Here’s what we know about the New Star Trek TV Show

It’s official – a new ‘Star Trek’ series is coming soon.

The all-new ‘Star Trek’ TV show has been in the works for some time… but we’ve heard very little about it. That is, until now. Thanks to CBS, a new teaser trailer has been released online. But while it gives us a glimpse of the show’s new logo, there’s not an awful lot else there.

Thankfully, they’ve also released some new details, too…

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Here’s what we know so far:

New Star Trek series will tell a single story

Sorry ‘Star Trek’ fans – don’t expect a new story every week.

Unlike ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, it looks as though the new series will be doing things a little differently – instead of using the classic formula of providing a new story each week, the upcoming series will tell a single story of the course of the season.

“We’ve got the arc of the first season entirely written, or arced out, and we’ve got the first six episodes entirely broken,” said showrunner Bryan Fuller. He went on to explain that it will be a thirteen episode series… and when asked if it would tell a single story, he replied: “Yes.”

No mincing his words there, then.

“There are 762 episodes of Star Trek television,” he added, “so over six episodes we have to tell stories differently than they’ve been told for fifty years.”

Expect some ‘progressive’ casting

‘Star Trek’ has always pushed the boundaries of TV for the better…

The perfect vehicle for challenging social norms, the original ‘Star Trek’ was responsible for the first interracial kiss on American television.

And it looks as though the new series is following in that tradition.

“I’ve met with a few actors,” said Fuller, “and it’s an interesting process. There’s a few people that we like and we want to carry on what Star Trek does best, which is being progressive. So it’s fascinating to look at all of these roles through a colorblind prism and a gender-blind prism, so that’s exciting.”

“I think the progressive audience that loves Star Trek will be happy that we’re continuing that tradition.”

Star Trek production has already begun

Although ‘Star Trek’ fans have heard very little about the new series, it looks as though production is already underway… and will start filming in just a couple of months.

“We’ve got stages and we’re very far along,” he explained. “We’re going to be putting sets up in a couple of weeks…”

He confirmed that filming begins in September, and will continue until March 2017.

Although the run-time is ‘flexible’ due to the series primarily streaming online, it looks as though we can expect episode lengths to be between 45 and 60 minutes… much like other ‘Star Trek’ TV shows.

“We have hired VFX producers, and they’re working with the companies and culling the team together because we need to do a lot of things in-house because if we start paying FX houses per shot for something for the things we want to do like digital augmentation on certain alien species, how we’re going to see the transporter beams, we’re trying to cultivate distinct looks for all of those things that are unique to our version of Star Trek and carry through the themes we love seeing in fifty years of Star Trek, but doing a slightly different approach.”

An estimated air date?

The new ‘Star Trek’ TV series is heading to CBS… but not before ‘Star Trek Beyond’.

“When [CBS] split from Viacom ten years ago, January 1, 2006, one of the big sticking points, as you can imagine, was Star Trek,” said CBS boss, Len Moonves. “You know, we both wanted it. [Paramount] said ‘It’s a movie!’ and I said, ‘No, no, no, it’s a TV show.’ Actually, we’re both right.”

“So they kept the feature film rights, we kept the television rights; they have [Star Trek Beyond] coming out July 22. Our deal with them is that we had to wait six months after their film is launched so there wouldn’t be a confusion in the marketplace.”

‘Star Trek Beyond’ heads to cinemas on 22 July 2016… so this means the earliest we’ll see the new ‘Star Trek’ TV show is late January 2017.

A link to Star Trek: The Original Series?

It looks as though the new ‘Star Trek’ TV show could be based on the original show.

According to Birth.Movies.Death, the show is rumoured to be a part of the ‘original, classic continuity’… and they even have some idea how it would fit into the show’s rich history.

“The show will be set some time after the events of Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, so between the original series and The Next Generation” says their report. “It won’t be set in the JJ Abrams reboot universe.”

Of course, this would place the new series in-between Captain Kirk and Captain Picard… whether or not we’ll see another version of the Enterprise remains to be seen. After all, it could feasibly be set on another vessel entirely.

“A trusted source has chimed in and told me that it looks like the show will be a seasonal anthology,” they revealed… and that looks likely, considering Bryan Fuller’s comments.

Casting is underway… and could include Tony Todd

It’s just a rumour for now, but ‘actor Tony Todd has revealed that he’s in the running for a role on the upcoming ‘Star Trek’ show.

“CBS is doing their own series again,” he told MORTIS podcast. “I’m on a very short [casting] list… I’m on the list for a couple [of shows]… It’s a year away. They’re not even going to get official cast until, probably, the fourth quarter of the year. And my only concern about it is that it’s going to be that [CBS All Access] online thing; I don’t understand that part.”

Of course, he hasn’t landed the role yet… at least, it hasn’t been confirmed. And according to Todd, the official cast list won’t be completed for some time yet.

But it’s an interesting development.

‘Star Trek’ returns to our TV screen in 2017.

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Picture Credit: CBS

Are you looking forward to the new ‘Star Trek’ show? Will it be as good as the original series? Leave your comments below… and follow Ryan Leston on Twitter, Facebook or my official Tumblr blog for more on the latest TV shows.