The other caveat is that the new series will be run by a guy called Alex Kurtzman, who’s in the bad books with Star Trek purists because in his movie Star Trek: Into Darkness, Vulcan was destroyed and Spock’s mother, Amanda, was killed. In fairness, Kurtzman was the exec in that movie, not the writer or God/producer.
(Actually, that could easily be written in to a parallel universe twist, but hey, we’re talking network TV. They think a parallel universe is one where people don’t talk in millions of dollars every second.)
Anyway, the new series will be streamed online, and cost $6 a month at current CBS All Access rates. That’s 20c a day, which can easily be extracted from friends, family, comatose strangers and unwary financial institutions, not that big a deal for access to 7,500 episodes of other shows and Star Trek.
The standard blurb doing the rounds online is basically the content in this Sydney Morning Herald article. No information about what, who, or anything else about the actual show, of course, but it’s scheduled for 2017.
If the new series follows the line of the more recent Kurtzman-related Star Trek movies, however, I differ, not at all humbly with the critics. This is a new platform, and this is its new launch vehicle. All bets on hold until we see what it delivers. These movies actually stayed pretty close to the authentic Star Trek character stories, when they met, etc. So at least someone knows things like that.
The actors, too, were pretty good, not just going through the motions. I would never have believed that any actors could manage that incredible load of taking over from those guys. You’d have to be pretty damn neurotic to bitch about them. Actually, I thought too many FX, rather than anything else, but FX people have to eat, too.
Having said all of which — this is a big ask. While getting back to the idea of some kind of non-Disney/ “Star Wars without the ultra-fabulous stuff/ I’ve had to survive for decades by looking at pictures of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia” future is very welcome, expect some serious flak from the Star Trek fans who know how to get picky. If Kurtzman has the brains he seems to have, he’ll pick up some of the real Star Trek writers, like Diane Duane, among others, for that sort of story quality.
The original Star Trek used some of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. That’s what the audience needs — massive helpings of idea-food. If this is Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty, that’s the menu. If it’s new characters, that’s even more critical. Pulling in people from other timelines and Star Trek series would also be a plus, if possible. Not for nostalgia purposes; but because they’re good and can deliver a lot of value in any scenario.
Star Trek turns 50 soon. To quote William Shatner in Airplane 2: “I guess irony can be pretty ironic.” Fifty years, and the show is back, with the same “new worlds, new civilizations” motif.
Put it this way — after 50 years of endless coverage of people being shocked by fans wearing Vulcan ears to conventions… This was a multi-billion dollar franchise that was nearly never picked up, and when they did, they said “The guy with the ears has to go.”
Let’s hope the new Star Trek does what it’s always done — stick it to the jock trash. We Vulcans sincerely anticipate that it will be so.
