Star Trek should continue the Original Series concept with the Strange New World crew

Star Trek: The Original Series left a lot of meat on the bone. The show was envisioned, more or less, as a five-season affair. The whole concept of the show was that the U.S.S. Enterprise was exploring space on a five-year mission. The show would get three seasons, with established lore bringing the mission to a close about a year before it was supposed to.

The cancelation after season likely two hastened series creator Gene Roddenberry to tell the whole story. He rushed from the third year at the end of the second season to the end of the fourth year for the revival third season. There is still meat on this bone that can be further explored. While the Animated Series did try and tell some more of the story, there are doubts and conflicting opinions on the show's canon.

A new version of the original series could help fix that. Not only that but it would give new and old fans a chance to catch up with and see more of our favorite characters that helped start the whole thing.

The show has already given us the building blocks for the needed cast. We have Paul Wesley as James Kirk, Ethan Peck as Spock, Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura, Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel, and more recently Martin Quinn as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. We just need our Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov, and Leonard "Bones" McCoy.

Now there is admittedly going to be pushback for this. The original show is iconic and the stars that brought the show to life are larger than life. It's impossible to replace them, but it's also important to remember that they've already seen their characters recast once before. The Kelvin Timeline series of films already did what we're proposing, but not as well and often with tons of issues.

They're mostly good films if nothing like Star Trek at all, but enjoyable nonetheless. Yet we're not talking about continuing with an alternate universe. We're talking about finishing the story, so to speak. So we expect pushback. That said, fans already did this exact task with the non-canon "Star Trek Continues" and no one tried to burn down the franchise over that.

So why not an official completion of the original story, but with the Strange New Worlds actors? There are legs to this idea and one that would seriously entice fans old and new. Especially if everyone who appears in the new continuation of the old Star Trek show is introduced in Strange New Worlds.

If that happens, this could be a genuine hit. However, you're asking the creators of said show to be able to walk a tightrope that they may not be up for.