7 ‘Star Trek’ TV Show Ideas We Want to See

Last week, CBS announced that Star Trek: Discovery co-creator Alex Kurtzman had extended his production agreement with CBS Television Studios through 2023 and that the deal set Kurtzman up to supervise the expansion of CBS’s Star Trek television franchise.

This Star Trek expansion includes the opportunity to develop new series, mini-series, and more.

“Heather, Aaron and I are thrilled to continue Secret Hideout’s amazing partnership with CBS Television Studios,” Kurtzman said in a statement when the deal extension was announced. “Since our first collaboration with Hawaii Five-0 almost a decade ago, Les, David and the full team at CBS Studios have been our foremost collaborators and champions, treating each project with integrity, supporting the creative visions and working breathlessly to make each episode of every show the best it can be. CBS has also allowed us the great pleasure of reintroducing the world of Star Trek audiences new and old, and we are very excited to keep working alongside them to expand that world.”

So what should Kurtzman be developing? Rumors are already beginning to circulate. One states that Patrick Stewart is in early talk to reprise his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and lead a new Star Trek TV series. Others say that there is no fewer than four Star Trek television shows already in development, ranging from a limited series about Captain Kirk’s archenemy Khan Noonien Singh to a school drama about Starfleet Academy and even an animated series.

We’re taking a look at all of these possible series – all or none of which may ever see the light of day – and adding a few suggestions of our own to a list of the Star Trek television concepts we most want to see developed.

Let us know what you think of our list in the comments, and let us hear your own suggestions!

Star Trek Seasonal Anthology

When Bryan Fuller first set out to create the television series that would become Star Trek: Discovery, he imagined it as a seasonal anthology series in the same style as American Horror Story.

Each season of Star Trek: Discovery would have taken on a new crew and new setting within the Star Trek universe and timeline. While the debut season would have taken place a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series, future seasons could have explored the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond.

CBS wanted something more consistent with an ongoing narrative and returning characters they could build on, but Alex Kurtzman has said in the past that revisiting the seasonal anthology concept wasn’t out of the question. Now that he’s signed on to develop more Star Trek television series, this seems like the opportune time.

Picard’s Return

Arguably the most exciting concept floated by reports following the Kurtzman announcement was that Patrick Stewart may return as Jean-Luc Picard, who captained the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, to lead a brand new Star Trek series.

This is exciting for a number of reasons. Firstly, just the idea of Stewart returning to the role is enough reason for Star Trek fans to feel joy, especially after the killer performance he gave in reprising his role as Professor X in Logan.

But more than that, Star Trek is making a comeback after over a decade off being gone from television. Some fans have proven hesitant to embrace this new era of Star Trek. Having one of the franchise’s biggest stars return as one of the franchise’s most iconic and popular characters would go a long way towards giving this new era some fan cred.

Star Trek Animated Series

Reports suggested that CBS is considering creating a new animated Star Trek series, and we’d love to see this idea realized.

Star Trek has only ventured into animation once before, for Star Trek: The Animated Series, which continued the story of Star Trek: The Original Series past the live-action show’s cancelation.

A new animated could go the same route, continuing the adventures of characters from a past Star Trek live-action series.

Alternatively, it could take a cue for Star Wars and Star Wars Rebels and introduce an entirely new set of characters for adventures aimed at a younger demographic and maybe sell some Star Trek toys.

Starfleet Academy

Another idea floated by rumors coming out of the Kurtzman announcement is for a Starfleet Academy series from the creators of Marvel’s Runaways.

This would be an exciting shift for Star Trek, which has traditionally been so focused on Starfleet officers already serving aboard a starship. This series would shift that focus to students still working towards their commission.

This would be a welcome change of venue for Star Trek, a breath of fresh air in terms of tone, and an interesting tool for exploring the varied reasons that an individual may choose to join Starfleet. Also, anyone who has watched Runaways will know that the series is in good hands.

Episodic Star Trek Anthology

We’ve already covered the idea of a Star Trek show set up in the seasonal anthology model like American Horror Story, but there’s another anthology model that’s popular as well, which is the episodic model.

This is the model used by science fiction series like Black Mirror and Electric Dreams and was pioneered by The Twilight Zone, which CBS is in the process of rebooting.

A Star Trek episodic anthology series could do so much. For many fans, their favorite episodes of Star Trek are the standalone episodes and this would be nothing but that.

The show could also be a venue for supporting characters to steal the spotlight for an episode, characters like Harry Mudd for instance, or to explore alternate universes and really dive into the idea of “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.”

Khan

Star Trek, for all of its strengths as a franchise, isn’t particularly well known for its villainous characters. Sure, its created some of the most memorable antagonistic alien races in science fiction – the Klingons, the Romulans, the Borg – but individual characters are less memorable.

Khan is the exception to that rule. As played by Ricardo Montalban, Khan is the closest thing that Star Trek has ever had to a Darth Vader.

That makes him a perfect choice for a character study in a limited series, especially with Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer apparently onboard. As a prequel, it would also give a look at one of the darkest eras in Earth’s history in the Star Trek universe.

Beyond the Next Generation

One of the complaints some fans have had about Star Trek: Discovery is that they simply don’t want to see another prequel. The last Star Trek series to air before Discovery was Star Trek: Enterprise, another prequel.

Now fans want to know what happened after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The Star Trek novels and Star Trek Online have both presented fun and engaging takes on what happened next, but neither timeline is officially canon.

The last thing we know about the prime timeline is that Romulus was destroyed. So what happened next? The destruction of the homeworld of one of the most powerful societies in the galaxy is sure to have had huge ramifications. Fans are eager to see what those ramifications are.