Star Trek 60th Anniversary Reflecting on the Franchise NuTrek: New Medium, New Blood, New Beginnings

 Star Trek 60th Anniversary
Reflecting on the Franchise
NuTrek: New Medium, New Blood, New Beginnings

Star Trek: Discovery

In 2016, on the 50th anniversary year for the franchise CBS, in control of Star Trek since the 2006 CBS/Viacom split, announced a new Star Trek series, to both act as flagship show for the new CBS All Access streaming service. The series, Star Trek: Discovery was initially conceived by Trek alum Bryan Fuller, although Fuller would leave the production prior to the start of season 1 due to production delays and disagreements with CBS head Les Moonves, following which Alex Kurtzman, Executive Producer on Star Trek 2009 and Star trek Beyond would become head of the franchise. In fall of 2017 Star Trek Discovery would premiere on CBS All Access and CBS network with "The Vulcan Hello", starring Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Saru and Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou.  Set in the decade before the original series season 1 would chronicle the war between the Federation and Klingon Empire.  The series would immediately garner mixed reactions from the fans, due to the perceived deviations from established canon, the radically different look of the Klingons and the overly dark tone among other things.  After a jaunt into the Mirror Universe the war would be wrapped up at seasons end, which also introduced a reimagined USS Enterprise NCC-1701.  Season 2 would follow the USS Discovery under Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and a storyline involving time travel, Section 31 and the mirror universe counterpart to the late Captain Georgiou.  In an effort to not totally destroy established canon season 2 ended with the USS Discovery and its crew disappearing into the far future 32nd century and it's existence being classified.  Although the series would break new ground with the franchises first openly LGBT characters and first LGBT relationship, first African-American female lead, first f-bomb, and being the first show not centered around the captain, the differences and perceived disregard of canon could not be overlooked by many fans, leading to divisiveness in the franchise.  The third season would see Discovery and its crew arrive in the 32nd century, finding a downfallen Federation and a galaxy forever changed by an event known as The Burn. The season would end with Discovery solving the mystery of The Burn, and paving the way for the Federation to rise from the ashes  Season 4 would see Burnham, now captain lead Discovery on a mission to counter an extra galactic threat known as the DMA, while season 5 would end the show with Discovery keeping the technology of the progenitors, who seeded all humanoid life in the galaxy, out of the wrong hands.  Between seasons 1-2 and 2-3 a series of Short Treks would be produced, both to fill the time between seasons and experiment with different forms of storytelling.  The Short Trek Calypso saw USS Discovery, abandoned for 1000 years cross paths with an individual known as craft. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 would lay the foundations for this, the series Finale "Life, Itself" ending with the ship being abandoned.  For a more in depth discussion see my Discovery retrospective series.



Star Trek: Picard

in 2020, while Discovery was moving its setting to the 32nd century, a new series, Star Trek Picard would follow the fan-favorite captain, now an admiral in his later years (later 24th, early 25th centuries).  Season 1, which saw the now retired admiral an a ragtag crew investigate the mystery of a "synth" named Dahj who is apparently related to the late Lieutenant Commander Data. the season would introduce regulars Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), Cristobol Rios (Santiago Cabrera) and Dr. Agnes Jurati (Allison Pill), and bring back fan favorites Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco).  Season 1 ties into lore established in Star Trek 2009, specifically the destruction of Romulus in 2387 and explores Picard's action during that incident.  A Short Trek "Children of Mars" shows the attack on Utopia Planitia shipyard by synth workers secretly under Romulan control, an event referred to throughout the season. Season 2 sees Picard and co. find themselves in an alternate timeline with a xenophobic Confederation in place of the UFP, and time travelling back to 2023 to correct the timeline, during which Picard comes to terms with some ghosts from his past and Jurati becomes a Borg Queen.  Seasons 1 and 2 were both met with middling reactions by the fandom.  The third and final season saw all of the TNG cast return to fight an attempt to take over Starfleet by the Dominion changelings and the remnant of the Borg Collective.  The season served as a reunion and a final sendoff for the TNG cast and crew, some thing which Nemesis fail to deliver 21 years earlier.  Season 3 was widely regarded by fans as one of the best (if not the best) season of trek in the "NuTrek" era.



The Effects of COVID-19

The Covid-19 Pandemic caused production issues with seasons of both Discovery and Picard, leading to massive delays in production and thus results of Discovery seasons 3 and 4 (and resulting in season 4's writing being rushed) and Picard season 2.  As season 2 and 3 were produced back to back the delays also indirectly affected season 3.  Covid pandemic era social distancing and isolation affected all of the Star Trek series in production at the time.  Pandemic related production issues, coupled with Michelle Yeoh's Oscar win resulted in Alex Kurtzman's long announced Section 31 series being cancelled and its pilot being produced as a one off streaming movie Star Trek Section 31.  Set in Star Trek's "lost era" (between Star Trek VI and TNG) the movie, a direct spinoff of Discovery starring Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Georgiou, follows Georgiou and Section 31's alpha team countering a potentially galaxy spanning threat from Georgiou's mirror universe past.  The movie was widely panned by fans, many seeing it as almost all Guardians of the Galaxy action flick and almost no Star Trek. Perhaps for the best that it did not become a series.

Next week: NuTrek gets animated