Star Trek is, was and always shall be a television show. The movies are a great station in which to dock, but to true fans they serve as glamorous amuse-bouche to the franchise’s meat-and-potatoes – the weekly television show. (For we hardcore addicts, the novels and comic books also help when in dire need of a fix.) Those of us who consider Star Trek of true importance to our daily life (and, no, we don’t all speak Klingon or get booted off a jury because we think we’re a Starfleet Commander) have been yearning for a return to television ever since the end of Enterprise’s season four. (Buy me a drink and I’ll chew your ear off about how good Enterprise was finally getting by season four. If you dare.) With television comes an escape velocity from the time constraints of a feature film, as well as the scrutiny of an enormous budget. Out there, beyond the orbit of a summer tentpole date, is where our characters were meant to find adventure.
Star Trek’s utopian vision works best with room to breathe. Sometimes you need a full 40-odd minutes to introduce a fantastic piece of technology, just to chew over its ethical implications. Time is required to explore the great taxonomy of alien creatures. With a season of television, a dopey throw-off dressed like Sherlock Holmes is allowable. The films are great punctuation for the heavy emotional beats, but the dazzling ships, zippy one-liners and form-fitting, colourful costumes don’t necessarily require the silver screen treatment. It’s great sometimes to just sit on the couch and check in on your explorer friends.
But Star Trek, in 2015, is too big for regular television. However, I don’t think the full-on cable route makes sense either. Proving no less a shapeshifter than Odo, the fearsome Constable of the malignant Cardassian space station Terok Nor, CBS’s decision to stream the show on their proprietary All Access pay service shows how forward-thinking Star Trek can be. Keep in mind that RCA initially approved the brightly-lit Star Trek as a ruse to move colour televisions. (And, also, please keep in mind that Odo later became the warmest of the good guys when Terok Nor came into Bajoran/Federation hands and was renamed Deep Space Nine.) Suffice to say I’m excited, and while the last thing I thought I’d do when I got up this morning was fork over six bucks a month to CBS for some new streaming platform, they can’t get my money fast enough.
The announced series for 2017 (still in time for the 50th anniversary window) remains a question mark. The creative executive is Alex Kurtzman, which is both good and bad. He is a clutch member of the reboot team, whose 2009 film, simply called Star Trek, looks more and more like lightning in a bottle. The film was fresh, exciting, terrifically cast and it brilliantly connected the original series with an alternate timeline. It’s the greatest thing ever, and anyone who disagrees is just being a dyspeptic Tellarite. Still, Kurtzman is also partly to blame for Star Trek Into Darkness, a boondoggle of galactic proportions. (Kurtzman’s one-time partner, the Roberto Orci, who sparred a bit with fans on message boards before losing the director’s job on Star Trek Beyond, appears to have been despatched to Rura Penthe for this iteration, which maybe is for the best.)
Some were calling for a Trek reboot in the style of True Detective, a limited series with one sole mission. I don’t want to dismiss that out of hand, but this wouldn’t be my preferred choice. What I yearn for more than anything is that promise of the Five Year Mission, exploring and bringing the ideals of the Federation to the outer reaches of space – a meritocracy where age, race, gender, planet of origin and primary biological element does not determine your lot in life.
Will the new show star Kirk and Spock? The next film, Star Trek Beyond, is out in July 2016 and concludes a trilogy. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto recently signed additional contracts, but my guess is that this was insurance on the off-chance that Star Trek Beyond was such a massive success the studio would want a fourth film. (Which feels unlikely – Star Trek does well, but it doesn’t do Avengers well). I doubt we’ll see them as stars, though I wouldn’t rule out a guest appearance. If any of the core crew were to switch over, look for Dr McCoy. He’s a fan favourite, and Karl Urban has embraced the Trek convention circuit (and has been embraced back) extraordinarily well. A medical vessel as the focal point? House in Space? St Really Elsewhere? Might not be a bad idea.
It’s important that the new show is set on a ship, not on an Earth with corrupt politicians plotting complex false-flag maneuvers as in Star Trek Into Darkness. Get this Wagon Train to the Stars, as Gene Roddenberry first pitched it, out into the stars. I’d love for connections to established canon, but those reveals should be on the side, not labored payoffs. At the end of Skyfall we already liked Naomie Harris, and then she turned out to be Moneypenny. That’s the way it’s done. Into Darkness’s hamfisted Khan switcheroo was the worst thing to happen to Star Trek since the Battle of Wolf 359.
The internet is going to spend a year dreaming about getting Patrick Stewart and Captain Picard onto this show somehow. We fans need to contain ourselves. Moreover, we need to remind ourselves that Star Trek is what lies ahead. Let’s create new characters that we’ll love just as much. New worlds, new civilisations. This new show should honour what’s come before, but it must be bold, and look to the future. I am ready to crew up.
