I do think it's true that whoever comes on as the next Kurtzman is going to want to bring in all of their own folks for things like production design
We don't know yet whether Kurtzman is leaving. His current contract is expiring, but he's reportedly in talks about renewing it.
They may or may not do Year One, anything's possible. But I've never believed for a moment that they were going to use the same sets for it. It has to be shiny and new every time, even if it means redesigning things already seen on screen.
I think we should clarify exactly what a set is. TNG and
Voyager used many of the same sets that were built for ST:TMP, even though they looked completely different. Reusing a set doesn't mean reusing its surface details, which are usually much flimsier and more easily replaceable than they look. It means reusing the sturdy, permanent framework that the facades are built on top of, the structure that gives a set its overall shape.
Presumably part of the reason the producers have been considering a
Year One series is that it would let them save money by reusing the existing sets, but that doesn't mean reusing their current details. They could tear down the visible surface and redesign it completely, but as long as the underlying structure is the same, then it's still a redress of the same set. So the premise of that article linked above doesn't hold up, because it's mistaking the superficial appearance of the sets for their underlying substance. If the producers wanted to update the SNW sets to look more like TOS, they wouldn't tear down the
whole thing, they'd just redo the surface elements, the same way TNG and VGR redid sets like engineering, sickbay, and the transporter room to make them look different while keeping the same shape.
So if they're actually tearing down the sets proper, the underlying structure, that makes it less likely that they plan to do a Y1 series.
