Possible Names: James Stone; Vance Ajax; Andrew Todd; Angus McLeod; 

He must be male, and he must retain the same basic qualities as the previous ones. A further wrinkle might make him a former enlisted man that fought his way into a commission. He’s not very interested in science, and he has little faith in technology to cure the ills of the universe. He is very easily frustrated by technology in general, and considers himself a modern day Luddite. He doesn’t feel the need to learn all the latest techno-gadgets and theories; he has a crew to do that for him. His job is to keep his ship and crew safe, and to do what his superiors tell him. He’ll disregard orders occasionally, but Captains with that kind of attitude don’t last long in the dog-eat-dog world of political favors. He’s very much a salt of the earth type, and likes the simple things in life. He has the habit of referring to his command crew by their first names and is in the process of kicking it.  He never, ever carries a tricorder.

Physical Characteristics: He should definitely be wide-shouldered, barrel-chested, with a flat-top haircut and a physically imposing frame.  His bearing and carriage are that of a soldier, and he never shows a hint of indecision or trepidation.  When he pokes around on a computer, he hunts and pecks.  

Possible Names: Linda Steinberg; Sarah Keller 

Definitely the first officer needs to be the science officer, if only because the Captain relies on her quite often. The specifics of this are quite variable, but I would have her as a Jewish woman, from Israel. I would personally make her the obligatory Hot Chick, a normal human who doesn’t like the idea of adventure very much, and would much rather look through a microscope the rest of her life. The only reason she’s on the ship is because she’s one of the few scientists that the Captain can understand in normal conversation; she has a knack for analogy and getting complicated ideas across to neophytes.

Physical Characteristics:  If she is going to be the hot chick, she should be hot.  I would make her in her thirties, or maybe even closer to the captain's age.  She has the tendency to rub her temples when she's thinking, or nervously tapping her feet when in imminent danger.           

Possible Names: Giga; Iso; Fazer Banks; 

This would be a good place for the obligatory AI character. A new twist on the computer person would be to make it a female/male hybrid without a specific sex. This character has a close physical relationship to the defense functions of the ship, as though the weapons and defenses are extensions of its own body. This can be communicated onscreen by way of cool special effects and some reasonably cheesy acting tricks. The TO also has twenty or so avatars scattered throughout the ship. It can "possess" any of these avatars at any time, and can divide its consciousness between them. Therefore, it can coordinate defensive maneuvers precisely and join away missions while still handling ship defense. This character should be distant and inhuman at first, as many AI characters have been.

Physical Characteristics: This is probably best left to the makeup/costume department.  It would wear a Starfleet uniform, of course.  It would also probably have red-tinted contacts, just to be cool.

Possible Names: Langston Temuer; Ramon Perez; Ping Nguyen  

This is a good place for a minority character we haven’t seen in Star Trek, like an aboriginal Australian, Maori Indian, Eskimo, Latin American, Vietnamese, etc.. He has a natural talent for all things related to the piloting of a ship, as all Helm officers seem to have. His favorite music is rock and roll.  He’s an Ensign who gets a promotion to Lieutenant during the course of the first episode.

Physical Characteristics: Obviously, this relies on the eventual ethnicity of the actor, but he should probably be an attractive kid.  

Possible Names: Jane Doe; Mary Hera; Dame

This is another female character, with a twist. I would make her completely alien, a creature of a race consisting entirely of energy. She considers herself female because the religion and biology of her people tells that all members of the race are creators, and the female sexual orientation fits her perfectly. She does not like and nor does she trust men; to her, they are truly alien beings without an obvious metaphysical purpose. With genetics technology the way it is, males have little biological point. Her humanlike "body" is actually a highly complex and precise "vehicle" that she essentially pilots through human atmospheres. As a result, she can survive in deep space in her natural form, and is endlessly helpful in deigning the origins or behaviors of various cosmological phenomena. To her, stars, nebulae and other heavenly bodies are as normal and beautiful as a tree or river is to a human. She is very open and honest, to a fault.

Physical Characteristics:  Again, the Hot Chick must be hot.  Other than that, she should probably have a readout for her "vehicle" somewhere on her body, maybe on her forearm.  Other than that, there is no need to express her true origin.  When she exits her "vehicle," she resembles an indeterminate mass of blue energy.  

Possible Names: Sir Nigel Lovejoy

First, I would have this male character use the old naval term for ship’s doctor, Ship's Surgeon.  I would also have him as a true Brit, knighted by the Queen of Old England for meritorious service in his previous, mysterious career.  He is impeccably tasteful in his diction and speaks the King's English.   

He’s an armchair historian, obsessed with the past Enterprises and has a personal collection of memorabilia from them. He especially likes ancient medical technologies, and is not afraid to use old remedies for old illnesses, like aspirin for a headache or chicken soup for a cold.  He has a shady past, and does not like to discuss it. Most of his personnel files are encrypted, and the Captain (his old friend) will not discuss it. Perhaps he's a former espionage agent?  It would be cool to have this past involve some kind of clandestine time travel; he might even be a temporal castaway from a long-distant century. If this century were the 21^st , we could have a great connection to the audience (a la Crichton on Farscape).  If he is a former spy, perhaps his role on the Enterprise is more complex than immediately apparent.

Physical Characteristics: He could be the oldest member of the crew, somewhere in his fifties or sixties.  He is handsome in a fatherly way.  

Possible Names: Colin Masters; Archie Knight

Star Trek is a boat show, about a tightly knit crew of disparate individuals that are bound by the walls that keep them in constant social contact. A version of the boat show is the boat movie (U-571, Crimson Tide, etc.), and leading the pack of boat movies is The Hunt For Red October. One of the qualities that it had that I enjoyed was the Political Officer, a member of the crew that served the political interests of the government. A political officer is necessary in order to keep the claustrophobic crew of a submarine in line with the goals and intentions of the higher good. The political officer fills this goal.

The political officer is an antagonist. This relationship to the crew must never change too much; no romances with other crewmembers that aren’t tinged with the potential of betrayal. The Captain, specifically, must not like the PO at all. To further distance him from the rest of the crew, the PO will lack a specific rank. Rather than refer to him as, say, Lieutenant Masters, he is referred to either as Mister Masters, or Officer Masters.  He has the power to take control of the ship if and only if the Starfleet Oversight Committee votes in favor of it. This happens rarely.

This character is basically a Doctor Smith (Lost in Space) without the femininity.  He's a great vehicle for some humor; it's always fun to see the PO get his due at the end of an episode.  He never wins.  

Physical Characteristics: He should probably be a smaller man, shorter than average and with a slight build   He has a sly smirk and very expressive eyebrows.  He never lets his anger get the best of him, thus making him a good counterpoint to the Captain's irascible temper.  

Possible Names: Tanna D'Kan; Aria Kobax; Jevi Avacnor

It combines the role of counselor and that of morale officer. The Chaplain is of no particular religion, but is well versed in all major federation belief systems. This character should be a woman of mixed racial ancestry… ¼ Human, ¼ Klingon, ¼ Cardassian and ¼ Romulan. She is a person who has managed to combine all of her disparate racial and cultural identities into a single, quantified individual identity, and not without a lot of difficulty. This has given her special insight into getting along with people and in the value of spirituality. She is also known as a love ‘em and leave ‘em type without much in the way of sexual mores, but she obviously doesn’t have romantic encounters with her crew.

She always seems to know the latest rumors and concerns of the crew.  This doesn't come from any kind of supernatural or biological ability, she just has a knack for it.  

Physical Characteristics: The Chaplain carries herself with a constant air of peace and tranquility.  She has a calming presence, and is always perceptive to peoples' problems.  Her look changes quite often, and she hates wearing the Starfleet uniform.

Possible Names: Gil Bates; Jeaves Allen; Bob Dobbs

This is another largely variable male character. This would be a good role for a nerdy geek type, someone who spends far too much time in holofantasy…so much that he has converted his quarters into a holodeck. He is socially inept, but has a definite talent for fixing things. He’s a workaholic, and only needs four hours of sleep a night. It would be a nice nod to the multitudes of fans out there to make this character incredibly attractive to the female members of the Enterprise crew. But he’s mostly annoyed by these advances and sees little point in establishing a real relationship with a woman when he has his holonymphs.

Physical Characteristics: Nerdy and socially crippled, he's either bent over a console or nervously rushing from work to his holoquarters.  He should be attractive, but with a very unstylish haircut.  

The Rest

Obviously, this is a crew with lots of personal problems. To thicken it out, there may be room for a Vulcan bartender at 10-Forward, a JemHaddar security officer, a Klingon political liaison, a betazoid diplomat, or similar supporting roles.