The Inevitable TOS Reboot

[Search4]

Star Trek is now as vibrant as it ever was - multiple shows, streaming ensuring adequate revenues, shared production capabilities... whether you like LD, Picard, Discovery and look forward (or not) to Prodigy, Section 31 and Strange New Worlds... the franchise has never been healthier.

But there's an elephant in the room: the inevitable TOS reboot. Why is it inevitable?
- Most recognized show
- Most recognized characters
- Easy follow on to the Pike / Strange New Worlds show
- Probable high level of fan support
- Probably the most monetizable

Yes, the Kelvin films were a version of a TOS reboot, but the first is almost a dozen years old and its not at all clear the series will continue.

I believe this is inevitable. So - TrekBBS - what do we want to see from this show?

- Individual episodes?
- Serialized?
- Discovery like pacing?
- Retelling old TOS stories (hey, I'd like to see the Doomsday machine again...)

Thoughts, speculation on timing, and ideas?

 

[fireproof78]

Individual episodes.

More aliens on the crew.

Retell some of the old stories if they can be worked in a way that makes sense. I think the Doomsday Machine is a great story to revisit. I think things like Apollo or Trelane are best left aside.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Seems like SNW would be pretty much scratching this itch in the short term. I don't see them doing a full-on reboot of TOS before that's played out.

 

[Lord Garth]

If the movies start up again, there won't be a TOS reboot on TV. If -- if -- it's feasible to have blockbusters again, that's the route they'll go.

Otherwise, yeah, like The Old Mixer said, that show wouldn't come out until after Strange New Worlds. This hypothetical series would probably follow the same mold as SNW.

 

[Starbreaker]

Maybe in 50 years or so. Seems like there's plenty of Star Trek to go around for a while.

 

[NCC-73515]

It depends on SNW. If that's a hit and lasts several seasons, they might consider a Kirk spinoff...

 

[STEPhon IT]

Just do it so these horrible things, DISCO and STRANGE NEW PIKE, can have it's own place, separating itself from the series I love. Please CBSAA, make it happen, create a reboot of Star Trek as WOKE and politically correct as can be so everyone will be happy as the shows play it safe with better special effects. Not only should they consider a Kirk spin-off but a Harry Mudd spinoff and a Scotty spinoff, how about a Bones spin-off? This would be great lets keep expanding on the worlds which have already been established and just rewrite them for a 21st century audience. While we're at it we could have a Kor spin-off where the producers can ignore how the Klingons appeared in TOS and have them appear as they are in DISCO. There's a lot things that can be changed and done better in Kurtzmanland.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Knowing CBS, they'd reboot TOS but insist it's the same continuity

I suspect SNW to bring in more and more TOS characters, so it'll be nuTOS by the end and handover to Kirk's command (who will be on board much earlier, according to rumours)

 

[Takeru]

Otherwise, yeah, like The Old Mixer said, that show wouldn't come out until after Strange New Worlds. This hypothetical series would probably follow the same mold as SNW.

I don't think they'll do a TOS reboot after SNW because there'd be no point, it would be SNW with Kirk as the captain and after several years of SNW the writers would probably be ready for a new setting and/or premise.

While we're at it we could have a Kor spin-off where the producers can ignore how the Klingons appeared in TOS ...

You mean like every other Star Trek production after TOS including the ones Roddenberry was actually in charge of?

 

[Jesse1066]

If they follow SNW with a Kirk show, they should jump forward a few years and set it after The Motion Picture. No need to step on the toes of TOS when there's more than a ten year gap between TMP and TWOK. Plus, they'd get to do new uniforms and an almost new ship.

 

[Jayson1]

Makes more sense to reboot TNG at this point. More younger fans grew up on it as opposed to TOS. If they do TOS again anytime soon I think they likely go the Academy idea for real. Allows you to have new characters and more diversity and more female characters to supplant Kirk, Spock and Bones. I think we will also get a Captain Sulu show someday. Sadly for George Takei he will not be the lead. I could see them doing a Scotty before TOS show. Also young Picard or Picard on the Stargazer seem like destiny bound shows we will get someday. Also even though it sounds fan fic maybe to others but a Star Trek Klingon show will happen. I think it will be the show in which Trek goes for a kind of Game of Thrones type of fantasy setting.

Jason

 

[Lord Garth]

Makes more sense to reboot TNG at this point. More younger fans grew up on it as opposed to TOS. If they do TOS again anytime soon I think they likely go the Academy idea for real. Allows you to have new characters and more diversity and more female characters to supplant Kirk, Spock and Bones. I think we will also get a Captain Sulu show someday. Sadly for George Takei he will not be the lead. I could see them doing a Scotty before TOS show. Also young Picard or Picard on the Stargazer seem like destiny bound shows we will get someday. Also even though it sounds fan fic maybe to others but a Star Trek Klingon show will happen. I think it will be the show in which Trek goes for a kind of Game of Thrones type of fantasy setting.

Jason

Someone else once said this, I don't remember who, but I agree with them. When it comes to Star Trek, TOS is the go-to for the Big Screen, TNG is the go-to for the Small Screen. If they stick to this rule of thumb, they won't go far wrong.

 

[Mudd]

If SNW is successful, it's likely to eventually mutate into TOS 2.0.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Why would they reboot TOS, when they're spending all this time expanding the universe that it spawned? Rebooting the show completely destroys everything that came after it (TNG, DS9, VOY, Lower Decks, Prodigy, Picard, etc...). Plus, Discovery has tried (somewhat) to "fit in" as a prequel, even sealing Pike's fate as in canon. Furthermore, they actually went so far as to canonize the Kelvin reboot in the Prime timeline! Unless if by "reboot", you mean film new adventures that somehow shoehorn in with established "history", in which case it's not a reboot.

I think what we'll see instead is an increasing number of (recast) TOS characters in SNW, just as we see TNG-era characters popping up in Lower Decks and Picard.

Why do so many hard core fans have a wish to restart the entire franchise? That's what the novels and comics are. A separate continuity. Isn't that enough?

 

[Mudd]

Why would they reboot TOS

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

What, you thought there was a creative plan or vision here?

 

[fireproof78]

Why do so many hard core fans have a wish to restart the entire franchise? That's what the novels and comics are. A separate continuity. Isn't that enough?

So I don't hear whining about real Star Trek and precious continuity any more.

 

[Skywalker]

I feel like they'll save the TOS crew, and any other reboots of them, for the movies, since as OP mentioned, they're the most recognizable characters.

 

[Mudd]

Except that they've got Spock now. They've got Kirk's (PIke's) Enterprise. And it sounds likely that a younger Kirk will emerge as a character at some point on SNW.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Except that they've got Spock now. They've got Kirk's (PIke's) Enterprise. And it sounds likely that a younger Kirk will emerge as a character at some point on SNW.

It'll become the Smallville of Trek, where younger versions of the characters meet all the same people and do all the same things as their mature selves did.

 

[Orphalesion]

First of all, I don't want to see this. Let it be movies.

But if it was to happen as a series, then the first thing I'd want to see is more female main characters, more LGBTQ+ main characters, and more aliens.
(a lot) Less stereotyping of the non-American characters. More focus on the main characters besides the "central three"(one of which should be changed to female, I'd say merge Chapel and McCoy into a female doctor character, or have Uhura replace McCoy) Episodic but with some (especially character focused) continuity between the episodes.
And, though I hope that would go without saying, leave all the 1960s stuff in the 1960s and make it a 2020s (2030s?) show. And if its a "reboot" then it should pay no heed what TOS did or what's "canon" and should do it's own thing.

Though really SNW has the chance to be a lot better than a straight up TOS reboot. It already has a lot of the stuff I just mentioned (Number One as a female member of the trio, more female characters if that casting call that showed up a while is real, episodic with character arcs)