Star Trek Needs To Give One Specific Fan Franchise Control
It’s an open secret that Paramount doesn’t quite know what to do with Star Trek. The network followed the surprise cancellation of Paramount+ flagship show Star Trek: Discovery by giving us a smorgasbord (more like smorgasborg) of announcements that included a grim Section 31 movie, a youth-appealing Starfleet Academy show, and multiple Trek films set in different timelines. Oh, and they needlessly canceled the kid-friendly Prodigy, which has since become a monster hit on Netflix.
Even the most hardcore fans have begun asking who Paramount thinks its audience is, and it has become clear that the franchise needs its own Dave Filoni figure to guide it back to greatness. Fortunately, the answer is clear: Terry Matalas needs to be given creative control of the Star Trek franchise.
Terry Matalas Needs Creative Control Over Star Trek
Compared to others who might be given such creative control, Terry Matalas has the perfect Star Trek resume, and it’s one he has been working on for literally the majority of his life. In the past, Matalas has been an assistant on Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise, and in the latter show, he worked directly with legendary Trek producer Brannon Braga in much the same way that Dave Filoni once worked with George Lucas. He even wrote The Next Generation comics for IDW before later becoming the showrunner for the second and third seasons of Star Trek: Picard.
In Defense Of His Work On Picard
Before you say it, we get it: some fans may not want Terry Matalas to get the franchise reins because the second season of Star Trek: Picard was so awful. But in his defense, he had to deal with two major problems: shooting that season during the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with Patrick Stewart’s weird reluctance to bring in legacy characters or even feature Starfleet uniforms or the Starship Enterprise. Once Stewart apparently got over himself and let the third season of Picard be filled with a blend of fan service and familiar faces, Terry Matalas was able to deliver arguably the best Trek season we have had in decades. Why not have more seasons across more shows like that instead of making fans ugly cry their way through another grimdark episode of Discovery?
Terry Matalas Knows How To Honor Trek’s Legacy
Speaking of Discovery, the arrival of that show kicked off what would become a constant source of debate among fans over whether or not NuTrek actually felt like Star Trek or not. That’s why Picard season three was so good.
In addition to bringing back our favorite characters and ship, Terry Matalas was able to deliver a new season of Star Trek that finally had the comforting vibes and character-driven plotting of The Next Generation. He was able to do this because he was a huge fan of the show, even popping up in the background of the last Enterprise episode as a random crewman of the Enterprise-D.
We have no problem with fans of shows like Discovery, and for what it’s worth, other NuTrek shows like Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks have been absolutely killing it. However, nobody can deny that they still don’t feel exactly like the franchise we all grew up loving. By giving Terry Matalas creative control over Star Trek, we can regularly get the kinds of episodes we once got along with a little bonus: with Matalas in charge, our chances of finally getting a Star Trek: Legacy show will skyrocket.
A Talented Triple Threat
Part of what made Dave Filoni such a great choice to take charge of modern Star Wars is that he had so many different talents: over the years, he has been a voice actor, producer, director, and showrunner, and his work on shows like The Clone Wars and Rebels gave the franchise a jolt of energy when it needed it the most. By comparison, Terry Matalas is the right guy to head up Star Trek because he is a talented triple threat who can bring the franchise to life at any and every level.
The Right Choice
Over the years, Matalas has helped to write multiple episodes of multiple Star Trek shows before taking over as showrunner and later directing two great episodes of Picard. The man understands the franchise inside and out, and in its fictional canon, he even has two planets named after him (Matalas and M’talas Prime). In short, Terry Matalas has spent decades bringing Star Trek to life in every form; why not let him take the captain’s chair and finally take NuTrek to Warp 9?
