Even though it launched NuTrek out of drydock and stuck the landing with a solid final season, Star Trek: Discovery was one of the most controversial shows in this storied franchise. Because of that, you might think that Paramount is trying to avoid replicating that show’s mistakes while trying to relaunch Star Trek after the merger with Skydance.
That controversial show could still save the franchise if Paramount would embrace Bryan Fuller’s original Discovery pitch and create an anthology show akin to American Horror Story.
Somehow, Star Trek Returned
Star Trek: Discovery was a show that focused unabashedly on a single character as she climbed the ranks from disgraced officer to captain of the most advanced ship in Starfleet. The ship’s secret was that it didn’t need warp drive: thanks to some funky cosmic spores, it could blip all over the galaxy quicker than you could say “black alert.” After a couple of seasons of bombing around the 23rd century, the show boldly went where no Star Trek series had gone before: the 32nd century.
Despite its ambition and slick presentation, Discovery proved controversial for many reasons, including perceived changes to the long-running canon of Star Trek. Some fans didn’t like that the show completely revolved around Michael Burnham’s character, feeling that this premiere NuTrek show would have been stronger if it (like all the franchise entries before it) revolved around more of an ensemble cast. And plenty in the fandom disliked the darker tone of this show, one which threatened to pervert the historically chill vibes of Starfleet and the Federation.
Paramount Fumbled The Perfect Star Trek Show
Weirdly enough, most of these complaints would have been completely moot if Paramount had stuck with the original plan for Discovery, as conceived of by ousted showrunner Bryan Fuller. Instead of sticking with a single crew and a single ship, he wanted Discovery to be an anthology that (as he later told Entertainment Weekly) would “do for science fiction what American Horror Story had done for horror.” He didn’t even want a singular show: in his own words, he thought Discovery “would platform a universe of Star Trek shows.”
Obviously, this never happened: amid creative clashes and fights over the budget, Paramount eventually showed Bryan Fuller the door. They proceeded to create a more traditional Star Trek show that stuck with the same ship and crew for their very own five-year mission. But now is the perfect time to dust off Fuller’s idea and use it to kickstart a new generation of everyone’s favorite franchise.
Now that Paramount has completed its merger with Skydance and is looking to relaunch this franchise in a big way, it’s time to embrace Fuller’s idea and create a Star Trek anthology show. The beauty of this approach is that it cheats the streaming system in the same way that Captain Kirk once infamously cheated the Kobayashi Maru test. Instead of getting one Trek show that fans would either love or hate for the next half-decade, we could basically have a new show each year, with the anthology format lending itself to fresh characters and even fresher adventures.
Back to the Future (And Past)
Furthermore, Paramount seems torn about when Star Trek should take place, which is why they are working on both a Starfleet Academy show set in the 32nd century and an origin movie set in the 21st century. Bryan Fuller originally wanted Discovery to be an anthology show that jumped across different eras, ranging from The Original Series to Deep Space Nine and beyond. A new Trek show embracing this format would allow writers to revisit pivotal moments in franchise canon (like the Dominion War and the Battle of Wolf 359) each season without ever locking us down to a different time period.
The Dominion War unfolds on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Finally, Paramount is understandably worried about money, which is likely the main reason Discovery and Lower Decks were canceled, while Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy will be ending far earlier than shows like The Next Generation of Voyager. Reading between the lines, it seems like the cost of cranking out so many NuTrek shows at once was just too much for the network. But with an anthology, they get the best of both worlds: all the different Trek stories the writers can dream of, with the comparatively modest production cost of a single show.
Get This Franchise To Sickbay
Right now, I genuinely worry that Star Trek is floundering: Strange New Worlds only has one full season left, Starfleet Academy is a huge gamble, and Paramount can’t even decide which Star Trek movie (it’s down to a new Kelvinverse movie or a redundant origin film) it wants to make next.
Unless this franchise gets a hypospray of major creativity, the diagnosis is going to be “it’s dead, Jim.” But by embracing the original pitch for its most controversial show, Discovery, Star Trek can finally appeal to older fans and newer fans alike with a revolutionary approach to sci-fi storytelling.
Or, you know…just give us a season dedicated to Dr. Crusher’s weird sex candle. At this point, anything’s got to be better than SNW’s upcoming puppet episode!
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