Ready for another deep space exploration mission, Trekkies?
Just before we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the “Star Trek” franchise in 2016, CBS Television Studios announced today that a new “Star Trek” TV series is currently in the works.
Created by Gene Roddenberry, the original “Star Trek” TV series debuted on 8th September 1966 and aired for 3 seasons. Starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, the series mostly depicts the adventures of humans and aliens who serve in Starfleet, the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets.
The series became a cult phenomenon and spawned an animated series, a series of feature films, and 4 TV follow-ups including “The Next Generation”, “Deep Space Nine”, “Voyager”, and “Enterprise”. Each series reflected issues of their respective decades and all the different versions amounted to a total of 726 Star Trek episodes across the 30 seasons of the TV series.
Having co-written and executive produced the first 2 instalments of the new “Star Trek” film series with Roberto Orci, producer Alex Kurtzman is all aboard to develop a new take on the sci-fi cult classic for TV.
No writer or director is attached to the project yet, but this series will debut in January 2017 on the CBS TV Network. The premiere episode and the subsequent episodes will then air exclusively in the US on CBS All Access, the network’s digital and VOD platform.
CBS Television Studios will produce it with Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout while Kurtzman and Heather Kadin will serve as executive producers. It will mark the first original series developed specifically for CBS All Access.
In a press statement, CBS Television Studios president David Stapf said:
There is no better time to give “Star Trek” fans a new series than on the heels of the original show’s 50th anniversary celebration.
“Everyone here has great respect for this storied franchise, and we’re excited to launch its next television chapter in the creative mind and skilled hands of Alex Kurtzman, someone who knows this world and its audience intimately,” he added.
Details about the new show are currently scarce, but it won’t be related to “Star Trek Beyond”, the upcoming 3rd instalment of J.J. Abrams’ rebooted “Star Trek” franchise. It will also be the first new TV series since the cancellation of “Star Trek: Enterprise” in 2005.
According to StarTrek.com, it will “introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilisations”. It will also explore “the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966”.
The show will be made available for CBS’s cross-platform streaming services for USD5.99 per month.
Meanwhile, the upcoming “Star Trek” movie, which was written by Doug Jung and Simon Pegg, is slated for release in summer 2016 and will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.
The 4th instalment of the franchise is set for 2019 release, though Kurtzman is not attached.
Would you watch the new “Star Trek” TV series? Who do you think should star in it? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.
