Just a quick one today. I don’t set out to be a news site, but over the last couple of days Star Trek: Picard has had big premieres in Los Angeles and London – which I’ve seen thanks to following the official Star Trek social media sites. Supposedly the first three episodes of the upcoming series were shown to invited audiences – but no news of plot seems to have leaked out.
Which is fortunate, really. It’s nice to be able to go into the new series as unspoilt as possible. And as Star Trek: Picard gets closer and closer I’m actually tuning out of most online Star Trek news sources and websites in order to avoid spoilers. I did the same for Discovery, too. Sometimes with films I have no choice (health issues generally prevent me from being able to go to the cinema, so I end up seeing films later than everyone else) but for television series I really do like to go in unspoilt. And with Star Trek being so important to me, I’m especially keen to avoid seeing or hearing too much before I get to see Picard for myself.
Photo credit: startrek.com
One piece of news that has come out from the premieres, however, came from Alex Kurtzman – the head of Star Trek programming at ViacomCBS and the head of production company Secret Hideout. There had been gossip in the anti-Star Trek community that Kurtzman was on his way out, but this is clearly not the case.*
When discussing the current state of Star Trek production, Kurtzman dropped the bombshell that, in addition to the shows that had already been announced, two new, as-yet-unannounced live action series are in early production!
To recap, that means that we currently have the following Star Trek projects on the go: Discovery, whose third season is wrapping up and a fourth looks all but certain; Picard, which already has a second season confirmed; Lower Decks, whose first season premieres later in 2020 and was picked up for a two-season order; the Section 31 series, which is in pre-production with filming likely to begin shortly; the untitled kid-friendly animated series; and the two brand-new live action shows that Alex Kurtzman just told us about. By my count, that brings us to seven Star Trek series in various stages of production! And in addition to those, there’s a fourth Kelvin-timeline film in early production, as well as at least the possibility of Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek film somewhere down the line.
Photo credit: startrek.com
When I’ve said in the past that it’s an absolutely amazing time to be a Star Trek fan, some people will have shrugged. But with such a huge amount of content coming, there really should be something for everyone – even those who didn’t like Discovery or the Kelvin films.
We can speculate about what might be in the works in terms of new Star Trek series next time! But if you can’t wait, you can check out a few of my own Star Trek story pitches by clicking or tapping here.
I can’t believe it’s only a week until we get to see Picard. Live Long and Prosper!
The Star Trek franchise – including Star Trek: Picard – is the copyright of ViacomCBS. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
*As an aside, I’m always incredibly wary of anyone online who claims to have “sources” close to the production of any major franchise. We’ve seen this with some people regarding Alex Kurtzman’s position at ViacomCBS/Secret Hideout, and it just isn’t true. A lot of incredibly negative “fan” channels on social media, which deal in practically nothing but hate and bile, make a living doing what they do. And they have an incentive to keep the clicks and views coming in – so they make stuff up claiming to have anonymous “sources” which never existed. Either that or they’re being trolled by someone! So remember to keep your wits about you, and take any such claims with a grain of salt.
Trekking with Dennis 