Rod Roddenberry Will Co-Executive Produce the New Trek Series

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Looks like Bryan Fuller is beaming up some more Trek cred with Gene's son, Rod Roddenberry.

Articles on the announcement:

• http://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/03/star-trek-reboot-rod-roddenberry
  
• http://www.startrek.com/article/roddenberry-added-to-new-tv-series-team

Rod seems like a great guy, but I'd really like to see more talent that hasn't had a previous association with STAR TREK. I would like to see more new blood to bring something fresh to the franchise.

 

[JD]

This was the biggest surprise so far for me. I've always been a little surprised that Rod wasn't involved in any of the other Trek series.
At the same time I do have to agree about them bringing back so many people who were involved with the old shows. At least they seem to bringing back some of the most talented people from the old shows, and none of the people responsible for the mistakes that nearly killed the franchise.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

He's a co-producer, maybe that just means he'll help guide the vision and keep it "Trek" instead of re-inventing the wheel too much (if they're even re-inventing, I don't know).

I don't mind this inclusion at all, especially with the people he'll already be surrounded by.

 

[Takeru]

Why? I'd rather have someone experienced and not just a name.

 

[Shalashaska]

This seems more symbolic than anything, a gesture to fans that they will be keeping the series' past in mind.

I wouldn't look too deep into it.

 

[dahj]

Rod seems like a great guy, but I'd really like to see more talent that hasn't had a previous association with STAR TREK.

Outside of documentaries on his father he never actually had any creative involvement in any Star Trek production, so technically he is "the new guy"...

 

[Khan 2.0]

cool

 

[TheSeeker]

He only "discovered" Trek later in life so he might have some interesting ideas to bring to the table.

 

[Shalashaska]

Why? I'd rather have someone experienced and not just a name.

Like Bryan Fuller? Or Alex Kurtzman? Nicholas Meyer?

 

[Christopher]

He's a co-producer, maybe that just means he'll help guide the vision and keep it "Trek" instead of re-inventing the wheel too much (if they're even re-inventing, I don't know).

To be specific, he's a co-executive producer, which can mean anything from a high-ranking writing staffer to a financial partner to a figurehead. In this case, Rod Roddenberry's basically a business executive rather than a creator; he's the chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment, the company that works to develop Gene Roddenberry's concepts and preserve his legacy. Almost all his credits are on the production side rather than the creative side. So he almost certainly won't be a member of the writing staff that includes Fuller and Meyer. It sounds more like Roddenberry Productions will be one of the business partners behind the show.

Either way, though, it's surprising, given that Roddenberry Productions was completely out of the loop on the last generation of Trek TV and film. It's a nice gesture, if nothing else. I imagine they wanted him onboard in hopes of winning the fans over by associating the show with the Roddenberry name.

 

[stardream]

Hmm...well it's an interesting development.

 

[Dac]

Unexpected, but not unwelcome. Feels awful like they're pandering to the "But what about GENE'S VISION!" folks who crop up under every fucking post about the new show.

I'm still expecting Seth MacFarlane to be involved in some kind of creative capacity. He knows Trek and has had mainstream successes in other mediums.

 

[C.E. Evans]

One thing I noticed while watching TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT was that each of those shows had a ton of executive producers--but so do most TV shows. While I do tend to think adding Rod Roddenberry to the list of execs for the new show is more of a legacy kind of thing, I don't think it'll hurt the new show. I think at most he could be just a little more than a "creative consultant" like his father was during the TOS movies, IMO.

 

[Noname Given]

Why? I'd rather have someone experienced and not just a name.

Exactly. They're simply giving him a title (and paying him of course) so they can effectively say - "See a Roddenberry is actually involved..." - much like the credits GR himself had on the Star Trek feature films 2 - 4 - even though GR himself contributed nothing BUT his name (and even decried kmany script elements of 2 and 3 too.)

 

[BillJ]

Diverse bunch so far!

 

[Rahul]

Hm, this smells like giving them a generic title and pay them a minuscule amount of money to stay around, to be able to have a few chats with them about Star Trek during the early development phase...

I just hope Nicholas Meyer was offered a bit more involvement than that.

 

[Maurice]

A guy with no real writing or producing experience = symbolic gesture.

 

[cultcross]

Yeah this smacks of symbolism, which I don't fall out with necessarily. I like that they've gone with familiar names but not actually people who have as much association with Trek as their names suggest - not people ground into the creative ground by years in the writers room of an ongoing series, or people with baggage from the end of the TNG era. Having said that, I'd be really OK at this point with someone coming on board from House of Cards or Breaking Bad - someone with writing credits from the streaming era.

 

[thumbtack]

What about Harve Bennett's son? Is he just left out in the cold? I demand a boycott!

 

[MakeshiftPython]

Rod seems like a great guy, but I'd really like to see more talent that hasn't had a previous association with STAR TREK. I would like to see more new blood to bring something fresh to the franchise.

I point you right over to STAR TREK BEYOND.