As well all speak kindly of the demise of the Star Trek franchise, one thing we keep repeating is that Trek needs something NEW if its ever going to be ressurected.
TrekMovie.com has learned that there is a new animated Trek project under consideration at CBS, but it has yet to get the green light. The series would most likely be broadcast on the web and be made up of ‘Clone Wars’ like 6-minute mini episodes.
Sounds like a good starting point to reintroduce something radical. Launching a whole new series just to have the wavering fanbase ignore it just is too risky. And if you want to draw in a new crowd, and edgy animated series of shorts to sample the new concept of Trek might just do the trick. But how different is it?
The setting is the year 2528 and the Federation is a different place after suffering through a devastating war with the Romulans 60 years earlier. The war was sparked off after a surprise attack of dozens of ‘Omega particle’ detonations throughout the Federation creating vast areas which become impassible to warp travel and essentially cut off almost half the Federation from the rest. During the war the Klingon homeworld was occupied by the Romulans, all of Andoria was destroyed and the Vulcans, who were negotiating reunification with the Romulans, pulled out of the Federation. The setting may seem bleak and not very Trek-like, but that is where the show’s hero Captain Alexander Chase comes in. Relegated to border patrol, Chase is determined to bring the Federation (and a ship called Enterprise) back to the glory days of seeking out new life and new civilizations.
Making the Federations the struggling minority adds an edge we havent seen since Voyager, and its about time that the lives of the crew of the Enterprise dont just live in perfect harmony that is randomly put at risk and solved in 40 minutes by inverting the gamma flow of the forward gravitron array. A darker more conflicted Trek would be great.
Of course there will still be the obvious parallels to Battlestar Galactica. Take the dominate race of the series and make them the isolated underdogs. The captain hopes to revive what is left of the Federation to its former glory.
But who cares? If a radical change of the Trek series is going to make it fun and interesting again, then by all means go nuts!
The real question I want to ask is with this new movie coming out that is rumoured to start Trek in a totally new direction, will this animated series be the Next Generation of THAT timeline or the old one? What happens if BOTH are successful?
Relaunching Trek on both ends might backfire if people actually like them both.
