Star Trek : Federation Star Trek : Federation was an undeveloped " Star Trek " spin - off to be produced by Bryan Singer . Set in the year 3000 , the show was to chronicle a period of decline and rebirth for the United Federation of Planets , spearheaded by a crew on a new USS " Enterprise " . Premise . " " Utopia as a goal is like the fire in a nuclear engine . Utopia in practice is stagnation ; it ' s dry rot ; eventually it ' s death . Which is precisely where we find the United Federation of Planets a few centuries after the last Age of Discovery . " " Human ity has become complacent , and many worlds have left the Federation because of its Human - centric nature . Starfleet is stretched thin and many of its ships are outdated . A new enemy called the Scourge attack and destroy the USS " Sojourner " and two colony worlds . The only survivor is Lieutenant Commander Alexander Kirk . The authorities refuse to believe his story , a state of affairs that causes , Bajor , and Betazed to leave in disgust at the corruption of the UFP , leaving it with only twenty systems under its control . The Ferengi become the dominant power in the galaxy , and make money by spreading the Bajoran religion and making Bajor into a major place of pilgrimage . The Vulcan s reunify with the Romulan s . The Cardassian and Klingon societies have evolved into more mystical and less warlike cultures , though the Klingon Empire is expanding once more ( but they are still on good terms with the Federation ) . Admiral Nelscott commissions a new USS " Enterprise " to return the Federation to its goal of going boldly , but with the ulterior objective of finding the Scourge . After its captain and first officer are killed , Commander Kirk ( third - in - command ) is promoted to captain of a crew of four hundred . Development . After the cancellation of in , Singer , writer Christopher McQuarrie , and producer Robert Meyer Burnett met in December of that year and discussed their mutual desire to create a new televised iteration of the " Star Trek " series . They brought in novelist and screenwriter Geoffrey Thorne , who conceived and wrote a series proposal . " " What I tried to do was go back to brass tacks , " " he explained , " " and asked myself , ' What was " Star Trek " actually about ? What were Gene [ Roddenberry ] and Dorothy Fontana trying to do when they first started the show ? What was going on in the world at the time and what is the job of a good TV show ? " " Thorne answered the latter question by concluding that , if the series was to be a " good " TV show , it needed to appeal to its mass audience and not rely on the viewers who would watch it simply because it was " Star Trek " . " " What you want is a show that is competitive with the other networks that are not " Star Trek " , " " he mused . " " I considered that to be my job . " " Thorne also believed it would be important for the series to deal with the fact that audiences and behind - the - scenes staff had felt " Star Trek " had become somewhat preachy with its universe lacking internal conflict and need for commerce . " " But that ' s not how " Star Trek " was when it started ; it was very rough and tumble and I wanted to get back to that [ . . . ] So I said , ' Utopia has occurred and everything has stagnated ' [ . . . ] I pictured a Federation that had hit its plateau and stayed there for three hundred years , " " Thorne continued . That premise would allow for the new show to feature much of the same technology as had been depicted in , including old Federation ships . Thorne also had the notion of starting every episode with a video letter home from one of the crew ; even though that crewman might not necessarily be in the rest of the installment , their correspondence at the start , in each case , would inform the events that followed . ( " " , pp . 750 - 751 ) Thorne ' s series pitch document was twenty - five pages in length , detailing the era of the show , the eight primary characters , and outlines of the first four episodes ( which resolved the Scourge crisis but led into another one with the Klingons ) . Appendices were included , discussing the " Enterprise " s new technology ( including a singularity engine and cloaking device ) and using CG environments for parts of the ship . McQuarrie and Singer were to write and direct the pilot , with Burnett to produce alongside Singer ' s , similar to Singer ' s arrangement on . The proposal was completed in and sent to Singer ( who was in post - production on ) . Noted Thorne , " " Everyone seemed very happy with the pitch and were about to present it . " " ( " " , p . 751 ) While the document was being refined for a pitch later in the year , in April Paramount announced development of with J . J . Abrams , and the proposal was never given to the studio .