After Star Trek: Nemesis was released in 2002, Brent Spiner, who plays Data in the franchise, teamed up with screenwriter John Logan to develop a story for a sequel. They came up with an idea that actually sounds pretty cool and it was described by Spiner as the “Justice League of Star Trek.”
The concept they came up with would have involved every iteration and era of Star Trek and it would have assembled several characters from the franchise, both heroes and villains. In an interview with the now-defunct TrekWeb, Spiner shared the following details:
“One of the ideas that John Logan and I had about what the next film would have been was a Justice League of ‘Star Trek.’ Something would bring all the great ‘Star Trek’ villains together, from Khan to Shinzon, and Picard is the only person who could stop them and he actually has to go through time and pluck out the people he needs to help him. He goes back to the moment before Data blows up and takes him back to get Kirk and Spock, and go even further back and get Scott Bakula’s character Archer. The problem with that more than anything is cost — how do you pay for that?”
That sounds like it would have been awesome, especially for the early 2000s when this kind of thing wasn’t being done in movies. Now it’s a staple for Marvel and DC.
This concept was eventually explored in IDW Publishing comic miniseries Star Trek: The Q Conflict. The story saw Q using his powers to bring together the characters of the various Star Trek shows for a battle for the fate of the universe.
The reason the film never happened is said to be due to franchise fatigue. Luckily that time has passed and fans are now enjoying a continuation of sorts for The Next Generation in the Star Trek: Picard series, which I’m loving.