This is exactly what the TNG episode “Lower Decks” was about
Yeah, but there isn’t much they can do in one episode. The fact that they created a whole series based on that one episode shows they understand the potential. That episode was great in that it showed that the lower-ranked people didn’t know what was going on, and they shared rumours. But, what I’d like to see is that concept in a 8-10 episode series. Maybe go longer if it turns out people like it.
Like, I’ve always been annoyed by the idea that, even back to TOS episodes, it’s the ship’s highest ranking officers who beam down to every dangerous situation. They could either do a serious retcon and say “well actually, redshirts are always sent down first to secure the beam-in site, we just never see them”. Or, due to some disaster with an away mission, it could be a new directive that redshirts are sent in first before the higher-ranking officers are allowed to beam in.
And honestly I think star trek forgot that NCOs existed
For a show that’s 100% based on a military-like crew, they’re really bad with ranks. In the actual military, the non-commissioned members completely outnumber the commissioned ones. In addition, the non-commissioned officers, like Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer (O’Brien), etc. are all very experienced. While a second lieutenant outranks even the highest ranked NCOs, only an idiot 2LT disregards what the senior NCOs say. Senior NCOs have been in the military for decades and have been in leadership positions for years. 2LTs have virtually no experience, especially leadership experience.
The one thing they got right with Chief O’Brien is that he was fairly old on TNG. Colm Meaney was in his 30s on TNG, which would be young for a chief, but possible. But, to have a rank like “chief” you’d expect someone to spend some time as a rank lower than chief, and they basically never mention anybody lower ranked than that, let alone show a young Star Fleet member who isn’t a young officer.
In reality, some of the Star Trek bridge crew should be enlisted members. The helmsman should be a low-ranked non-commissioned member who steers the “boat” and follows orders. There’s no need to waste an officer-ranked person on that role. The head of security should be a petty officer / chief / master chief. And the red-shirt security goons should definitely be non-commissioned members.
Now, there could be some kind of fantasy that by the time of Star Trek a lot of the menial work that non-commissioned members used to do has been automated away. You could also say that with the Utopian society, everybody can get educated for free without issue, so it makes sense that virtually everyone who joins Star Fleet joins as an officer, and there are very few non-commissioned members. You could even pretend that non-commissioned members go up ranks in training, and that by the time you’re out of the Star Fleet non-commissioned boot camp, you’re already ranked Chief. It seems weird to have an non-commissioned core where “Chief” is the lowest rank, but whatever. Maybe Chief is for people who hate school and don’t want to go through multiple years of school, and just want to get into Star Fleet right away.
On the other hand, you could pretend that there are all kinds of non-commissioned members in Star Trek, but we just never see them. You could open up a whole new universe of content focused on those non-commissioned members. The stories from Star Trek TOS were often likened to cowboy stories, where a small band of people goes around solving problems. That’s the more common format even for military shows. Military shows often focus on elite units (SEAL teams, CIA groups) or doctors (MASH, Combat Hospital, 68 Whiskey). In those shows the unit gets an order, knows why they’re doing it, and is fully responsible for planning and executing. But, you could also do something more like Band of Brothers where the focus is on people at the bottom of the rank structure following orders, sometimes dumb orders or orders they don’t understand.
I think there’s a lot of potential for a Star Trek show that has more of a Band of Brothers style – people in awful situations bonding through it, following orders they don’t like. Star Trek’s universe comes with the perfect kinds of tensions for that. The Prime Directive is often ignored or bent, but imagine a group of people suffering because they’re trying very hard to survive while not interfering. Or Star Trek’s utopian ideals vs. the reality on the ground.
Some of the best episodes of Strange New Worlds were when Nurse Chapel and Doctor M’Benga were fighting either in flashback-land or in the present. I’d love to see a series set in one of the many wars that are mentioned in passing.
Anyhow, I think there’s potential. It’s a big enough universe that there’s room for a series without any captains or high-ranking officers.