StarfleetAcademy ‘will be funny’ according to Alex Kurtzman.
He’s also confirmed at the NYCC panel today that the writer’s room is back at work after the WGA strike.
Given the heavier #thriller background (Absentia) of one showrunner Gaia Violo, and youth supernatural CV (TheMagicians; NancyDrew) of Noga Landau the other, sounds as though Tawny Newsome is there to bring some lightness and fun.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more in the 32nd century StarTrek.
I’m also pleading 🙏 let David Cronenberg’s Kovich be involved.
I would love so much to have some of The Magicians mysterious vibe with so true humour mixed in. Glad to know that they’re going for something less earnest than the tone of Discovery for this show, it didn’t seem to be working in the Discovery episode with Tilly and the cadets.
Always an important reminder.
More Star Trek is good, & like Lower Decks and Prodigy, which are also designed to appeal to different, younger audiences, the old fans might just find they love them too.
Many of the old TOS fans were unbearably resistant to anything but the original crew and ship, even though movies were being made about them. (They had done the same thing when TAS was in development.) It was really difficult to come to a convention between 1987 and 1990 as a TNG fan.
A bit worried it'll have a heavy tonal overlap with Lower Decks and thematic overlap with LD/Prodigy.
That said, I really want Star Trek to move to literally anything other than the TOS/TNG eras, so let's see where this goes.
Gaia Violo who wrote the pilot and is coexecutive producer was co-creator and senior writer on the thriller ‘Absentia.’
Noga Landau (sharing showrunner credit with Kurtzman) worked as a senior writer with Henry Alonso Myers (coshowrunner of SNW) when he was the showrunner of The Magicians. Then she went on to write the became showrunner of recent Nancy Drew show, giving it some supernatural vibes and storylines.
So, with those two, I was expecting a more mysterious, even thrillerish. Putting Tawny Newsome in the room will definitely lighten it up somewhat.
If Discovery is any benchmark, once the show is in production, Kurtzman will leave the day to day show running to Landau and whomever will be the supervising director EP in Toronto. He’ll review and approve scripts and be more involved in post.
At this point one has to question whether Paramount is unwilling to have women showrunners take the helm on their own. Kim and Lippoldt ended up having a guy tacked on as a 3rd coshowrunner for S31, then with all the delays, they moved on to run things successfully on their own at Netflix with ‘Sweet Tooth.’
I've been trying to find a confirmation on the century it'll be set in for forever, but I suck at finding these things. Is 32nd century setting confirmed? I'm genuinely hoping it is. So much unexplored territory there.
The original announcement referred to the Academy being re-opened after 100 years, so it's a pretty safe bet.
Good news. Both that Starfleet Academy is greenlit, and that Tawny Newsome is one of the writers. The part of the DSC episode teasing a Starfleet Academy (DSC s4e4) came across to me as having an ABC Afterschool Special vibe. It didn't strike me as being sustainable as a series. But, with this new information, I'm curious and hopeful about Starfleet Academy. I'm also very happy that it will be set in the 32nd century. Making room for new characters and possibilities.
"I’m also pleading 🙏 let David Cronenberg’s Kovich be involved."
Yes! As well as Admiral Vance and Tilly as series regulars.
