The new Star Trek series is in trouble. So far, its initial announcement was underwhelming, casting took longer than expected, creator Bryan Fuller scaled back from showrunner to executive producer, and the whole project has been delayed until May.

That means there's still time to fix it.

Like many Trek fans, I'm not thrilled with the show's setting—ten years before the original adventures of Kirk and Spock. Not only is that ground already being trod by the reboot films (in some form), but we already had a "retro" series with Star Trek: Enterprise... which was so eager to include species and events from later eras that the producers brought in a major time-travel plot. So this is the third Trek creation in a row to go backwards instead of forwards.

Thus, in 2017, and probably 2018, we'll have female characters of the 23rd century wearing mini skirts.

There are better settings in the Trek universe than 10 Years Before Kirk. Here are three. I'm sending them all via priority one subspace transmission to CBS.

Starfleet Academy

This idea has been around for a while. You could argue that we sort of saw it realized in the first reboot film, where all the characters were cadets, and we even got to see the Kobayashi Maru test (...again). I think the Academy itself could be a great setting for a series. It could take place in virtually any era, including right after Voyager, which is Trek's current "present."

A show like this would feature plenty of classroom scenes, along with nature hikes and martial arts training and science experiments. But there would also be room for field trips in space—that is, actual exploration, rescue, and even combat missions. If the series is set on the Academy's Earth campus, we'd be able to see the cadets roaming futuristic San Francisco and getting into real trouble, without the protection of a dean.

A series like this would feature both students and instructors, grappling with their own issues of identity ("Should I go for Command or Engineering?") to loss ("Why am I teaching when I should be out exploring"?). How about the moral quandary of the TNG episode "The First Duty"? Plenty of sci-fi and fantasy stories are set at schools, from Quantico to Ender's Game to The Magicians to a certain book series about a boy wizard.

Babylon Trek

People seem to like Game of Thrones. And House of Cards. Designated Survivor looks like a hit. What about a series that focused on the politics of the Trek universe? We've seen plenty of great storylines about power struggles, from the Klingon successions in TNG to the Founders' intrigue of DS9. The Federation Council is like the United Nations, with feuds and rivalries of its own, apart from its tense negotiations with the Romulans or Ferengi or Xindi.

A political series could take place at the Federation capital in San Francisco, or some kind of DS9-type outpost for neutral parties to meet (something like The Hague here in 2016). The main characters could be diplomats, Council members, spies, or military. Along with the plots and intrigue, the show could have espionage and action sequences, both internally as factions fight for supremacy and externally as the governments engage in actual warfare.

If CBS is afraid of going too far forward, a series like this could be set during the TNG or DS9 eras, with all the cool species those series provide (and a looming Borg threat as well). This would basically be a Trek version of Babylon 5. That series was pretty cool. I think Trek's would be, too.

Welcome to the Federation

A planet develops warp travel. Starfleet arrives and tells the people about the Federation and the galaxy of races. Eventually, the planet applies for membership into the Federation, and is approved.

Then what?

Here's my answer: A small group of Federation and Starfleet officials arrive and set up a sort of consulate/military base, to help the planet transition into the Federation government, to start mining or manufacturing that benefits the UFP, and to keep an eye on any malcontents. This series could be light-hearted, as our (mostly human) crew must deal with a truly foreign civilization... and they're outnumbered a billion to one.

The series would have a diplomat, a spy, a military commander, a "cultural expert" and translator, and possibly someone representing the Federation's commercial interests—like, say, a Ferengi. Then there would be the alien planet's characters, from some sort of ambassador to a soldier who chafes at the superiority of his new overlords. There's plenty of opportunity for intrigue and action, as the Federation now finds itself helping to police the entire planet. And the characters could still get on a ship and zoom around the planet's star system, helping colonists on the nearby moons and exploring whatever weird planets are nearby.

A series like this would offer storylines of politics, exploration, and cultural exchange. And of course there would be an insurgent group that hates the Federation, giving us a good villain to root against—or for, if the series takes a harder look at imperialism. It doesn't really matter what era this is set, since the focus of the series is on one particular planetary system. Maybe in season five, the Borg can show up.

What are your ideas for a new Trek series? Beam them directly to the comments.