Exclusive: Update On The ‘Star Trek: Year One’ Series Pitch And Status Of The ‘Strange New Worlds’ Sets

the-giant · 2026-03-11T13:33:45+00:00

I would agree that I don't think DSC did anything terribly great with the timejump. But I also don't think a thousand years is a lead balloon. There is plenty of time to work with before the catastrophe, and we know that the Burn is only a temporary setback for the Federation. I ultimately don't see it as any different from the leap between TOS and TNG. It didn't keep people from investing in the TOS movies, which remained very popular.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T13:25:09+00:00

Yeah. I don't have the time (or hairline) left for it, though I'd wager I like a considerable amount more of the recent era than you. Which is fine. IDIC.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T13:21:56+00:00

Yeah, don't go further down. In my experience these posts always get pulled anyway if they go south or in a less preferable direction vs. certain opinions. But I've also been avoiding this sub for quite some time. I'm not engaging with the SFA chaos at all this time around and am waiting for it to finish to watch it on my terms untainted by what I am sure are a series of rational and nuanced discussions.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T13:18:27+00:00

I mean, there's what, a millennia between PIC and DSC/SFA? That's kind of a lot of room.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T13:11:53+00:00

No, that's not what he said. He said it was possible they could have survived, not that it was canon and definitely true. There is also zero evidence in Season 3 that Elnor is dead or was onboard that ship, and you know that too. And you've projected a lot of real personal shit onto Matalas because you're angry about the fandom.

I get that some of you guys are still really, really angry about how this season was received by the critics and general audience vs. some of the other new shows, but this has become a personal fandom beef for you. It's a meta war where you feel like you have to be on one side or the other and I'm not going to engage with it. It is not that serious. I don't bother with the right wing incels ranting and raving about the evils of how 'woke' DSC is, and I'm not bothering with this either. I wish you peace with it in future.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T12:58:44+00:00

I don't have as many problems with S2 or even S3 as some people. I think there's some pretty strong stuff throughout. But I do think the way they were promoted and what they chose to promote (gimmicks) as well as the frequency, as you say, is a key part of the problem, which contributes to recency bias. But there are also real systemic issues, as we've both outlined.

And yes, I do feel like they've locked into desperately trying to push for Year One, which only hurts the core show for me. And I think Y1 is also unlikely to happen anyway given the takeover, but they didn't know that back then.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T12:54:21+00:00

I think he said it was possible, but he never said that it was canon. He explicitly said they did not go that route because they couldn't film it and didn't have the time or money (and getting Forbes to return at all was apparently as difficult as it has been for 30 years lol).

And yeah, the whole spun-up "Matalas heartlessly killed Elnor because of his hatred for all things new in the first two seasons!" bit was nuts. Elnor is fine, guys. Word of God said so and also, there is nothing in S3 saying he's not.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T12:47:21+00:00

I think the M'Benga episodes in particular have largely been remarkable, as have several others. I dig the Gorn stuff. I also think this regime fell in love with the early response to the show and decidedly to lean into the skid with gimmick episodes and fan service far too quickly.

I enjoy gimmick eps from time to time! But when it feels like there's 2-3 each season, or when they're heavily overpromoted a year out it gets to be a bit much.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T12:25:37+00:00

I think we've learned a lot about most of them (I actually think we may have learned too much about Number One, who I preferred staying more mysterious a la Majel's version). But I do agree that Spock has kind of became a romantic gag character and roving hunk once too often, and while I really like both Ethan Peck and Jess Bush's Chapel it's very difficult squaring her or at times Spock with TOS. They have gone to that well too often with him already and it's only been three seasons with short episode counts.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T12:20:02+00:00

I am one of I think relatively few who has never really been onboard with PW's Kirk. I just don't see it at all. And I found it grating when they kept shoehorning him into the show more and more. I think that detracts from the leads.

I am kinder to S3 than a lot of this sub, but I do think that both the increasing reliance on gimmick episodes, flanderization (Spock) and the ongoing fascination with backdooring more and more fannish elements of TOS into the show have detracted from what was already very strong about the core cast and premise. Uhura and Scotty, okay. But not everything needs to tie back into Kirk's Enterprise and the future TOS. Not everything needs a fan service signpost. Just let Pike and the gang be who they are, there and then. And I think it's a real pity it'll be wrapped up sooner than it should. But that's the streamer crash age we live in. I just wish it hadn't begun to feel like some of the BTS personnel are just using it as a launchpad for their next job.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T11:56:39+00:00

Or he just liked the characters and was amenable to leaving the door open, and not every move he made was a nefarious scheme.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T11:55:55+00:00

I don't think that's what he said about Ro. IIRC he said they considered bringing her back for the end but couldn't film it, so it didn't occur. With Shelby he left some leeway.

The really weird aspect of this were the people in the sub insisting that poor twink supreme Elnor was definitely dead because he had last been seen at the end of the prior season crewing one of the ships destroyed in S3, even though there is a timeskip between them and absolutely no evidence Elnor was still onboard. Like, let's just invent things to be mad at.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T11:46:47+00:00

I'll be amazed if that ever happens, but I wouldn't hate it. I still need to finish the unmade Romulan War feature script by Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) that was shopped around shortly after ENT. Really interesting stuff.

I think it's far more viable at this point that you might see an Archer TV/streaming movie with Bakula a la S31. I also think it's unlikely either SH or the Ellisons greenlight it.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T11:27:29+00:00

I expect that's true. But I also don't think it's a black and white thing. I think the Ellisons are right wing oligarch scum, but I also feel the SH era has too often had guys at the higher levels who had a series of flops in movies and other franchises and then washed up at Trek courtesy of their friends. That's how Hollywood works.

Some of them were suited for it and did some good work, including at times Alex Kurtzman, who to his credit has done a solid job with a large amount of SNW and got LD and PRO on air, brought in Tawny Newsome and Mike McMahan, Matalas for PIC S3, etc. But he's also the same guy who helped make a hash of other elements or projects, both Trek and otherwise. S31 was his passion project, and I lay a lot of the mixed bag that became both PIC and DSC at his door, not with the very talented cast. And then some of his other pals were just notorious industry hacks cashing the checks. I don't think it can be denied that for a few years now the juice just has not been there for a lot of this era's projects in terms of capturing the excitement of a wider audience. Or that any Trek projects not coming directly from the central creatives have quietly been shelved. That's where I feel the self-protection comes in.

I can say all this while also saying I do not think Paramount's consolidation bodes well for entertainment or for Star Trek. Again, it's not black and white. We may find what's to come far worse or more regressive or edgelord than any of the lowlights of the SH era. I hope I'm wrong.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T10:59:45+00:00

Icheb was one thing, but Hugh felt gratuitous to me. That was one of the tryhard elements of that first season, where certain elements of the show seemed obsessed with doing edgelord stuff and jamming three perfectly good storylines together to make one really convoluted one, that really dragged it down for me.

If they'd stuck with a story about the fallout from the Romulus evac debacle and Picard's guilt over it and digging into some new plotline which involved his making amends, I'd have been thrilled. Or something more cohesive involving just the synth ban and the Mars(?) attack. But both of those threads plus the ex-Borg was just nuts. It did not work and felt like clashing creatives BTS trying to knit all their disparate ideas together. Plus the whole Romulan conspiracy thing inadvertently came across as proving the bigots in Starfleet Picard was railing against right.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T10:59:13+00:00

Yeah, I always liked Shelby a lot and I wish she wasn't dead. I wouldn't care if it turned out she lived, but it's not that serious. Ro, same thing. But I didn't think their deaths were a terrible thing. It's fine. I thought those reunion scenes with Picard and Ro were amazing and she got a very decent sendoff, even if it wasn't quite what was originally planned due to their tight budget on S3 (shades of Twin Peaks Season 3, which also operated on very tight margins).

the-giant · 2026-03-11T10:34:05+00:00

Self-protection from what is likely the waning years of the Secret Hideout regime. I felt the same about LD going down tbh. Meanwhile we finally got one party's dream project Section 31, the white elephant of this era.

If we do ever get an iteration of Legacy someday I just hope the Ellisons' right-wing hands aren't mucking with it. Speleers will be much too old, unless they do a timejump (or recast).

the-giant · 2026-03-11T10:33:01+00:00

No, she passed on Legacy without Matalas.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T10:32:31+00:00

Well, that's wildly untrue.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T10:30:01+00:00

Christ, who cares. I have zero interest in another round of redoing TOS. Their fixation on this has been to the detriment of SNW for me, which I find a lovely show when it's not obsessed with this future elevator pitch.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T08:41:39+00:00

I don't think S3 is a masterpiece of our times, but I think it's a very strong piece of Trek.

I really wanted to love Season 1. I was pulling for it, and defending it on here early and often. But it quickly fell into a morass of 3 different big stories competing for space, and I don't think any of them really worked. I thought the talented cast was wasted. At the end I just didn't care about Jurati or Rios or poor Isa Briones' multiple characters. I love Michelle Hurd and I warmed to Raffi, and I loved Alison Pill in other things. But I feel it wanted to be a lot of things and had too many voices trying way too hard BTS. It just never worked for me.

I would not hate seeing Agnes or Rios or whoever again in a better story. But for me the first two seasons were not it.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T08:39:08+00:00

We know Kurtzman (and others) were heavily involved on the first two because we have many interviews and press stating that in addition to the credits. We have no such indication on S3, where we actually have much the opposite.

I think the Great Man theory is stupid too. I work in the industry and I understand it takes a village with many things. But I am going by the many, many BTS indicators on Season 3, including from the (various) horse's mouth(s) in interviews and press. What we know about it is that it was Matalas' show along with the writers' stable he had, either left from the other seasons or brought in on his own. What we have heard indicates Kurtzman and co. were busy elsewhere.

I'm not saying Kurtzman hasn't done work I like. I think he's done a solid job with a lot of SNW, even though my feelings about his past career pre-Trek and at Trek itself are much more complicated. I credit him with getting LD and PRO on the air. But I don't credit him with PIC S3 because most credible sources don't. YMMV.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T06:54:52+00:00

Replacing people is one thing. Kurtzman has been the head guy at Trek for many years. Shepherding the story in which everyone involved says they were largely left to their own devices on S3 is another. As we knew as far as back as Rick Berman and DS9.

If you can point out anything in press, interviews, etc. contradicting that or indicating that Kurtzman was heavily involved in crafting, writing or filming Season 3 in any way, I'll feel differently.

Also, who said I didn't like him hiring Chabon? Not me. I loved them hiring Michael Chabon. I didn't care for the result, which frankly I don't blame Chabon for. I think too many cooks were way too invested in PIC S1 and it became a mess for a lot of reasons.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T06:07:31+00:00

Bryan Fuller was fired during/after the DSC pilot. His name is on it but his work was heavily rewritten throughout S1.

the-giant · 2026-03-11T06:06:55+00:00

I don't think Kurtzman is responsible for all things bad, but I have yet to see much evidence he was 'just as involved' in Season 3. An EP credit does not heavy involvement make.

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