“Star Trek,” that venerable outer-space adventure, is boldly going where it’s been before, but hasn’t been seen in more than a decade: back to television. The science-fiction program that chronicled the voyages of the Starship Enterprise and its intrepid crew will return to TV in 2017, CBS said on Monday, in a new series that will be introduced on the network but will be shown primarily on its digital subscription video service.
This latest “Star Trek” series will focus on “new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception,” CBS said in a news release.
It will be executive-produced by Alex Kurtzman, a writer and producer of the rebooted 2009 “Star Trek” movie and its 2013 sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness.” Mr. Kurtzman has also been involved with other popular works of geek culture like the TV shows “Alias,” “Fringe,” “Sleepy Hollow” and “Xena: Warrior Princess.”
The original “Star Trek” series, created by Gene Roddenberry, ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969. It introduced audiences to heroes like the hot-blooded Capt. James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) and his serene half-alien officer, Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and was distinguished by storytelling more focused on social themes of the 1960s than on the (minimal) special effects of that era.
A motion picture franchise followed, as did the TV spinoffs “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (which ran from 1987 to 1994); “Deep Space Nine” (1993 to 1999); “Voyager” (1995 to 2001); and “Enterprise” (2001 to 2005). Each of these series focused on different crews and eras in future history.
CBS said that the new “Star Trek” series would begin in January 2017 with a “special preview” episode shown on the network. That premiere and subsequent first-run episodes would then be shown on CBS All Access, its subscription video site.
A new movie in the film franchise (with a new crop of actors playing the characters on Kirk and Spock’s Enterprise), called “Star Trek Beyond,” is planned for release next summer, but is “not related” to this latest TV series, CBS said.
Noting that “Star Trek” will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, David Stapf, the president of CBS Television Studios, said in a statement, “Everyone here has great respect for this storied franchise, and we’re excited to launch its next television chapter in the creative mind and skilled hands of Alex Kurtzman, someone who knows this world and its audience intimately.”
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