Bryan Fuller Stumps for New ‘Star Trek’
Bryan Fuller has been making it clear he wants a crack at the 23rd Century. In several recent interviews, promoting his ABC series Pushing Daisies, he’s also expressed his desire to make a new Star Trek television series.
Most recently, he told MTV, “I would love to do another Star Trek series,” Fuller said. “One where you could go back to the spirit and color of the original Star Trek, because somehow, it got cold over the years. I love Next Generation, but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the 60s, which were so dynamic and passionate.”
Fuller is no stranger to Gene Roddenberry’s creation, beginning his media career by writing for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. “Deep Space Nine was the best of the modern ones,” Fuller told the site, “because it was so emotionally complicated. Enterprise was the most sterile of all of them, when it should have been the most fun.”
His idea is to create a new crew for another starship set during Captain Kirk’s era, feeling the most familiar characters should remain in the films, starting again with J.J. Abram’s reimagined feature due out May 2.
“Star Trek has to recreate itself,” Fuller said. “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 don't see how having a show with another starfleet crew on another ship with the same jobs will avoid the stagnation that has afflicted Star Trek. DS9 broke the mold by going beyond the regular crew stories, it had civilians, it had politics, it had a war. Enterprise should have broken the mold by taking place in a world before the power and comofort of Starfleet. But what would brake the mold if you make a story on a sytarfleet ship during Kirk's time? Maybe if it was imagined to be a what enterprise was supposed to be, a time of transition, of frontier — a wild west kind of stage in the development of the federation? It will require good writing, and there still a risk of going back to the stale Star Trek mold. Other options to break the mold are: a ship in the future whose functions are sufficiently different that the way the crew interacts change; a civilian ship rather than military, not bound by the rules of Starfleet; a story of characters that are not a crew of a ship — commandos, agents, ambassadors.
I had an idea that would've worked, but Paramount wouldn't have gone for it, and now the male lead is likely a bit too old for it. What Singer is pitching is an idea that was already thrown at Paramount in '04, and they promptly threw it back. The irony of this is that Ron Moore took the same notion and applied it to Galactica, and made it dance. My notion would have been to take another ship, specifically the Bozeman, and turn them loose. Not for the great and portentious missions, but for the dirty jobs that no one else wanted. But the story of the USS Bozeman and her captain, Morgan "Bulldog" Bateman, will never be done, unless Peter David does it as a series of novels. Miles
Well, a suggestion for Star Trek that got turned down and then made into its own franchise is nothing new – just ask JMS.
Recast Hikaru Sulu… sure it'd be cool to get George back once in a while, but c'mon … he's 71.Set the new advantures aboard "EXCELSIOR" … with Trans-Warp drive, she can go to the LMC or Andromeda — anywhere in the local group. Start from scratch… give them a whole new group dynamic, and above all, let's not make 'em all best buddies. And don't be afraid to tell stories of real human drama. The battles we fight against nature, against each other and within ourselves. Take a cue from David Gerrold and tell the stories worth telling.
I seem to remember where George Takei was pitching a "Starfleet Academy" based series with members of the original crew as faculty or appearing as guest stars. Paramount opted for Enterprise instead. I think that would've been a fresh approach and would have allowed the same kind of wide variety of character and plot development that DS9 did while still appealing to the Trek purists. The problem with Excelsior and trans-warp drive is that even in the time of the Next Generation, trans-warp drive was not in use. I doubt that the Trek fandom would accept the concept as being practical some 75 years earlier. There are still many Starfleet/Federation settings available like Section 31, the Mirror Universe, Starfleet Medical, and so on.As far as Bryan Fuller's idea of the "spirit and color" of the original series, take a look at James Cawley's "Star Trek Phase II" (formerly Star Trek New Voyages). Although it is a fan-created series, it faithfully recreates the continuation of Captain Kirk's 5-year mission and beyond. The production quality is excellent, the scripts are solid, and you'll even see some familiar faces like Walter Koenig and George Takei. http://www.startreknewvoyages.com