The Next Star Trek Show Must Be Every Star Trek Show
While Star Trek: Discovery ended up becoming a relatively divisive show in the fandom, creator Bryan Fuller originally wanted it to be an anthology show that would serve as the ultimate love letter to fans. He planned each season to be a different story set in a different time period, making this the sci-fi equivalent of shows like American Horror Story. Paramount passed on the idea, but now that Discovery is done and Star Trek is at a creative crossroads, the time has come to make this anthology show into a reality.
The Hit TV Series Star Trek Needs
What would make such a series a hit, especially for fans disappointed that we’re not getting a Star Trek: Legacy show? For one thing, an anthology format means we’d get a fresh crop of new characters and actors each season. Fans who hated any given season’s major characters (for example, the cool-but-contentious Starfleet girlboss Michael Burnham) could look forward to whatever the following season brings as opposed to simply tuning out of the show altogether.
Additionally, a Star Trek anthology series would fix the persistent problem of different fans wanting shows set in different time periods. Not every fan wants a prequel like Strange New Worlds (regardless of how good the show is), just like not every fan wants a show set many centuries in future continuity (like Discovery after season 2). Meanwhile, Picard’s third season was a smashing success specifically because it was set in the immediate future of The Next Generation, allowing us to see what our favorite characters have been up to.
Doing The Impossible: Pleasing Every Type Of Trekkie
In this case, a Star Trek anthology show could do the impossible–namely, please almost all the fans–simply by setting each season in a different time period. It’s what Bryan Fuller originally wanted to do with Discovery: his concept was to start as a TOS prequel, then focus on the TOS era, then focus on the TNG era, and eventually shift to a far-flung future that audiences had never seen before. A new anthology show wouldn’t have to necessarily go in such chronological order, but its format could still make a fractured fandom happy by functionally giving them a brand-new show each season.
Plus, now that Star Trek bigwigs have confirmed we won’t be getting a Legacy show, an anthology series is our only way of following up on beloved characters like Riker, Dr. Crusher, Seven of Nine, and so on. They could pop up for an episode or even an entire season set shortly after the Picard era; for that matter, other seasons could follow up on non-Picard characters. Who wouldn’t want a season focusing on Admiral Archer or Admiral Janeway? The actors behind these fan-favorite characters would be far likelier to return to this franchise if they didn’t have to sign multi-year contracts for seven seasons.
I’m a Star Trek fan who has enjoyed much of the NuTrek era. Discovery and Picard were mixed bags for me, while Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks have been amazing. But I’m worried about the future of the franchise for many reasons: Starfleet Academy is teenybopper bait built off a prematurely canceled series, Section 31 looks like action movie schlock, and the next movie is going to be a redundant Federation origin film. Star Trek is at a creative crossroads, and an anthology show might do for the franchise what Captain Kirk did best: turn death into a fighting chance to live.
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