At this week’s Saturn Awards, CBS All Access’ Star Trek showrunner Bryan Fuller debunked two rumors about the Starfleet hourlong launching in January:
1) The first season will NOT take place between “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” and the first season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
2) The new series will not be an anthology show.
Fuller also described some things we CAN expect:
* The series will tell a “13-chapter” story, suggesting there will be considerable episode-to-episode continuity. (This is of course not a huge innovation; the third season of “Star Trek: Enterprise” was famous for telling one long story across 24 episodes.)
* This “13-chapter” business suggests also that CBS All Access has so far ordered 13 hours of the new series for 2017. (Does this mean we’re only getting 13 hours in 2017? The first season of “Star Trek: Enterprise” comprised 26 hours. Most seasons of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager” were 26 hours long as well.)
* The “New Crews” text in the promo was not a typo. “I think we will be seeing lots of crews in the story,” said Fuller.
* “Eventually. Eventually,” Fuller answered when asked if characters we’ve already met could return.
For those just joining us, the new Star Trek series will launch on CBS in January then jump to the CBS All Access streaming site, where viewers will pay $6 to watch the new weekly series.
At least five people occupy the new series’ writers room:
1) Showrunner Fuller, the DS9/Voyager vet who created “Dead Like Me,” “Wonderfalls,” “Pushing Daisies” and “Hannibal”;
2) “Time After Time” writer-director Nicholas Meyer, who scripted “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” and “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”;
3) Joe Menosky, who wrote or co-wrote 56 hours of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager,” including “Time’s Arrow” and “Year of Hell”:
4) Kirsten Beyer, who in 2009 (the year of the first J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” movie) launched a new series of Star Trek novels depicting the returns to the Delta Quadrant of Starfleet admiral Kathryn Janeway, Voyager captain Chakotay, Voyager first officer Tom Paris, Voyager security officer Harry Kim, U.S.S. Galen chief medical officer The Doctor, fleet chief engineer B’Elanna Torres and Starfleet Academy professor Seven of Nine; and
5) Aron Eli Coleite, the “Crossing Jordan” vet who worked alongside Fuller as a writer on NBC’s “Heroes.”
Find all of MovieFone’s interview with Fuller here.
