Exclusive: Alex Kurtzman Gives Live-Action Comedy Update, Says Star Trek Can “Broaden”

With Star Trek: Lower Decks wrapping up last month, the franchise is once again out of the comedy business. However, Lower Decks voice actress (and Starfleet Academy writer) Tawny Newsome wants to change that and is developing a live-action Star Trek comedy with writer/director Justin Simien (Dear White People). During the media frenzy around the release of Star Trek: Section 31, TrekMovie was able to get a little update on the Newsome’s comedy project from the man in charge of Trek TV, Alex Kurtzman

“A new area we’re going to explore”

At the Section 31 premiere, Alex Kurtzman gave us a quick update on the live-action comedy, saying “They’re [Newsome and Simen] in the middle of breaking story right now. I’m really excited about it.” In December, Newsome said that since the project was first revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024, the concept has “shifted a little bit,” but she and Justin were still hard at work “finding a way to do Trek in a workplace comedy-type tone.”

And last week at the premiere when pressed on their progress, Kurtzman confirmed he had “not yet” seen scripts, noting “They’re just breaking story.” The executive producer also said he speaks to them about the project regularly, adding “I mean, I adore both of them so much, they’re so fantastic, and I trust them a lot.”

Justin Simien and Tawny Newsome (Sarah Coulter/Paramount+)

Alex also talked about the idea of Star Trek expanding into another area, and specifically into live-action comedy:

“I think that obviously Lower Decks and Prodigy and a lot of the comedy that we’ve touched on in Strange [New Worlds] and in different shows proves that Star Trek can broaden. As long as you’re maintaining the essential vision of Star Trek, Roddenberry’s essential vision of that optimistic future and that hope, then it actually allows you to go into a lot of different territory, and you know, that’s a new area we’re going to explore.”

The official logline released at Comic-Con said the show is about “Federation outsiders serving a gleaming resort planet find out their day-to-day exploits are being broadcast to the entire quadrant.” More recently, Newsome dispelled the assumption the resort planet in question was Risa, saying “I think it’s going to answer some questions about what non-Federation [worlds] look like.”

Tawny Newsome as Mariner and Jack Quaid as Boimler appearing in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Michael Gibson/Paramount+

Paramount+ has yet to announce the show has a green light, so for now the Star Trek workplace comedy is still considered in development. And Newsome is doing double-duty as Kurtzman also told us how he has already reassembled the Starfleet Academy writers room for the second season, which he expects will begin production around mid-year. The first season is expected to wrap production in Toronto in February.


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As someone who like the comedic fare in both SNW and LDS I am cautiously optimistic if this gets approved. But yes if I had my choice I would still choose Legacy over this, but this can be something different and a lot of fun. And I can see a lot of legacy characters showing up including live action LDS characters.

If it does get approved I assume it will replace SNW on the roster since sadly I don’t see them having 3 live action shows on anymore (those were the days!)

Count me in as part of the cautiously optimistic camp. Should be a lot of fun.

Nice! 👍

Why? Why are you optimistic? And dont confuse my bad english with an atack on your opinion. I am really curios, why are you optimistic with this show? Do you want it?

My questions are not ment to be agresive, but curios.

I won’t speak for Gary but for me because as I said in my OP I think Trek proves it can do comedy well IF you like shows like LDS and SNW which I’m a huge fan of both. Now if you don’t like those shows (or at least not big on SNW lighter stuff) then I get the hesitation.

But I always been a fan of most of classic Trek comedy episodes in the past, especially from TNG and DS9. They have some of the best IMO.

And for me personally, I just want Trek to try new things. This idea is very niche and clearly made for hardcore fans in mind but it doesn’t mean it can’t translate to newer fans as well. But obviously we know very little to say eitherway yet.

Ok, intresting. Why do you want Trek to try new things? You dont like clasic Star Trek?

Because it’s a really old franchise that needs to branch out to stay relevant. The reality is it’s mostly just old fans watching these new shows now and very few new or younger fans. They are trying to get them to watch it more although Section 31 was probably the wrong way to go in so many ways

And I didn’t say I don’t want more of classic Trek. I literally said in my OP I would prefer to have the Legacy show over this because I generally knpw what I will be getting with that show and want to see Seven as a captain of the Enterprise. I just don’t mind the idea of this show either.

And I always say it’s not a binary choice, most fans have no issues accepting two different things at once.

But I don’t disagree with your point of view. I said I agreed with it in another post because my guess is the vast majority would of fandom would just take more TNG if you gave it to them. Even an actor from Section 31 said that. That style of Star Trek will probably always win out over everything else just like the Rebels and Jedi fighting the Empire and Sith will always be the most popular element of Star Wars for those fans

Take away the fact that Kurtzman keeps saying that. 
Why do you need to diversify to stay relevant? Do you see any market research? 



I don't understand why... and no one can give me any information as to why. No market study, no survey. No other old franchise tried new things and was a success.



Can you give us an example of an old franchise like Star Trek that completely ignored its core essence and was a success?

But he hasn’t ignored it. Strange New Worlds is literally every Star Trek show we got from TOS-ENT. I would argue Prodigy as well but SNW is the most obvious one so we’ll just stick with that one. But eery episode (maybe minus the musical lol) can just be another TOS, TNG or Voyager episode. It has the same themes of optimism, exploration, scientific curiosity and unity.

So what am I missing? Do just not like that show? And if you don’t, that’s fine but that’s exactly what you Kurtzman is not producing.

To be honest, and this is not aimed at you, but I am confused because all I been seeing the last few days since Section 31 started is all these people saying Kurtzman doesn’t get or understand classic Star Trek. He doesn’t like it, he doesn’t want shows that explore the human condition or shows about seeking out new life.

And yet it’s like SNW doesn’t even exist to these people. It not only does all those things it seems to be very very popular even if others don’t like it. But I constantly see this. Maybe they just don’t like it because it’s a prequel pr it steps over canon too much (which I have complained about a lot) but as a show it’s as classic Star Trek you can get. Do you not agree?

You just proved my point. SNW is the most succesfull of the nuTrek

And yet, you still dont answuered my question: Why in the name of Gene we need a Star Trek in a resort outside the Federation? Why do you think we need that and why you are optimistic?

Marpla I answered it! I don’t know how much more I can make it clear. Because he’s trying to expand the franchise and attract people who doesn’t care about the starship premise. They have been using that premise for over 50 years now. And they are STILL using it, right? Discovery, Picard, LDS, Prodigy and SNW all did the same theme in just a different variation, correct?

But there is probably something in theit data telling them that none of these shows are reaching NEW fans so they are trying to come up with new ideas and premises to reach them. And this is just my speculation obviously. But after seeing the Section 31 movie proves it and they desperately trying to find way to reach people who probably think throwing more characters on a starship as ‘boring’ or ‘old fashioned’.

Everyone here has probably been watching this franchise 30+ years. They know you will watch at least some of it. You will at least turn on this show and watch a few episodes
They are trying to capture the next generation that is watching NONE of it and give them an ‘in’ so to speak.

Do I think this will do it, no not really but I don’t pretend to know what will either. Yes SNW is popular but it’s probably just reaching the same old fans like everything else and that’s still the ultimate problem maybe. I don’t know, but it’s just a guess. But I don’t know anyone watching that show like I don’t know anyone watching these others if they weren’t already fans.

So this the dilemma, you have old fans who just wants more TOS/TNG and they will watch that in droves. But Paramount is probably breathing down his neck they need younger and newer people to the franchise and clearly while that model may work for US it’s still not bringing in anyone else or enough of them.

Prodigy is the perfectexample. As said it’s very much Star Trek as SNW is. It’s about optmism, exploration and the importance of Federation values. And it took place on a fancy starship. They wanted it to reach young fans for the first time since TAS. It got canceled after the first season.

So now they are trying something new and different…again.

Star Wars.

Episode one was literally made for kids. Adult fans ridiculed it, but it was a hit with kids in the ‘00s got a lot of traction with the clone wars series and now there’s two whole generations of new wars fans.

They cut a guy in half, that movie was not made for kilds alone.

most Star Wars was made for kids…

Then? You prove my point. Star Wars didnt change

? You are saying Star Wars was made for kids or wasn’t?

“But I always been a fan of most of classic Trek comedy episodes in the past, especially from TNG and DS9. They have some of the best IMO.”
Sure. By the way, was “Sub Rosa” meant to be Comedy? ;)

Sub Rosa.maybe not Horror Comedy but Comedy that was A HORROR?

I wasn’t a fan of the comedic elements (or episodes) in SNW, but Lower Decks was fantastic, so I’m all for it. Newsome was great as Mariner, and if this goes into production, I’m game. Can’t be worse than Section 31. 😆 Just leave the serious Trek stuff (like SNW) serious, no singing Klingons & what have you, but a separate comedy format could be really nice.

Hopefully nothing will ever be worse than Section 31 again! 🙄

But yes I adore Lower Decks and I was very dubious about it too. I just didn’t know of something like that can work, especially with nit picky Trek fans. But guess what it did! Moreso than I think most of us ever thought it could. It doesn’t mean everyone loved it but it created a lot of loyal fans out of it. So much they are still thinking of ways to bring it back.

That’s why I’m open to this idea too but yeah I get it, there is not a lot of Star Trek around now and it’s one thing to have an animated comedy show, it’s another thing to do it live action.

As far as SNW, I like that it’s more light and fun overall. You have the Gorn stuff but then you have them acting out a children’s book. TOS, TNG, VIY did stuff like that all the time. But the difference is those had 25 episodes a year and this only has 10 so I get that too. I just don’t mind those stories but the musical went a bit too far for me as well lol. But others loved it.

You are right about SNW and the light & fun overall tone. I welcome that too. There were some really funny moments in Voyager too, let alone DS9, and whenever they happened, I noticed that I was actually in need of some fun and lightheartedness in Star Trek, too. The difference (at least to me) is that SNW, like VOY, TNG et al., is still a “serious” Trek and science fiction show, and while the overall lighter tone is (for the most part) A-OK, I really loathe those episodes that completely broke with plausibility. It almost felt like cultural rape at times. Star Trek is not vaudeville. Those are the moments when I seriously question the filmmakers’ IQs. But to be fair, even those episodes were better than most of what they gave us with Discovery.

eh, ‘i, mudd’…

I think Section 31 was so far removed from Star Trek that it just broke some people. It actually kind of broke me. While I have enjoyed a lot of the new shows, I still can’t deny that the new shows feel very different and removed from what we used to have: more spectacle more comedy, fewer episodes, hypercharged character drama . For me the current era lacked what made Star Zrek interesting: the thought provoking if not always well executed commentery on the times and the human condition. Including two trans characters who insist on being named „they“ without any of the discussion around it seems more chic than actually meaningful. The Orville tackled these issues much more honestly if not always gracefully. And don’t get me wrong, Star Trek in the olden days also used to have action and fun and purely relationship drama episodes… it was the mixture that made it great. Kurtzman seems to focus on only some of these aspects. And I also don’t see that much actual scientific concepts being discussed. SNW had that episode with the asteroid where Uhura had to hum to communicate, that was great I think, bist Season 2 instead gave us a human spock who acts like a teenager. Again the musical episode was absolutely fantastic and I wouldn’t miss it, but I also want something. More topical and thought provoking discussing things like the war in Ukraine, the rise of right wing party’s across the world, the changing economy and things like that. Star Trek used to try and talk about these things, now it seems only interested in distracting us from them.

So, she did a good voice acting, why that makes you think she will be a good writer and producer? She has none (0) experience.

Maybe because she has shown enthusiasm for wanting to try it. She’s also on the writing staff for Starfleet Academy a “canon expert” for that series.

I have enthusiasm. I guess you have also.. can you write and produce a Star Trek show?

Maybe he can. The point is he has to try to find out. Why predict defeat without trying first for victory?

Every writer needs to start somewhere, and she’s already working on Academy, which she wouldn’t be allowed to if she didn’t have the chops. It generally helps that she’s already part of the family, attached to a beloved Trek comedy series, and apparently a deep Trek nerd. Her pitch was obviously good, so it all hinges on what she and the other writers will come up with. Personally, I have a gut feeling that she’s *really* good.

Are you american? Do you know about football/soccer? Even Messi didnt start at the mail Barcelona team.
You know what may happend if Messi started at the main bacelona team? We may not have a Messi today.

Every writer needs to start somewhere, and she’s already working on Academy, which she wouldn’t be allowed to if she didn’t have the chops.

Oh, that’s a good one.

Same.

Who is asking for this show? The same ones that wanted a S31 show? Who? Why? Just do Star Trek. A ship, USS Whatyouwant and make it explore!! IS NOT HARD! It works!

And who the hell are Justin Simien and Tawny Newsome? They nearly have NO experience at all as writer and producers. 

I know she is the voice of Mariner, but what else? Why are thouse 2 good people with almost no experience in charge of a Star Trek show? Why? How many cups the won? Why? Just why this show is been made? Who want it?

Justin Simien is an experienced writer, producer, and showrunner. Tawny is a writer on the Starfleet Academy show who’s been writing and performing comedy for years.

Experienced writer? Did you look at his wiki page? 2 really low budget movies, with terrible audience score at RT? Is that Star Trek experience? Is that even experience to run franchise series? 

And Tawny wrote an episode of a show that we havent even saw yet, but she is in charge of a new TV show??? Is that also experience? 

Wikipedia usually isn’t a reliable source for projects. From IMDBPro: Justin Simien – four series in development. One film currently in Post-Prod ($155 million budget). One series in production. He’s created, produced, and directed a couple miniseries plus a 40-episode series. That’s a good track record.

I think you have the wrong guy
https://www.imdb.com/es-es/name/nm2282177/

No 155 million budget anywhere. And none of his low budget shows and shorts even have 7 stars on IMBD.

So, what you’re saying is that you’re unwilling give the guy a chance IF Paramount/Skydance (assuming the deal proceeds) greenlight the show so you can see what it is he & Tawny could do?

He’s the co-producer of “Michael” which has a $155 million budget. No, I do not have the wrong person.

Its rumored, its says there.. stop spreding rumors, please.

I think you have the wrong guy, no 155 million film, now or next, on IMDB.

All his low budget stuff has less than 7 stars.

I think Harry is back, folks.

I agree — how do you report trolling / badgering? It’s really annoying and prevents real discussion.

Hoo..I see.. in the land of the brave and the free, if you are critic of something, you are a troll and you get ban? I see.. I see..

voicing opinions like: “And who the hell are Justin Simien and Tawny Newsome? They nearly have NO experience at all as writer and producers.” Is this opinion?

No, but you need to calm down. And keep politics out of your narrative.

You can go to the Feedback page, but this poster is new and doesn’t know the dynamics of this site yet… I would give them a chance…

Low Budget… like Star Trek lol

This proves what I been saying for years now, if you give most fans a choice most will choose a show just being back on a starship again with Starfleet officers in traditional roles facing a space anomaly of some kind.

And it’s nothing wrong with that, for majority of fans that will always be true Star Trek to them. And as we (sadly) saw with Section 31, trying to shake things up too much can lead to disaster.

But we will probably get more of that too in the future. Even if Legacy never becomes a thing I still think we will get another starship based show in the 25th century (or beyond) at some point. I just imagine this will be a lot cheaper to do and why they are taking a chance on it.

I think a starship based show happening really comes down to someone being able to come up with a feasible idea. Legacy sounds great as a concept but to my knowledge nobody has sat down and put together a serious outline about how it would work. Maybe once this merger between Paramount and Skydance is done, there might be the money for more Star Trek shows.

Yeah all true although I’m sure Matalas definitely has a proposal ready to go, he just haven’t presented it to anyone yet since he has said hasn’t had a serious meeting about it yet.

But I always have to include this disclaimer before someone yells at me I’m fully aware it’s not in development and it may not ever be. But I do have a hard time thinking they won’t at least consider it in the future either when this idea is far more popular than anything they have in development now, unless it is just a money issue.

I still have a very hard time understanding how this comedy show is getting developed over the Legacy show and yet they seem to be targeting the same people, ie, long time fans.

He brought up Prodigy, Lower Decks and SNW as examples of shows that has comedic vibes and all very popular (for the people who watch them I mean) but they are also starship based shows as well.

The Starfleet/starship premise will probably always win out over everything else and they seem to know that. Prodigy and Picard started out not doing the Starfleet thing only for both shows to end up being Starfleet based shows. Obviously Prodigy was always going that way (and sadly it may have been smarter to have them involved in Starfleet in the first season to attract more viewers) but we know Picard was never supposed to go there and that changed in the second season. And we saw it just became TNG again in its last season and it exploded in popularity.

What Marpla said is true for majority of fans out there, it just works. But I’m personally happy to try something completely different too.

But yeah after the Section 31 debacle, maybe you put the experimental stuff on the backburner for a while and just do a Legacy type show. That’s what most people seem to want (and the least divisive over everything else supposely coming) so just give it to them.

Who is asking for this show? Don’t know- who was asking for TOS before it aired? Give them a chance.

I agree, I’m not into Star Trek for musicals or comedies. I just want to see a starship exploring the galaxy set in a Star Trek universe as Gene R created.

They have DONE the ship.
Nothing with trying something new.

I don’t expect this proposal will ever see the light of day. It’s more than likely that Paramount+ will get binned by Skydance or merged with something else. Is another streaming service really going to pick up such a niche Trek show? I doubt it.

Who is green lighting this stuff? Where is the market research showing a fan base screaming for this content? Is someone trying to go out of their way to ensure Star Trek dies forever.

Willing to see what they have to offer.
Produce a pilot. Show me a trailer.

If you understood that each time one of these ‘broadening’ experiments fails, it validates the production executives who believe no one watches Star Trek and it should be done away with entirely… would you still be so open to seeing what it looked like?

As long as you’re maintaining the essential vision of Star Trek, Roddenberry’s essential vision of that optimistic future and that hope, then it actually allows you to go into a lot of different territory” –

correct – yet – where was that in Section 31?

Since it’s clearly not possible for these showrunners to produce consistent authentic Trek, like actual Sci-Fi, based around relatable and likeable characters and a compelling story, by all means let’s make it a sitcom instead. I’ll try it, but not optimistic about anything being produced by Secret Hideout these days. And I wonder just how ‘funny’ it will be. Just one guy’s opinion. Anyway, back to watching Andor.

Yeah it seems like they are only in the comedy business now.

Somebody needs to inform them about the difference between doing a comedy and actually being a joke themselves.

Well, if SNW was taking itself seriously then I would have no issue with yet another comedy show. But SNW is stuck on being a parody of Star Trek with all of its big swing gimmicks.

Secret Burnout doesn’t seem to be interested in producing any serious sci-fi.

I’d even welcome a clumsy heavyhanded attempt at serious, in the vein of SYMBIOSIS or, somwhat more successfully, A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR. Both of those have very nice downer endings, creating some resonance … which, IMO, SNW is pretty close to lacking completely.

In terms of a business – if you cannot get the core of your business right, the side business won’t matter. I’m sure there is a plan in place that wants to broaden the audience by trying lots of different formats. But I can only see that working if the core of the franchise, a crew, a ship and a message is respected and widely accepted. Right now producers haven’t figured out yet what ‘makes’ Star Trek other than that it is a business opportunity. So excuse me if I am only cautiously optimistic for this one.

I need written proof someone asked for this. I just don’t get why they don’t do a show for people who have been watching Trek for decades. We might be slowly dying, but we’re also starving. Secret Hideout is outthinking themselves so hard I just don’t understand.

If they want to broad the audience, they need to go to Netflix or Prime with a GOOD SHOW, not with the terrible Disco and Picard show.
They won’t broad their audience on the crappy P+ with crappy shows.

It’s time to bring this back.

Producer David O. Selznick personally vouched for the quality of Gone with the Wind in ads, promising audiences it would be a landmark achievement. Cecil B. DeMille appeared on-screen at the beginning of The Ten Commandments to personally introduce the film and assure audiences of its grandeur.

It’s time for studio heads and producers to put themselves out there in front of a property and personally vouch for it. I want to see Kurtzman to appear on screen with the head of Paramount before Section 31 or this upcoming comedy to tell people how much faith they have in the production and how much they laughed or cried while watching it.

‪No, no thanks. Star Trek does not need anymore gimmicks, comedies or parodies. I hope Kurtzman and his company are booted before this is put into production.‬

When will Paramount learn? Do they like wasting money? 🤷🏻‍♂️

He should know that fans on the internet do not like new stuff. They want the same as they’ve always had.

Internet posters certainly complain a lot. So in a way I agree that loudmouthed posts are not necessarily an indicator for success. Do we actually have rating numbers? I tried to get an indication just by the number of posts per show and per episode. And from that I got that some of the new shows got a lot fewer comments than others (e.g. DSC a lot fewer than PIC S3) But that’s of course not hard evidence at all. Would love to get my hands on hard numbers.

Question Q-Less... how many new nuTrek games are there? And merchandise? Why is most of the new merch about TOS and TNG? 

Why was Disco cancelled? The actors and producers wanted to continue, in fact, they found out about the cancellation in the last season. And LDS? And why was PRO even erased from history? Is this a sign of success for you?

Why don't we have a Star Trek legacy if ST Picard was so successful?

Yup. I think those are all very good indicators. And I’m surprised that production doesn’t take notice. Actually, I’m sure they do notice. And yet for some reason they don’t draw the right consequences.

Yep those are very fair questions. But I think the feeling is none of them really grabbed a new audience and they probably see the numbers as stagnant, even if they were good numbers. I can’t really speak to Discovery since we didn’t get any real numbers until it’s final season and after it was cancelled. The ratings (or whatever) were OK in the end, but we don’t know if they were better or worse than before. But Picard season 3 did very very well, at least for a Trek show and only got stronger as it went. That’s why so many of us are scratching our heads why is there isn’t a sequel to it when you see how strong it did with both views and fans.

The only take away besides Paramount is just too broke for more Star Trek is they do want shows that will reach a different audience. And if that’s the case, I get it, but I still question what could do that? Or generate views on that level? Nothing really seems to have so far and SFA which is supposed to be the next big experiment I don’t see doing any better than all the previous shows before it did, neither with younger people.

It just seems to be a crazy dilemma. They know shows like Picard and SNW can attract the base just fine but don’t seem to be grabbing anyone new in a sizable way or really expanding in terms of views, especially for their costs and where the problem lies.

Alex Kurtzman has said only one thing his entire time helming the franchise.

Trek comedy? How about section31 the musical.

Dont give them ideas..

If it’s the same writers from lower decks should be fun looking forward to it

No, they are not. He only produced low budget movies and one tv show, all of them with low RT audience raiting. And she has never writed anything. She only give her voice to one of the LDS characters.

NEVER written anything?

Just no. Make Star Trek instead. It was wildly popular you know. They keep trying to make it cool and hip. It never has been ‘cool’, but it was loved and respected. It inspired countless people. To become scientist, astronauts, politicians.

I think the majority of fans want Legacy. With the huge petition and the success of Pic season 3.

And get adults with a scientific and/or military background on the writing staff.

I’m watching For All Mankind and it’s leagues better than any Star Trek since 2005.

there is room for other kinds of ST

He’s had 8 years to broaden the franchise, but maybe he should focus on narrowing it now. A majority of fans seem to want a show focused on the exploration of space and the human condition, with an emphasis on cerebral story-telling, not necessarily big budget FX.

^this right here. Why do they not get that. Give us Legacy instead of Academy. Give us a Worf show instead of comedy. Give us Captain Sulu in animation to broaden the franchise. I don’t want to see the 32nd century. Give us 22nd to 25th. Give us Excelsior or a Miranda or Oberth class ship based show. Give us the Lost Years.

I would prefer a return to the Enterprise era and the 22nd century as well. I don’t expect that show to come back but they could do something similar to Prodigy and spin off a show with new characters but bring a few back like T’Pol or Archer.

Oh man, I so want more Archer & T’Pol. Having Jolene in LDS made me really happy.

exploration of space and the human condition’

that is narrowing things down when there is more to be done with modern ST

It’s pretty sad when Star Trek fans have to go to other sci-fi shows to watch serious sci-fi that take their universes seriously.

Yes indeed, you’re absolutely right.

Amen to that.

who would have thought the Orville and freaking Seth MacFarlane would understand the ethos of Trek better than people making Trek

Maybe they’ll write the series, then rewrite the series, then throw almost everything out and squash whatever is left into a terrible Paramount+ movie.

To quote the Federation President in Star Trek VI… “Just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing.”

Take it for what it’s worth. I’m worn out complaining about Star Trek. It’s not what I signed on for. Now, back to DS9.

you know how many ‘fans’ complained about DS9 back in the day….

Oh, yes I do… I lived through it.

Love Tawny. Sounds great. Trust her Trek knowledge and she is crazy funny. I’m in it for her 100%. Can’t wait. Alex lost all credibility with Secretion 31. Show him the door.

I love my mother, but that doesn't mean she can do open heart surgery. She is not a doctor and Tawny is not a writer, she has never written and/or produced anything at all.

So she has no writing credits anywhere? so what? Guess who else had no writing credits anywhere before their first writing job? Every writer.

I don’t know her past credentials, but I doubt this is true. But even if it was, does this mean she shouldn’t be given the chance? With your attitude we should all just stay home and do nothing since we’re obviously going to fail, right?

Lower Decks was a workplace comedy with a Starfleet skin over it, so it’s not like the idea can’t work. It is going to be a lot harder to make a non-Federation world with what I assume will be a Starfleet-free cast read as Trek to the fanbase, but I’m willing to see what they come up with.

It basically sounds similar to Lower Decks and is a wok place comedy sans Starfleet.

Right, but Lower Decks has proven that a Trek workplace comedy can work. Whether they can make it feel like Trek without Starfleet is going to be the tricky bit.

Agreed.

“Harry Potter but with Star Trek” sounded about as dumb as “Kill Bill and Frozen but Star Wars”. Kurtzman has tanked this brand beyond recognition and isn’t even appealing to old or new fans (section 31 has a horrible rating for instance by critics and audience alike). Merchandise sales tanked long ago and his “Harry Potter but Star Trek” series isn’t even out yet and he’s already trying to throw more spaghetti at the wall. When I see a new Star Trek poster or trailer I ask “what about this says Star Trek?”.

You know there was a guy who wanted to do Star Trek stuff his whole life. Instead he ended up making The Orville. But I’m quite sure he would’ve done a decent job rather than the Bad Robot JJ acolyte. Star Trek needs to fire this guy, hire someone who actually care about the franchise instead of dating series to the now by saying Klingons are Trump (admitted to in Discovery) and some actual science fiction writers and go beyond Voyager or do a captain Nog series. When you are in a hole, you stop digging and go back to what worked. When you are drowning, you stop flailing wildly throwing every idea at the wall sinking further.

it a easy to understand pitch- the vibe of HP with the soul of ST

I’m keen to see how this develops and if it gets a green light. It sounds very much like something I would enjoy, but man they burnt up a lot of my good will with S31.

One, Kurtzman making comments about ‘broadening’ Star Trek is just like nails on a chalkboard. He just has not clue… BUT.. the funny thing about this idea is it doesn’t sound like somethign that would work, which is exactly why it can. I have no faith that it will until I see it… and if they try to make this canonical, then it will just piss people off. Have fun with Trek, but quit trying to tie it all in together. something like this can be a fun aside if they would just let it…

Star Trek has never avoided humor or poking fun at itself but I’m not sure if a live-action Star Trek comedy is exactly what people are looking for nor is it likely to appeal to anyone beyond Star Trek’s core fanbase.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a franchise in a new direction but if it strays too far from its core premise it risks diminishing the franchise and potentially threatens its future viability.

Until the Skydance deal closes, everything’s on hold.

You would think that the reaction to Section 31 would be a wake up call to the people running the studio. That failure was not an exception or an anomaly. Star Trek is better than this.

If Tawny Newsome is involved, I’ll watch it.

Why?

Why not?

I don’t get this loyalty to a particular actor. I love Patrick Stewart as Picard, but have never liked him in anything else. I especially despised his Professor Xavier.

I have to agree that I have a lot of goodwill for anything Tawny Newsome is involved with. She may not have many, or any, scriptwriting credits yet, but I have listened to her as a podcast host, met her at conventions, and loved her performance as Mariner.

She is incredibly smart, ridiculously funny, and a fantastic person who loves Star Trek. She certainly knows how TV production works and I’m sure she is honing her craft as a writer by working in the Starfleet Academy writer’s room.

What more could fans ask for? For what it is worth, TOS and all of the Berman era Trek shows gave MANY writers their very first credits and now we think of those people as thegreats of Trek.

What I don’t get is why they choose to develop this instead of continuing on with Prodigy or Lower Decks which has a similar premise but are proven products now. Once you take unnecessary and useless risks like the Section 31 debacle you start losing eventually. I also think that Kurtzman took the wrong lesson from Picard season 1 when he hired writer Michael Chabon to run the show and he bailed out at the end of the first season. This might have soured his desire to hire more literary figures for Trek shows. Finally I am actually curious how Roberto Orci might have run Trek if he was still partnered with Kurtzman. He always came off as more of a fan than Kurtzman.

They also had Walter mosley in the writers room, but that lasted about 5 minutes.

I have nothing kind to say about Alex Kurtzman.
Everything he’s involved with is lowbrow hyper violent action schlock with precisely zero redeeming qualities.
He’s jettisoned everything that made Star Trek globally beloved in favor of glorifying brutality, anti-intellectualism, and ceaseless juvenile sarcasm. Every single production he is hands-on with is an unmitigated disaster. He’s quite possibly the worst producer working in the industry today and I have seen enough of his “creative process” to know better than to get my hopes up.

Lowbrow. Yes, that perfectly describes the Kurtzman era of Trek.

Just seeing the words ‘Kurtzman’ and ‘Star Trek’ together have caused a pavlovian effect in me where my blood pressure starts to rise immediately and my stress glands start to squeeze hard. I shouldn’t care this much about tv shows but seeing this guy destroying Star Trek just makes my blood boil. End rant.

While I’m more than willing to give this a go, I do wish they would try a more serious tone. Now I definitely do not mean ‘dark’, I mean a tone similar to TNG or DS9. And, yes, I know there was some comedy in each.

I know a lot of fans are clamouring for Legacy, but as I’ve said elsewhere that’s not for me. I don’t think the LaForge sisters and Jack Crusher are deep enough to build a series around (and, yes, I know that’s what writers are for). I also think that Seven’s journey from being rescued from the Borg, through finding her humanity, earning the trust of her peers, and finding her place to becoming captain of the Federation flagship is a perfect arc for her character. One of the best and most complete in the whole of Trek, for that matter. For me, I’d be happy to leave her story there. It’s the perfect ending.

SNW is too lightweight and gimmicky for me, and far from the cerebral show following on straight from The Cage that I was hoping for when it was announced. I think we are still in dire need of a more serious show focusing on more hard science fiction concepts and ideas. Something that makes us think and gives us something to discuss, even years later (I’m looking at you, Tuvix).

ADMINS – how do you report someone for trolling? I’m really asking.

I love Tawny and I am also cautiously optimistic for the show. Given the interviews I have seen with her (and the amazing voice work on LDS and her live-action work on SNW) I trust her. This show could prove interesting. Let’s see what’s out there :)

When Trek tries to be funny it usually falls flat. As far as Alex Kurtzman goes, I’m reminded of something the great philosopher Frank Costanza said, “This guy – this is not my kind of guy”.

I just don’t get it. I actually think this is a really fun idea and something that I would probably like. But I don’t understand the choices lately. Picard Season 3 is one of the most successful streaming series of the modern era. Fans are excited. The talent is excited. They have a whole universe of characters to explore and play with. Instead, we get Section 31. Instead we get this, which has no demand and I would suspect to be a very finite concept.

After Section 31, I don’t think Paramount should be allowing Mr. Kurtzman to do any more “broadening” of Trek. Picard S3 and Prodigy have been the only things that’ve really been worth watching. Lower Decks is fun for what it is. But Discovery and the horrid Picard S1&2 were awful. Starfleet 90210 and Star Trek Sitcom? God help us.

Finely put, exactly. If it were any other franchise I would simply walk away, but since it’s Trek I remain stalwart and present, and increasingly frustrated.

On a happier note, I just finished Andor for the first (and not the last) time, and was blown away. Epic, compelling and memorable. Can’t wait for S2 in a couple of months.

This sounds incredibly lame as does Starfleet Academy….Star Trek:Legacy is clearly the program fans want, yet they are trying to force feed as a comedy version of ST and this Academy program…How can tptb be so tone deaf?

Yes to all you wrote.

I’d like an academy show if it was set in one of the more [I’m struggling to find the most appropriate word here…prime/mainstream/well-known] eras. Mid-late 23rd Century or late 24th. The 32nd Century doesn’t interest me so much. In those other ‘more famous’ eras you could explore characters wanting to live up to April/Pike/Kirk, or be inspired by Picard/Sisko/Janeway. You could follow a character – Hornblower style – as they learn, make mistakes, grow, and become the inspirational Starfleet officer I assume (and I know what that means) we’d all dream to be.

I get that there is narrative in rebuilding Starfleet in the 32nd Century and relearning those ideas and ideals. However, I (for one) don’t think they should have been lost, narratively, in the first place. We have the 21st and 22nd Centuries for building those stories in the Trekverse. And plenty of meat already on that skeleton.

And to be clear this fan does not want ‘Legacy’. PIC S3, whilst fun in the moment, was – to me, at least – nothing more than very expensive fan fiction, bearing little resemblance to the TNG films, never mind the series. It was a wish list for Matalas to fulfil to undo narrative beats he didn’t like. Very self-indulgent for him, and most probably Stewart and Spiner as well.

When you think about it, Legacy as most fans envision, would be Seven (story done), Raffi (paired better with Worf – one of the few highlights of PIC S3), the bland LaForge twins, and Beverly’s second unfathomably overpowered son Jack (an insufferable character played by an insufferable actor). Probably with a couple of cookie-cutter characters from already explored races thrown in (we need a logical Vulcan, we need a ‘stereotypically aggressive’ Klingon) for good measure. We know what writers these days are like.

If Legacy is the clear favorite why wasn’t it a bigger ratings hit?

Why are they keep doing Star Trek shows that aren’t Star Trek shows?

I don’t necessarily disagree – but I can remember many people saying the same thing about DS9

‘young minds, fresh ideas, be tolerant….’

‘It’s dead, Jim.’

I’ve got to say to all those praying for a Matalas return, be careful what you wish for. From what I saw in PIC S3 he’s a Doctor Who level show runner – as with all three show runners of modern Who, he just wants to write himself into the franchise and build it the way he wants it. He will write for himself, not for you. For us.

I have already seen Doctor Who, well, Doctor ‘Whod’ – ie changed from what the older fanbase loved to what it is now. I mean, compare the Third Doctor era, with the Silurians and a sinister Master to the pantomime today. And arguably Star Wars also with Dave Felony’s ([sic] as that bloke is stealing a living) navel gazing and focusing on his own babies. I’d be very disappointed to see it happen to my favourite franchise too.

Say what you will about Kurtzman – and for me his misses outweigh his hits – but at least he is trying to keep things fresh. He’s barely a step up from a Doctor Who level show runner, but at least you can see what he’s trying to do.

‘pantomime’?

DW suffered way worse during the last 70s and mid 80s when it played for laughs and then the production values sank.
the current and recent era is way better and fit for 21st century tv

keeping fresh still doesn’t mean it’s in line with THIS property.

I’m reading through the TMP history “Return to Tomorrow”, and there are SO many comments from the cast, production, etc…about how many script drafts they looked at and tossed because they were all action and didn’t capture the core ethos of Trek being about hope, humanity, the inherent goal of human goodness and growth, etc…literally saying “they were fine action scripts but they weren’t Star Trek”

Broaden, but not deepen.

Alex Kurtzman has done more than anybody in the past two decades (except possibly that other dumber down of franchises, JJ) to dumb Star Trek down to the lowest common denominator type audience. Shallow Trek, with a huge budget and echoes of greatness wrapped thinly over a generic core. SNW has been popular despite him, not because of him. And I suspect the quality on that show will likely decline too sooner rather than later. It’s gotten to the point for me where live action Star Trek for me ended with Enterprise. Everything since is just a directionless ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ mess that’s just easier to erase in my mind now. Life’s too short. Thank goodness for the novel-verse which still keeps the banner burning strong.

I would rather just see more “Lower Decks”.

We already have a comedy live action Star Trek show, its called Strange New Worlds.

It doesn’t take its self seriously, the characters are still written like they are teenagers, the writing fluctuates between competent and fanfic level writing, they rarely take any time to actually make you like the characters, cheesy one-liners are in every episode (and usually come from one specific character), and they never stop disrespecting Spock.

But to it’s credit every now and then they get there act together and make an actually great episode of real Star Trek, proving that they know how to do this. Which is the only reason I still follow that show at all.

I’ll take a new comedy show if the trade off is that SNW takes itself more seriously.

Thank you! 100% this!

I have no idea why people think SNW is the “good one” out of this laughably bad assortment of sub-par twaddle. I honestly thought I was in some sort of bizarro world when people hype up the show so much.

I see it as pseudo-Trek. It’s like Trek created by AI – the elements are sorta there but they just don’t quite understand the deeper meaning of the script or elements and what made, pre-2005 Trek for instance, work. It’s very strange, the complexity is vacant, with Trek being at surface level only, more in the vein of 2009 Abrams Trek. Basically, Star Trek made by people that have heard of Star Trek, but never actually watched.

Indeed, Alex Kurtzman definitely deserves condemnation, but I also feel Akiva Goldsman is equally to blame for such poor output for this property. The word hack is thrown around a lot in this medium, but it is most certainly correct when used in conjunction with the two forementioned names.

Even the real comedy shows on P+ are getting cancelled. The Fraiser revival was abruptly cancelled after only 2 seasons. If P+ is cancelling actual comedies, then I just don’t see a Trek comedy doing much better.

If the belief that Star Trek is no longer viable as a serious sci-fi franchise is actually true, then what makes Kurtzman believe it will be a viable live action comedy?

Let’s have a show that goes full-Galaxy Quest.

sigh, i wonder when there will be exciting star trek news again. i’m consoling myself with a lot of “old stuff” right now, but a nice new project (so no s31 sequel or blood and eyeball-eating or nonsense like that) would be nice. optimistic star trek for dark times. that would be nice.