Sfdebris.net

Would anyone want a detective and court room drama in the star trek universe as a show

Honestly? I am not sure.
When you hear the premise of a half cop show to catch a criminal, then a half courtroom scene to try the one the police caught. It does not sound entertaining. Yet I love most of the original Law and Order. Practically all with Lenny Briscoe was gold.
The same goes for that JAG spinoff NCIS. On paper it sounds terrible and will only last a season.

So by just the pitch? No. But I suppose if you brought in a good memorable cast and had good writers it would be pretty good.

That is fair, maybe it should be one or another.

It depends. All the usual caveats in place, I would not object to it on principle. There's a lot Trek could do in that genre which has been unexplored.

Star Trek has done many-many court room shows.

But I admit I'd want it to be done primarily to offend people who love harsh court room shows.

----

Judge: The prisoner has attempted to overthrow the Federation, used cadets in acts of terrorism, and tried to blow up the Defiant. How does the defendent plead?

Admiral Leyton: Guilty, your honor.

Judge: You are sentenced to five years probation and only one cup of pudding every night.

Audience: [gasps at the severity of the punishment]

Honestly it could work.

You have a team traveling planet to planet using Federation laws which also would include native laws or restrictions. Then go to a world where there is no Federation law but got to defend a Federation citizen.

In a way, they would explore strange worlds.

Maybe law and order style or aesthetic but I'd like to it be about first contacts.

I can almost see a scene now.
"The defendant is guilty of violating the Prime Directive and has admitted to stopping the asteroid on a collision course with a barely industrial society."
"Counselor, that was never in dispute. But that asteroid was hit by a Romulan shuttle fleeing a border inspection. That was not natural."
"But it is not our place to interfere in the grand plan of the cosmos."
"What do you want counselor? Us to launch another asteroid at the planet and make sure the populous dies?"

I think the biggest problem with any futuristic police/crime drama is the level of futuristic technology available to the futuristic police/forensics/prosecutors/judges/lawyers as well as the composition of the legal system in which they operate.

Think about it: back in the 1960s when the TOS aired, while security cameras were already thing, it was only in the late 60s when they were starting to get used to surveillance important places and only in the 80s and 90s that the technology became mature enough to be used cheaply also by the common folk. And let's not even talk about the image resolution, even today many places still use shitty low-resolution cameras, which are often not good enough to be used in investigations. Fingerprinting was first used in 1892, but it wasn't until 1920s that it became widely accepted in forensics. DNA profiling was first used in forensics in 1986, that's barely 3 decades ago, TNG would only air next year. Each method used has its own advantages and drawbacks, but it's not hard to see how over time each method changed not only the science of forensics but also the world around.

Any futuristic show centered around any hypothetical advances in forensics must either keep them simple enough so that people don't get too confused or go full magic, at which one has to ask why even bother with other types of forensics (see the bullshit "Romulan molecular reconstruction forensics" from PIC, which apparently can show only fragments from a certain time frame, but conveniently not from later, because radiation or something). Basically forensics is good only if the plot says so. Basically lazy writing. Yes, the science in CSI is mostly bullshit in many regards as well, but at least it's not 100% bullshit, sometimes they get things right.

And don't get me even started on how the futuristic legal system is supposed to operate.
Did you know that USA is the only country that still uses mainly a jury trial? While there are still many countries that still have jury trials, their composition generally differs from the American version and many countries have slowly started to rely less on said triel system. Most countries around the globe don't use jury trials at all, only bench trials. And yet when people think of procedural shows, the jury trial is always there. Why would a futuristic Federation where all the countries in world are united in one organism accept to use an outdated legal system that was only used by one country at one point in history and a few more at best? Sure, you need to make the show for the American audiences first, but that's stupid, that's like having the rest of the United States bring back the death penalty, because 13 US states still use the death penalty.