Star Trek has come a very long way from those early days of low-budget sets and tightly controlled episodes. These days, Star Trek is a big enough name with a large enough fanbase that the series can go to just about any expense they want, and often has, lining up huge names like J.J. Abrams to direct massive blockbusters with all the special effects and lens flares that big money can buy. Still, some fans have been vocal about missing that more lighthearted, 'looser' tone of the original series.
There have been quite a few different shows with the Star Trek name ever since the original series wrapped up. Even at the time of writing, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks are all still in production, not to mention current plans for another Star Trek film and another new show, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Akiva Goldsmith, the writer and producer for this upcoming series, has talked about his desire to call back to the original series with this new show during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
One of the key differences between Strange New Worlds and other currently running Star Trek shows is that Goldsmith plans to really double down on the episodic storytelling and part of that is trying to make each episode feel more distinct, and to be able to get creative: "If you think back to The Original Series, it was a tonally more liberal — I don't mean in terms of politics, but it could sort of be more fluid.” Goldsmith went on to cite several examples of various episodes that all had vastly different feels, yet all existed within the same production: “Like sometimes Robert Bloch would write a horror episode. Or Harlan Ellison would have 'City on the Edge of Forever,' which is hard sci-fi. Then there would be comedic episodes, like 'Shore Leave' or 'The Trouble With Tribbles.'"
The producer went on to explain that he was excited to play around with various genres and styles, saying that the project was very much going to be an 'adventure-of-the-week' production. There'll still be serialized character arcs that continue from episode to episode, however, so fans will still get a nice through-line running across the series, despite the shake-ups from episode to episode.
It's nice to see some inspiration being pulled from the classics, and no doubt long-term fans will appreciate a show that captures that more creative spirit found in the original series. Goldsmith even went on to say they hope to pull stylistic elements from that series as well: "When you close your eyes and think of the key sets and situations that you think of The Original Series, that's what we're looking to do.”
So, it would definitely seem that Strange New Worlds is going to be a love letter to the original show in a big way. Hopefully, that direction pays off when fans start to see the final product later this year.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will hit Paramount Plus later in 2021.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter