A New Trek Series for a New Generation of Fans?

Star Trek Convention -- Photo Credit: Sam Morris

 As you may or may not know the Star Trek franchise has one of the largest generational fan bases in the world spanning over 50 years from 1966 to 2016. Fans from all walks of life gather worldwide to the many Star Trek Conventions, Special Events and Movie Premiers to show their love of everything Trek. These fans have always been vocal about the Star Trek Series especially when it's about to be cancelled.

Long time fans will remember the infamous letter writing campaign, but the newer fans may not know about Bjo and John Trimble. Back in 1968 NBC was ready to axe Star Trek altogether and if it weren't for Bjo we would not be discussing Star Trek at all. The Trimbles started a grassroots letter-writing campaign that saved the show and resulted in a third season.

Bjo Trimble - The Woman who saved Star Trek

Subsequently Star Trek emerged as a new phenomena and from there the franchise grew and grew and grew to 7 series and 13 movies. This includes the new movie Star Trek Beyond coming in July 2016 and the new Untitled Series coming in January 2017.

But fans haven't always been positive when it comes to their beloved Star Trek, dissatisfaction with the last series Enterprise resulted in a decline in viewers and a cancellation of the series altogether.  Fans reacted by grumbling online and some even created their own fan-based Web Series presenting Star Trek the way they would like it to be. They want a return to the old order with as many references to The Original Series as possible.

Which brings us to the 2009 Star Trek film directed by J.J. Abrams. This is where the fan-base definitely splits apart in two. The older fans that were faithful to The Original Series do not like this rebooted movie at all and have made their thoughts known online while some even refuse to watch it.

Fans react to the 2009 Reboot of Star Trek Directed by JJ Abrams

But in all fairness the 2009 Star Trek film was indeed successful grossing over $385.7 million worldwide and was nominated for 4 Academy Awards. So who was watching this film? Well that answer lies in the newer generation of Star Trek fans who like movies that are action packed and quick paced. Most of them probably don't even know about The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager or Enterprise. For many new fans this was the first time they were introduced to the Star Trek franchise.

So this brings us to the new series coming in 2017. What will the writers do with this show? How can they make the Star Trek fans of old and new happy with this upcoming series? It's been made pretty clear that the older fans do not want to see any more reboots, yet how do the writers get the newer generation of  fans to understand the Star Trek timeline or prime universe without diving into the past? The Star Trek fan-base is huge and split apart in their opinions of how the series and films should move forward.

It has been rumored that the new series will be a Seasonal Anthology where a different story-line will be presented each season. This could get interesting and be the solution Star Trek writers are looking for. They could go into the future for one season, then go back into the past for another season. Possibly even tie up some loose ends with the other story-lines, like whatever happened to the Voyager crew after they made it back to Earth? Or what happened after the Dominion War and did Sisko ever make it out of the wormhole?

Star Trek on CBS All Access

The possibilities with an Anthology Series are endless and could surely fill up 7-8 seasons if not more, while appealing to the wide range of Star Trek fans old and young. It also could save the series from getting cancelled if the story-line is not gathering viewers. They could wrap it up and start a new adventure next season with a new crew, new ship, and new timeline. All this is speculation of course but a good solution to keep the Star Trek fan-base all together for years to come.

Treklore: The New Star Trek Series

The first episode of our Star Trek talk show, TrekLore In this episode, Bobbi and Dan discuss their wishes for the new Star Trek series, arriving in January of 2017

What will the new Starfleet Ships and Uniforms look like?

 

While searching online for news about the upcoming Star Trek series, I noticed there was lots of speculation and rumors about what the new Starfleet ships and uniforms will look like in the new Star Trek series. So I thought it would be fun to do a little speculating of my own for this blog. Starfleet has many classes of ships for a variety of different purposes, but to keep things simple let's assume the new crew will be exploring space in uncharted territory and may need to defend themselves against new enemies. For that kind of mission I would choose the Galaxy-class starship.

According to Memory Alpha Wikia:

The Galaxy-class was a Starfleet vessel first introduced in the late 2350s. It was one of the largest and most powerful Federation starship classes of its time, with many serving in the Dominion War. This was the second known Galaxy-class starship, with the first being a little known class, which was in operation in the 2250s, that was mentioned in the Treaty of Armens.

A galaxy class starship has many technical capabilities including: saucer separation, a command bridge, science labs, tactical technologies with high capacity shield grid,  transporter rooms, a medical bay, and crew quarters. Assuming the new Star Trek series will not be using a starship from the past shows, I looked around online to see what others were designing and I really like the galaxy class retrofit created by lead designer for the role-playing game Star Trek Online by Al “Captain Geko” Rivera.

 

Galaxy Class Refit - Credit: StarTrek.com

Galaxy Dreadnought Cruiser - Credit: StarTrek.com

Saucer Separation - Credit: StarTrek.com

Now let's move on to Starfleet Uniforms. We have seen many variations of Starfleet uniforms over the years in the Star Trek movies and television series and one thing has remained consistent. The uniforms were broken down into colors. The colors varied over time but for the sake of this article we will assume Red is for Command and Helm, Blue is for Science and Medical, Gold is for Engineering and Operations. In some instances for social functions the black was replaced by white.

History of the Starfleet Uniforms - Credit: conventionfansblog.com

 My favorite Starfleet uniforms was the Delta Flyer Flight Suits only seen once in the Star Trek Voyager episode 'Drive'. "Sleek, tight-fitting jumpsuits, the flight suits were black and gray with stark white shoulders and red trim. The uniforms featured high collars and distinctive closures running down the front."

Harry Kim and Tom Paris Flight Uniforms - Credit:Memory-Alpha Wikia

The Flight Suits:

During their participation in the Antarian Trans-stellar Rally in 2377, USS Voyager officers Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim donned special flight suits. It is unclear whether these suits were official Starfleet wardrobe or whether Tom Paris or somebody aboard Voyager created them for such an occasion. While they do not seem to correspond with any existing uniforms, it is possible they were designed by Starfleet and thus available to Voyager officers before their launch in 2371 

Source: Memory-Alpha Wikia

So I searched around and found some really interesting Starfleet uniforms created by fans for various reasons. I chose some that looked different from previous uniforms seen in the past. Alot of fans don't like the onesies uniform and for good reason, they don't look good. But some may also remember the 2-peice variation of the uniform that had Captain Picard constantly pulling down on his jacket. So while the uniform must be aesthetically pleasing it must also be functional. Here's are a couple of my favorite designs created by some Star Trek fans.

Starfleet Uniform Concept by Corem via Deviant Art

Starfleet Uniform Concept created by JJohnson via Starfleet1701st

While it's been fun speculating what the new Starfleet ships and uniforms will look like in the new Star Trek series coming in January of 2017, we probably won't see the real deal until the fall of 2016. In the meantime feel free to post what your favorite starship designs are and what kind of uniforms you'd like to see the future Starfleet officers wearing.

Social Issues and the Modern Star Trek

Captain Kirk and Hhura kissing in the episode Plato's Stepchildren

Interesting article regarding new trek .. and the comments posted afterwards are a little wild and speculative. If the producers and the writers of the new Star Trek series follow the tradition of pushing the envelope when it comes to social issues, politics, racism, etc. what do you suppose these modern issues will be? Obviously alot different than the 1960's trek where an interracial kiss was considered shocking....


Where Are the Radical Politics of Modern Star Trek?
by Frank Tavares  

This year is a big year for Star Trek. There’s a new movie, Star Trek Beyond, on the horizon, details about the new TV show coming in 2017 are trickling in, and it’s the 50th Anniversary of the franchise. It’s a year for us to look forward to the future but to look back, as well, and remember what made Star Trek special to begin with. 

Continue Reading: http://www.themarysue.com/modern-star-trek-politics/ 

Star Trek: New Series scheduled for January 2017

New Star Trek Series Coming 2017

New characters to the Star Trek universe seek new worlds and civilizations, while exploring the franchise's signature contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since it's inception in 1966.

Source: Wikipedia


In November of 2015, CBS formally announced a new Star Trek series set to premiere in January 2017. It will be the first series since the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005 and some Star Trek fans will be happy to hear that the new series will not be based on the new movies nicknamed JJ-verse. CBS will broadcast the first pilot episode on television and the rest of the series will appear on the subscription-based online streaming platform CBS All Access.

Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin will serve as Executive Producers with CBS producing the series in Kurtzman's "Secret Hideout production company". Brian Fuller who wrote for DS9 and Voyager was also announced as the new series showrunner and co-creator. This month Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment have also joined the new series as Executive Producers.

With these Star Trek veterans at the helm one can hope that this new series will follow the Star Trek prime universe within the beloved Trek canon storyline. Personally I hope it's set in the future rather than the past. It would be nice to see what happened after Voyager returned home, but it's not likely that will happen. CBS has stated they will cast a new crew and characters, but have kept silent on what the storyline is or what kind of galaxy class starship will be featured in the show.

Fans around the world have been speculating about what the new series will be like and if any of the original species and characters will be in it. Let's hope they reprise some roles for Q and The Borg as those are some of the all-time favorites of the past series. We'll keep you posted on any new information that becomes available, in the meantime let us know what your thoughts are regarding this highly anticipated new Star Trek series. Any guesses on what the name of the show will be?