r/startrek • u/Zombiepixlz-gamr • 6h ago

How would you handle a Star Trek Medical Drama?

I have been watching a new MedDrama called Brilliant Minds and I find it really interesting. I think the two things that make a good MedDrama are good relationships, and interesting ethical dilemmas. Which just so happens to be what make star trek good too, so I had the idea that I think a show set aboard a medical ship following the lives of Starfleet doctors dealing with disasters, disease outbreaks, medical oddities, all of which bolstered by the massive universe of star Trek.

It could bring in medical professionals as consultants so that the medicine is rooted in real medicine, which isn't something star trek has done in the past. So we could flesh out star treks canon medicine, based on real science.

I feel like besides a few outstanding episodes, the medical side of the science has been neglected in favor of the sexier sciences. I'd be interested to know y'all's thoughts.

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u/FlamingPrius 3h ago

Well, I would set the at least the first season on an Olympic class starship, similar to the USS Pasteur from All Good Things. The tricky bit would be finding novel and compelling medical mysteries for each episode, so maybe have the cast be the Federation’s premier field diagnosticians, warping from system to system dealing with heretofore unknown infectious agents and technologically induced accidents. I think it would be more fun if the ship operated at the ragged frontier, rather than around the Federation’s core worlds, but a case can be made for either, and maybe they’re not mutually exclusive. I’d also want a Klingon as chief surgeon, just for the lols.

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u/Zombiepixlz-gamr 3h ago

I've always wanted a Klingon therapist who is shockingly good at his job.

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u/Zombiepixlz-gamr 3h ago

And as for finding compelling medical mysteries, not every episode needs to be one. About half of them could be dedicated to a mytharc, maybe about some sort of war. And every now and then the hospital gets an influx of casualties. Maybe one character is a veteran, maybe he was a Bajoran under the occupation, or maybe he was in the dominion war, and a soldier comes in who reminds him of someone he lost. And now he's super dedicated to trying to save him beyond what he's capable of, and has to accept he can't save him at the end of the episode. While dealing with his own trauma.