The return of Star Trek to the small screen is definitely something that has long-time fans of the Star Trek franchise excited. It’s nothing personal when it comes to J.J. Abrams and the brand of bombastic, action-oriented films that he’s been producing under the name Star Trek, but they tend to only glean over what really made the various TV shows great. Sure, Star Trek has been incredibly hit-or-miss over the years, with each series having incredible episodes as well as absolute snoozers, but when it achieves greatness it is really tough to beat.
So while there are very good reasons to be leery of the upcoming Star Trek series that is set to air on CBS All Access, EW reports that there is yet another cool feature to the upcoming series. Because it’ll be broadcast via the internet (streamed, in this case), Star Trek isn’t subject to CBS standards and practices.
Showrunner Brian Fuller talked about the newfound freedom that the new Star Trek will feature and how it’ll veer a bit off course from past Treks, although he wants to do so with a deft hand. Sure, more blood, gore, sex and cursing seems to be a part of all critically-acclaimed television these days, but Star Trek has always seemed a bit more grounded than that.
“It will likely affect us more in terms of what we can do graphically. But Star Trek’s not necessarily a universe where I want to hear a lot of profanity, either.”
The big thing here is that the humanity featured within Star Trek is supposed to be an idealized, future version of humanity that is bereft of racism, sexism, petty disputes over currency, ideology or land. This has been one of the defining parts of Star Trek, what has set it apart from other science fiction, while at times also a hindrance. Later series looked towards bringing some of these clashes back to create more dynamic tension, like in Deep Space 9 or in the prequel Enterprise, when the Prime Directive was yet to be created.
(Via EW)
