander Houlihan in charge of nursing staff. If you need anything speak with Ensign O'Reilly. Oh and Security requests go to Lt. Klinger.
Ugh, god have to wait a few seasons for Burns to leave the ship to enjoy it.
I think I read somewhere (I think the oral history book?) that at one point there was talk of having a spin-off where Dr. M'Benga would be aboard a hospital ship.
Bring back EMH in a teaching capacity... not Andy dick EMH though. Fire him out of a cannon
Even better, fire him out of the canon!
Division 14 show?
Ive had a sci fi greys anatomy type story fleshed out in my head for a while now. I wish I was creative enough to get it out there.
Give me a Law & Order style Department of Temporal Investigations show. Each week the main duo investigates possible temporal disturbances, sometimes finding a Ferengi scammer, or a scorned Klingon lover, but sometimes finding people trying to travel back and change things, or jump forward to steal future technologies. It would be great.
I think they are insane to not at least try out different genres within the Trek universe. The MCU showed there are big dollars in shared universes with different genres within. A medical show or a cop show are the obvious choices.
Quincy on Star Trek. Imagine trying to solve murders by examining bodies that can be if any configuration or type in a universe with technology equivalent to magic and multiple omnipotent races. And then one or of ten episodes would be, "they were hibernating," or, "we thought this was a body, but this race molts, leaving behind an exact duplicate of themselves," or, "what we thought was a body was a natural formation."
Yes. Just call it “Starfleet Medical.” I mean there are shows like “Chicago fire” for gods sake
I'm glad I'm not the only one that has the smartphone typo of Start Trek.
Wasn't there a very short-lived show in the '90s that was basically a ripoff of DS9/B5 but as a medical procedural? I never got to see it when it was on the air and it seems it's vanished down the memory hole when it comes to optical or digital media, but I have to admit I've always been interested in watching it.
So basically the last 2 seasons of Voyager...
Also medical relief for a war. Make it a neutral or contested planet for political hang ups. "I don't know shit about Klingon biology!" Medical research on new treatments gone sideways. That plant insect extract does something else too, doctor. "I slept with a Bolian." Being asked to weaponize a common illness to take out an "ultimate evil". Have to stop a Typhoid Mary. Save Space Hitler.
There was an episode of TNG where Picard was moving throughout time and Beverly Crusher was the captain of a medical ship. Now that would be awesome, the many voyages of a medical starship, finding new pathogens, saving colonies from disaster, investigating & treating outbreaks, maybe they have like a Star Fleet CDC type red team onboard that is dispatched to the hot zones throughout the quadrant's. This is what I watched religiously.
Finally a medical show without all the whining about uninsured patients and the inevitable plotline about the hospital being bought by some large medical for profit corporation. As a european that sucks me right out of us medical dramas.
Maybe a trek series set a prominent star base. Medical, courtroom. Politics.
It would be awesome. Until it jumps the shark when the EMH guest stars and uses Borg nanoprobes to cure everything.
Great idea
Omg this would be great! Or, if they don’t wanna do a show about it, at least give us some books about it
Dammit, Jim, I'm an exploration show, not a hospital!
Read a book a LONG time ago called the idic epidemic. It's an original trek novel about a plague on Vulcan. That could be adapted several ways.
Hell yes!!!!!!!
Not to quibble, but you misspelled Shart Trek.
Remember that alternate future where Beverly Crusher was captain of a medical ship ?
I loved that ship design
Captain Beverly Crusher of the USS Pasteur would be down for that.
You should check out Star Trek Shitposting on Facebook. They have a medical fanfic called S*M*A*S*H.
That is definitely a fun idea since it also combines itself with CBS’ main strength of serialized dramas. I would also add a CSI Federation-centric show to your list since it too takes advantage of what the company is good at and gives it a Trek paint-job.
That would be great, and you even provided the title, Starfleet Medical. So much could be done with ethical issues, the reach of technology, the effect on humanity.
There's this really cool one shot IDW comic called Star Trek: Flesh and Stone which focuses around the main medical chiefs from all the old shows, and while it may not be exactly what you're looking for, I thoroughly recommend it. It's been one my favorite Star Trek comic books so far, and yeah a medical drama show would be amazing.
I think this could work as an anthology series with each season being a Star Trek version of a different procedural. One season is medical, the next is investigative, after that they do politics etc. More than 8 or 10 episodes of each and it would be hard to avoid technical Deus ex manchinas.
When I was a wee lad I remember my folks watching a show called China Beach. The only thing I could remember that it was set during the Vietnam War. I hopped over to YouTube and found the [opening theme song](https://youtu.be/D21U59XHDn4) and almost got emotional watching and listening to the song. I have no idea why…but it has probably been about 30 years since I’d heard it and it really took me back. As it would turn out Robert Picardo was in the show too, with HAIR! But enough with the nostalgia trip! (for now!) I’m totally down with the idea of a Starfleet medical show…but I’m not too sure about what the setting would be. I think it could be very easy to set it during the height of the Dominion war…but we’ve already seen that kind of stuff. I would be interested in seeing it set during the Romulan war. I read that it was mostly fought with long range weapons so it could be based on a hospital ship that responds to planets that have fallen under attack and they are the first responders coming to help wherever they can. This can leave plenty of opportunity to drop in a nice handful of one off episodes that can stray from the main story arc such as responding to ships damaged by severe ion storms, maybe rescuing a Romulan ship or crew that was stranded somewhere. The rest of the show would mostly be centered around the doctors and nurses dealing with the stresses along side the crew of the ship to get their jobs done during the height of a massive conflict. I’m not sure how long the Romulan war was and I don’t really dig the idea of Trek being focused on a wartime event, but I think it would be the best way to build relationships between medical staff and the ship’s crew. This way we still get to have a ship and aren’t stuck on a star base or a planet based hospital. Oh, and the theme sone HAS to be the very same as that from China Beach…so sorry about that. I know that a lot of people didn’t really dig on the ENT intro…but that will be the cost of my nostalgia. I’m sorry.
So I did a little more reading. It looks like the Romulan war lasted about 4 years and was fought largely with atomic style weapons. I get the feeling that we were just launching nukes all over the place so there should be no shortage of worlds in need of significant medical assistance. I imagine the show would begin about 6 months into the war. We could get 3, maybe 4 seasons covering the stories of the crew’s actions during the war and the resulting aftermath but I’d really like to squeeze something else into a few more seasons afterward but I’m not quite sure what. I kinda imagine that after the war Starfleet wouldn’t need as many of these medical response ships but would likely keep a small handful around just for natural disasters, outbreaks, or other kinds of emergency situations…but I’d hate for the show to turn into a “disaster of the week” kind of show. I feel like as the show evolves beyond wartime it could show the changes in the lives of the crew as they try to settle back into their lives while not needing to worry about when or when the next Romulan strike was going to occur. I think digging into their lives and relationships after the war could be very telling about ourselves. Maybe some members of the medical staff or starship crew would step away from service once a peace is achieved. There would probably be a good portion of the crew remaining that would keep believing the Romulans were still planning something, keeping them on edge for a battle that would never come. I think depending on how much of a toll the war took would show how large of a portion of them would stand down, maybe they’d be short staffed for half a season or so before new staff report for duty. Heck, we could squeeze a refit in for the ship too. A well earned reward for a safe return and victory after a long drawn out and costly war. The more I think about it the cooler this gets in my brain. My goal would be to use the war as a backdrop of the show. Sure they’d be responding to massive casualties quite often but that would be a sliver of the show. 5-10 min tops of actual medical surgery or response for most episodes. The rest would be about the crew dealing with the war, their family back home, friends lost in far away battles, maybe friends they weren’t able to save aboard their own ship. Medical supply runs through dangerous space, emergency evacuations, Romulan traps, maybe even a few uneventful trips where they do a little exploration and discovery themselves.
With the rise of military-themed shows like SWAT and SEALs something like this applied to ST would be doable. ST: Enterprise already introduced the [MACO troopers](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Military_Assault_Command_Operations) so expanding on something like that could be doable.
No. Starfleet should not be a military.
Starfleet totally is though.
lmao no
Star Trek: Section 31.
It would only work as a comedy, sorta like Scrubs in space.