After sitting through countless panels about Trek’s future and what stories still need telling, I keep coming back to the same thought: we’ve spent sixty years watching the Federation’s perspective, but what about everyone else? These alien species got tantalizing glimpses of development, but they deserved so much more. Here are the species that should get their own series.
7. The Horta
Hear me out. “Devil in the Dark” introduced us to a silicon-based life form that communicates through burning words into rock and just wants to protect her eggs. That’s a compelling alien perspective right there. Imagine a series following Horta miners, engineers, and explorers as they join the Federation. How does a species that experiences reality completely differently from humanoids integrate into Starfleet? The translation technology alone would be fascinating. Plus, you know the prosthetics department could do amazing things with modern effects.
6. The Tholians
We’ve seen them exactly twice in live-action Trek, and both times they were territorial, precise, and utterly alien. Their crystalline structure, their obsession with punctuality, their completely different method of space travel - it’s all there waiting to be explored. A series about Tholian Assembly politics, their relationship with other non-humanoid species, and their legitimate grievances about Federation expansion into their space would be genuinely different from anything Trek has done. Make it animated if you have to, but give us more Tholians.
5. The Founders
Yes, we got plenty of Founder content in DS9, but always as antagonists or mysterious puppet masters. What about a series set in the Dominion from their perspective? Show us the Founders before they became paranoid tyrants. What were they like as explorers before the solids persecuted them? How did they create the Vorta and Jem’Hadar? What’s their society like in the Great Link? Odo barely scratched the surface. There’s a genuinely tragic story here about a persecuted species becoming the persecutors, and Trek should tell it properly.
4. The Andorians
Jeffrey Combs made Shran one of the best parts of Enterprise, and he showed us that Andorian culture is rich with potential. Four sexes, a warrior tradition, a complicated history with Vulcans, and that amazing mining operation on Weytahn. I want a series about the Andorian Imperial Guard, their internal politics, their role in founding the Federation, and what it means to be a warrior culture that chooses diplomacy. The makeup is already iconic, the backstory is there, and fans absolutely love them.
3. The Cardassians
We got unforgettable Cardassian characters throughout DS9, but we only saw Cardassia Prime a handful of times. Give us a series set on Cardassia during the occupation, or during their rebuilding after the Dominion War. Show us their art, their literature, their family structures, and how a society obsessed with order and service to the state actually functions day to day. The Cardassians are Trek’s most fully realized antagonist species, which means they’re perfect protagonists. Make it dark, make it morally complex, and cast Marc Alaimo as the narrator.
2. The Klingons
I know what you’re thinking: we’ve had tons of Klingon content. But have we really? We’ve had Worf’s perspective, filtered through his unique childhood. We’ve seen Klingon politics as obstacles for Federation characters to navigate. What we haven’t seen is a series actually set in the Klingon Empire, following Klingon characters, showing us what their society looks like when humans aren’t around. Discovery tried with T’Kuvma’s followers, but that was still from the Federation’s viewpoint. Give me a series about a House trying to regain its honor, or a Klingon ship exploring beyond its borders. Let Klingons be complicated, contradictory, and fully realized. Do it in Klingon with subtitles if you’re brave enough.
1. The Romulans
This is the big one. The Romulans have been right there since TOS, and we still barely know anything about their actual society. What’s Romulus like? How does the Tal Shiar operate? What’s life like under the watchful eye of the Senate? How do everyday Romulans feel about their secretive government? Picard showed us Romulan refugees, which was fascinating, but I want to see the Romulan Star Empire at its height. Give us political intrigue, espionage, conflicted loyalties, and the constant tension between Romulan pride and their Vulcan heritage they refuse to acknowledge. The Romulans are Star Trek’s greatest underused asset, and it’s time to fix that.
Here’s the thing: Trek works best when it shows us different perspectives on the same universe. We’ve had sixty years of humans learning, growing, and boldly going. Now let’s see what the galaxy looks like through genuinely alien eyes. The Federation is great, but the universe is bigger than one alliance of planets.
Any of these species would make for a compelling, different Star Trek that expands the franchise without retreading the same ground. Who knows? Maybe Strange New Worlds or whatever comes next will finally give us the alien-focused series we’ve been waiting for.
Which species would you most want to see get their own show? Let me know, because I will die on any of these hills 😉
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