Every since the announcement that a new Star Trek TV series was in the works at CBS, we’ve been excitedly speculating about who it’ll star, who it’ll involve, whether it’ll be a Next Generation reboot, etc. While the finer details are still yet to be announced, we at least have confirmation about who the showrunner will be, and it’s a better choice than we reasonably could have hoped for: Bryan Fuller.
Yes, the man responsible for Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me and Hannibal will steer the series into the relatively unfamiliar waters of 21st century TV. Considering he’s already co-running upcoming Neil Gaiman adap American Gods, and attached to shepherd in anthology series Amazing Stories, he’s clearly going to be busy as hell, but nonetheless it’s still excellent news.
For this part, Fuller had this to say to Collider: “My very first experience of Star Trek is my oldest brother turning off all the lights in the house and flying his model of a D7 Class Klingon Battle Cruiser through the darkened halls. Before seeing a frame of the television series, the Star Trek universe lit my imagination on fire…It is without exaggeration a dream come true to be crafting a brand new iteration of Star Trek with fellow franchise alum Alex Kurtzman and boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before.”
Indeed, Fuller is far from a novice to the series. In addition to his aforementioned fanboy credentials, back in the day he penned 22 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and two of Deep Space Nine, so he clearly knows what the show’s all about.
Executive producer Alex Kurtzman similarly seemed excited about the news: “Bringing Star Trek back to television means returning it to its roots, and for years those roots flourished under Bryan’s devoted care… His encyclopedic knowledge of Trek canon is surpassed only by his love for Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic future; a vision that continues to guide us as we explore strange new worlds.”
It might be asking a bit much to ask Fuller to bring all of his trademark whimsical darkness on board, but his involvement is still exciting nonetheless. We’ve loved pretty much everything he’s ever done, and now he’ll get to showcase his undoubted talent on the biggest stage.
The Star Trek TV series will air on CBS in the US sometime in 2017. For more news about the biggest TV shows, pick up the latest issue of SciFiNow.
