Star Trek is at a very strange point in its existence.
It's hard to imagine life without the beloved sci-fi franchise, which blasted onto screens in 1966. But, as it turns 60, the franchise doesn't have a huge amount in active development and little is known about where it's set to go next. Safe to say, we've been left with plenty of questions – most of all: should we be worried?
To answer them, Radio Times turned to an expert, writer Akiva Goldsman. While he’s also known for iconic films like A Beautiful Mind, I Am Legend and The Da Vinci Code, Oscar-winner Goldsman is now a veteran of modern Trek, writing on Picard, serving as an executive producer on Discovery, and creating the beloved spin-off Strange New Worlds.
“My very first experience with the franchise was when I was a boy," Goldsman recalls.
“Star Trek was the refuge at that point for a certain kind of kid. It was a very interesting time in America, and it was easy to feel like you didn't fit in, and Star Trek promised some kind of really welcoming future, optimistic and also cool, and so I think a bunch of us were pulled towards it.
"It was only a three-year phenomenon then. The idea that there would be more was a fantasy for quite a while. So we just relived those three seasons over and over again at conventions or in syndication, but always in a way that was moving and exciting.”
Despite his long history as a Star Trek fan, dating back to the ‘70s, Goldsman is known for his work on modern Trek – and, safe to say, it hasn’t always been easy. Certain shows of the modern era have been loved. Others have been hated. Goldsman is no stranger to both of these reactions, as the showrunner of Strange New Worlds, the Discovery spin-off that follows Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the Enterprise as they boldly go where no man has gone before.
Considering it’s set in the decade before The Original Series, it sets up hugely important characters and storylines and plays with Star Trek lore, answering age-old mysteries, confirming fan theories, and opening up new questions. It's has also become known for its genre episodes – from murder mystery to musical, to a much-discussed puppet episode (which was released on the day we spoke for this interview).
“It's always interesting to see the reactions,” Goldsman points out. “At this point, I'm disappointed if it isn't split evenly between people who say it's their favourite episode they've ever seen and the people who say it's the end of Star Trek as we know it.”
But when the fanbase is so divided, how can you tell the direction to go in?
“I think it was a lot of trial and error for all of us in this modern era of Star Trek,” he reflects. “I think some things became very informative over the course of the last decade or so. One [lesson] is: chase the Star Trek you love – don't try to extrapolate it into something else.”
The writer recalls: “The real lesson for that, for me, was on Picard, where Michael Chabon and I were navigating it and Patrick [Stewart] had a lot of input, and he was saying, ‘I don’t want to do Next Gen again!’
“When Terry [Matalas, showrunner] came on in season 2, he kept saying, 'We’ve gotta do Next Gen,' and everybody was like, ‘No!’ Patrick was like, ‘No!’ But Terry would pitch it with the same passion that I might pitch Strange New Worlds, until at one point, finally, I'm like, ‘Let's just go to Patrick. He's gonna say no, but let's go.’
“So we went to Patrick's house. Out came the bottles of wine, and I'm like, 'Patrick, just listen.' Terry's pitching his heart out, about how everybody has to get back together... and suddenly Terry's crying, and then Patrick's crying, and then I'm crying. Everybody's crying.
“It's clearly the best iteration. I'm proud of the show, but the iteration of it that really lands is that third season of Terry's, and it's because he chased what he loved, and I think that is the great lesson of Star Trek.”
Goldsman has clearly followed that lesson throughout his time on Trek, most notably with Strange New Worlds. Season 5 will be one of the final projects of this era of Star Trek – although Goldsman did have plans for more.
View Green Video on the source website“Henry [Alonso Myers, co-showrunner] and I were begging them to give us more episodes. Every year we left cards on the board that were episodes that never got made.”
There are also plenty of proposed Star Trek series that sadly haven't moved forward at Paramount. One of them is Goldman's Year One, which would have continued on from Strange New Worlds and followed James T Kirk’s first days commanding the Enterprise.
“I would have loved to have done Year One and kept on with this group because they're my cohort now,” he says. "I feel familial with them, and I understand the Star Trek that we made together. And should [Paramount] call tomorrow and say, ‘Let's do that,’ I'll come running.
“But I do think that, at least for me, my time with Star Trek is over now. I was really lucky – Strange New Worlds was everything I imagined when I couldn't even imagine it, as a little boy playing Star Trek. Now I got to be a bigger boy playing Star Trek with somebody else's toys.
“It’s a literal dream come true, but now somebody else needs to do it. Somebody else needs to know what Star Trek is to them. `Somebody who fell in love with Star Trek watching Lower Decks, or somebody who has just never shaken The Animated Series.”
It's been reported that Alex Kurtzman's contract is set to end this year – and if so, Star Trek will be in need of a creative force to drive the franchise into the future. Asked if he would ever take on the job, Goldsman is doubtful.
“Never say never. I love Star Trek. I love it as much as anything I have loved that I've worked on," he says.
"[But] to do the big job means you're only doing Star Trek, and I wouldn't do that. I'm 64 years old, and if I got 10 or 15 more storytelling years in me – or five, based on how Hollywood goes – I could see myself telling more Star Trek stories for sure, but I could not see myself only telling Star Trek stories.”
Now, as Star Trek hits its 60th anniversary, the future is uncertain. But Goldsman points out that the franchise has been through many phases, with a lot depending on money, studios and audiences. At some points, we’ve had Star Trek shows in abundance. At others there’s been a significant lull.
“It certainly became clear that Star Trek had a very consistent loyal audience, but it's finite,” he says. “It has proven to be finite. It's good, but it ain't Taylor Sheridan's audience!”
Nevertheless, he adds: “I'm not worried about Star Trek. Star Trek abides. I think that's what we've learned. When I was a kid, all we wanted was more. Could there ever be more? Suddenly, there’s The Animated Series. I'm like, ‘Holy f**k, there's more!'
“Then there was more and more and more. It lands, it doesn't land, it lands for some. It keeps iterating because there's something about the experience of that imagined future that pulls us to it.
“As much as I'd like to still keep playing, because it's fun, I also understand the value of renewal and whether it renews itself perfectly the first or the second or the third iteration of whatever the next – dare I say – generation of these shows are, it'll find its way. It always does.”
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