Star Trek: The Interim Years is the story of the evolution in attitudes and technology which took place between the era of James T. Kirk and Jean Luc Picard. These are the voyages of Captain Nathaniel Hawkins of the Miranda class starship U.S.S. Sheffield. The mission is to study the minor races of the Beta Quadrant, attempting to understand the events leading up to the Tomed Incident.

Just as with Batman Begins, Doctor Who (2005), Battlestar Galactica (2003), the James Bond film Casino Royale and the new movie Star Trek (2009), this is a re-imagining of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Staying faithful to the values, characters, races and internal chronology of the franchise, this series of online stories seeks to apply the principals of verisimilitude, or naturalistic science fiction, to these stories to bring the Star Trek concept up-to-date.

Inspired by Ronald D. Moore's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing and Joss Whedon's Firefly, the intention is to have an overall arc of continuous stories which are character-driven. This is not a re-writing of Star Trek - far from it. This is merely an updating of the format, taking into account the knowledge that we now have in order to re-examine the established truths and events. Vulcans are still Vulcans.

Building on the established lore of Star Trek, with contemporary organisations such as the British Antarctic Survey and the Royal Navy's HMS Endurance amongst the models for the future Starfleet. The nature of the Federation and the other races will be re-examined as the Sheffield continues Star Trek's 40+ year mission "to boldly go..."

Adrian Jones