Live-Action Star Trek Comedy Series Takes Inspiration From Most Unexpected Source
There’s a new live-action Star Trek comedy in the works from Lower Decks writer Tawny Newsome. Producer Justin Simien, known for his previous work on Dear White People, recently gave some insight into the inspiration for the new series. It will be based on the one-off, character-driven episodes of Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Next Generation, which is a departure from other recent Star Trek series, where a longer story arc is the driving plot.
Newsom and Simien met on the set of the Pod Directive and began kicking around the idea of a live-action Star Trek comedy. Newsom, who hosts the podcast, was looking for a project with a short-form storytelling style that recalls some of her favorite episodes of TNG and DS9. Eventually, their ideas coalesced into a pitch for a new Star Trek series that they pitched to Alex Kurtzman.
Based On Fan Favorite Episodes
Newsom and Simien met on the set of the Pod Directive and began kicking around the idea of a live-action Star Trek comedy. Newsom, who hosts the podcast, was looking for a project with a short-form storytelling style that recalls some of her favorite episodes of TNG and DS9. Eventually, their ideas coalesced into a pitch for a new Star Trek series that they pitched to Alex Kurtzman.
A Day In The Life
The constraints of a standard TV season, where you have a limited number of episodes to tell a single, serialized story, is a format the new Star Trek comedy team wants to break free from. The pair hope to capture some of the magic of the more character-driven, dramedy-style episodes that were popular in DS9 and TNG when the standard TV season was about 39 episodes long.
The new comedy will give fans a taste of those nostalgic episodes that took characters on low-stakes adventures that were often silly and followed “a day in the life of” a single character rather than plunging them into a rigorous space battle.
Rumored Return To Risa
It has been hinted that one of the locations that could be included in the new live-action Star Trek comedy series would be Risa, the hedonistic vacation planet that appeared in Star Trek: Next Generation and several other Star Trek series. This will give the characters of the new comedy series a chance to get into all kinds of shenanigans, a favorite feature of both DS9 and TNG.
The show’s creators have indicated that it will follow a format similar to Parks and Recreation, giving the sense that a workplace comedy that follows the friendships of a close-knit set of co-workers is the likely shape the series will take.
Heavily Influenced By Deep Space Nine
Newsom and Simien’s new Star Trek comedy will be set in the 25th century, chronologically after both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Next Generation, and contemporary with the Star Trek: Picard series. Drawing so much of its inspiration from DS9, likely because it is Newsome’s avowed favorite Trek, it makes sense that it would act in part as a sequel to the Deep Space Nine series. Hopefully, the setting will allow Starfleet officers and their diplomatic counterparts to grace Risa with their presence.
A Star Trek Reality Series
CBS and Paramount+ have hinted that the new Star Trek comedy includes the revelation that a group of Federation staff members have their lives broadcast all over the quadrant. It seems like the staff at Risa have been unknowingly starring in their own reality series in the comedy. In addition to this potential story arc, there is the possibility of seeing some characters from DS9 and even TNG visit Risa.
Source: TVLine
