Welcome to the third part of The Search For Story, a series of articles where we’ll take a character, group, species, timeline, or event and look at what that might look like as a standalone series, miniseries or movie.
We’ve already covered 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, and Starfleet Archives, a comedy series featuring Reginald Barclay working with a team of misfits in the Starfleet Archives department.
So far we’ve had some great feedback on both, one definitely worth mentioning again was Michael P. on Facebook who pointed out the awesome potential for cameos and crossovers in Starfleet Archives using holodeck recreations of famous starfleet officers and missions, we know that Barclay is a fan of recreating things on the holodeck, so this would be a key selling point and allow us to see other characters acting in a comedy setting without breaking canon.
This week we’re going to have a little change of pace as we look at a spy thriller movie franchise.
Title: Birth of the Federation
Inspiration: Spy Game, The Bourne Series, Star Trek Enterprise
Setting: Alpha Quadrant, in the year 2161.
It’s seven days before Jonathan Archer and the founding members of the United Federation of Planets sign the Federation charter, Earth is buzzing with activity as Captain Archer and the crew of Enterprise are en route to earth for the signing and decommissioning of the flagship after ten years of service.
Of course we know from ‘These are the Voyages’ that while they are in transit Archer will meet Shran who was believed to have been killed some time earlier and help him in retrieving his kidnapped daughter. But this wasn’t the only threat to the Birth of the Federation, as Starfleet Intelligence officer Charlie Collins happens upon a plot to assassinate the signatories during the signing ceremony.
Charlie quickly learns that this plot has in fact come from within Section 31 and is being supported by several misguided and xenophobic members of Starfleet Command. With Starfleet Command compromised and the Enterprise delayed in returning to Earth Charlie has nowhere to turn for help and must unravel the plot and save the signatories before section 31 succeeds in stopping the Birth of the Federation.
Naturally we know the signing goes forward, its canon, but this can serve as the launching point for a sort of Jack Ryan character within the Star Trek universe, moving past the fallout to the events of Birth of the Federation Charlie would no doubt be high on the recruiting list for the remnants of Section 31 leading to further adventures.
We all know section 31 has insane resources and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, I would love to see this used to follow Charlie from hero through several movies as he became a somewhat darker character and progressed further into Section 31.
Would you be interested in this series? What would you do differently?
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