There was a moment that was easy to miss during the Star Trek Day live event, but the man in charge of the Star Trek Universe for Paramount+ talked for the first time about what may be the next show.
Kurtzman on Starfleet Academy
Executive producer Alex Kurtzman couldn’t make it to the live event due to shooting overseas (for a non-Star Trek project) but he did beam into the event with a pre-recorded chat with host Wil Wheaton. Kurtzman talked about the legacy of the franchise, how the fans have kept it alive for 55 years, and how he and those working on the current shows feel a “debt” to the fans and those that came before them producing previous Trek shows.
Eventually, Wheaton got around to asking Kurtzman if he could “tease anything in Star Trek’s future.” Alex initially indicated that we should not expect a sixth show anytime soon:
As much as we have five shows on the air—which is kind of a miracle—we are not in a hurry, meaning we only want to put things on the air that we feel are worth it.
Unprompted, he then began to talk about a specific project and some of the themes of this potential future show:
I know there has been a lot of conversations about Starfleet Academy, which we are very excited about. And Wil, when we talked about there’s this new generation that is going to come and it’s going to inherit the problems of the old generation. What are they going to do to make the world better, to solve it. How are we going to avoid the mistakes of our elders? And how are we going to learn from the wisdom of our elders? That’s a really wonderful thing to consider when you think about something like Starfleet Academy.
This is not the first time we are hearing about a Starfleet Academy show being developed by Kurtzman, but it actually is the first time he’s spoken openly about it. In 2018, when Kurtzman was first tasked to expand the Star Trek Universe for CBS All Access (now Paramount+), Variety reported an Academy show as one of the potential projects in development, coming from YA-focused writer/producers Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz (known for shows like The OC and Gossip Girl). Savage and Schwartz recently signed a first-look streaming deal with Apple, so it’s unclear if they are still attached. The Academy series was also mentioned again in an August New York Times profile of Kurtzman when he extended his Paramount+ Star Trek Universe deal for another five years.
Of course, Kurtzman is familiar with Starfleet Academy as it played a big part in the 2009 Star Trek movie, which he co-wrote. That film began with Kirk, McCoy, and Uhura as cadets, and Spock was an instructor.
Starfleet Academy in 2009 Star Trek movie
Cadets in space
The San Francisco-based Starfleet Academy has been seen and referenced throughout Star Trek history on multiple shows and movies as well as in the extended universe of books, comics, and video games. It is where Starfleet officers go to be trained before heading out on their adventures. However, as Kurtzman went on, it felt like the show that they are envisioning would include an element of featuring cadets on a ship…
When you are a kid on a starship, you are still figuring out who you are. When you are an adult on a starship it presumes that you have already gone through Starfleet Academy, that you have found your identity more or less. And when you are at the Academy, so much is still on the air. I think that is a very interesting mirror to the moment that we are in right now.
Cadets being part of a starship crew is something we have seen in Star Trek, like Sylvia Tilly on Star Trek: Discovery. And of course, Wil Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher was an “acting ensign” on board the USS Enterprise-D on Star Trek: The Next Generation. After Kurtzman brought up the Academy show, Wheaton offered up himself as a consultant, saying he had stories about “what it is like to have been a child on a Starship surrounded by adults.” Kurtzman replied: “I want to hear all of them.”
And there are more Academy-related things coming in 2022. It was just revealed that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will feature Uhura as a cadet on the USS Enterprise. There are indications that Star Trek: Picard season two will include a storyline where Raffi returns to Starfleet to work at the Academy. A trailer for Picard released earlier this year featured a moment with Raffi and Admiral Picard—who also appears to rejoin Starfleet—at an event at Starfleet Academy.
Raffi and Picard at Starfleet Academy in season two teaser
What about Section 31?
It’s noteworthy that when asked about what’s next for Star Trek, Kurtzman brought up the Starfleet Academy series but did not mention the Michelle Yeoh Section 31 show, which was officially announced to be in development in early 2019. A writers’ room for that show was put together and it was supposed to go into production in 2020, but earlier this year Kurtzman said that while the COVID production halt put those plans on hold, he remained “very optimistic” about the Section 31 project.
Kurtzman’s Star Trek Day chat
Watch the full video of Kurtzman on Star Trek Day below (international version available on StarTrek.com).
Star Trek Day
There is still more to come for Star Trek Day, so stay tuned to TrekMovie. And check out our full Star Trek Day coverage.
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The fact he didn’t mention Section 31 likely means it’s been put on the backburner, especially since he explicitly mentioned Starfleet Academy instead, and honestly, I’d rather an Academy series over Section 31 any day of the week (and I’m one of those people who hasn’t been very impressed with his Trek shows).
It’s been on the back burner since Covid started. The Starfleet Academy show is no different.
And hopefully it will stay there. ;)
…and be burnt to a crisp in the burner!
This never ending ‘Starfleet Academy’ idea for a TV series/movie that has been passed on from one Showrunner/Ex Producer to another over the decades is tired and expired and is the most uninteresting Trek for me. It would be Utopian Earthbound and have all the cadets get holodeck trained and party hard at Starfleet academy. I didn’t bother with the video game back in the day.
Well my comment was actually aimed towards the Section 31 show but I know a lot of fans feel the same way about the Academy show too. ;)
End of the day I’m going to give everything a chance. As fans most of us will. Neither of these show ideas sound like big winners for the fanbase but yes both can be good. Ironically I was more for the Section 31 idea until I saw how badly they portrayed them on DIS. I didn’t have a single problem with them being there and in fact was looking forward to see how they handled them in the 23rd century since we only saw them in the 24th and 22nd century, so it was nice to sort of fill in their presence in the 23rd. I just felt (like a lot of Discovery), it went far too off from what we already knew about them and they went overboard on the technological aspects, biggest one, Control itself.
As far as the Academy idea, my guess is there is also a reason that one is taking longer to get off the ground because there isn’t a real excitement about it either. Like Section 31, this show idea was hinted at as far back as 2018. In fact it was rumored as a show literally the same time it was rumored Picard was coming back. The latter got rushed into production because they clearly saw the huge excitement bringing Picard back would have on both the fanbase and (more importantly) subscriptions to AA.
Same thing clearly happened with SNW. That was the ONE show they never actually planned for but once the fans overwhelmingly wanted a Pike show, it happened. It still took years but once they decided to do it, the process was warp speed.
Shows like Section 31 and the Academy show, they clearly WANT to do those shows but they also seem to know fans are a lot more skeptical about them, hence why they are both still on the backburner years later. Hollywood proves over and over again when they smell a sure thing they make it happen ASAP! Picard and SNW felt like sure things and why both were rushed out there. And the fact that SNW beat both Section 31 and the Academy show to the gate when it wasn’t even an idea until after Discovery season 2 proves that. They can spin it how they want but that’s the reality.
The fact Kurtzman brought up the Academy show proves they still want to do it, but it could frankly be years away. Section 31 seems even farther than that one. And even then if they come up with another great idea (like SNW) they know fans will love, then that idea will probably still happen before these shows do.
No. It’s coming. Whether you like it or not.
Just like the Rian Johnson Star Wars trilogy……
LOL!
In the rescent month He alreafy talked a Lot about 31 and He didnt talked about Academy at all….
I will admit, if someone asked me if I wanted a Starfleet academy show a few years ago I would’ve flat out said no (same if someone also asked me if I wanted a Captain Pike show ;)).
But now I’m a lot more open to the idea. And with so many different shows that are dealing with Starfleet ship based shows like Lower Decks, Discovery and Strange New Worlds, then it gives them room to do something like this.
I admit it still wouldn’t be my first preference by far. I would still prefer something post-Picard and maybe a star base type of show ala, DS9. But this could be very interesting. I would like it to still be post-Picard or the 25th century in the timeline but I have a feeling it will be another 24th century based show. Hope to be wrong though.
I’m still super dubious about this one.
There aren’t many television series about this phase in young adults’ lives that actually work.
More, Pandora is out there as an example of how bad dorm melodrama can be. That show found an excuse to get its principal character on a ship by the start of its second season.
Obviously I can’t blame you. Every time the idea came up in the past people called it Star Trek: 90210. Clearly they are trying to target to all demographics out there and this will probably be more for the CW crowd versus PIC, SNW or DIS.
But it doesn’t mean it can’t be good of course. Personally I think if they centered it around a certain group of cadets, like for example the Red Squadron on DS9, the stories can go a lot wider. That was the top elite group of students at the Academy and they actually went on training missions and special operations. That way it’s not just a bunch of cadets going to class all the time, you can still have them doing things in space and even taking on special assignments. If you do something like that, it can work IMO. If it’s just episodes about taking the Kobayashi Maru test or dealing with your boyfriend wanting to drop out of the Academy and etc then yeah it will probably lose a lot of people.
And I never even heard of the show Pandora. I just went and looked it up. It was on the CW, so that explains it. ;)
There are ok things on the CW, and Superman and Lois is amazing.
But I don’t even think that Pandora was made principally for the CW. It just shows though how tough that age and stage is to write for.
Buffy went decidedly downhill when the show moved to college. It just seems to be hard to do well.
LOL I forgot I watch Superman and Lois as well. I just haven’t watched it since it came back a few months ago because I been TOO obsessed with my Star Trek rewatch. It’s been 90% Star Trek, 10% everything else. Most of them are on my DVR but will finish the season when I’m finally rewatched Trek. It is a good show, at least the first half of the season was.
Not to get too off topic, but Superman and Lois in broadcast is cut in the USS for ads. “Extended episodes” run on the app and will when it streams in October.
While not as many minutes are cut as Discovery Season one was for its summer run last year, but Discovery just shortened scenes while Superman and Lois actually left scenes out. Some of the cut scenes were important for plot development later. By contrast, I actually found the cut down episodes of Discovery worked better and seemed more coherent.
That’s ok, off topic is what I’m pretty good at doing here. ;D
I did hear about the extended episodes too and I know they are on the CW app now. But man, they have a TON of commercials on them. Part of me is hoping it comes to HBO Max with the extended scenes and then I will just watch those there. The first half of the season actually made it there but only for a few weeks. Another reason I’m not in a huge rush to finish it if I can watch those instead of what I recorded on my DVR. When you say streams in October, do mean there or will that be on Netflix like the other CW shows? Of course I have that as well. There are basically like 8-9 episodes for me to still watch.
Never knew that about Discovery either.
HBO Max Tiger2.
Great! Glad to hear it! Then I’ll just wait for it there and will (hopefully) be done with my grand rewatch by then! Thanks. :)
I’m probably showing my age here, but the one college-set show that I thought was done really well was “A Different World”. Plenty of comedy, of course, but it was very good at much more serious stuff from time to time too.
Actually it’s just occurred to me that Glynn Turman would be fantastic casting as the main professor in the Starfleet Academy show. He memorably played Colonel Taylor in A Different World, and more recently he had major roles in The Wire and the most recent season of Fargo.
But it obviously all depends on what kind of vibe the Academy show is going for. Hopefully it won’t be too “teenagy”, if you know what I mean. I think The OC and Smallville are relatively recent examples of shows that did manage to pull it off, but that was because they also had a significant number of older adult characters that had their own major story arcs. I’m still a bit skeptical about the Academy show, but if the storylines are credible and serious, I guess hope springs eternal.
Well I guess I’m showing my age too because I loved A Different World. ;)
I grew up watching that show too and yes it started more light but then got into a lot more serious topics and black issues, which I could relate to at the time. So you’re right, an academic show can have a more serious setting and not just be based around romance or soapish type story lines.
But I would also assume like The OC as you mentioned, they would still focus on the instructors and adults on the show. I was worried LDS would just be about, well, the lower deckers and we would even rarely see the bridge, but that proved wrong as the captain and her senior staff get just as much development as the lower staff. So I think that will go the same direction here. And I have a feeling it will probably be some big legacy character who will be around and will drive the show. Don’t be shocked if it’s Chief O’Brien or even Sulu who will be around to help guide the kids. ;)
That’s actually a good example of a way you can take a genre/sci-fi property, aim it at young adults, and still attract an adult audience.
On Buffy, remember this wasn’t a show designed for the University format. As such it featured characters not in any way part of that setting, and having to split those story lines weekend the overall ability to tell stories. Buffy was fine as it was originally conceived a story about a girl in High School where all her original supporting characters (outside of her Mom) were geared to her high school setting.
Honestly, I love Supes & Lo. That series is neither a sequel to nor a remake of Lo & Clark from 1993. “Lo” is short for “Lois,” of course.
Exactly. But not only can they be good, you can still not like them and they can still be good and popular.
Shows like 90210, The OC, The Inbetweeners, Gossip Girl, My So Called Life– these were all well received and popular shows that i’m guessing most Trekkies probably didn’t enjoy.
Yeah and I actually grew up watching 90210. I was about the same age as those characters at the time (a good friend was actually going to the high school they would film the show in) and watched that like I did TNG, DS9 and VOY since those were all on when that show was on. As Trek fans we obviously watch other shows than just sci fi and genre shows.
I actually binged watched The O.C. last year when I got HBO Max and it was there. It was pretty good as well although the last season could’ve been stronger.
Never watched the others but they all seem be popular for a good reason, they are good. I didn’t realize there was a new Gossip Girl show on HBO Max and that’s just been renewed for season 2. Everything old is new again in Hollywood, hence Star Trek. ;)
The Inbetweeners was easily one of the most vulgar series I have ever seen, but it was a rather accurate look at teenage boyhood.
Red Squadron’s 1st appearance was in the episode The First Duty which aired during TNG’s 5th season. This episode was supposed to be used to launch a Starfleet Academy spinoff series with Wil Wheaton in it. DS9 revisited the Red Squadron while Nog was in the Academy but it wasn’t their first appearance. So when you mention Red Squadron, you should mention it as TNG’s Red Squadron, not DS9’s.
Just thought you should know that you got your facts wrong. Live long and prosper 🖖.
LOL thanks!
But I had no idea that was suppose to be a spin off idea for Wesley. Wow that is cool! So it looks like they been trying to get an Academy show off the ground for awhile. As I said in my OP, its not my first preference but yeah it can work.
Yeah, they’ve been trying to do an Academy story since all the way back in the ’80s. I believe there’s a making of segment for Star Trek V on the DVD or Blu Ray and in it, Harve Bennett is interviewed and that’s where he said that he felt the TOS crew’s story had been told with the trilogy they just did and that The Voyage Home should’ve been the end of their story in the movies because that was considered to be such a blockbuster at the time. And he also said that the only way he saw to use Kirk, Spock, and McCoy again was to tell about their days at Starfleet Academy together. But Gene Roddenberry didn’t see things that way and Harve Bennett left and that was back in 1987 so, yeah, they’ve been wanting to use the Academy for a story point for awhile now.
There’s also a two book set called The 50 Year Mission. It’s a pretty awesome read about all the stuff behind the scenes of all of the Star Trek shows. And it’s not just told from the actor’s perspective but writers, producers, directors, costumers, etc etc. Anybody who ever worked on any of the Star Trek shows is interviewed in these books.
It’s a great read if you want to check it out and glad I could tell you something new about Star Trek today 🙂. Live long and prosper 🖖.
Oh yeah I know all about the Harve Bennett Academy movie idea. I’ve discussed it in a number of places including here, probably when this Academy show was brought up. But the first time I heard about it was from reading William Shatner’s Movie Memories book in the mid-90s. He talks about it there and I remember being shocked over the idea. This was still just a few years after TUC came out and I was one of those fans (especially at that time) that couldn’t imagine younger actors taking over for the original cast, especially for the final movie. I understood Bennett’s reasoning, but SO happy it never happened. ;)
I heard about the 50 Year Mission book but never read it. It definitely sounds like a great read though. Maybe one day I’ll get around to reading that one too.
Ha,ha,ha 🙂! I totally agree with you with what you said about having different actors play Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. I couldn’t see it as a kid and I still don’t want somebody else playing Captain Kirk other than William Shatner. I had to grin and bear it when Chris Pine played Captain Kirk.
But it’s not William Shatner. I was just at a virtual panel with him back in July and he read one of my questions that I submitted for him. And the question I wrote to him was “How much of him is in Captain Kirk”? And he replied, which was so awesome, and he said that Captain Kirk IS him. What we watch on screen is actually William Shatner being himself, his own words.
And he talked about how actors always put a part of themselves into any role they play and that’s why when the role is done, actors try to distance themselves from it. But, with Captain Kirk, he said he just played himself and I think that’s awesome! That’s why no one will ever really be able to play Captain Kirk. They can recast him as much as they want but Captain Kirk IS William Shatner.
And Sir Patrick Stewart is doing the same thing with Picard. He’s playing him more like he’s Sir Patrick and he’s said that in numerous interviews for the Picard TV show. His exact words were that he’s changed so why wouldn’t Jean-Luc Picard change? He probably took that from William Shatner because they are friends in real life since Generations, you know?
But, anyways, I loved your story about Movie Memories. I read Star Trek Memories but I didn’t get around to Movie Memories. I read Star Trek Memories when I was 15. Almost thirty years ago now.
Crazy, huh? It’s definitely on my list. I can’t work no more because I have a medical condition called Huntington’s Disease so I have a LOT of spare time to read and watch Star Trek. Live long and prosper 🖖.
What is your source for this statement? I’ve never heard that rumor before; and I’m highly skeptical of it, given that Wil Wheaton left a starring role in TNG one year earlier on less-than-friendly terms and appeared to have somewhat tired of acting by that point. There was also the general unpopularity (fair or now) of the Wesley Crusher character, which makes him risky as a series lead.
It wasn’t supposed to star Wesley Crusher. It was supposed to be a Starfleet Academy series with Wesley making appearances now and again. That was one of the reasons why Wil Wheaton left TNG was because they wanted to do an Academy spinoff. And this is pretty common knowledge if you grew up in the ’90s watching TNG and reading the Star Trek fan magazine.
It was also all over the Internet back then in the early-’90s. And it’s in that two book set that I mentioned above – The 50 Year Mission. I mean it’s common knowledge that Paramount wanted a Starfleet Academy series but I think Gene Roddenberry was the one who put a stop to it. As a matter of fact, Robert Duncan MacNeill has even stated at conventions about how he was approached to do a Starfleet Academy series long before he was offered Voyager.
Sorry, if that offends you but it’s the truth. Do some investigation and find out for yourself. I was a teenager when all of this was going on. Now I’m 42 years old.
I think I know what I’m talking about. Especially since you can confirm this everywhere you look. Once again, it wasn’t to star Wesley. He was just supposed to make appearances now and again. If you misconstrued what I said then that’s on you.
I mean you should have enough intelligence to figure out what someone really means. I’m not a politician so I’m not gonna let you use my words against me. I know what I meant. Go get a brain, Scarecrow. Live long and prosper 🖖.
Roddenberry died in October 1991 (and, IIRC, was not healthy or professionally for two years before that). TNG “The First Duty” aired in March 1992. For this theory to be credible, the series would have (1) had to be in development for 18 months, at most, before “The First Duty,” and (2) Roddenberry already undermining the project at that time.
On the second point, Roddenberry demanded cuts to TUC after having viewed the final product days before his passing; Paramount ignored him. He disliked “Family”; again, they ignored him. His active involvement with TNG was largely confined to season one. Development of DS9 started in 1991, and while he was apparently made aware of it, no attempt was made to seek his consent. He simply lacked the clout within Paramount at that time to do what you’re suggesting he did.
On the first point, as noted, DS9 did go into development somewhere around 18 months before the premiere. But there are counterexamples: TOS “Assignment Earth” was a trial run before committing resources to the series, as was VOY “Flashback.” (Had the latter been a real hit, I suspect we might have seen a Sulu series go into development, rather than ENT.) Given the unpopularity of Wesley Crusher’s character, it makes sense that “The First Duty” would have preceded work on a spinoff series.
On your “go get a brain, Scarecrow,” point, I’ve read a reasonable amount Trek behind-the-scenes material from those days, and I’ve simply never heard this rumor before. If it’s as “common knowledge” and “all over the internet” as you suggest (“the internet” being mostly Usenet in those years), it should be easy to point to some historical sources discussing it.
Neither Tim Lynch’s review of “The First Duty” nor Jamahl Episcopkhan’s mentions the episode as the launchpad for a new series, and Tim Lynch was well connected enough that he would have surely known about it.
Would it entirely surprise me to learn that Berman or whoever had a watercooler conversation about the idea at some point? Of course not: brainstorming is a thing. But that’s not the same as writing a spec script, let alone committing serious resources to a pilot and casting. (There were, of course, more serious discussions about Harve Bennett’s idea for a Starfleet Academy film, and he apparently approached Sherry Lansing about an academy series around 2000; according to Memory Alpha, the idea intrigued her at that point, but the studio was already committed to ENT and, mercifully, avoided today’s all-you-can-eat approach to producing multiple Star Trek series concurrently.)
As for whether or not this rumor “offends me,” I couldn’t care less, and I’m mystified as to why you react with such hostility to a historical discussion. (God forbid you ever wade into a debate about the 1619 Project.) I’ve simply seen no historical evidence that the rumor is true, and a lot of evidence that casts doubt on its plausibility. If I’m wrong, so be it. That said, I do think Paramount absolutely made the right call in passing on Bennett’s treatment, and (his bemoaning of the fact that fans didn’t appreciate his “powerful love story”) that it was more likely to be Tiny Toon Trek than the next ROMEO AND JULIET; and that the poorly-executed Academy scenes in Star Trek 09 bear my opinion out.
I don’t really care about your opinion, dude. I lived it so it’s not a “historical fact” to me. I experienced “the golden age” of Star Trek, not you apparently. All you’ve done is read books.
I don’t need proof because your opinion is pointless and doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Wesley left in the 4th season of TNG. He left to set up a Starfleet Academy show. I’ve already stated that over and over again.
Robert Duncan MacNeill mentioned the show and how he was approached to do it on his podcast with Garrett Wang. Whether The First Duty was the set-up for the Starfleet Academy show or The Final Mission was the set-up is up for conjecture. They had the Starfleet Academy idea in the ’80s because that was supposed to be the original setting for Star Trek V. Now I’m just repeating what I’ve already said.
As for Gene Roddenberry, he delegated everything to Rick Berman but he still had an office on the lot and Majel handled a lot of the stuff that he just couldn’t take care of anymore. Michael Pillar took over TNG in the 3rd season and I believe it was him and Berman, along with Paramount, that were pushing for the Academy show and it was being pushed during the 25th anniversary. I never mentioned anything about any other spinoff other than the Starfleet Academy one. Oh, and just so you know they actually started working on DS9 in 1990.
That’s why there’s a little bit of controversy surrounding DS9. Because J. Michael Straczynski brought Babylon 5 to Paramount in the summer of 1990. Paramount didn’t buy it but they greenlit a Star Trek series that was set on a space station almost immediately after they saw him. Go read the books The 50 Year Mission.
As for The Undiscovered Country, everybody knows how unhappy Gene was with it. And he was unhappy because it was supposed to be the swan song for the TOS crew and Gene didn’t want to let them go. But every movie the TOS crew did together, their paychecks got higher. Until Paramount said enough is enough and they decided to move the TNG crew into the movies.
I know just as much as you if not more when it comes to Star Trek. I’m 42 years old and I lived through it, not you. Oh, and wait a minute, when was the 25th anniversary? That’s right, that was during the 5th season of TNG.
So that means that The First Duty was the spin-off episode, just like I said and Robert Duncan MacNeill said. Your opinion is pointless. I believe Roddenberry killed the show because they couldn’t sign Wil Wheaton to a full-time contract. And just so you know, Wesley was an extremely popular character on TNG back in the day.
That’s one of the reasons why he was on the bridge from the beginning. The other was Roddenberry loved the character of Wesley and he saw Wesley as him on the bridge. He saw himself in Wesley. Once again, go read the books The 50 Year Mission since all you do is like to read about life instead of living it.
Also, the only people that found Wesley to be annoying were non-Trek fans. If he was so annoying he wouldn’t’ve been promoted to a full Ensign, now would he? And if you really want to find out if there was supposed to be an Academy spinoff, go and send a DM to Rod Roddenberry or how about Wil Wheaton even because I’m done with this conversation. I lived and experienced everything Trek back then, not you.
Live long and prosper, p’tagh 🖖!
Pandora was a Canadian export purchased by the CW to cover some holes in its production schedule. It wasn’t something ever made for the CW. It was produced at a much cheaper level then what even gets made for the CW. Now the CW has partnered with corporate partners to air things like Swamp Thing (made at a substantial higher cost), and Stargirl and Superman & Lois (Superman & Lois is produced to be the level of a solid cable show, with far greater production values). But Pandora was awful with decidedly sub par acting, and dialogue that was pretty damn awful.
There are PLENTY of shows about this phase in young adults lives that have worked, just none that worked for YOU. As has oft been said: not every Trek show from Paramount now is going to be aimed at you or me.
Prodigy is just for kids.
Lower Decks is an adult animated comedy.
“Starfleet Academy” would be for teens.
Even among the “grown up dramas” I feel like there’s going to be a demo skew: Discovery will be more for the modern audience, Picard is for those who grew up on TNG, and if I had to guess, Strange New Worlds would be more of a general audience show.
I like this approach. It’s smart for the future of the franchise. Continuing to cater to a smaller and smaller group of diehard Trekkies over 50 was never going to result in anything but the franchise’s demise.
Trek needs to attract a broader audience, a younger audience, a more diverse audience, if it’s going to compete with everything else that’s out there in 2021.
Well said. And with expansion of that diversity behind the camera and in the writers’ rooms, we can see more facets of the human experience reflected in those stories.
I think the thing I’d really like to see is more of a West Wing type drama about the politics of the future, or just something about what regular life is like on Earth in the future, which ironically we almost NEVER see in any Star Trek show or movie.
So many questions we need to answer, like: Did it take WWIII to finally convince Marin County to let people build high density apartment buildings? :)
But seriously, we see like… San Francisco and Paris and that’s about it. How many cities out there were just flattened in WWIII and not rebuilt? Which cities were rebuilt? What do they look like now? In a world where, in theory, you don’t have to live anywhere specific to work somewhere else, how has that affected the design of cities and transportation? Do they still have hot-dog carts and farmers’ markets? Do people still own property or is everything just allocated by the state?
Maybe the showrunners think that making specific predictions about Earth ties too closely to the real world, so it’s safer in the long run to take a story from the headlines and turn it into an allegory with aliens (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, etc) but still, I think there’s potential in having a view of the future that isn’t explicitly shown through a pseudo-military lens, but through a civilian one.
Oh I agree, I didn’t say it was impossible, just that it was hard.
And that’s why I’m sceptical.
I’m generally on board with the menu of shows for different audience niches, but this one is particularly fraught.
I just hope that by choosing the EPs from the OC, they have the sense to avoid the lurid melodrama, unnecessary deceit and secret keeping or endless angst of love triangles that some writers for this age group seem to feel are about the only ways to hold an audience. ( But even the OC is ranked as having one of the most annoying love triangles in recent television.)
Superman and Lois is successful in part because it consciously eschews having its characters make the same typical YA mistakes over and over again. Every time one sees potential for a YA melodramatic trope, it gets resolved in a healthy way instead of cycling on for several soapy arcs. Even in one shortish 15 episode season, all the main cast show growth. And that is holding a very large tent audience regardless of who it was designed for.
Our own teens, who are the kind of kids that loved Voyager as middle graders, would likely love a well done Star Trek show targeted at their age group.
However, I can’t get them to even try a lot of the CW and other shows targeted at their age group.
Superman and Lois is a rare exception wherein really tight writing, high production values, and a coherent intention to write characters driven plots can really elevate a geek culture show. The makers of the Academy show could learn a lot from it.
Our own teens, who are the kind of kids that loved Voyager as middle graders, would likely love a well done Star Trek show targeted at their age group.
With due respect, you continually bring up your own kids as an example in these threads. “Data” is not the plural of “anecdote.” (But if we’re talking personal experience: in high school I knew enough about literature to get a 5 on the AP exam, and I appreciated TNG/VOY for what they were, without needing a kiddified high school drama to induce me to watch.)
The problem with these kiddified dramas is that they generally become babyish, something to be outgrown and then not revisited, and certainly not gateway drugs to the “real” adult fare. The exceptions — work like DAZED AND CONFUSED or Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, or maybe AMERICAN PIE — are avant-garde or mildly subversive, and someone pitching saccharine family-friendly drama isn’t going to take those films as a model.
We’re not going to get moral ambiguity a la “In the Pale Moonlight” or “For the Uniform” in PRODIGY. We’re going to get anodyne homilies, which is no doubt why they resurrected the Janeway character (viz., “Alliances” where she gave sermons about her principles while the ship was literally falling apart in enemy space).
Sorry that bringing up our own kids is getting wearing.
And yes I do understand the difference between individual experience and data.
But first, one of the things about being about a parent is that it challenges my priors and makes me go off and actually look for the data and reasonably well done studies. Our kids are and continue to be daily disrupters of my preconceptions.
While I can and do cite more robust evidence based on both child and adolescent development literature, this isn’t a board for pedantry.
What I’m hoping to do by sharing anecdotes about how our kids overturn expectations is to bring a different perspective. That’s it.
And as Theresa May said, if you’re a citizen of everywhere, you’re a citizen of nowhere. A franchise that tries to be everything to everyone will fail miserably.
Star Trek is never going to be able to out-compete genuine comedic fare (see THE CHAIR and SPACE FORCE, for starters) and it is never going to be able to do high school drama the way that Hunger Games, for instance, did. And kiddifying Star Trek will eventually turn off fans of the classic shows.
None of these shows are going to be remembered fondly in 20 years, the way TOS and TNG are.
Well frankly very few tv shows start with that age group. Felicity is one of the few examples I can think of off the top of my head. But most shows either go slightly older, or start at Freshmen or Sophomore years of High School and as such their concepts are built upon that framework and when the cast eventually age up to university level it usually causes some series headaches. As of course do you have all your cast now go to college and stay in the same location (that isn’t how it works in the US). And most shows aren’t willing to drop most of their cast, and make a logically and reasonable transition to a new location and having new characters. So they keep same cast, make a little bit of material showing that some are going to a nearby university, some are just joining the work force, ect and try and tie all those elements together.
Starting at the Academy could keep a fairly set cast of core characters, supplemented by teaching staff that changes through the year (and we do know that streaming version of Trek is willing to have primary characters who are only part of the show for a year or two, something that was unheard of for broadcast tv). And that could provide several fairly stable seasons. The question then is what does the show do once those cadets graduate. Do you follow them to different assignments (as they shouldn’t all go to one ship). Or does the streaming market make it easier to just accept a shows end when it reaches a natural transition point, instead of driving a shows premise into the ground.
..and they cast twentysomethings as teens. (I’ll give credit to TNG for actually casting a teen in the role of Wesley Crusher.)
One of the reasons why Superman and Lois works is that the teens are actually played by teens. Yes, they are older than their television ages, but the casting team didn’t bring in 20 somethings to play high school freshman.
The other thing is that the adults are portrayed well and the kids are kids who make realistic mistakes for their ages. Which is what really bugged me about the Kelvin movies and made them feel just like fantasy.
I’d really like to seea Starfleet Academy show BUT it needs the right setting…
I’d not be so excited about a Kirk / Spock Academy show. I’d watch it but there are two better options:
Going 32nd century would allow for more necessary world-building and flesh out that century a bit more.
My favourite time frame would be late 24th / early 25th century. There would be lots of potential for classic Trek characters appearing as teachers and guest stars AND some of the main characters could feature some well-known names: Miral Paris, Kirayoshi O’Brien, Naomi Wildman, Kestra Riker etc.
I want nothing too far past VOY. I’d like if they fleshed out late 24th/early 25th setting a bit in live action, but the 32nd century? No thanks. It’s a BORING setting. I am so bewildered by Trek fans obsession with FORWARD! FORWARD! ADVANCE IT MORE!
Yes, although the ages don’t quite line up, I’d love to see some of the legacy kids at the Academy or as young ensigns back for some graduate studies.
In 2400, Miral would be just graduating unless she’d done a bachelor’s degree elsewhere first. Kirayoshi would likely be a lieutenant unless he’s in grad school. Kestra would be a very young cadet at 14 or 15.
No one gives a damn about Kirayoshi O’Brien and the whatever-her-name-is offspring of Tom Paris and B’Elanna Torres. They’re not all going to follow their parents into Starfleet. Some will even be doctors and lawyers and such.
(Kestra Troi-Riker was, surprisingly, that white whale of a Star Trek character: an interest kid, acted well. She might actually be worth a follow-up.)
I would prefer a non-Starfleet but still Federation series.
Could be something to do with Federation politics, ambassadors, law enforcement, science or archaeology.
Totally agree with Tezna. An earth-bound or some other planet-bound show about Federation politics (like The West Wing) would be really good to see. Why do so many Federation politicians and SF admirals become corrupted?
It would be cool to also get a Star Fleet NCIS style investigative/procedural show. Imagine SF NCIS officers on a crime scene in the neutral zone. The Vulcan officer says “When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” The Ferengi officer is doing a forensic analysis of epithelials left on a piece of latinum as he encourages the team to follow the money trail. The Klingon officer, examining the slash angles of the instrument causing the fatality, reminds the team that few species other than *** subject their victims to such a dishonorable death.
Could be interesting.
You could have a Federation Council/President series.
A series about the early days of the Federation trying to recruit new member worlds – there must of been a great deal of reluctance for new member worlds to join in the early years. Its focus around Ambassadors as the leading characters.
Federation law enforcement and security agencies outside of Starfleet, we know they exist. The Federation isn’t just Starfleet.
How abut a real nerdy series around scientists and archaeologist? Finding ancients ruins and civilisations.
There was talk of anthology series in the past. How about one that deals with a season based story set in the past, such as a season on the Romulan war, Vulcan civil war ect. And another anthology series that is based per episode?
You mentioned doing the Romulan War in the Star Trek novel line? I just wanted to respond to you and let you know that they already did that. There’s a duology in the Enterprise novel line called The Romulan War. It covers that whole war.
And there’s a Star Trek novel by Michael Jan Friedman called Star Trek: Year One. It covers the early, early days of Starfleet. It was originally a serialized story that you could only read in the back of the Star Trek novels that came out back in the year 2000. But Simon and Schuster did collect it in a paperback that came out in 2002, I believe.
You can still find it on Amazon if you’re interested in it. And you also mentioned about colonization and the beginning of the Federation. Well, that is explored too in the Enterprise novel line in a series titled The Rise Of The Federation. Also, there is a book that has some archaeology in it. It’s in a TNG novel called The Lost Era: The Buried Age.
It chronicles Captain Picard’s time between losing the Stargazer and getting the Enterprise-D and he goes on an archaeology dig with Data and Deanna Troi. There is a book too in the TNG line called The Devil’s Heart. It too deals with archaeology and digging up an ancient relic. There’s a six book story called New Earth in the TOS novel line.
It came out 20 years ago. That was a great story! It dealt with colonization and terraforming and it introduced a new starship – the USS Challenger! And for politics, there was a book called The Articles Of The Federation.
That dealt with electing a new president. And there was another book called A Singular Destiny which had more politics in it and it showed the formation of this group called The Typhon Pact. The Typhon Pact series itself has a ton of politics in it. I hope my suggestions help you find stuff that you like or want to read about in the Star Trek novels.
I love the Star Trek books ❤️! I’ve got almost 300 of them and that’s not including my Star Trek comics! I hope I was able to help you out and maybe give you some new titles to read. Live long and prosper 🖖.
I agree Tarnwood, I’d like to see the Federation as more than just a backdrop and context for the hero ships.
It would mean really digging into a certain era, but it would still be cool.
For example, it might be interesting to set this in the early 24th century of peace.
I also like the backdrop of the Vanguard Litverse series in the 23rd century after TOS. Vanguard in the books is a station built to support colonization and Federation expansion into a new set of sectors. There are several ships of different sizes assigned to support and explore the expansion. It has both a frontier colonization and a Cold War feel all at once.
While the books would make a good streaming series themselves, it’s more the idea of a frontier station that’s got a very different context than did DS9 that work be promising. We see bits and pieces of colonization in TOS and some colonies and terraforming gone wrong in TNG, but it’s not really explored in any depth.
Hey TG!!!
This thing that you and others (John Austin above) speak of….. books, is it? You imply that there is an entire Star Trek Universe housed in those… those books. Stories which expand and fill and color and give more breadth and depth and scale and scope to ST than most of the shows.
I have lived long but never availed myself of ST literature. Maybe it is time that I do that.
John Austin mentioned two that catch my attention:
The Articles Of The Federation
The Rise Of The Federation
I will check those out. Any other suggestions for a politics-focused literary entry point?
I love the long run of Relaunch novels, and politics run in and out of the them, but that’s interspersed between many books focus on the hero ships and legacy characters.
So it’s hard to point out a particular one as being principally about politics. On the other hand, because the Relaunch authors acted like a writers room under an editor, there are long political arcs that thread through the books and make sense. While there were no movie or television series in production, the authors weren’t constrained to “put all the toys back where they were” at the end of each book. Instead, they followed an overall arc that was mapped out with the other authors and editor.
So, in the Relaunch books there are Federation Presidents and politicians that recur and become established even if they aren’t the principal characters in themselves. Some become beloved heroes and others become villains, but over the course of the novels there is enough of the West Wing moments to be satisfying.
A good spot to hop into the Relaunch books is the TNG “Time to…” books. These fill in the years just prior to Nemesis. The last two by David Mack really set up the political dynamics for the entire run through to the Coda trilogy being released this fall.
Una McCormack’s books about Cardassia after the Dominion War are also wonderful and full of political and diplomatic intrigue. Una’s books on Cardassia are part of the Relaunch continuity, but she really took on that society and made me care about what happened to in more than I’d ever expected.
Glad I could help you out with some book choices, Tarnwood. I have the names of some more politics-focused books for you in the Star Trek Universe novel line. The Worlds Of Deep Space Nine is a fantastic trilogy that gives you insight into the inner workings of some of the planets that some of the characters from DS9 come from. There’s 2 per book.
The first book is Cardassia and Andor, the second book is Trill and Bajor, and the last book is the Dominion and Ferenginar. Then there’s 3 books that get involved with Klingon politics. The first two books are a duology called The Left Hand Of Destiny books 1 and 2 and then the 3rd book is called The Burning House. Just so you know, The Left Hand Of Destiny is separate from The Burning House.
All of these books have a ton of Klingon politics in them. The Star Trek: Terok Nor trilogy deals with a lot of politics too. These books cover the entire Cardassian Occupation of Bajor until their withdrawal from Bajor. The Star Trek: Typhon Pact and Star Trek: The Fall series have a real lot of politics in them.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Unity has politics in it because that’s the book where Bajor signs the treaty to join the Federation. Another two book series that’s great is Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars. These books cover the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s time period on Earth in the Star Trek Universe where Khan and his brethren rose up and conquered the Earth. There’s a lot of politics in The Eugenics Wars books.
There’s some really good books that do world-building for the Vulcans and Romulans. Spock’s World is an awesome story about Vulcan and Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages (which is an omnibus that collects 4 of the books.) does a lot for establishing what Romulan culture is. The author, Diane Duane, even created a language for the Romulans that was accepted by Gene Roddenberry and was spoken by them on TNG. You can get the first 4 of the Rihannsu books in the omnibus above but you need the fifth and final book in the series to complete the story which is called The Empty Chair also by Diane Duane.
There is a LOT of Romulan politics in the Rihannsu books. So there’s the name of some more books for you, Tarnwood. I hope you find some more stuff that intrigues you. The Star Trek Lit-verse is HUGE!
It’s been around for 41 years now so there’s probably gonna be a lot that you want to read. Enjoy 🙂! Live long and prosper 🖖.
Just for Tarnwood’s sake, I would note that all of the novels listed in the DS9 sequences that John Austin recommended are Relaunch continuity.
I actually started with “Unity,” and can also recommend it, but I went back to David Mack’s two “Time to…” series books (A Time to Kill & A Time to Heal) and wish I’d started with those.
The “Time to…” series fills in between the movies Insurrection and Nemesis. Mack’s books and the 9th by Keith De Candido really seem to be the pivot point for the post Nemisis timeline, even though they’re set just prior to Nemesis. Reading them will help make sense of the politics and diplomacy of the rest, even though many of the characters don’t have the deep knowledge of what’s happening at the top of the Federation.
TG: you already know that I value your opinion hugely. So THANK YOU. BTW, I am still lunching on what you said 3 or 4 months ago that I thought was the most brilliant, concise, pinpointed commentary on certain current trends and thoughts.
John Austin, join TG in receiving my thanks for your kindness.
Really appreciate this input and education from both of you.
6 words: Trust God, live long, and prosper.
🙏🖖.
Yet again, quantity over quality.
Is there any need for this snark? You’re criticising a show that hasn’t even been *written* yet. It’s just needless trolling.
Exactly. It’s so ridiculous.
Agree. Instead of working on making the 3(?) current shows actually watchable, they keep churning out new ones. It’s very quickly making the brand lose value in the eyes of dedicated fans. Instead of spreading everything too thin they should be taking the absolute best ideas and putting them into one single show.
All of the current shows are enjoyable for those who don’t go into them bound and determined to hate them.
I didn’t go into any of them determined to hate them. It’s not in my favour to hate a show I could be enjoying. I’ve seen the older shows and movies enough times that I would appreciate being able to watch something that I don’t already know the ending of.
However, the storytelling for the new shows is a complete mess. I’m not saying that because I’m a hater but because it’s true. All Trek shows have started weak and then had a strong run from season 2 but these are just unwatchable and getting worse.
Nor did I. I’ve enjoyed PICARD tremendously, although I attribute this to Chabon and Stewart having some degree of creative control. (It’s also something of a coda to TNG, like EL CAMINO was to BREAKING BAD; a coda isn’t inherently bad — far from it — but it’s also inherently not the centerpiece of the franchise.)
I thought the first half of DIS season one was passable, certainly better than season one of most previous Trek shows, and the first half of season two was…”worthwhile” is perhaps the word that springs to mind. I can forgive the season one finale for giving it the ‘ol college try, even if it didn’t fulling stick the landing. But that leeway only goes so far. By and large, season three has mostly been disappointing, and the Great Leap Forward in time utterly disjointed. By this point, all the other Trek series, maybe save TOS, had been improving as they went along. DISCO is not.
Moreover, all of the series seem to want to hide boring plots and poor characterization behind showy FX and visuals. Lower Decks is profoundly unfunny (unless your definition of “humor” is finding the combination to Kirk’s safe in Episode 17) and celebrates mediocrity and nepotism in a way no other Trek story has done. Star Trek was never meant to be a workplace comedy. TOS and TNG were serious adult shows that inspired kids to be engineers, and did so by not condescending to them with kiddie fare. Lower Decks will inspire kids to…be slackers, like the unpromotable Mariner and Boimler? I guess the “lying flat” movement has spread from China to Hollywood.
There’s a point at which you judge work by its delivery and track record more than its potential, and three years into the new era of Trek, we’re at that point. Cartoons and kiddie fare aren’t going to be remembered alongside comedies like I LOVE LUCY or MASH or ALL IN THE FAMILY, to say nothing of dramas like THE SOPRANOS and its progeny (or even TNG). So much of the franchise is riding on STRANGE NEW WORLDS, and I’m tremendously disappointed to learn that much of the junior crew consists of TOS retreads (Cadet Uhura, Nurse Chapel, yet more Khan) rather than something fresh and novel. I couldn’t write a worse prescription for dullness if I tried. Amazing as Anson Mount’s portrayal of Pike was, that alone won’t carry the series. Even TNG wasn’t Stewart as a one-man band.
Paramount would be well-advised to stick to its knitting; focus on doing one show well, rather than multiple efforts poorly. The goose, its golden eggs, and all that.
It’s true in YOUR opinion, but for a lot of fans, these shows are great fun.
If you don’t like everything about the current shows, it is not due to quantity I reckon. They have made some divisive decisions (TV-MA, animated comedy, visual reboot etc). People who like those elements are fine with it, others would rather see traditional Trek. Yeah, there has been some issues with the fine tuning of story arcs but that was when only one or two shows were on. Other than that, it’s a matter if taste. Quantity has nothing to do with it.
Let’s assume for a minute they’d give us ENT S5 and TNG S8 in classic Trek style alongside SNW… Would it still be too much?
IMO there can’t be enough Trek, they just need more good authors and showrunners who have the time to make them work…
There have been 20+ comic book shows in the last 5 years alone… Trek can do nine, if seven of nine are good classic Trek :-)
We reach brother. Herbert can be stiff.
Not sure this show would be appearance for years yet. The current no. of shows in production is about the limit and I doubt any of the shows will stray past 7 years so its logical they’d have ‘ideas’ for the future. Having said that, in my opinion, they have much work to be getting on with in regards to improving the quality of the current shows. That’s my opinion.
Doesn’t that man have any original ideas? For years now he’s consitently added the worst entries to existing franchises. And his Star Trek Work is basically doint either the most ovious things or stuff paramount allready had (rejected) treatments for, all the while no crediting the original creator (with maybe the exception of Fuller, who’s probably the one, that could have very well lived without it :-D)
There’s plenty of actually talented SciFi writers with original ideas out there. Why not at least give them a chance, if you’re just throwing stuff at the wall anyways at this point?
That being said … Josh Schwartz has a neck for turning the most boring of premises into a good show.
None of that statement is accurate.
Freedom of speech does cover your “alternative facts” too. So have at it. Doesn’t make it right of course 😁
Freedom of speech? This isn’t a government site, so it doesn’t apply here.
Why are you always telling people their opinions are wrong?
Since I didn’t tell anyone their opinion is wrong, your question is moot. I said nothing about anyone’s opinion, in fact. I called into question the accuracy of a person’s description. There’s a sizable difference there. Also… that’s the whole point of a discussion board, so there’s nothing bad about doing so.
If you like nostalgia, Kurtzman’s shows have it in abundance. SNW added a Khan connection to their cast. It’s like they can’t help it. I don’t know how you write more than 1-2 episodes of this sorta show without going off the rails of what Starfleet Academy is about or becoming a teen melodrama/adventure series. If they manage to do that, I’ll be impressed. I’d bet this show is meant to eventually replace Discovery in their lineup.
The Section 31 show, while dark, had an opportunity to go off the map in a good way. Having not read any treatments about that show, I can’t help but think they decided to not go off the beaten path enough and found it rather dull.
…which is a huge part of the problem. With the exception of the “passing the torch” scene with McCoy in “Encounter at Farpoint” and a minor tip of the hat to Kirk in “The Naked Now,” TNG pretty steadfastly avoided nostalgia until “Sarek” at the end of the third season. JJ Abrams does nostalgia well (SUPER8 and ET, THE FORCE AWAKENS), but there has got to be something more in a healthy, vibrant franchise.
I heard about this a couple of months back when Alex Kurtzman renewed his contract with ViacomCBS. He said the story they were working on so far, for the show, was that it was going to center around a young female cadet who has to solve a murder that happens at the Academy with her friends. I don’t think this should be a series, though. I think it should be like a mini-movie or something, like what they’re trying to do with that Khan miniseries that Nicholas Meyer wants to do.
I mean it could work as a show too but that means every year until these kids graduate the writers would have to come up with some new mystery or a conspiracy for the kids to solve or stop and that could get old fast. That’s why if they did a one and done type thing that might be best. But who knows, this might not even happen. I’ve heard talk about a Starfleet Academy series since the ’90s.
And that’s only because Paramount decided to hold onto Harve Bennett’s original script for Star Trek V back in the ’80s, which was actually supposed to be a Starfleet Academy movie about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Until they were able to convince William Shatner to direct Star Trek V, that is. So Paramount held onto that idea. In the ’90s, there was supposed to be an Academy show starring Wil Wheaton.
That was the whole reason for showing him at the Academy in the first place. Then, after Nemesis and before JJ, the rumor mill was churning that the next Star Trek movie to come out was going to be the Academy movie focusing on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy until William Shatner came out with his Starfleet Academy novel and that derailed that idea. Supposedly that book, which I have, is a lot of the original script for Star Trek V by Harve Bennett. How that happened I have no idea?
But maybe William Shatner read the script and retained a chunk of it in his memory? I don’t know. All I do know is that after that book came out in 2007, Paramount and JJ Abrams had to change course on the next Star Trek movie. So do I think this Starfleet Academy series is Alex Kurtzmans’ idea?
No, I don’t, I think this is probably more ViacomCBS’ idea. Now that they reacquired Paramount, they probably found a bunch of old scripts for Star Trek movies and said this sounds like a good idea, let’s give this to Kurtzman and have him update it for the time. If that is what happened, then I don’t blame them for wanting to make it. I mean they paid Harve Bennett for the script so why not try to capitalize on it if they own it, right?
But we’ll see if it happens. First, let’s watch and enjoy the shows that we do have right now and appreciate them before we start speculating about what’s to come. Live long and prosper, Trekmovie 🖖.
Zoiks. Do those meddling kids and their dog unmask a Breen at the end to reveal the commandant?
Sounds more like Veronica Mars too me. It could just work.
I’m waiting for Star Trek: Hells Kitchen, starring Gordon Ramsey
It’ll be awesome!
Captain Ramsey: Use the non stick deflector shield you F#%King Donkey! It means NON STICK!!!!
Love your alias Khan believe it’s not butter.
Do you have an old Imperial margarine crown that pops on your head?
Wesley Crusher needs to show up on a Starfleet Academy cadet training cruise as a Traveler, rescuing a handful of doomed beings. And in that moment after saving, realizes they need to be shown the wonders, the possibilities in various locales. Essentially inspiring them in their post-disaster survival, to go on to be inspired and achieve greatness. Make it a week’s journey before returning to the Academy.
When they first revealed Prodigy and hinted that a Legacy character was going to be in it, I really thought it was going to be Wesley with the kids. But then it turned out to be Janeway which was a complete surprise in a good way 🙂. There is a chance we still could see Wesley show up on Picard and that would be cool if it happens. I think, for a live action Starfleet Academy show though, that Wil Wheaton has aged out for it.
If it was animated, then he could show up as his younger self. But since it’s not, I think he’s aged out. That’s why I think Picard would be our best chances for seeing Wesley return. I’m not saying he’s aged out in a bad way, I just mean that he’s almost 50 years old.
And I know that because I was 8 when he started on TNG and he was 13 or 14 then. So, if he’s 5 or 6 years older than me and I’m 42 right now then that means he’s 47 or 48. Far beyond Wesley’s actual age the last time we saw him and I’m talking about in Nemesis because even though it was a deleted scene, Wil Wheaton did film it. So that was the last time he played Wesley.
That’s why I think Picard would be our best bet for seeing Wesley again. Live long and prosper 🖖.
“Starfleet Academy” – the idea actually goes back further than Harve Bennett…FILMATION originally wanted the animated STAR TREK in the 1970’s to focus on Cadets – Roddenberry vetoed the idea, and FILMATION retooled it for the live action SPACE ACCADEMY in 1977!
The closest we ever got was the interactive live-action footage video game “Starfleet Academy” in the 1990’s – so it’s not like we’ve not seen how it might work…
Someone cut it together as a 2-hour feature…
https://youtu.be/rFjKV9IcGV8
“It was just revealed that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will feature Uhura as a cadet on the USS Enterprise.”
Will she say, “Captain, I’m frightened”?
Oh God! I don’t want to watch a show about Starfleet Academy. There’s nothing interesting about Earth, even in the future. Gossip Girl Star Trek style is just isn’t my cup of tea. There are so many places they could go with future spin-offs. Starfleet Academy should never be one of them.
Well, given that the point of having a menu of shows is to appeal to different market segments in order to expand the base, this is a very obvious one to target.
The whole point of the strategy is not to make shows that are primarily targeted to established Trek fans, but rather to kids (Prodigy) or the YA niche that will create a base for future decades. That is, it’s fine in principle if older fans like us have zero interest in watching this.
My hesitation is based on how poorly many of the franchise-based shows for this age group and demographic have turned out. As intense and formative as undergraduate or Academy years are for young adults, the setting hasn’t lent itself to good television when science fiction, fantasy or comic elements get mixed in.
So, while knowing that the Hageman Brothers were doing Prodigy make me very comfortable because their track record with fantasty shows for 8-12 year-olds is proven, the fact that the creative team for the Academy show has done high quality YA series but not franchise shows is less reassuring.
Milk trek for everything it’s worth and then another decade hiatus…..
I would love more than anything to see a new series, Academy or otherwise, set during the TOS-movie era. Update some of the looks/effects for all I care, but I just want more of that II-VI aesthetic.
My first ever exposure to star trek was the 2009 JJ film as a kid. Some of my favorite scenes are at the academy with the cadets/instructors, and I went looking for that kind of stuff afterwards. Not sure if it has already been mentioned, but there is the (non-canon) YA book series “Starfleet Academy” that follows a few stories during academy days of the kelvin timeline crew, just prior to the 2009 film.
Between the release of the films ( and filling myself in on the rest of the franchise, of course ), I got a good fix with that series, but I felt it left a bit to be desired. Even as a member of the younger audience, I think it could have been better if not written as a YA series, but I see the appeal.
I really enjoyed seeing the characters in that setting though, so much so it’s worth mentioning I turned to public fanfics set in the Kelvin timeline, most, if not all, set during academy days, and was pleasantly surprised at so many well thought out and written stories. The fix was so good, I pretty much accepted it as my own ‘headcanon’, so I think I could really enjoy an academy days series if done well, even without the kelvin crew.