David Foster Preparing to Pitch New ‘Star Trek’ Series

[Chindogu]

Courtesy of /Film. Haven't seen this around here yet.

David Foster of 1947 Entertainment thinks so. He’s not the only one — we’ve already told you about a failed Bryan Singer Star Trek pitch and a very, very tentative animated Star Trek idea — but in contrast to the other two, Foster’s project sounds like it may actually get off the ground. In a recent interview, Foster spoke a little bit about the premise of his new show, the development process, and reaching back to Gene Roddenberry‘s original vision. LINK

From my point of view, this is never going to happen. It's just not the right time. If CBS wanted a Star Trek show they'd already have one.

They'll get 30 seconds into the pitch (if that) and CBS will tell them they aren't interested. It doesn't matter how much prep work they've already done, who their influences are or how much encouragement they've gotten from previous Trek alumni. CBS and Paramount don't want a new Trek series right now. They didn't want one from Shatner or Frakes and they don't want one from whomever this guy is. Especially with a concept that sounds no better then fan fiction, IMO.

Now to get a little nerdy, Ok a lot, this is Star Trek after all. How would the destruction of Praxis affect any Post-Voyager events? That event happened at the beginning of Star Trek VI, about 100 years previous to the time they're talking about setting this new show. It was the Praxis incident, and what happened in ST6, that drove the Klingons into an eventual alliance with (not reliance on) the Federation that we see throughout the Next Gen shows.

This is an example of why a new Star Trek show in the Prime Universe is never going to happen again and why Enterprise failed (that plus just plain bad writing, IMO). There is too much canon to keep track of and franchise history to contend with. A simple adventure show set in the JJverse that morphs into something bigger, and produced by Bad Robot, is how it's going to happen if anything.

And just to add, I like how the article writer talks about how he'd like to see a Ron Moore influenced Star Trek show. Funny stuff considering there already is a couple out there.

 

[Dac]

This guy is a nobody. As much as I love Trek and would kill for more, this David Foster probably won't get much further than "Hi".

 

[Captain Robert April]

Let's get this even simpler.

CBS owns Star Trek. They can make a new series any damn time they want to. They don't need to hear any pitches from outside sources. If they want to make a Star Trek series, they'll be the ones making calls to see who wants to come in and make it for them.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Yeah its not going to go anywhere. The whole Praxis thing shows the guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I hope he remembers to tell Leslie Moonves I said, "Hello"...

...and that he can still have that $3 million dollars to renew Star Trek: Enterprise, whenever he's ready!

 

[CaptJack]

If this does somehow move forward, I hope they take the well-developed TrekLit continuity into account, at least up to a point.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

If CBS wanted a Star Trek show they'd already have one.

True, but did Paramount "want" a Star Trek movie before JJ Abrams came by and said "let me make you boatloads of money"?

CBS could yield to the same logic, but only if the pitch is credible from a business perspective (CBS does not care what the Klingons are doing, they probably couldn't tell a Klingon from a Pakled) and delivered with someone with a credible resume, that they can trust to make more boatloads of money than the CSI spinoff they'd be doing instead.

Orci and Kurtzman pitching an animated series would have greater odds of success. They have a successful track record, which as a bonus, includes Star Trek; and they be pitching something with a more modest budget than a live action series.

What I want to hear is that [producers that CBS will listen to] are pitching [series that has a strong business case behind it], because that is the series that will finally get made.

 

[arch101]

The easy way around canon is to set it far enough into the future that all the situations have drastically changed and nobody is even remotely still alive. Then you can do the show fresh but refer to stuff in "the distant past" only when you WANT to and not be constrained by things.

 

[RAMA]

Don't see much coming from this but it IS nice to see people interested enough to make pitches.

 

[RAMA]

http://1947entertainment.com/content/david-foster

http://1947entertainment.com/book/export/html/14

 

[Trelane]

*lmao*

The beauty of fanfic & 'trek' virtual series on youtube.

 

[deadman_uk]

I hope a new star trek series is made!

 

[Starkers]

I don't think the notion of Klingons becoming antogonists again is too far fetched, look how easily the Duras family almost weilded power, and how quickly the Empire reverted to type when faced by the Dominion threat. Hell forget Praxis it was the Ent C at Narrendra 3 that really cemented the alliance.

That said there probably is far too much weight of history to really do a post Voy series, much as I'd love to see it. The only way to do it for me would be to either instigate a galaxy wide catastrophe that demolished half of what went before, or else you go back to the lone ship on the far edge of the frontier ala TOS. A ship so far out in space that popping back to Earth/Vulcan/Q'uonos is never a real possibility. A real five year mission, as in 'we're not going home till the end, hell we'll probably only be near a starbase once every nine months.'

I think a series set in the Abrams universe is more likely.

 

[Angel4576]

I'd settle for a Section 31 series - t'would be sooooo sweet!

 

[ColeMercury]

I don't think the notion of Klingons becoming antogonists again is too far fetched, look how easily the Duras family almost weilded power, and how quickly the Empire reverted to type when faced by the Dominion threat. Hell forget Praxis it was the Ent C at Narrendra 3 that really cemented the alliance.

That said there probably is far too much weight of history to really do a post Voy series, much as I'd love to see it. The only way to do it for me would be to either instigate a galaxy wide catastrophe that demolished half of what went before, or else you go back to the lone ship on the far edge of the frontier ala TOS. A ship so far out in space that popping back to Earth/Vulcan/Q'uonos is never a real possibility. A real five year mission, as in 'we're not going home till the end, hell we'll probably only be near a starbase once every nine months.'

I think a series set in the Abrams universe is more likely.

I agree with this comment 100%.

In fact, this is what I'd like to see: returning to the "lone-ship-on-the-far-edge-of-the-frontier" setup like they had in TOS, with a series set in the Abramsverse. It's an old formula, but the thing is as a formula it's still only the bare bones of what "Star Trek" is all about. It's about trekking through the stars -- the rest is all wide open.

The thing about series set-ups like "this is set X number of years after Voyager and events A, B and C happened which led to D which means that..." is that they not only rely on the history too much, but they also inevitably end up retreading old ground -- messing around with the same 6 or 7 familiar alien species and coming up with new ways to pit them against each other in the inevitable massive interstellar war. Or you have some out-of-nowhere massive invasion force from some heretofore-unknown immensely powerful alien species... leading to the inevitable massive interstellar war.

But with a simple "lone-ship-on-the-frontier" setup, there's much more room to be creative with the recurring plot threads. And not only that -- having basically the same idea as TOS at its core (of trekking through the stars) means it's the ideal way to re-introduce Star Trek to television.

Oh, and something else I'd like to see: the ship & crew in question, out on the frontier? The Excelsior, with Captain Sulu. (John Cho is already like ten years older than his character, so it's not even like they have to wait until he's old enough to play Captain -- they can just add a ten-year timeskip between the last Abrams movie and the beginning of the series, and voila.)

 

[Mr Silver]

If this does somehow move forward, I hope they take the well-developed TrekLit continuity into account, at least up to a point.

No, neither should interefere with each other. That has always been the way, apart from taking a few character names as inspiration. TrekLit is part of the "expanded star trek universe" and has always been seen as non-canon compared to live action.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Here's what I said about it in the TNG forum:

http://www.slashfilm.com/david-foster-preparing-pitch-star-trek-series/

The Praxis idea is ODD to say the least, but its interesting to me that the post STNG timeline was chosen.

RAMA

IMAO, setting a new series in the previous "timeline/canon/whatever" would be commercial suicide as it would come with all the baggage that eventually choked ModTrek. It wouldn't be seen as fresh no matter the talent involved.

But reading through the talent involved, I'm not sure how viable this pitch will be. For example, writer Harris Dvores's samples of his TNG scripts (obviously never made) aren't particularly well-written and the dialogue is ... well amateurish.

Moreover there really isn't a premise in what has been discussed (see original interview). In other words, no sense what the series is really about other than a fan fiction approach of cramming every known alien into the show and adherence to the fecal matter otherwise known as "canon."

 

[ChristopherPike]

Reboot Star Trek: Enterprise. Partial-reboot or whatever. C'mon guys, you know it makes sense...

Its leading character was name checked in the last film.

Redressed U.S.S. Kelvin sets. Bridge would need some alteration, but the corridor sets were basically the same as the NX-01 ones. with plastic sheeting hung over the doorways. Probably were exactly that. I don't know.

There's a built-in reset button. An in-story explaination for why events now could be somehow different or changed. The Temporal Cold War which affected history before, having been undone. So the potential for a different first contact with Klingons, Romulans free from that story arc. Vulcan/Andorian conflicts would still essentially remain the same. But the "These are the Voyages..." finale evidentally gone - shunted to an alternate 24th Century, thanks to all the TCW interference having a knock-on effect and events like the Xindi attack on Earth being acknowledged as having happened.

Certain crew members' positions would inevitably be totally different people now. Phlox, T'Pol and a few others came with the mission to take Klaang back to Qo'nos, then stayed. So they may or may not find their way into the crew. Or turn up elsewhere in a universe that had another outcome, cropping up as guest stars from time-to-time.

Archer possibly takes the place of Admiral Forrest, giving a different Enterprise Captain his orders from Earth. Or if the pull of having one recognisable star name like Bakula is too strong, keep him on more permanently among your re-energised crew. But aside from that, entirely different circumstances happening to those in "Broken Bow", that forced the NX-01 to leave before she was ready.

Make it a loose prequel to where the Star Trek universe is right now. Not a continuation of 24th Century tales that ended more than a decade ago.

Frankly the most I want from that far future setting, would be a better swan-song for TNG, to make up for how poor Nemesis turned out. Or a "Whatever happened to" style reunion in TV special. A feasible plot reason that causes certain TNG/DS9/VOY characters to come together on the same ship. A Justice League/Avengers-like round up of Starfleet crewmembers. Although it would probably be more The Expendibles or Red, set in space. Bringing Picard and Worf back together with O'Brien and Tuvok, the EMH. Others in there too depending on the right storyline.

 

[RAMA]

The story made "The Feed" segment on Attack of the Show.

http://www.g4tv.com/videos/54920/the...11/?quality=hd

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

the corridor sets were basically the same as the NX-01 ones. with plastic sheeting hung over the doorways. Probably were exactly that.

No.