In its ever-expanding goal to be Star Trek all year round, CBS All Access has picked up the Spock, Captain Pike and Number One starrer Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to series.
With a title lifted in part from James T. Kirk’s beloved introduction to the original series, the third full live-action show in the Alex Kurtzman-pioneered Trekverse after Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard will feature Ethan Peck, Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn reprising their respective roles from Season 2 of the Sonequa Martin-Green-led Discovery.
The new series will take the trio of Spock, Pike and Number One and the U.S.S. Enterprise almost right up to the reign of Captain Kirk.
Official confirmation of the long-rumored show normally would be perfect for either a network upfront or San Diego Comic-Con, but neither of those is happening this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Then again, that didn’t stop the trio of leads from sending fans greetings of the new show today via video:
Produced by CBS Television Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment, SNW launches with a premiere penned by Picard EP by Akiva Goldsman from a story the Oscar winner wrote with Kurtzman and fellow EP Jenny Lumet. Henry Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth also executive produce, with Aaron Baiers, Akela Cooper and Davy Perez as co-EPs.
“This is a dream come true, literally,” Picard finale director Goldsman said today of Strange New Worlds, which seems to pick up not long after the Season 2 finale of Discovery. “I have imagined myself on the bridge of the Enterprise since the early 1970s. I’m honored to be a part of this continuing journey along with Alex, Henry and the fine folks at CBS.”
With Trek reboots snagging big subscription numbers for their streaming arm, those fine folks at CBS also clearly are happy about the prospects of more.
2020 CBS All Access Pilots & Series Orders
“Fans fell in love with Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck’s portrayals of these iconic characters when they were first introduced on Star Trek Discovery last season,” EVP and CBS All Access’ Head of Programming Julie McNamara said Friday. “This new series will be a perfect complement to the franchise, bringing a whole new perspective and series of adventures to Star Trek.”
It’s totally logical, when you think about it for just a bit longer than it takes to re-polarize the Enterprise’s warp coils. Take one of the most popular characters in Star Trek history — the half-Vulcan Spock — add two key players from the Gene Roddenberry-created franchise’s canon, and give them their own adventures. In fact, after Science Officer Spock, Captain Christopher Pike and Number One/Una’s pivotal turns in Discovery, all three were featured in episodes of the Star Trek: Short Treks series in what now seem almost like rehearsals for Strange New Worlds.
“When we said we heard the fans’ outpouring of love for Pike, Number One and Spock when they boarded Star Trek: Discovery last season, we meant it,” asserts Kurtzman, who also is steering the Silence of the Lambs-based Clarice and a Man Who Fell to Earth series for CBS and CBS All Access. “These iconic characters have a deep history in Star Trek canon, yet so much of their stories have yet to be told,”
the EP noted. “With Akiva and Henry at the helm, the Enterprise, its crew and its fans are in for an extraordinary journey to new frontiers in the Star Trek universe.”
No word when Strange New Worlds will debut as most of Hollywood is still in COVID-19 lockdown. However, we do know that Discovery is expected back for its third season later this year and the second season of the Patrick Stewart-fronted Picard is penciled in for early 2021, as of right now. There’s also that Michelle Yeoh series focused on the powerful and mysterious Section 31 to come down the line, the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks and an CG-animated Nickelodeon-set Star Trek for the considerably younger crowd.
Which is a long-ish way of saying, there is a hell of a lot of new Trek to come.