Star Trek: Picard’s creator and showrunner, Akiva Goldsman, has stated that he wants to see a new Star Trek anthology series, exploring classic characters from the franchise’s history. Star Trek is one of TV and film’s longest running franchises, with Star Trek: The Original Series first appearing on screens in 1966, before the first moon landing. The series ran for three seasons before it was canceled due to low ratings. However, the original series, which followed the adventures of the now iconic Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy and others, gained popularity while in broadcast syndication. Renewed interest in the series led to the creation of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek has occupied an almost permanent space on TV and cinema screens since then.
The franchise now has a total of 13 movies, with six covering the characters of the original series, four covering the TNG era, and three movies as a reboot of the original series. In addition, the series is currently in a period of unprecedented expansion with four ongoing series, and more in development. The current series, and newest films, have diverged from the traditional Star Trek formula by being heavily serialized, and focusing on overarching plots, rather than the episodic format that earlier series were based on. This has been celebrated as bringing Star Trek up to date with the modern TV format where audiences expect to engage with long stories. However the change has also received criticism, with some arguing that character development has been sacrificed to fit in larger stories. Some of the newest series (Star Trek: Lower Decks and the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) are attempting to use a mixture of approaches, whereby an overarching story hangs above mostly episodic content.
Now, in an interview with SFX Magazine (via ComicBook) Goldsman has shared his new idea for a Star Trek anthology series. The series would be called Tales of the Federation, and would follow the exploits of familiar faces, exploring their lives after their series had ended. As an example, Goldsman cited Jonathan Archer (Captain of the Enterprise NX-01) during his retirement on Earth. Check out Goldsman’s comments below:
“I'll call it Tales Of The Federation, where you would just do one-offs, right? So you could bring George Takei back for an hour, and do a show about Sulu as an older man, or find Jonathan Archer having now retired from his Enterprise and being on Earth, just do these certain really interesting ones."
"You could grab anybody, from all the shows, because it's really hard to find enough for a series, but there are an endless amount of episodes, as anthology series are finding their way back. They were sort of a staple when I was a boy. A Star Trek-based one of those I think would be super fun."
Goldman’s comments will generate huge excitement among viewers who are always eager to see the return of old faces. Due to its proposed format, Tales of the Federation could take almost any character from Star Trek’s history and explore their adventures. One character that especially stands-out as a candidate for the series is Avery Brooks’ Captain Sisko, whose conclusion at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine left many fans with more questions than answers.
One thing that audiences will want to avoid, however, is cameos for cameos sake. With Star Trek: Picard, fans were reintroduced to Data, Riker, Troi, Seven of Nine, Hugh, and now Guinan and Q with Goldsman stating that more TNG cameos are on the way. While the initial excitement can build a lot of hype, the standards need to stay high to maintain a character's legacy, in the eyes of the fans. Whether or not the proposed Star Trek series will ever come to fruition isn’t yet clear, however fans will latch onto the comments and undoubtedly hope that the futures of their favorite characters are explored, now that the idea is out in the public.
Source: SFX Magazine (via ComicBook)