Bryan Fuller Wants To Bring Trek Back To TV

Another veteran Trek writer/producer out promoting his new show is 2008 Emmy-nominee Bryan Fuller, who is the creator and show-runner for the quirky ABC hit Pushing Daises. In a new interview Fuller assessed the state of the Trek franchise and talked about how he would love to get another go at a Trek TV series.. 

 

Fuller on Trek’s past and future [From MTV]

I would love to do another ‘Star Trek’ series. One where you could go back to the spirit and color of the original ‘Star Trek,’ because somehow, it got cold over the years. I love ‘Next Generation,’ but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the ‘60s, which were so dynamic and passionate. ’Deep Space Nine’ was the best of the modern ones, because it was so emotionally complicated. ‘Enterprise’ was the most sterile of all of them, when it should have been the most fun.

According to the report, Fuller’s Trek would be set in the TOS era, but not with Kirk and Spock on the Enterprise and he would "want to break the mold and have more fun with the series." Fuller is very much in favor of the direction JJ Abrams is taking the franchise so he may want to pick up where JJ and his team leave off. Fuller also noted:

‘Star Trek’ has to recreate itself. Otherwise, all the characters start to feel the same. You always have a captain, a doctor, a security officer, and you have the same arguments based on those perspectives. It starts to feel too familiar. So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up.

Fuller Trek?
Bryan Fuller was only with the Trek franchise for a few years, writing a total of 21 episodes (2 DS9 & 19 VOY). His Trek scripts showed his talent for character stories such as the DS9 episode "Darkness and Light" and the Voyager two-parter "Workforce." He is a huge Trek fan and very creative and was probably under-utilized. This is evidenced from his post-Trek career working on Heroes and creating three critically acclaimed shows Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies. His latest show (Pushing Daisies) is up for 12 Emmys for its first season. When CBS inevitably gets around to considering bringing Trek back to the small screen, Fuller should certainly be on the short list.


Bryan Fuller at Sept. 9th  TV Guide ABC Fall Preview

Daisies back October 1st
After a long hiatus (due to the SAG strike), Pushing Daisies kicks off its second season in two weeks (Wed. October 1st at 8 PM). If you have not had the chance to catch this quirky modern fairy tale about a pie-maker who can revive people from the dead, you should check it out. Here is a preview of the upcoming season.

 

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first GREAT

My ‘Trek tv fantasy has always been the idea of having a 24/7 dedicated cable channel with all programming set in the (various) Federation universe(s), with a lot of original content of all different genres: a nightly ‘news’ report, game shows, sitcoms, ‘reality,’ newsmagazines, etc, even advertising (fictional products, but real companies and their real dollars.) Exisiting ‘Trek content could be presented as ‘a fictional account of the _________ incident,’

The idea would be that someone could put on their tv and pretend they were ‘there’ for however long they wanted to watch.

But, you know, a new show with ‘new sensibilities’ would work for me too. I lived a lot of years where the only Star Trek was (were?) the repeats of TOS. Then it changed and I got kind of spoiled. It’d be nice to be spoiled again.

Hm. On the one hand, hey! First real rumors of televised Trek since that apparently dead animated project. Hooray for that! On the second hand, Bryan Fuller’s a Trekkie, and that’s a big qualification for me.

But on the third hand, looking over his episode list on Memory Alpha, I realize that I don’t actually like any of the episodes he’s written. In fact, I think they are, to borrow his word, entirely sterile. No offense to Mr. Fuller, I hope, as I know “Relativity” is very popular with a lot of the people I hang out with, and, obviously, “Barge of the Dead” is one of the most popular Voyager episodes, period. Just not my cup of tea.

So two cheers for this. Hopefully it will get some inertia going towards getting Trek back on the small screen, where it’s always been at its best.

He worked on ‘Dead Like Me’?! Man, that show was brilliant – Abso-fracking-lutely BRILLIANT.
I would to se him do a Trek show.

I like ‘Daisies’.

I hope this could happen one day.

The colors…

Oh, and vote Manny Coto in the poll at left, gentlemen.

In fact, vote for Manny Coto in November, too. Manny/Spock ’08. I grok Manny. That sort of thing. He gave us “Similitude,” which I hope is sufficient argument all on its own.

Love to see him do a Trek shw.
I can’t even spell anymore. :)

RDM would be a better choice for a new Trek show,

the prospect of more tv trek is, as always, tantalising…

it would make sense to use a new set of characters in jj’s trekverse as
1. the general populace will hopefully be familiar with it after the success of the forthcoming movie
2. they will avoid the inevitable “spock/kirk/mccoy etc wouldn’t have been there / done that” canon drivel

he would also seem to infer that it wouldn’t necessarily be primarily ship-based. starfleet academy perhaps? every so often they dredge up that idea

Hack.

“Dead Like Me” was an incredible show. I’m surprised that it died off so quickly. Can’t wait for the DVD movie in 09. “Pushing Daisies” is also a good show that I’m glad is coming back.

Now all we have to do is bring back “Futurama” and we’re in business. And I mean onto TV, not just the movies.

I would love to see another Trek. One that’s set in the TOS era, but not the Enterprise crew. Maybe they could do a “Corps of Engineers” series set after Nemesis.

As long as there’s something else in the future.

How about some Trek miniseries?

“I would love to do another ‘Star Trek’ series. One where you could go back to the spirit and color of the original ‘Star Trek,’ because somehow, it got cold over the years. I love ‘Next Generation,’ but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the ‘60s, which were so dynamic and passionate. ’Deep Space Nine’ was the best of the modern ones, because it was so emotionally complicated. ‘Enterprise’ was the most sterile of all of them, when it should have been the most fun.”

Now I like what I hear here. Those are super suggestions. That’s what’s needed to happen for some time. And I agree with most of what he says.

Let’s have a show about Bob Wesley and his crew….or Ron Tracy and his crew.

. . . . Hmmm. . . Should I hold my breath. . . this time? We waited for what seemed like forever for TOS to come back and we got TAS. Oh boy. Then we waited again for what seemed like another eternity and got the movies (TMP was great because at the time you got to see everyone together again!) and it was up and down for about 15 years. Then about 7 years after TMP we got TNG, 5 years later we got DS9, and 4 or 5 years after that we got VOY (oh boy). About the time VOY ended we got ENT which isn’t REALLY as bad as many make it, but it could have been better honed to say the least.

3 years after the last series bid farewell and 6 years after the last movie and lets not forget 8 months before the new movie we are sent the salivating news that a new series MIGHT be on the way. . . .

All I can say is. . . . PLEASE make it so!

Ok. Just keep Berman away! from the series. But get Manny Cotto in there as he is a great writer. He proved it with the 4th season of Enterprise. Maybe he could do some more eps of the Alternate realaty as well. Those are some of the best Episodes. So with Manny and maybe Ron Moore and Bryan Fuller that would be a great team. Lets hope People.

A TOS-era series I could get behind. A TNG-era show…not so much.

I don’t care if they call it “Pushing Trek” or “Star Daisies”–if Bryan Fuller is producing it, I’ll watch it. (Can’t wait for “Pushing Daisies” to return on October 1st!)

A Kirk era show to promote the movie would be awesome. Especially with today’s CG tech. A Lucas produced Trek show would be interesting.

3 words.
Joe.
Michael.
Straczynski.

They should probably get three films with the new team done before considering a movie back to TV. That way, we’d be looking at something like 2016 for the new show. By then, the 1987-2005 shows will have faded somewhat from people’s memories and the focus will be securely on 23rd Century Trek. Also, technology in TV is likely to be amazing by then, making all the episodes effectively mini-movies!

But I’d like a TV show to fit securely with the revamped movie universe, so I’d want the Star Trek series to be overseen by Abrams and his team, assuming they’re still overseeing the films at that stage.

I still, for the life of me, can’t understand why they didn’t go to Harve Bennett, Nicholas Meyer and Leonard Nimoy to set up a Star Trek TV show in the late 80s, rather than Gene Roddenberry. Those guys would have come up with something outstanding that I doubt would have dated as badly as the 80s TNG fascist utopia!

I mean, these guys had made three successful films in a row, with STIV getting major crossover into the mainstream, yet they go to the man behind The Slow Motion Picture to create a new commercial TV show! Weird!

13:

Yeah, like Star Trek: Romulan Wars or something similar?

A founding of Starfleet/Federation series would be awesome.

As I have said many times here (and elsewhere) I believe an ANTHOLOGY show would be the way to go.
You could bring back popular characters from the past (like Captain Sulu, Worf, or even Pike), fill in the back stories of lesser known characters (such as Commodore Mendez or Number One) and create many new ones.
We could see the Romulan War, attend the Academy, or explore in the early days of space colonization.
We could visit any era in the Trek Universe and boldly go where no show has gone before…

“So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up.”

DS9 writers always say this, but that dog don’t hunt – hence everyone since DS9, including and especially Abrams, choosing to set their stories aboard starships.

How about a weekly series about the antics of Kirk, Spock, McCoy et al at Star Fleet Academy? Could be fun.

Another Trek series? Too soon to even contemplate, I think. We’re still in the beginning of the Abrams/Orci/Kurtzman reboot and haven’t even hit the metaphorical load screen yet (the trailer).

Having said that, _if_ there is ever another Trek series, I would greatly prefer that it embrace the “less-is-more” philosophy that the BBC uses for its series. Make seasons shorter (perhaps 12 episodes instead of 24). The problem with Trek in the past is that the writers start to run out of gas half way thru. We start to get filler episodes that almost seem that they were written just to fill the quota (and the season).

Periodic miniseries might be a way to do this. Let’s make Trek on TV something special — an event.

Where would it air? Sci fi? They need some new programs. Can’t ride that Dr. Who coattail forever.

“I would love to do another ‘Star Trek’ series. One where you could go back to the spirit and color of the original ‘Star Trek,’ because somehow, it got cold over the years. ”

been there, done that, it was called ‘enterprise’. the younger trek fans couldnt bear it, because it was nothing like deep snore nine, which they mistakenly thought was genuine star trek…

maybe he means campier, complete with spaceship models on strings and cardboard sets?

of course, if the movie is a moderate hit, perhaps it could kick off a new series?

the episodes could mesh nicely with the original series storylines…

and expand the old ones… or even completely re-tell a few of them?

ah well, at least i have tos, tng and ent on dvd… thats more than enough to hold me over until they figure something out…

I would have either James Cawley or Majel Barrett-Roddenbery take the helm at a new Star Trek tv series. I think someone with passion for the show should create a new series.

PS: DS9 was a terrible series, worse than Enterprise.

so this guy works on the two TREK shows that sterilized the franchise, two shows that were promptly cancelled, and a current show that’s winning awards, but has had no cultural impact.

…and now we’d trust him with a new show?

Sorry, Fuller. I’m sure you’re a mensch and a True Believer, but anyone who worked on those shows has the pox on them. Say what you want about BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and how the creator came from TREK, its success has nothing to do with what made TREK successful in the 60s, sustained it through the 70s and restored it in the 80s. Not a fracking thing.

Voyager was the worst show of all the TV series- why should this guy get another shot at iffy trek?

FINALLY

First with JJ Abrams and now with Bryan Fuller, the best and brightest in Hollywood recognize the greatness of the original series and want to bring it back!

I think it’s GREAT

Why not do a 3d animated series in which different series can be revisited with realistic graphics, so one week you can have a TOS episode the next week a Voyager episode. Imagine all the different combinations using state of the art 3d animation. William Shatner can portray a younger Kirk without physically appearing on camera! Now that would be great 3d science fiction.

Rand’s Basket Hair : Academy series? Not only no but hell no.

Commodore Redshirt has the right idea. A Trek anthology series would be exactly what the franchise needs. Maybe they could get the authors of the Trek books to contribute some ideas and canonize some of the cool stuff they’ve been doing, particularly of late.

What about little midget versions of Kirk, Spock and McCoy with really big heads battling bullies with goatees and chain mail…. STAR TREK BABIES!

You know, for the kids!

That show’s trippy!

CBS should at least be in talks for a new show, if they’re not…well they’re idiots. A new show would be difficult, everything has pretty much been done. Maybe a new show could focus on the temporal agents on a ship traveling to different points of the star trek universe???? Or maybe Star Trek from a perspective of a different race???

I think there are many talented people who could run a series, most notably Many Coto, Ron Moore, and J.J. and crew.

Why is it always here lately “Go back, go back, go back!?” That’s not the trek I know. My trek was all about going forward. Set a new series a couple hundred years after DS9, voyager and nemesis and lets see how the Fed boy’s are doing. TNG era is a little stale and i really don’t think we need to redo Kirk. If you want to give us something new then give us something new. Not “Oh, this is how it was and now this is how we could have done it better.” BS. I’d like to see a borg vs. dominion movie more than the rehash of Kirk and Spock!

i always thought they should do a 1 hour per day soap opera type show where we get the perspective from the lower decks!!

I think a new Trek series should have the bridge crew in a band when they’re off-duty, and go around solving mysteries.

I love to hear talk about really doing another Trek series on TV! The movie is super super exciting, but a TV show is hours and hours of Trek!

Full-er steam ahead with a series set in the TOS era. Starship Exeter, perhaps??

The quote “Star Trek is about going forward!”, especially when it’s used to justify not returning to TOS, is just a fluffy piece of Hollywood jargon. Star Trek was at its best when it showed us a future that we could believe in, you could watch it and say “This is where we’re actually headed.”

That simply isn’t possible when you’re trying to show us a world 500+ years from now. It’s too far, it no longer has a connect to our own world.

I realize there’s a group of ST fans who really get caught up in the fantasy that’s been written over the years, but I and many others really don’t give a shit about what the state of the alpha quadrant will be 100 years after TNG.

Are we allies with the Dominion now? Has the Klingon empire overthrown the Romulan Empire? …That’s exactly NOT what Star Trek is about. At least it didn’t used to be.

Mbenga, M.D.

“STAR TREK” NEEDS TO GO BACKWARDS…

…meaning: Release STAR TREK’s XI, XII and XIII, then release a new animated series either for Saturday mornings or for the Cartoon Network, and THEN… MAYBE… take a wack at another full-blown TV series. (As opposed to the TOS, TAS, TMP route from 1969-79.)

I’m much more excited about new TREK films. The thought of yet another TV series fills me with dreadful images of “transporter accident” and “Holodeck” episodes. Don’t need more of THOSE anytime soon…

#25
i hear ya dennis, and as usual it’s an excellent point. but at it’s conception, it made a lot of sense to go from “wagon train to the stars” to “old fort near the wormhole” because that western model is a very good one for drama in scifi.

imagine if DS9 had in fact been produced in the 60’s, where harry mudd would have been running quark’s bar (“harry’s saloon”) and the production design would have looked like a scifi sergio leone film. it would’ve been brilliant.

but i always kind of despised the production of DS9. the writing was condescending.

Hes spot on about DS9. I await the return of THE SISKO!!!