Recently you saw me set out the
10 Rules The New Star Trek Show Must Follow, and now I'm going to suggest who I think could be brought back in that series. We've all got our ideas about who should be in the new Star Trek series, when it gets made (because let's be honest, the franchise makes too much money in the cinema for CBS to continue to avoid creating a new television show). Even the likes of Rolling Stone magazine have suggested that the show returns to its TV roots with a new series featuring the crew of The Next Generation using the same actors no less. But really, if you're going to go that route then why stop at only using those characters? In the same time period you have the characters from both Deep Space Nine and Voyager all of whom would be the perfect age now to play their characters if you set the new series some twelve years after the USS Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. In fact, the only thing we know canon-wise about those characters is that Kathryn Janeway is now an Admiral. These time periods have been covered by the relaunch series of Deep Space Nine and Voyager. There has been some interesting plot points, but the new series shouldn't feel tied to any of them. In fact some, like the death of the Borg, I'd deliberately avoid repeating in the series. This would be similar to what happened with Doctor Who when it had the Virgin New Adventures following the 7th Doctor. You also have the problem of Star Trek: Online, which while it has some great ideas such as the Undine and the gently simmering threat of the Iconians it is likely that any new television series will want to strike out on its own and probably undermine all the plot-lines in STO. But which characters could feasibly transfer to a new series? Would the actors want to return, and furthermore what could we do with them once they're in the show?
Close runners up for the top ten include:
Porthos Because we all know that he's secretly a scout from an immortal alien species that has been observing humanity for centuries in the guise of a Beagle. Sneaky, right? What? That isn't canon? But how else could the dog get a mention in Abram's first Star Trek film?
Molly O'Brien/Kirayoshi O'Brien/Naomi Wildman/Miral Paris The kids from Deep Space Nine and Voyager. They're so young in those series that they would be fairly easy to write into any new show post Voyager. Although I'm not sure Scarlett Pomer's face is improved by glueing four Hershey's kisses to her forehead.