Strange New Worlds' showrunners advise fans to write to Skydance and Paramount if they're interested in a "Year One" Kirk sequel series

[Christopher]

It was easier back then (Anyone could write a script on spec.)

Now, the WGA rules are much stricter. A nonunion writer can't do that anymore.

Of course they can -- by joining the union. That's how it works. A union that refused to let in new members would be pretty useless.

There are actually a fair number of prose SF authors working in television today -- often as executive producers and writers when their books are adapted to the screen, like Daniel Abrahams & Ty Francks (aka "James S.A. Corey") on The Expanse or Martha Wells on Murderbot. George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones has been writing for television since the 1980s, alongside his prose career. Novelist John Scalzi was a creative consultant on Stargate Universe. But the only one who's been involved with Star Trek was Michael Chabon, who co-created Picard, and he was let go after one season.

So it's not that it doesn't happen. It happens plenty. It just doesn't happen much on Star Trek anymore. And there's no reason why it couldn't.

 

[Danja]

George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones has been writing for television since the 1980s, alongside his prose career.

When the End of the World finally comes, there will be two survivors:

• The Cockroaches
• George R.R. Martin writing The Winds of Winter.

 

[Firebird]

It was easier back then (Anyone could write a script on spec.)

Now, the WGA rules are much stricter. A nonunion writer can't do that anymore.

The WGAW has been in existence since 1954 and the same union rules have applied to writers working on TOS as they do now, so that's not really an excuse.

TNG and DS9 (up to a point) had the open submission policy as well, which kept the show from grinding to a halt during the third season in particular when they were severely short on scripts. Anyone could submit, whether they were union or not.

You don't have to be union to submit a story and/or a draft. The writing staff of a show will handle the final revisions

 

[Christopher]

TNG and DS9 (up to a point) had the open submission policy as well, which kept the show from grinding to a halt during the third season in particular when they were severely short on scripts. Anyone could submit, whether they were union or not.

Voyager too. I submitted spec scripts to TNG & DS9, flew out to Hollywood to pitch in person for DS9, and did two phone pitches for VGR, none of which achieved more than convincing me I'm really bad at pitching unless it's in writing. (TV pitches have to be spoken, since they have to pay you for anything they ask you to write.)

The open submission policy was Michael Piller's idea, so it was only in effect on the three shows he was involved with. It was an exception to the usual practice, since generally accepting unsolicited proposals is opening yourself to nuisance lawsuits from people who claimed you stole their ideas. Pitchers to Trek had to sign waiver forms going in, promising not to sue. Which is necessary, since different people come up with coincidentally similar ideas all the time without any theft being involved. My TNG spec script had an idea in common with an episode that aired a week after I mailed it. One of my VGR pitches (reworked from my DS9 spec script) turned out to be coincidentally similar to a movie spec script Joe Menosky had written, and another had some similarities to "The Gift," which they'd already written. (I was pitching for season 4 and couldn't have known at the time that Kes was leaving.)

 

[Nerys Myk]

TOS and TAS had a number of writers with such credentials -- Jerry Sohl, Richard Matheson, Norman Spinrad, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, Larry Niven, etc. It brought a new level of science fiction literacy to television. I've always regretted that later shows haven't tried as hard to recruit prominent SF authors.

Didn’t say there weren’t Sci-fi writers involved, just that it’s not required. Some were better suited for Trek than others.

 

[Christopher]

Didn’t say there weren’t Sci-fi writers involved, just that it’s not required. Some were better suited for Trek than others.

Nobody said "required." It's just that it would be nice to have a significant number of them again, instead of the usual zero. The sizeable number of prose science fiction authors who wrote for TOS was a key element of what made it distinctive, so if the goal is to redo TOS, doesn't it make sense to suggest emulating that critical aspect of it?

 

[Sketcher]

Michael Chabon is a prose writer, and well... look what happened.

 

[Noname Given]

Why start now? "Serious sci-fi credentials" have never been required to write Star Trek.

But those writers with them wrote some of the better TOS episodes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

But those writers with them wrote some of the better TOS episodes.

Or were rewritten into better TOS episodes.

 

[Christopher]

Michael Chabon is a prose writer, and well... look what happened.

Don't be ridiculous. There are plenty of writers who have succeeded at both prose and TV/film -- Richard Matheson, Stephen J. Cannell, Joan Didion, David Gerrold, Diane Duane, William Goldman, Michael Crichton, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, even going back to the early days of Hollywood when novelists like William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiel Hammett wrote for the screen. Of course, Kirsten Beyer started out as a Star Trek novelist and has gone on to become quite a successful writer-producer on multiple Trek shows. Not to mention the very conversation we've been having about how many prose SF authors wrote TOS episodes -- including most of the episodes generally voted among the most popular, such as "The City on the Edge of Forever," "The Trouble with Tribbles," "The Doomsday Machine," "Mirror, Mirror," and "Amok Time." For anyone to claim that prose authors can't write Star Trek demonstrates a monumental ignorance of the franchise's history.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Michael Chabon is a prose writer, and well... look what happened.

We got the wonderful first season of Picard?

 

[fireproof78]

For anyone to claim that prose authors can't write Star Trek demonstrates a monumental ignorance of the franchise's history.

Was that the claim?

I thought the claim was that there was no need to make it a requirement?

Didn’t say there weren’t Sci-fi writers involved, just that it’s not required. Some were better suited for Trek than others.

Or were rewritten into better TOS episodes.

Also this. Roddenberry did some rewrites, especially in the first season, often pulling so many hours as part of it, at least per Shatner's book.

I would love to see more SF writers in Star Trek, but agree that it shouldn't be a requirement.

 

[Danja]

I don't see Year One being made (especially not by the same producers who are currently in charge of the OTT hot mess that is Strange New Worlds).

A musical ep? A Muppet ep? Seriously? Who wants more of the same? (Only with a younger Captain! )

There is a REASON P+ wanted to cancel it after S4 (they didn't like the direction the show was headed).

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't see Year One being made (especially not by the same producers who are currently in charge of the OTT hot mess that is Strange New Worlds).

A musical ep? A Muppet ep? Seriously? Who wants more of the same? (Only with a younger Captain! )

There is a REASON P+ wanted to cancel it after four seasons.

Raises hand.

 

[Ovation]

they didn't like the direction the show was headed

Do we have confirmation of this point? There are many other possible reasons at play—cost of renegotiating contracts among them.

 

[Sketcher]

I don't know why people think Year One would be tonally the same as SNW. That's like saying SNW was going to be tonally the same as DSC. Or Superman & Lois the same as Supergirl, to use another spinoff comparison. It would be a new show, might as well try a different style while you're at it.

 

[Dukhat]

I don't know why people think Year One would be tonally the same as SNW.

What stories could they tell in Year One that they couldn't tell in SNW?

Remember VOY? Remember ENT? Most of those shows' stories could easily have been TNG episodes. So 'tone' doesn't really make much difference if you're just regurgitating previous stuff with a new cast on a new ship (and in Y1's case, the same ship.) At least with the SFA concept, they're doing something a bit different.

 

[Christopher]

What stories could they tell in Year One that they couldn't tell in SNW?

Remember VOY? Remember ENT? Most of those shows' stories could easily have been TNG episodes. So 'tone' doesn't really make much difference if you're just regurgitating previous stuff with a new cast on a new ship (and in Y1's case, the same ship.) At least with the SFA concept, they're doing something a bit different.

Keep in mind that the thrust of SNW's storytelling tends to focus more on the characters and their relationships than on the plots. Assuming the same creative team took the same approach on a TOS-redo series, then the change in characters would make quite a bit of difference.

But I agree, I'm more interested in the Academy series than in a potential rehash of TOS.

 

[Firebird]

There is a REASON P+ wanted to cancel it after S4

Yeah, that reason is called "cost."

The streaming bubble burst hard in the shadow of the dual strikes. The film industry is in rough condition at the moment, thanks to private equity rotting out the means of production, all in favor of pumping-and-dumping short-term profits to shareholders.

 

[The Wormhole]

There is a REASON P+ wanted to cancel it after S4 (they didn't like the direction the show was headed).

I don't think that's the reason. If it were, they wouldn't have picked it up for a fifth season at all.