With no new shows in the offing, we ask “Is Star Trek: Year One the future?“
Starfleet Academy was cancelled after two seasons. Strange New Worlds has recorded its fifth and final season already (season 4 is due later this year). The official website has had no updates for some time. Is the show about to hit pause? Should it?
Opinion — there are plenty of possibilities yet
The show has had gaps before. We hear suggestions of a new film and while some fans are disappointed, Alex Kurtzman remains the showrunner. Let’s also not forget Paramount has been busy fighting Netflix for Warner Bros, so not focused on all of its flagship shows, particularly the more expensive titles. We thought we’d survey rumours and fan theories, discard most and focus on a few. First up, while Star Trek: Picard is far in the rearview mirror, there was once talk of Seven of Nine getting her own show (and Enterprise) in Star Trek: Legacy. The announcement of a new comic book series seems to have scuppered that idea. Theories of a Worf spin-off seem less likely, but never say never.
More plausible are two ideas connected to various incarnations of the show — Star Trek: Year One and Star Trek: United.
What is Star Trek: Year One
This is easy to describe. Strange New Worlds ends with Kirk taking over the Enterprise and various crew changes including the arrival of “Bones” McCoy. What if a new show was inserted at this point before the original series? It’s a challenge to the five year mission idea, but how is to say there weren’t other missions first? We wonder how much mileage there can be in this slice of Federation history not already covered by Captain Pike in Strange New Worlds. That aside, sets and cast are well identified and it could just fly.
Speaking of Federation history…
Star Trek: United — just what is it
If you don’t know this theory, give it a moment before dismissing. What if Star Trek: Enterprise has a sequel? It ended 21 years ago, but Scott Bakula seems more than happy to play Jonathan Archer again. If we step back, it’s fair to say the show was not hugely popular. Our view is the first two seasons were a struggle, season 3 was good but a little forced in setup and season 4 pretty good but too late in the day. Over time the show has gained more respect, and now the (originally a fan concept, now developed) idea is to explore an older Archer now the President of the United Federation of Planets in its early years. A little like parts of Starfleet Academy there’s galactic diplomacy, but there’s a role for a younger generation (including perhaps Archer’s children). We understand this is more theoretical than the Year One idea, but we still like it. As long as there’s no singing on the title track!
What would we do
It’s hard to overlook the cost of producing these live action shows. We have heard one episode of Strange New Worlds buys a season of Lower Decks. Is there scope for another show? What happened immediately after The Burn (if we can’t retcon it away)? Several figures are around throughout, is there a story here about salvaging the core of the Federation or is it all too gloomy?
For now, we’d be happy with even some basic updates to the official website. We still have new content coming this year and next, so time yet to see a new show come to life. Let’s hope so!