Hear me out: an anthology style series about the lesser talked about sides of the Federation and other groups.

A research team spending a year on an asteroid studying strange readings. A look at the Star Fleet weapons research lab where they are developing new lasers. An episode that follows a Ferengi pawn ship as he travels from place to place trying to upsell his wares. A Star Fleet inspector who checks in on stations that haven’t had an official inspection in decades. A power struggle at the Klingon company that makes Raktajino. A Romulan crew that stops a galactic level threat that no one else ever hears about due to their secretive nature. The monotony inside Relay Outpost 247-B as it’s skeleton crew receives and transmits messages from starships at the edge of uncharted space.

I know a lot of the charm of Star Trek is following a familiar cast of characters, but it doesn’t HAVE to be that way. I think an anthology would be really interesting and could show sides of the universe that serialized show would avoid or struggle with.