Yes, exactly - this is really the ideal formula for a good Star Trek movie. And yet strangely, it's never really been done. You can argue that Star Trek IV and Star Trek VI have elements of exploration and discovery, and while both of these are excellent films, they still don't really fit into the TOS exploration/adventure mold along the lines of Devil in the Dark or The Cloud Miners. Ironically, the only TOS episode which actually was adapted to the big-screen was The Changeling, and this caused audiences to complain that the material lacked enough content for a 2-hour movie.Gil Hamilton wrote:StarTrek riskes the same thing. The best way to go is to have the ship visit some new and wonderous single setting and get mixed up in intrigues there are are alien in nature (of course, they still have to be comprehendable to human audiences) and metaphoric. Basically, the formula for better TOS episode plots, but write large. You can't get away with ALOT of that anymore*, but you could do something.
At this point, I think it's unrealistic to expect the studio to attempt a film which focuses on world-building exploration/adventure stories. Really, why would they, when Abrams' recent action-flick was so successful?
That episode definitely works better with the looming threat of the Soviet Union in the background, but I still think modern audiences could appreciate the idea of a civilization which "virtualizes" warfare in an attempt to preserve the infrastructure of their civilization. An updated version of this episode could probably work with a modern audience, especially given all these "life-simulating" computer games we have now, like The Sims.Gil Hamilton wrote:*(for example "A Taste of Armageddon" would be hopeless on a modern audience, who'd wonder why citizens would report to a real incinerator because their NPC in a glorified videogame died in a fictional war)