A new animated Star Trek series is on the way from Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters, The LEGO Movie) and it will be headed to Nickelodeon. This is not to be confused with the animated Star Trek comedy series from Rick and Morty writer Mike McMahan, Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is aimed at mature audiences. Per the press release:
A new, original CG-animated Star Trek series that follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning and salvation is in the works from Nickelodeon and CBS Television Studios…
“Star Trek’s mission is to inspire generations of dreamers to build a brighter future,” [executive producer Alex] Kurtzman said. “Dan and Kevin have crafted a story that honors its exploratory spirit in a way that’s never been done before, while the Nickelodeon team blew us away with their excitement at bringing Trek to a younger generation around the world.”
The ”lawless teens” aspect is interesting because Star Trek has always been a show about professionals navigating the cosmos. You don’t just stumble across an old Starfleet ship and find adventure. You go through Starfleet Academy and then you have a rank and class. Star Trek has (or at least was) very much about the rules because then it adds dramatic tension when a character considers whether or not to break those rules or to find a solution within them.
This new show is just kind of a reminder that A) it’s nuts that Alex Kurtzman is in charge of anything; and B) Star Trek is just going to be different for a new generation. Between the rebooted movies, Star Trek Discovery and what’s on the horizon, this new Trek is not in the vein of what came before. That’s not to say it’s necessarily bad, but rather that Trek, because it’s not the most popular franchise, is mutable in a way that would cause an uproar if it happened to something like Star Wars. So it goes.
The untitled Star Trek Nickelodeon show joins other Trek shows in production including a new series featuring Jean-Luc Picard, a series based on Section 31 starring Michelle Yeoh, and Short Treks.
