'Star Trek' TV Producer Shares Vision Counter To 'Zero Dark Thirty' Movie Future As Shooting Approaches

CBS TV Studios announced today that their upcoming Star Trek show — helmed by Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller — will begin filming in Toronto this fall. While little is known about the first Star Trek TV series in 12 years, leaks from the production suggest it will be set in the years after the peace treaty between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets, placing it between the events of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

A Newsarama interview with one of the executive producers, Trevor Roth, may not reveal much more about the plot, but it does present a vision for the newest Star Trek TV show that stands in sharp contrast to the future of the Star Trek movie series.

"At the end of the day, there are certain tenets of Star Trek that make it what it is," Roth said. "I think that continuing of those tenets and create a cast that are truly relatable to people, regardless of their species and alien makeup. For those [characters] to go through journeys that are relevant to people, for us to create a show that is a smart show and something we can be proud of, yet still entertain people."

That’s Star Trek, alright. Roth may not be saying much concrete about the upcoming Star Trek show, but he is assuring fans that he understands the essentially humanist ethical framework underlying Trek . “There’s more than entertainment to it,” he said, “it has a science fiction infrastructure that allows you to talk about very real and relevant issues through deep substance and accessible characters you could connect to and care about.”

Roth’s words would be unremarkable, if it wasn’t for the direction studios want for the Star Trek movie series. In an absolutely terrifying bit of suck-uppery from Wired (which is mostly about how the Transformers series is disrupting screenwriting in a good way… seriously, it’s horrifying) President of the Motion Picture Group for Paramount Pictures Marc Evans expressed his vision for the future of Star Trek. “I often think about the areas of the Star Trek universe that haven’t been taken advantage of,” Evans says, “What would Star Trek: Zero Dark Thirty look like? Where is the SEAL Team Six of the Star Trek universe. That fascinates me.”

Instead of slapping Evans for trying to turn Star Trek into Call of Duty, Adam Rogers of Wired wrote, “it sounds so freaking cool that I have to take a moment.”

If the new Star Trek can show us a vision of the future nothing at all like Evan’s vision for future Trek movies, then CBS All Access (the exclusive venue for the new Star Trek series) will have my money.