Welcome to the second part of The Search For Story, a series of articles where we’ll take a character, group, species, timeline, or event and examine what that might look like as a standalone series, miniseries or movie.
Last week we talked about Star Trek Galaxy, a Story set in the 32nd century when the Milky Way Galaxy comes under attack from forces beyond the great barrier and the Aging Enterprise NCC-1701-V is sent to discover the cause.
This week we’ll be looking at a far more light-hearted series that features a fan favourite character who’s returning as the lead in his own spin-off.
Title: Starfleet Archives
Inspiration: Warehouse 13, The Office
Setting: Late 24th Century
With the success of the Pathfinders program and the return of Voyager Lieutenant Reginald Barclay was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and given his choice of assignments. Tired of the issues he’d had with rogue holograms, the pressure of working around the admiralty in San Francisco and the inherent dangers of the flagship Lieutenant Commander Barclay made the only choice he thought right and transferred to the Starfleet Archives in London.
The archives are a relatively small operation, it’s quiet and doesn’t offer much in the way of prestige for its officers, exactly the reason Barclay took the job to begin with. But as he soon finds out not everything is as it seems.
Upon arriving at the office for the first time Barclay finds out that not only is the entire team made up of brilliant but socially awkward misfits, who barely manage to work together, but he will be the senior officer.
Naturally hijinks ensue as he takes his first command and tries to bring his team together.
Obviously this is a comedy series with the potential for mystery, drama and even adventure as some items in the archives may eventually lead to holodeck recreations or even away missions.
While on paper Barclay may seem like an odd choice for command you have to admit he’d actually probably be a pretty good boss, we’ve certainly seen flashes of brilliance from him and while he’d likely fumble from the start his heart would be in the right place.
In many ways Reg Barclay is one of the deepest characters in Star Trek, played to perfection by Dwight Schultz through The Next Generation, First Contact and Voyager, the character in many ways represents the fears we all have, if a little more subtly than Reg displays them.
With a well-rounded beloved character in the lead, the option for cameos or recurring roles for characters from previous series and a well-selected crew of misfits Starfleet Archives could be a great series.
Would you be interested in this series? What would you do differently?
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