What changes would you make to Star Trek Discovery?

[Nobody700]

Given Star Trek discovery has ended, I think it's time we can ask ourselves... what do you wish the show did differently? Now I won't and cannot sit here and pretend that every idea I have would have been loved. I'll also ask we make things simple and try to stick to what we have of the show as is, consider they lay the show out as is, and ask us to change what we can without changing eveything. I'll more than accept that! Now, let's see what we can do with the show with what I'll make, 10 changes.

1. Have the show set 80 years after TNG. Yes, I said that, let's do it. No more prequel stuff, we got better things to do than that. Set it 80 years after TNG, have the BALLS to go where no man has gone before, not where we were once. 'Ahh but what about strange new worlds' we can always do that with time travel. The Federation is a different place after the Dominion War, the Borg invasions, Voyager coming back with thousands of files on Delta quadrant tech, and future tech. With it, the Federation has leaped more than a century in tech... but has become almost isolationist, accepting only 5 planets since the end of Voyager. That way, we can focus on how the Federation must become a discovery again, and that's why, we have the effects of Discovery happen.

2. Michael is no longer the sister of Spock... but a time traveler from the 31st century, who has come to prevent something she knows. The Burn. Something that will wipe out the Alpha Quadrant civilizations, and she'll do what she must to save them. As a lady from the future, she's used to living it rougher and harder, but has never been an explorerer. On Discovery, she focuses on the Burn, but finds discovery in and of itself is AMAZING, and so is our view point character in how exciting the world can be. Thus as she is now a part of the ship, thanks to the commands of the Captain of the Enterprise, Georgiou, who wants her to work on the most advanced scientific ship in the entire Federation, the Discovery, to find out what caused the Burn. What should be a journey just on that becomes a true discovery for the crew where they go from cold scientists... to explorers once again, and who want to discover more and more not for the benefits, but the fun!

3. Lorca is not a villain. Still from the Mirror Universe, he escaped it and met a dying Lorca, taking his place and now tries to hide his dark past as he now lives in comfort. In the Mirror universe, he was a general for the failing New Terran Empire, but now as captain of a highly prized ship second only to the Enterprise, he's rather happy and more than ready to stay in power. With no fears of daggers in his back, his only worry is the Burn. Thus Lorca will do just about anything to make sure his perfect paradise stays as is, but finds given the crew is changing, so is he. A man who was born in hell, found heaven, and now discovers that he's been changed by Heaven itself. This adds a dynamic where while Michael wants to stop the Burn because it's the right thing, he does it because it's the common sense thing, and you can see how different it is between them.

4. The spore drive is evil. It's not what causes the Burn cause... ignore all the multiverse destroy reality stuff, but instead it's a method Stamets thinks can cause warp drive without going through the old system, and is far smaller and easier to work with than an engine. But the spore drive, being a living organism, wishes to grow. Thus, it kills Stamets and turns him into an organism that serves it, as the fake Stamets now tries to change the Crew and ignores the Burn coming, not able to think about anything but the growth of the network. The Spore drive is an example of how bad the Federation has become, aimless in everything and just working on internal issues, ignoring external. Thus it's, while not the Burn, is really the sign of the worst problems of the Federation.

5. Klingons aren't the bad guys, but Klingon warlords are. After Martok has become the chancellor, he has heavily changed the Klingon society. Klingon society has become far more moral and better, but that left many in the warrior caste wishing for ages of old they don't even know, so now they go off across the Alpha Quadrant, asking as non state warlords. Given many of the Klingons now wish to battle everyone, they come across Discovery and finding out how it's a super scientific ship, wish to take it and gain the tech from it to retake 'Klingon destiny' from the sons of Martok. This of course leads to a foe to the Discovery crew, The Enterprise who must battle them, and how Klingon society has left this kind of nature behind and are getting closer and closer to becoming a part of the Federation itself.

6. Give more focus on the side crew. I don't just mean Tilly, Saru, and Culver, or even Reno. I mean the rest of the crew can do a bit more. Focus more on Tilly being a nervous super genius who could be one of the best people in the Federation, but is scared of even talking to a single ensign. Saru is a great first mate but comes from a people he's... ashamed of, and who he wishes could get past their nature and be better and finally reach warp drive, and will do anything he wants to help them. Culver is a doctor of high morals who finds his husband is a changed man and worries, Reno is the head engineer who also is disturbed by how Stamets has been changed. You also have the rest of the crew who can have their own side stuff, work with each other, maybe even their own episode. One of them is a robot lady like Data, focus on that! One lady has become a cyborg, how has she changed? One man is in a wheelchair in a ship without ramps... or a seatbelt, focus on that! His battle against the Federation banning OSHA would be great!

7. Georgiou. Georgiou is a great character from an amazing actress, have her play more of a role. Not the emperor, screw the emperor, but as an example of what the Federation no longer is. She could be a Kirk or a Picard but instead, she's just 'a centurion trolling the borders of the Federation'. Georgiou is a protective ally to Discovery and is focused on changing the Federation, thanks to what Michael has said. Michael is the best kind of ally to her cause to making the Federation better and while Discovery is on the travel to better the Federation, Georgiou is the deal maker and ambassador, even working with the Federation leaders and Starfleet admirals to just become the Starfleet of old her grandmother would tell her about. A strong powerful leader who is shackled by the Federation losing its morals, and her path to fight against that to make the quadrant a better place.

8. GET RID OF ALL THE BLUE! OTHER COLORS EXIST!

9. One off episodes. Keep them around, we don't need 13 episode long arcs, it's okay to have an episode about a planet of the week, or a wacky new science space thing. It's OKAY to do that! It helps to make the stakes higher and prevent everything being universe ending problems! Plus, we love these kind of things. What killed Voyager was a lack of arc, but we still loved a couple episodes that had nothing to do with going home! Arcs exist, but sometimes not focusing on the arc helps.

10. The Burn, itself. Keep it destroying warp, that it is COMING, no one knows anything about it but what it did... but remove the explanation. That was STUPID! Instead, make it the Federations fault! The Burn... IS OMEGA! Yes, the Federation tried to harness The Omega Particle to make themselves stronger in case of a future Romulan war, and so, destroyed everything. Instead of peace or work on that, it was military application that killed them! A strong anti war message in a series that that reminds we didn't defeat the Klingons, we made peace with them. We didn't defeat the Dominion, we made peace with them! Our greatest weapons aren't phasers or torpedoes, but a hand in friendship. Kirk didn't kill the Gorn, and thus, we proved our place in the stars. Star Trek isn't Star Wars, it's TREK, and when you trek... you meet people and learn from them.

I know these changes may not be liked or considered light. It's just some stuff I think would be nice to start the conversation. I'd love to hear what you guys would bring in more!

[CharlesPhipps]

No offense but doesn't that fall under, "In no way shape or form does it resemble Star Trek: Discovery?"

I always feel like you "lose" these games if you make something unrecognizable from the original.

[TGLS]

I'd have kept it an anthology show and focused on "Burnham the Mutineer, who started the conflict with the Klingons". That season would have ended with Burnham dying. Burnham would also not have been Sarek's secret daughter, but raised by some other Vulcan.

[Nobody700]

No offense but doesn't that fall under, "In no way shape or form does it resemble Star Trek: Discovery?"

I always feel like you "lose" these games if you make something unrecognizable from the original.

It's still a lot like Discovery on the ship, crew, Spore drive, character backgrounds for the most part, it's just changing time, Michael's backstory but not her character, and focuses more on what makes Star Trek great vs just a bunch of techno explosions

[Lazerlike42]

No offense but doesn't that fall under, "In no way shape or form does it resemble Star Trek: Discovery?"

I always feel like you "lose" these games if you make something unrecognizable from the original.

I think this depends on an individual's perspective on the original. If someone thought the original was good or at least the right idea with flaws then changing it to something unrecognizable might "lose" the game as it were. If someone thinks an original is terrible, then I think it makes sense to suggest changes making it into something much further from the source.

Although sometimes, perhaps, unrecognizable is not necessary. To me, Discovery is really pretty awful but the fundamental problem was making it a prequel so changing that alone goes a long way to fixing it without totally changing the rest of the series.

They wanted to do all sorts of new story elements that very, very different from everything else that's already been established in the franchise and for some reason I can't fathom decided to do this by making a prequel. It means that half the time they were without a care wreaking havoc on the established continuity and lore - something which not everybody cares about but let's face it that Star Trek fans are by and large people who do care about this stuff - and the other half the time they decided that they wanted to preserve existing continuity and lore so they wound up being forced to do a lot of convoluted things that don't make sense to accomplish that.

I'm not saying I still like everything else they did in the series, but if from the beginning it was taking place after established continuity the whole thing would have flowed a lot more smoothly and made a lot more sense.

[Nealithi]

80 years after TNG would eliminate most of my issues with Discovery. No secret special FTL way better than warp that they swept under the rug because prequel. This is the Federation working on something new.
Michael raised by a vulcan instead of Sarek keeps this from feeling like a bad fan fic. I rather like the klingons with the mausoleum ship. As noted Spock in Voyage home notes a 'klingon mummification glyph'. But Worf goes on about how little care there is for the body. Let the klingons have more than one religion. Michael using vulcan logic treats this faction of klingons in a way that should be perceived properly by them. But causes the war.
Lorca brings her aboard because he does not see her as a lost cause. Lose the bit where everyone from the Mirror universe is used to less light because the mirror universe is literally darker. Lorca was sent to this universe to steal more Federation tech. But finds he likes the earned respect of his counterpart, and how those under him will fight and die for him out of loyalty not fear. So he feels a growing sense of loyalty back to them as well.

This keeps the major plot points while ironing out some bits that rubbed the wrong way.

[CharlesPhipps]

I think DISCO was shit the moment it left Prequel-Land but I actually CARED about:

* A Klingon-Federation war
* Sarek and Michael's relationship

The big changes I would make are:

Season One:

* Michael is Sarek's student not his daughter, though they have a clear father-daughter relationship
* Have the Klingon War revealed to be solely House T'Kuvma and the realization the Federation never actually faced the full might of the Klingon Empire.
* Don't have Lorca turn out to be a secret Mirror Universe guy but just a Federation citizen broken by actual war.
* The spore drive is too central to remove but make it so its a special fuel that harnesses an extra-dimension that allows people to jump around much of the Alpha Quadrant but not the galaxy. The fuel and damage this causes is killing the Fungus people and that's why the Federation abandons it. It's a season one only thing.
* Use classic Klingon looks.

Season Two:

* Michael's mother is revealed to be a Rogue Time agent from the 30th century, tying this all together.
* Michael's mother was trying to alter Federation history to stop the Burn by introducing new Technology and other things that explain the updated visuals.
* She left Michael with Sarek because she hoped his influence would shape her daughter into someone who could be useful to her crusade.
* Michael realizes that she and the DISCO are affecting the future and have to leave the timeline to stop destabilizing it.
* Section 31 isn't the group that is behind all this but an entirely new group of Starfleet built for the Klingon War.
* CONTROL isn't genocidal but plans to take over the Federation and manipulate it behind the scenes and it's a fight for human freedom.

Season Three:

* Any other origin for the Burn.

[McAvoy]

1.) No spore drive. Warp drive in itself fantastical as it is anyway. Maybe if you want, make it one of the fastest ships in the fleet. New style warp core, nacelles etc. Whatever.

2.) By extension to above, no mirror universe at all. That was a diversion IMO not needed. Focus on the time period and what you are trying to do. You made the series before TOS, well then do that.

3.) Klingons. Make the Klingons facing off against Starfleet a sect, a religious one if needed. Make it one of the most powerful houses if you need to. Maybe make the Discovery using Michael's training who understands Klingons be part of a season long arc to get Starfleet to not only understand the Klingons but also to end the war through other houses.

4.) Michael. Trained by a Vulcan not named Sarek. Teruk. There you go. She has a great understanding of cultural differences and how they can be used for the greater good/advantage. She has hobbies not involving Starfleet.

5.) Stand alone episodes that gives us information on the crew. Even the secondary characters.

6.) Michael never becomes captain until the end of the series. Her relationship with Saru works better this way.

7.) Reno. Only because I like her and she reminds me off certain people that I work with. That the only thing I would change is add a handful of scenes while answering a question. Like 'Yeah I did this when I worked a tug to pay off a debt I owed that one time and I learned how to do it this way to get it done faster.' Just more scenes to keep up the mystery of her past. But not too much.