Where in time do you start a Star Trek: The Next Generation Kelvin film franchise?

At what point in the Star Trek: The Next Generation story should a Kelvin Timeline film start at?

Star Trek kicked off a successful-ish line of films in 2009 with Star Trek (2009). It retold the story of the original crew of the Enterprise, but with different actors, new adventures, and different circumstances. All fine and good, reboots happen, not the worst thing ever.

The film franchise was set in a different universe, dubbed by fans the Kevlin Timeline, due to the film starting on the USS Kelvin at the very point that James Kirk is born. It set off the entire series of films and was the focal point of Kirks’ entire arc.

Since Star Trek created the Kelvin Timeline, fans have long thought about what a film series set around The Next Generation would look like. I’ve thought about it too, quite a bit fact, and while I don’t have any ideas on what actors would play who, I do have a point in time that I think would be fascinating to jump right into.

Though fans may either love it or hate it.

This two-part episode would be the perfect story to start the Next Generation Kelvin series with

Should Star Trek ever dabble again in the re-boot area of the universe with The Next Generation crew, I think a fascinating thing to explore would be the USS Enterprise-D during the events of The Best of Both Worlds, but from the perspective of William Riker as captain, having just killed the assimilated Jean-Luc Picard.

In the original airing of the two-part episode, the ending of Part 1 was specifically written to write off Patrick Stewart should he opt not to return to the series. The series would’ve continued on with Riker as the main character, dealing with the loss of his captain and learning to be a leader during a time of conflict against The Borg.

This would be a wonderful opportunity to run that idea back and do a “What If…” style story of Riker as the head of the Enterprise, dealing with Picard’s assimilation and ultimate conflict with him as the now-named Locutus of Borg.

The ending of the film would see Riker, now the captain of the Enterprise-D, leading the remake cast into a new generation, but with Picard haunting Riker’s dreams. Maybe you can even make this Picard into a hologram that Riker creates to help deal with his guilt over killing his mentor.

If they did this idea and explored the rabbit hole of what happened if Picard did die in that two-parter, then I would be instantly on board for it.