It’s the week of the actual 50th Anniversary date of Star Trek (when the show first aired on television 50 years ago) which feels like a good time to write a post! Thankfully, the 50th Anniversary celebration Mission: New York just wrapped, so we have a little news to share.
Did we get any new info on Star Trek: Discovery at the convention? Yes… and no.
There were no casting announcements, or any new footage of the Discovery as she progresses through the design phase to her final version, but there was some exciting information that was shared by two members of the creative team – Nicholas Meyer and Kirsten Beyer.
As many a fan knows, Nick wrote and directed Treks II and VI and was one of the writers for Trek IV. While I personally love each of the original six Star Trek films, each for different reasons, The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country are definitely the stand outs. Most fans nominate The Wrath of Khan as their favourite, and the vast majority love The Voyage Home because out of any and every Trek movie to date, it’s the most fun, and until Star Trek Beyond it was the only Trek film that shared the focus amongst its cast.
Kirsten, however, may not be all that well known to fans – though she should be. She is, without a doubt, one of the best Star Trek authors to ever grace Pocket Books. She’s made an impressive career out of writing for the Voyager relaunch novels, and has continued the adventures of that ship and crew in an engaging and pretty thrilling way.
When you read her novels you hear the characters, you see the visuals she describes as if you were watching an episode, and you feel the spirit of Star Trek. It’s pretty amazing what that woman can do with words!
Among Kirsten’s many successes as a Star Trek author, she’s corrected some of the not so great decisions that were made by previous authors. On top of that, Kirsten has made the Delta Quadrant come alive, and she’s crafted a list of compelling secondary characters who make you want a second series focused on the USS Voyager and the small fleet (the Full Circle fleet) of ships she now leads.
Kirsten and Nick both serve as part of Star Trek: Discovery‘s new creative team and they were present at Mission: New York to spread the love.
What did we learn?
Like I said above, not a lot. But a few interesting pieces of information were passed on…
- As their panel started, a video from Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman was shown. In it, Bryan and Alex discussed Star Trek‘s legacy, why the show was given its name (the word ‘Discovery’ encompasses Star Trek‘s overall vision of exploration and self discovery), and how the new series will be about the best that humanity has to offer.
- Of interest to a number of fans, Kirsten said that the very first person she ever pitched a Star Trek: Voyager idea to was Bryan Fuller when he was on staff writing for Janeway and her crew.
- Kirsten assured those of us who are fans of her Voyager novels that she will continue to write them, despite her involvement with Star Trek: Discovery.
- They spoke a little bit about the timeframe the series is set in, and how it gives them some room to manouever without having to focus on known characters.
- Nick assured fans that the writers are talking to a number of scientists in an attempt to keep the science as accurate as possible.
- Kirsten let us know that the new aliens and life forms will actually be part of the main cast!
- Kirsten’s role was elaborated on. As well as writing for the new series, it was revealed she will be working with Simon & Schuster and IDW Publishing to create tie-in comics with Mike Johnson and David Mack. The tie-in’s will be created hand-in-hand with the television production, rather than after the fact which has been the traditional approach.
- And… last but not least, Nick asked fans to not watch the series with too high an expectation, because if we do, then the creative team have already failed because there’s no way they can meet every single fan’s various wish lists. Good point. Just give me meaningful stories, modern day allegory, characters I love, and the odd space battle (at least one good dust up each season) and I’ll be over the moon.
While we didn’t get the announcements we were hoping for, we kind of knew we weren’t going to. Bryan has hinted we’ll learn more in October, so we just have to wait a little bit longer. Patience is a virtue, right?
It is exciting to learn about the comics but probably the most interesting bit of information that was shared was how the new aliens and life forms (androids has been mentioned) will be part of the main cast. We might end up with a super-diverse group gracing our television screens in a little under five months!
Before signing off I should probably point out that there has been no real concrete confirmation that the Number One character brought to life by Majel Barrett Roddenberry in the original Trek pilot, will be the focus of this series. When deciding what images to put together for the banner for this story, I couldn’t help myself. It’s my favourite rumour, and my enthusiasm for that idea meant the original Number One had to go up there.
I’m silently hoping that if all of us keep pushing for that, Bryan will make it so.
So… January 2017… will you hurry up and get here?
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