Fuller — Star Trek?

[Sylph]

New Star Trek TV show


John Howell


Bryan Fuller, creator of the TV show Pushing Daisies and a former Star Trek writer and producer, is pushing for a new Star Trek TV series. The new Star Trek TV show would be based on "old style" Star Trek, rather than the more recent incarnations and variations: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise and Star Trek: The Next Generation. There hasn't been a Star Trek TV series since Enterprise was cancelled after four seasons in 2005.

In an interview with iF Magazine about Pushing Daisies, Fuller said:

"I told my agent and told the people of J.J. Abrams' team I want to create another Star Trek series and have an idea that I’m kicking around. I would love to return to the spirit of the old series with the colours and attitude. I loved Voyager and Deep Space Nine, but they seem to have lost the ‘60s fun and I would love to take it back to its origin."

Previously, talking to MTV, Fuller talked about his ambition to resurrect Star Trek on TV and why he thought it had grown stale.

"Somehow, it got cold over the years. I love Next Generation, but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the ‘60s, which were so dynamic and passionate. Deep Space Nine was the best of the modern ones, because it was so emotionally complicated. Enterprise was the most sterile of all of them, when it should have been the most fun. Star Trek has to recreate itself. Otherwise, all the characters start to feel the same. You always have a captain, a doctor, a security officer, and you have the same arguments based on those perspectives. It starts to feel too familiar. So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up."

Fuller wrote twenty one Star Trek episodes over four years, two in Deep Space Nine's final season, and the rest for Voyager. He also produced Voyager's last season.

I would love to see a new Star Trek TV show, especially a good one. While I like some of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart, and the occasional episode of Deep Space Nine, a lot of the recent Star Trek didn't impress me at all.

Perhaps J.J. Abrams can take over the franchise if his upcoming reboot is successful. A Star Trek TV show with the style and impact of Fringe or Lost would be excellent. Although hopefully it would be a lot less confusing than Lost.

J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie featuring a young Kirk and Spock is due in cinemas May 2009."

http://sffmedia.com/tv/science-fiction-tv/318-new-star-trek-tv-show.html

[detroitpiston]

I was just watching the original last night. It was a terrible episode where Abraham Lincoln appeared on all the ship monitors and took control of the ship somehow. After 8 minutes of William Shatner's bad acting and a plot that went nowhere I changed the channel. Honestly, the only Star Trek's I could ever get into were Star Trek: TNG and ST Voyager. If they made a new show with a similar tone to those I'd watch, but if it's gonna be like the original, count me out.

[applcin]

I would be curious to watch this, if it happened, as I was all the other shows.

Say what you will about the original, but it did spawn and inspire everything that followed. Although, I do understand how somebody looking at it from today's perspective would see it differently than someone who watched back when the options were fewer and there were no spinoffs, movies, etc. Not to mention the era in which it was produced (1960s), the political and social climate, the budget restrictions, and how groundbreaking (the interracial cast) and ahead of its time (the technology it depicted) it was (lol, cell phones look a lot like communicators to me). Or being introduced to it as an adult vs. as a child. The faults and the nitpicking that people can find with it (and the fans themselves know them by heart and even agree with them) only serve to make it more endearing to a lot of them.

"Somehow, it got cold over the years. I love Next Generation, but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the ‘60s, which were so dynamic and passionate. Deep Space Nine was the best of the modern ones, because it was so emotionally complicated. Enterprise was the most sterile of all of them, when it should have been the most fun. Star Trek has to recreate itself. Otherwise, all the characters start to feel the same. You always have a captain, a doctor, a security officer, and you have the same arguments based on those perspectives. It starts to feel too familiar. So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up."

I can def see how Fuller is thinking and agree with it. I watched all the spinoffs and there were things I liked and disliked about all of them, and he pretty much nailed it.

TNG - more "politically correct", more formal, and Picard having both a counselor to influence his decisions and his 1st officer to bark out his orders and go on missions, was a far cry from the more cowboyish James Kirk

DS9 - people's biggest complaint was that it took place on a space station, that it didn't fit the mold because the focus was not on a ship exploring space. This show became my favorite of the spinoffs but it took time. This was definitely the most serialized of the shows. It had long story arcs that a new watcher could get confused by or a regular watcher could get bored by. And it had that whole theme of the Cardassians/Nazis vs. Bajorans/Jews, complete with occupation and religion.

VOYAGER - this time I think people complained about stranding a ship and cutting it off from the familiar (i.e., Starfleet, the Federation, etc.). Ironically, I think Janeway and the show started out more in the Picard/TNG mold and as it went on the characters developed more into the Kirk & crew mold in terms of interacting.

ENTERPRISE - totally agree with Fuller. The show you expected would be closest to the original was actually the least like it. By the time they realized it and starting paying attention to what the fans actually wanted, it was too late. Nobody wanted to see drab looking sets and crew members freaking out about what they were supposed to do. And most of the cast was humorless and chemistry-lacking. Kind of ironic that the one with the most personality, Trip, was the one killed off at the end.

Ultimately, I think Star Trek fans are more about the characters than the stories or the effects. Star Wars, when it first came out in the 70s, had people ooohing and aaahing mostly over the special effects. Star Trek already had the mythology and history in place. The first movie disappointed so many because they made the mistake of focusing on effects and basically neutered the characters of their personalities. II and III combined everything--characters, effects, mucho historical context--and IV added more of the humorous, fun approach that was also familiar. The big stumbling block with anything you do with Star Trek, including this upcoming movie, is that people are always going to compare it to the original, to the chemistry of the characters, to the loyalty to the show's mythology and history, to the actors, etc. For instance, whatever is said about Shatner's acting, he made Kirk larger than life and was a huge part of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy chemistry...people are going to be looking for that in the movie, they're gonna expect "young" Kirk to be dynamic and rule-bending...if that characterization and charisma isn't there, it may be disappointing to a lot of people.

[Sylph]

I'm sure he would totally re-shape it. However, I do not like Star Trek. Not a single incarnation. And instead of re-making old TV shows, this industry should try to offer us something new. And new does not mean excellent shows with terrible premises (a pie-maker brings people back from the dead). Fuller can do much better than that.

And honestly, I'd rather NBC sacked Kring and gave Heroes to Bryan. So until further notice, no new shows for Bryan.

[Scotty]

I saw a few moments of that same episode awhile back as I was channel surfing one day, and thought to myself "Why is Abraham Lincoln on the Enterprise?"

I despise everything Star Trek, but I think there is a reason the franchise has grown cold in recent years....maybe people are finally getting tired of it all.