“The conversations that I have had is, ‘Hey, we finished writing it,’ and everyone said, ‘Yep, we love it.’ And then we turned it in, and then it was Christmas…. The business is in an interesting place right now… Who knows?”
Has Star Trek jumped the shark?
ToS and TNG were always a bit cheesy but at heart they were morality plays and social commentary. I couldn’t get into much after TNG. I’ve been watching Strange New Worlds and it’s all right but the musical episode and some other bits were a bit too… campy?
But, a comedy? Is it becoming Galaxy Quest? The movie that mocked it?
This is jumping off the back of Lower Decks, the animated series that ran for a few seasons and was pretty popular. Tawny, who I believe is spearheading this new show, played one of the main characters in Lower Decks.
What’s wrong with comedies?
Star Trek has a long history of comedy episodes, and arguably even a film, depending on how you feel about “The Voyage Home”.
Comedy and morality certainly aren’t mutually exclusive.
I have nothing against a Star Trek comedy show either way, but I’m going to take issue with calling Galaxy Quest a mockery. Yeah, it’s a parody, but I doubt a more loving parody exists. Everything it makes fun of in the first half comes around to be something admirable by the end, from Alan Rickman’s catchphrase to the dweeb with encyclopedic knowledge of the series saving the day. The movie actually embraces us geeks who poured over the Franz Joseph deck plans and says “good for you, maybe your love of this shit will save the world someday.”
You’re right, parody is a better description than mockery.
I’ve just stopped watching at this point. The new academy show has some good casting, but it just looks like more ST Discovery slop from the previews.
Star Trek is just a setting at this point. Lower Decks proved you can do funny and respectful of the fans at the same time. I agree some of SNW’s campiness is a bit over the top, but I’d rather a show spend time trying to do something different like a musical than be totally reliant on drama/action like Discovery (a show that was actually good on the rare occasion the cast could take a break from universe ending peril).
This seems to be just one more thing in development that hinges on the decisions David Ellison will make about the next decade for the franchise, or at least the next five years.
Now that some of the new things that Ellison had been counting on to anchor Paramount+’s schedule (i.e. anything new from Taylor Sheridan) are complete nonstarters, perhaps there’s some room for some new Trek.
Also, the relationship between Kurtzman and David Ellison goes back to when Kurtzman was a writer and Ellison was a producer on Into Darkness. There’s no sense of negativity between them.
While Ellison hasn’t hesitated to finally cut the JJ Abrams movie contract that failed to meet deliverables, Kurtzman has delivered what CBS and Paramount wanted on television. There’s no reason to believe that they couldn’t come to a meeting of minds but there may be some of Secret Hideout’s long term EPs that might be let go in the process of a shift in direction.
On top of that, the Ellison regime didn’t change the personnel directly in charge of CBS Studios (though they did change the people in charge of Paramount+, which is also relevant).
There’s also the lingering question of Kurtzman himself. He signed a five-year extension…five years ago. Not a peep regarding a renewal.
I’m not sure that it’s entirely accurate that there’s no hints of a renewal for Kurtzman’s and Secret Hideout.
In the recent SFX magazine piece for Starfleet Academy, the Kurtzman quotes hinted vaguely at “Lots more Star Trek TV is in development”.
“There’s quite a few exciting things in the works right now, but I’m not going to say more than that!”
TrekMovie observes that, ‘The SFX article noted Kurtzman was “tight-lipped about future projects,” adding that the interview was done before the announcement that[ Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are developing a new Star Trek film.’
Thinking back to the last 5-year extension, Kurtzman was asked to map out proposal for Star Trek’s television rollout for 5-7 years forward.
Clearly, he was given clearance by the new ownership to pitch stuff towards another extension. Whether there’s any uptake is to be seen.
I just keep coming back to the previous Paramount+ and streaming heads stripping the schedule back to the point that animation was being eliminated and the live action schedule was dominated by Taylor Sheridan.
Now the new owners have a large and prestigious animation studio and Sheridan refused to renew.
Meanwhile WB is fighting back against Skydance’s takeover effort to go with Netflix’s offer.
If I had to guess, Paramount+ will see more new Star Trek animation and live action as complementary to the darker whatever that the creators of Stranger Things will bring.
Kurtzman may get another but shorter extension until the movie franchise gets off the ground, but will be fenced to the 32nd century, animated shows, and shows from the 23rd and 24th century that won’t write new canon.
“Hint” was probably a poor choice of words, when I really meant that a renewal hasn’t been announced.
There’s a newer TrekMovie piece, just out this afternoon, that cites a new interview with Kurtzman in an industry journal.
It also notes that a large number of of new Paramount senior executives came out for yesterday’s premiere screening.
There’s a newer TrekMovie piece
Oh, thanks for this - I think I’ll share the original!
Edit: Never mind, it’s paywalled. I guess I’ll share the trekmovie version 🙄
