Suddenly I’m feeling old.
My first memories of the series goes back to me fighting with my Dad to stay up late Fridays to watch Star Trek. My bedtime was 8pm, and Star Trek wasn’t on until 8:30. Needless to say it took me years to catch all of the episodes during reruns to finally see them all. Every so often I’d catch an episode I had missed or forgotten about, and then suddenly it would be new all over again.
My first model I ever built (truthfully watched it being built by my Dad) was the Enterprise. He patiently built the model step by step, and allowed me to place the sensor dish on the secondary hull. The stand for the model made an awkward handle so that I could fly her – gently – around my room. Dad was always on hand to provide engineering support when the nacelles would suffer catastrophic failures of the structural integrity fields, or be mauled by the evil space wiener dog Bingo.
My next memory comes a decade later while we were stationed in what was then West Germany, and watching Star Trek on German television. Dubbed in German. Kirk had a much deeper voice, and Mr. Spock sounded like anything but Leonard Nimoy – but it was still watchable. I searched high and low to find an example, but apparently those early dubs are not on YouTube. It was part of a block of programming book-ended by reruns of the Muppet Show. Also dubbed in German. Needless to say I still hear the Muppet Show theme in German.
So with the 50th anniversary 1 year away, and after a decade without new Star Trek on TV I have to wonder – when is HBO or Netflix going to grab this as a series? Cable is the perfect home for a high-brow science fiction series. CBS can keep JJ Trek going as long as you want, but what I really need is a new Star Trek TV series. I don’t care what timeline it’s in. As long as it’s written well, with only the occasional monster-of-the-week, I will be a happy man.
Conversations with the Lootcritter 
JJ verse is actually Paramount only. Bad Robot, his production company, has full control over Star Trek as long as he remains in that role at that studio. There have been rumors about a TV show so I am unsure about the reasoning why it hasn’t happened. Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu would be a prime spot for something like this as that is where syndicated scripted drama has essentially found it’s home. And in the space between movies this, I believe, offers writers a chance to flesh out the setting while not using the main characters.
I also don’t know if you have seen Star Trek: Renegades (http://startrekrenegades.com/) yet. It was solid, a bit Babylon 5 (if you’ve ever seen Legend of the Rangers you’ll get what I’m talking about), but still pretty damn good. Fan Made so the production value leaves something to be desired in some cases but in others I think it deserves praise. Actual cast members are involved, Tim Russ and Robert Picardo to name a couple. There is also Axanar (http://www.axanarproductions.com/), which should be very promising as well in the pre-ToS era. The production value for that is vastly higher, they have the Prelude to Axanar episode available which showcases that to great effect.
Then we come to the holder of the Prime universe, CBS. They have zero, and I mean ZERO interest in the IP (Hence, the aforementioned fan series attempts). You play Star Trek Online and see how Cryptic/PWE manages the title and the story. All of that has CBS oversight. It’s essentially canon, as much as some people wish it wasn’t. I’d also point to how usually you have games like this to maintain and grow the franchise and CBS let’s Cryptic’s poor development ability and greed erode it. STO’s STLV panel should be among the most crowded of the event. It’s the freaking continuation of the franchise and they have consistently had actual TNG-era actors available. Instead it’s usually mostly empty. If they cared they’d be as hands on as Lucasfilm and Lucasarts were with Star Wars games. Or hell, they’d have launched a new damned game already, as that’s also their prerogative. What was the last Star Trek Prime Universe game? (hint: it was released in 2010 and I just was mentioning it’s publisher as inept)
CBS also owns Showtime. A cable premium network that could use more content. Would be a no-brainer to do 10 eps of post-Nemesis, pre-STO content to even just do a flyer and see if theer is buzz; maybe get some Trekkies and Trekkers to pony up for the network. And I think a large swath of actors from the shows would reprise roles if asked. Levar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, and Michael Dorn have all floated actual show ideas.
While I know Star Wars is the larger fanbase, it saddens me to see where Star Trek has ended up since my childhood. Especially when I feel both fandoms have equal amounts of rabid members who would devour whatever you put in front of them.
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I’m very aware of Axanar, and have contributed to the fundraising effort (mind you the incentive was Thomas’s patches, so it was an easy sell). The recent episodes from Star Trek Continues also have caught my attention. Well written, matching the decor and themes of TOS, they really work IMO.
Star Trek Renegades didn’t work for me. I’m not saying it’s bad, but I never got into it enough to make it through the first 30 minutes. In comparison I’ve watched the ST:Continues episodes 2-3 times each.
As for CBS’s intentions for a TV series – I just don’t know. They’d be crazy not to try and exploit this for at least an announcement of a new series with a broadcaster pending in the next year.
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I really like the idea Gene had for an Academy show placed before the 5 year mission. It would generally be cheap to make, and you could angle it for more of a teen/20s audience and seed lots of lore into the show without overloading it and let movies and a new TV show about a ship use it.
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Funny that you mention the Muppet Show – they are releasing a new show on primetime ABC in 2 weeks. Come on Star Trek – you’re letting Kermit get the best of you!
Star Trek was the first model kit I ever worked on too, by the way. It was a Romulan bird-of-prey and I was pretty damn proud with how it came out, even though it was only like 6 pieces and a decal+paint job =P
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