News CBS Chief Creative Officer On Star Trek Future

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A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

David Nevins, CBS Chief Creative Officer, spoke about promoting Star Trek while addressing attendees at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Communications...

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[dinzy]

Cue sexy 20s something Starfleet Academy show in 2 years.

Oh crap, didn't Pike die with a bunch of students. That's the Pike show we will get.

 

[fireproof78]

Oh crap, didn't Pike die with a bunch of students. That's the Pike show we will get.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Jayson1]

The Carddissians! What happens when Garak hooks up with Lamar Odom! Jason

 

[C.E. Evans]

“We really believe in not only serving inside our own ecosystem but serving people outside,” [David Nevins} said. “What we’re trying to do right now with Star Trek is build that brand. We want it to get younger and more relevant to people.”

Seems like CBS realized that they could make Star Trek bigger by having different stuff for different audiences. I think Trek was in danger of becoming a bit too insular and taking itself too seriously.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Seems like CBS realized that they could make Star Trek bigger by having different stuff for different audiences. I think Trek was in danger of becoming a bit too insular and taking itself too seriously.

It's been that for decades. ST09 was a step in the right direction, but ID was two steps back.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Cue sexy 20s something Starfleet Academy show in 2 years.

Oh crap, didn't Pike die with a bunch of students. That's the Pike show we will get.

They were developing an academy show a year ago but it's been quiet for awhile. Maybe it's dead like the Khan miniseries or they're just waiting for Picard/Lower Decks to happen before announcing it formally.

When I saw the ST'09-ish academy and instructor uniforms in that scene, I did wonder if they were developed for that project.

 

[dinzy]

Be careful what you wish for.

I wish for a Pike on the Enterprise show and a separate sexy, half-naked, 20 somethings Starfleet Academy Spring Break: Risa show.

Seriously though, I don't know how they can make an academy show all that interesting. If they make it realistic it is just military school with young people personal drama. I would think they would need to take the cast on to an actual ship by season 2.

 

[Tuskin38]

I wish for a Pike on the Enterprise show and a separate sexy, half-naked, 20 somethings Starfleet Academy Spring Break: Risa show.

Seriously though, I don't know how they can make an academy show all that interesting. If they make it realistic it is just military school with young people personal drama. I would think they would need to take the cast on to an actual ship by season 2.

Make it a cadet ship.

 

[Takeru]

Make it a cadet ship.

No, thanks. Why take an original premise for a series in the Star Trek universe and immediately turn it into a new ship show?

If they do an academy show it should be exclusively set in the solar system, primarily on earth but they can do flight training at Jupiter or visit Utopia Planitia while the young people personal drama could drive the show.

 

[DaveyNY]

Stardate: 90210 here we come.

 

[fireproof78]

Seriously though, I don't know how they can make an academy show all that interesting. If they make it realistic it is just military school with young people personal drama. I would think they would need to take the cast on to an actual ship by season 2.

Why have it be a cadet training cruise, perhaps around the solar system. Showcase life in the Federation beyond Starfleet. You can build up to it the first couple of episodes and have the cadets show genuine excitement, rather than treating space travel as routine.

One of my favorite books to this day is "Space Cadet." I think you can make it interesting with the right attitude and approach.

 

[Jayson1]

Maybe the Academy in the future has offworld faculities. Never made sense to me to have one school on one planet. Jason

 

[eschaton]

I think that - in theory - a Starfleet Academy show could work.

The problem is the default thing to do with it would be just make it a teen drama show with a patina of Star Trek plastered over top. The resulting show would be too teen drama for Star Trek fans, and too Star Trek for teen drama fans.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Seriously though, I don't know how they can make an academy show all that interesting. If they make it realistic it is just military school with young people personal drama. I would think they would need to take the cast on to an actual ship by season 2.

Smallville and Buffy got many, many years out of young people dealing with personal drama in a world of sci-fi or magic.

 

[Vger23]

I think that - in theory - a Starfleet Academy show could work.

The problem is the default thing to do with it would be just make it a teen drama show with a patina of Star Trek plastered over top. The resulting show would be too teen drama for Star Trek fans, and too Star Trek for teen drama fans.

I'm not convinced that's the direction they'd go.

If you think about it, it's much easier and more profitable to create a teen drama that's set in contemporary times. Why spend all the money on costumes and sets to fit a 23rd or 24th century setting, as well as risk limiting your potential audience, with an established sci-fi setting when you can just make the same show set at some random southern California HS?

 

[DarthPipes]

I do think the Star Trek fanbase has to get younger for the future. I don't think you need to turn it into Smallville (which I liked) though. But the fanbase is an older one and that has been more noticeable going to the recent films.

 

[Jayson1]

Here is one way to do it. A year arc: season 1: First year at Academy 2: Offworld training. 3: Final year of school. 4: First assignments after graduation. 5: War. Main hero's first command. Will never be kids again. Jason

 

[eschaton]

I'm not convinced that's the direction they'd go.

If you think about it, it's much easier and more profitable to create a teen drama that's set in contemporary times. Why spend all the money on costumes and sets to fit a 23rd or 24th century setting, as well as risk limiting your potential audience, with an established sci-fi setting when you can just make the same show set at some random southern California HS?

I would agree with this generally speaking, though it doesn't stop there being oodles of teen-focused supernatural and comic book shows.

Part of the problem is a Starfleet Academy show is - by nature - not only youth focused, but also to a large extent school-focused. Sure, you can deepen stories by doing flashbacks, have occasional adventures elsewhere, etc, but if you want all of the mains to be engaged, the drama has to be located mainly at school. This would seemingly limit much of the drama to interpersonal conflict between the students, and things like text anxiety.

Unless, I suppose, they decided to go full-on Harry Potter. That might be a decent format honestly. Every season they have some new serialized adventure - discovering some "conspiracy" within the academy, exploring a holodeck program, or transporting to a little-used old base on Mars, for example - which takes place while the more boring minutia involving coming of age is also taking place.

 

[Lord Garth]

I didn't think an Academy series would automatically bring a younger audience with it. When I was in high school and college, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was watch shows about more high school and college.

This stuff is mainly for the tween market, not the teen market. 11, 12, and 13-year-olds who are watching these kids who are older than them and who can do the things they wish they could do. Then they turn 14, start ninth grade, and then find those shows ridiculous because now they can compare it to what high school is really like.