Bryan Fuller will be beaming up to the Enterprise as CBS has announced that he will be taking the reins as co-creator and executive producer for the new ‘Star Trek’ television series.
For Fuller, who is a long time Trekkie, this is a dream job come true. He started his writing career writing on ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ followed by a stint on ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ where he went from freelance writer to staff writer to ultimately becoming one of the show’s producers.
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“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.”
For years Fuller has been trying to get his own ‘Star Trek’ TV series on the air and this tenacity has seemed to make him a top choice for the job. Regarding the announcement, Alex Kurtzman stated:
“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.”
David Stapf, president of Star Trek producers CBS Television Studios, added:
“For the past 50 years, Star Trek has been a groundbreaking franchise that not only changed the landscape of television, but made a significant impact on pop culture. When we began discussions about the series returning to television, we immediately knew that Bryan Fuller would be the ideal person to work alongside Alex Kurtzman to create a fresh and authentic take on this classic and timeless series. Bryan is not only an extremely gifted writer, but a genuine fan of Star Trek. Having someone at the helm with his gravitas who also understands and appreciates the significance of the franchise and the worldwide fan base was essential to us.”
With his vast experience in the genre, Fuller is an excellent choice to lead the new series into new territory. With a resume boasting a range of work from ‘Pushing Daisies,’ ‘Wonderfalls,’ ‘Heroes’ (during the first season when the series was good), ‘Dead Like Me,’ and most recently ‘Hannibal,’ Fuller proves he can handle a series like ‘Star Trek’ that encompasses various themes from adventure to political thriller to comedy and social commentary.
Fuller, with his partner Michael Green, is currently the co-executive producer and co-showrunner of Neil Gaiman’s novel ‘American Gods’ on Starz, but his new position is not expected to interfere with this project.
Not much is known about the new ‘Star Trek’ series except that it will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman’s production company Secret Hideout. The first episode of the series will premiere on CBS in January 2017 before heading to its permanent home on CBS’ digital subscription service CBS All Access. (Yes, that means you would need to pay a monthly service fee if you want to watch the series.) Creatively, the series has been said that it will introduce new characters and civilizations existing outside of the mythology of previous series and the current movie franchises.
Janice's first memories of the genre were of watching the original 'Star Trek' and classic 'Doctor Who' episodes (Tom Baker, aka the Fourth Doctor, was her first). Soon, she was introduced to 'Godzilla' and her addiction then spread to books, magazines, movies and comics. Janice continued as a closet geek as her thirst and love for sci-fi grew and was only second to her love of baking. Then one night, on a whim, she answered a tweet to be a writer for ScienceFiction.com and the geek girl insider her was soon set free. Within 3 years she became the Senior Editor for the site. When not writing or editing for ScienceFiction.com, Janice is scouring the internet to feed her sci-fi cravings while defending conspiracy theories, protecting scientific theorems and loving all things science fiction.... and baking cookies.
