The Continuing Mission; The Current Plans for Star Trek

Ever since he took the big chair and became the head of all things Trek, Alex Kurtzman has been on a mission to ensure we’re entering a bold new era for our favourite franchise!

Now we have multiple shows in development – and many more being thrown out into the rumour mill – we thought we’d take a break and wade through the production developments to highlight whats confirmed for the new world of Trek.

Picard

After the success of Discovery, the return of Captain Picard was announced at Star Trek Las Vegas last year by Alex Kurtzmman and Patrick Stewart, who confirmed his reprising the role. Already in development the show will follow the life of Picard twenty years after the events of Nemesis, leading what Stewart describes as a ‘radically altered’ life after the collapse of the Hobus star; the same events that caused miner Nero to travel back and create a new timeline in the 2009 Star Trek movie.

The journey has begun. Kirsten Beyer, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, Diandra Pendleton-Thompson, James Duff, and yours truly. #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/GxhwkTIgWQ

— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) September 24, 2018

Writing on the series is Star Trek Discovery’s Kirsten Beyer; Michael Chabon who’s known for John Carter; Akiva Goldsman who’s transferring from Discovery; Doandra Pendelton-Thomson and Major Crimes’ James Duff.

Much like Discovery, details of the show its being kept tightly under wraps – even the name – and has been hinted at a possible launch between October 2019 and mid-2020.

Section 31

Reprising her role from the first two seasons of Discovery, Michelle Yeoh will have her own spin off show focused on former Emperor Georgiou’s career as a section 31 agent.

Selected as showrunners, the writing duo of Erica Lippolt and Bo Yeon Kim will be heading up the new series. Kim and Lippolt’s credits include Into the Forest I Go, the dramatic mid-season finale of Discovery’s debut season, and have been focusing on Saru with the short Brightest Star and season 2 episode The Sound of Thunder.

While Kurtzman insists that each show has it’s own theme and vibe to ensure people have variety in their Trek, Kim has made sure to assure fans that she won’t be losing sight of Star Trek’s mission; that the concept should be sneaking in it’s own hopeful vision in it’s own unique way.

The show is expected to make it’s debut in 2021, however until then we still have plenty of Georgiou and the current era of Section 31 to get to as Discovery begins to unravel the reason for it’s future mystery.

Lower Decks

Announced in October last year, Lower Decks is a new half hour adult animated comedy written by Rick & Morty’s Mike McMahon focusing on the lowest ranking members of one of Starfleet’s least important ships. Set for a launch on CBS All Access potentially anywhere between 2020-2021, this will be the first animated series since the 70’s.

Untitled & In Development

While that might seem like plenty, Kurtman doesn’t think so! Since taking on the role as the boss of all things Trek, he’s announced that there will be a second animated series with a focus towards kids audiences. The untitled animated series is basically just an idea right now, but will be an entry-level adventure show for younger audiences and has already made waves with a rumour about being connected to Nickelodeon’s schedule.

Starfleet Academy is another series with strong prospects behind it, though nothing new has been revealed since Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage were announced to be developing the series in June 2018. for all we know the Academy and animated series could even be one in the same (though we doubt it!).

One development that may have fallen off the map is Ceti Alpha V, a miniseries based on the infamous Khan. While not confirmed by CBS, Star Trek 2 director Nicholas Meyer has confirmed that CBS commissioned him to write a three-episode mini series based on the life of Khan between Space Seed and his Wrath. Meyer has since noted that he doesn’t know if it will happen, citing both budgetary concerns and a change of command in Star Trek since being asked. Though it doesn’t seem likely since Meyer has since been dropped from Discovery’s production team.

On the positive side, we do know that we’ll have more Short Trek’s after the first four launched last year (or this year for us in the UK) that will likely again be filmed in between other projects using existing sets.

Will there be more?

Since the announcements of more Trek, Kurtzman has assured that he doesn’t want to bombard us with as much as possible, giving a bit of breathing room between series so we’re not burned out on a constant Trek look. Though we do know that every Discovery character was considered for their own spin-off, every idea is being thrown around and we may end up entering a whole new renaissance for Star Trek!

As always we’ll continue delving into the new continuing mission through Comms, with the latest issue featuring a look and analysis of what could be for each rumoured and confirmed series of Trek. To find out more about Comms and how to read the full issue, visit our Comms Preview or Enlist Today!