Last month we reported that formerStar Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager writer/producer Bryan Fuller mentioned in an interview that he would like to create his own Star Trek TV show. It appears this wasn’t just idle talk. In a new interview thePushing Daisies creator says that he is actively perusing this goal of bringing old school-style Trek back to the small screen.
Back to the future for Fuller’s Trek
In an interview with iF Magazine about Pushing Daisies, the subject of Trek came up. Fuller got specific:
iF: you also wrote for STAR TREK VOYAGER, which is quite the opposite of PUSHING DAISIES, what do you find you enjoy more the quirky or the science fiction. Do you think or do you want to ever get back into sci –fi genre?
FULLER: Absolutely. I told my agent and told the people of J.J. Abrams team I want to create another STAR TREK series and have an idea that I’m kicking around. I would love to return to the spirit of the old series with the colors and attitude. I loved VOYAGER and DEEP SPACE NINE, but they seem to have lost the ‘60s fun and I would love to take it back to its origin.
In case you missed it…here is what Fuller previously said to MTV about his ambition for Trek on TV
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.
‘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 just might be the one – but are they looking for one?
In 1997, at the age of 28, Bryan Fuller started off his Hollywood with Star Trek and he went on to write 21 episodes over 4 years (2 in DS9’s last season and the rest in the 4th-7th seasons of Voyager). He moved up the ranks, eventually being made a producer on Voyager in its last season in 2001. He is very much a Trek fan and although he was mostly active with Trek during what many might consider ‘the lean years,’ Fuller wrote some of the better character-based stories. Like Ron Moore and others, Fuller is one of those members of the stable that appear to have been under-utilized while working on Trek. His post-Trek career has involved writing and producing for the hit Heroes as well as creating multiple TV series, including the hit Pushing Daises.
Fuller is certainly the kind of guy that the powers that be would take a meeting with if they were considering bringing Trek back. However, according to sources, the plan for the short term is to wait and see how well JJ Abrams new Star Trek feature does before considering bringing Star Trek back to the small screen. But just about a year from now JJ Abrams Star Trek will be hitting the DVD shelves and the pilots for the 2010-2011 season will just start to go into development, so who knows.
Fuller mentions JJ Abrams in relation to his pursuit of Trek on TV, but it isn’t clear what role if any the JJ Abrams team would have. Abrams (and his production company Bad Robot) has a production deal with Paramount for feature films, however his TV deal is with Warner Brothers (who is producing Fringe and other TV projects). CBS owns the rights to Trek on TV and it is likely that any new Trek TV show would be produced by CBS (although CBS could sell the show to any broadcast or cable network).
For more from Fuller, see the full interview at iF Magazine (Part 1 & Part 2).
sounds brilliant to me….
as excited I am for the movie a new OS style series would be AMAZING!!!
nice!
Looking forward to it.
Why should they give it back to a loser from Voyager/TNG? Let the new crew do their thing. I’m sure Tim Kazurinsky and Nora Dunn have some amazing ideas for Saturday Night Live too but they’re not going to get the shot.
I tried to watch Pushing Daisies, but it gave me sugar diabetes
I have to say any new trek on tv would be awesome.
…not first…
#3
Try reading the article… hardly a loser.
He loved Voyager? Man, that’s a bad sign.
Stan…that kind of personal attack gets you a warning.
keep it civil people
Um… a loser from “Voyager/TNG”? This guy had nothing to do with The Next Generation. And, being an avid Star Trek fan, I still count TNG as the best of all the series. Voyager, on the other hand, would rank a distant last.
Okay, I’m in!
I know alot of people have issues with some of the later shows but going back and watching them again recently, all the way from TNG to DS9 to Voyager and then Enterprise. and I found that they werent all that bad like i had remembered (Enterprise and Voyager i mean, I’ve always loved TNG and DS9).
I personally wouldnt mind something in the TNG era that harks back to the TOS stylings, or maybe even some kind of non Enterprise Side story set in the TOS Era.
But maybe thats just me
Bad Idea Jeans
“Young minds fresh ideas. Be tolerant. “
DS9 was my favorite series, because it had a begining, middle and end unlike the other series. DS9 was a bit dark and got political and religous at times, and that is what I liked about it.
It would be great to have a new series in the vien of OS, but I would like to see the between ST:Generations and NG stories.
What’s holding this deal up? Make it so!
“you also wrote for STAR TREK VOYAGER, which is quite the opposite of PUSHING DAISIES”
Actually they have a lot in common, they’re both crap!
I think it’s a terrible idea. Get the new Star Trek film out there, see if it’s successful and still has some sort of mass appeal, than weigh the options of either more Star Trek films (I prefer this) and/or whatever other creative possibilities there are out there. Star Trek did need time to rest and pumping out another series at this juncture seems like a mistake: Trek isn’t going to ever vanish, so I don’t see any purpose in possibly killing it with again more over-exposure like the house of cards that fell over time with the end of TNG, into DS9 and Voyager, and finally and pathetically with Enterprise… That should be a valuable lesson to mover and shakers handling the Trek property.
Any new Star Trek series would have to be done in the golden era of Starfleet (the 23rd Century) for me to get excited…I don’t want to see any more holodecks or holodeck adventures!!!
Give me the sexy, action friendly, frontier type Star Trek I fell in love with as a kid…not any technobabble heavy, sterilized, “utopian” perversion of that.
It’s got to be all about the characters and stories.
With that said, I don’t think an association with VOY has anything to do with how he should be evaluated as a potential candidate. I think it’s safe to say he wasn’t at the helm of that ship! I don’t know much about the man, but I do know Paramount is right to wait out the results of the new film and its reception before committing to anything like that.
I think itd be a BIG mistake to bring back trek to the tv series so soon…(not to mention having one of the VOYAGER producers do it!..)
Star Trek needs to find its feet on the big screen again….and (if its a success) hopefully enjoy a run of about 2 or 3 further movies unhindered by any tv show running at the same time as they need to focus on the MOVIE series only for the next few years IMO
yes that right i said ‘unhindered’ as although TNG was very successful when treks V and VI were in cinemas theres little doubt the multiple spin offs after that harmed the movie franchaise and made the movies feel less of an event (although part of the problem was probably more the producers of the spin offs also overseeing the movies)
so i say keep tv away from trek for the time being…
I think I will take a wait and see on this one.
I got it! The perfect idea for Fuller to manage, one that will have everyone talking for days and days!
Wait for it….
“Star Trek: Excelsior”!!
*ducks*
HELL NO. Let’s leave Star Trek in new hands and not in those who ran it into the ground, something Voyager played a HUGE part in doing.
GOD NO!
No lame, cheesy, unrealistic, bullcrap, flashy colors, 60’s TOS star trek
the new movie is as far as I’m willing to accomodate TOS, Bad enough they kept the ridiculous uniforms
yep, tolerant Trekkers… a rare breed.
I haven’t seen Pushing Daisies yet, but as much as I love Voyager, it’s full potential was never realized, and was subsequently my least favorite of the Treks. I don’t think Fuller would be the man who should be behind the wheel.
He wrote for voyager and yet wants to return to the TOS style. For the love of god cant anyone actually move forwards with startrek, not be stuck in its past. Lets take a look at TOS, it lasted 3 seasons on TV, and yet somehow TNG, DS9, and VOY get so much crap yet each lasted 7 seasons. Hell, even Enterprise beat TOS by a season. Honestly, I want to see what happens in the Trek universe after Nemesis, even if its not with the TNG crew and I think they need to work off of what worked with those 3 series’s and what didnt, not just go back to old star trek.
Xai,
Agreed. We love tolerance and acceptance of everything… except when it comes to the show itself. If they can do it well, that would be good.
And why are people not reading the “BETTER CHARACTER-BASED STORIES” part? That part is, actually, in front of Voyager. Voyager, like all the Treks has its moments.
DS9 and TNG are still my faves, with Voyager in a close second. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the lack of a continuous storyline, which is something I loved about DS9. If they can keep it flowing from episode to episode, that would be wonderful.
I think it’s safe to say that the concept of Voyager was not the problem, but the execution was, shall we say, lacking.
I am all for new TV trek, but not if it is anything as incoherent and badly executed as Voyager was.
You know, I’d actually like to see some of the “Lost Era” stuff. There’s this nice-sized gap that needs fixing. Either that, or move on with it already and go post-nem.
hey i’m for it !!:D
NO, NO, NO, NO. NO MORE TREK ON TV UNTIL, LIKE, 2020.
Plus, how can he say it needs to ‘recreate itself’ on one hand, and on the other say he wants to go back to something a la 60’s Trek? “So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up.” Like DS9? Great show, maybe, but didn’t exactly grab the mainstream audience by the short hairs.
Let the new film open up the existing shows for new people. There’s a really great show called ‘Star Trek’, out now on DVD. That’s all anyone needs.
I could never get into Voyager. It had a few decent moments but for the most part, seemed so detached from Trek and unemotional. I never bonded with the characters, never cared what happened to them, could care less they were lost, so what. Blah. I liked TNG more because the characters had…well, character. The writing was a bit deeper as well. It was a little more sterile than TOS, but it was it’s own show and was good as such. Enterprise could have been better, too.
To me the 4th Season of Enterprise was a lot closer to the Tos Series as far as stories and Action. It was a lot more fun on the 4th season and a lot more like TOS. It bridged with and felt better. The First 3 seasons were just not that great. A few good Episodes but just a few. I would love to see a new series But Lets make it after the 4th season of Enterprise and make it about the Romulan Wars and How all that happend and then at some point lead it in to Capt Pikes Enterprise or maybe make it about The Enterprise with a Young Spock and Capt Pike. So many possibilities and so many storys can be told. Just keep Berman away. Sorry Anthony. I had to say that.
Complain all ye’ want… I still watch Voyager… I mean it be better than “Star Trek: 7th Heaven” and “Star Trek: Benson”… I mean what tha’ bloody hell wuz wit’ them shows? Whale biologist and V’Ger freak ta’gether wit’ kids??? And then Odo and Neelix team up in politics? I didda not see any phazors fire even… and those bloody awful uniforms!
I got a show fur ye’…. Cap’n Janeway goes and solves murder mysteries her husband should be solving…
How about a special called “Borgy Orgy”?
Maybe focus on Spock’s ancestors workin’ in coalmines in “How Green Was My Vulcan”…
“Enterprize Revisited” with new expendable engineer Commander Slip Sucker…
Arrrrrrr…
Enterpise definitely got better in the fourth. The Mirror episodes were amazing, because it finally brought back a bit of that old fashioned dirt and grime.
Let’s just see how this plays out.
Yes?
guys, Star Trek was Fullers first job as a writer when he was in his 20s. He joined the show in the 4th season (after writing 2 episodes for DS9 in its final season). He didn’t become a producer until the final season and was never the show runner. He did a good job working within the system as one of the lower guys in the roster. Since then he has shown off his talent and ability to write, produce and create shows. I would imagine that Fuller would agree with many of the critiques of Voyager. It is clear from his comments that any new Trek show he made would not be like voyager. I for one would love to see what he has in mind.
There’s a reason why JJ Abrams has Trek.
Let HIM tell the stories for a few years….
No TV, no spin offs, no nothing. Let’s just make some killer movies.
“Get Back to where you once belong.”
Doing another weekly TREK TV series concurrently with a TREK movie series is just dumb. I would have hoped TPTB would have learned a valuable lesson from the last time this was done. Say whatever you will about George Lucas, at least he was smart enough not to produce a continually running STAR WARS TV series with his movies, even though he could have made a boat load of money doing it. He waited until the movie series concluded it’s run. He understood the cons of doing such a thing outweigh the pros.
Personally I think it would be the coolest thing ever. It would be awesome to have a show in the Captain Pike era, with a younger Mr. Spock and “Number One,” Dr. Boyce, Yeoman Colt et al. (The Lost era comics were just amazing)
It would be even cooler if it was done in the 60’s retro style – maybe risky, but there would certainly be nothing like it on TV!
VOY was all wrong. I could never find anything to latch on to, least of all the ship. That was a creatively uninspired ship. Janeway sounded sanctimonious, Chakotay was a waste, B’Ellana was too pretty to be interesting, and the black Vulcan idea was just cheap parlor tricks.
If they pull this movie off, they own the franchise and there won’t be any B-Television anymore.
#16
Speak for yourself, Pushing Daisies is as far from crap as you can get. It’s one of the best shows on TV right now. It’s fairytale/fantasy, so it’s going to be a little saccharine for some, but it’s an excellent show.
Some of you guys are being harsh here. If CBS/Paramount agree to it, what’s the harm in both J.J. and Bryan showing their visions? It could work out perfectly, geesh!
Space is V A S T and I think the problem of the post TOS shows is they made the Galaxy seem rather cramped together with more and more alien races.
There is something cool about the Earth Outposts we visited in TOS. There are dozens of Earth colonies out there that we never got a chance to see. Many are isolated and out of regular contact for years at a time. And a major part of the duty of a star ship is to “check in” on these far-off places.
If there is a new show, I would hope the producers would make the stories more about the people who are exploring this Final Frontier rather than a new alien of the week.
I think Pushing Daisies is a an excellent and completely original show( for a change)
Not another sickening recycled Cop / CSI / Lawyer type show.
Pushing Daisies is just as colorful and inventive as ALL of those great shows from the 60’s were.
There was this one partucular show I liked back then that I just can’t remember the name of………..something that had a guy with pointed ears in it or something?
I’ll tell you if it comes to me.
; )
ST-TOS is by FAR my favorite television series. No equivocation. I’ve long thought that an OS-era revival TV show would be a great idea, so I’m for this idea. Maybe its time has come (again). I would love to see a new show with the seat-of-the-pants adventure of the first Trek, with bright colors, bold stories, in-yer-face music, the whole thing. Bryan Fuller has the right idea. I actually think the Star Trek concept works better as a television series than as feature films. Features always seemed to be more about making money than about telling good stories, or serving the concept.
And just so you don’t think I’m a total OS Trek troll, I liked the spin-offs (and most of the movies) well enough, and even spent several months writing a spec script for Voyager when they were accepting over-the-transom submissions. It was a personally rewarding exercise — putting words into the Voyager crew’s mouths and putting them through their paces was a lot of fun — and I was really pleased with the result. I sent it to Lolita Fatjo, and it was dutifully returned to me, exactly one year later, apparently unread. Ah well.
It’s be fun to think I could try again with a new retro-style teevee Trek series.
Scott B. out.
Y’all can bet your bottom dollars that if JJ’s Trek is successful, CBS will have a series on the air within 12 months.
Mr. Fuller shows he’s a fan, and, sorry Chang’s Gang, Trek is, first and foremost, a TV show. If he gets a crack at it, and he’s obviously trying to, he must realize that DS9 was not a “gritty” alternative to TNG. Nor was VOY a needed fresh take on Star Trek afforded by the Delta Quadrant’s distance from the UFP. And Enterprise excelled when it embraced its heritage, and sucked when it strayed.
Don’t make Trek “colorful” or add “attitude” unless it propels the story forward. “24” has ‘attitude’, and it’s been on the air for years with declining levels of interest. Maybe Trek would benefit from “intelligence,” “character” and “story-telling.” Be nice if our show led again, instead of followed.
Boy, a lot of people are harsh here.
Why do Xai and Anthony sound like the only voices of reason here?
Here’s my theory: Paramount will not greenlight a series yet. They’ll wait for this movie to be a success, then greenlight a sequel. If that one hits, THEN they’ll probably do another series. Just my opinion.
Meanwhile, Fuller by himself isn’t enough to get me excited (though of course I would tune in if he came up with something).
I read after Enterprise was canceled that Manny Coto had an idea for a new series, but was going to sit on it for a while. Now THAT I would love to see!
Sounds great to me! I can’t stand there being no new Trek on TV anymore! He has written great episodes for Trek already, so I don’t see anything stopping him!
None of the international, high grossing film franchises make the mistake of doing a high quality, continually running TV series with it, even though each of them could, and make a lot of money doing so–assuming it works. If it doesn’t, you run the risk of tarnishing your film product.
By spending 150 million on this film, TREK is wanting to play with the big boys, and if so, it should follow the rules the big boy play by. James Bond, Batman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jason Bourne, and Pirates of the Caribbean are special events. Each of these franchises makes the audiences hunger for their film product. They make it an event when the movie is released. They make the movie appear to be something special. How can all this happen if you can get it weekly on TV and for free?
Please, no more TREK on TV!
#47
another “voice of reason”. I doubt mine is