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Star Trek Franchise Head Alex Kurtzman Gave Us An Update On His Contract And How He Feels About His Future
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00:00Hello, hello, hello my friends! How are you? And I hope that you are very, very well.
00:04We are here today to bring you a little bit of a news summary, sort of everything we know right
00:10now
00:10before the premiere of Star Trek Starfleet Academy airs next week, on January the 15th.
00:17We're having two episodes. Just before we were going to put all of this together,
00:22well, our colleague Mick Jost over on CinemaBlend got quite the scoop.
00:27During the press junket for Starfleet Academy, he asked Alex Kurtzman straight out,
00:34So Alex, what's happening? Are you staying or are you going?
00:38I am paraphrasing slightly, but Mr. Kurtzman responded with,
00:44I can't go into specifics, but the future is looking bright.
00:47Basically, what that means to us is that, right, all this uncertainty about the end of the current contract
00:54with Secret Hideout and Paramount would, you know, suggest that perhaps we were going to see a changing of the
01:00guard.
01:00We have spoken about it before on this channel.
01:03It now looks as though perhaps that won't be the case, that Secret Hideout and Alex Kurtzman will be staying
01:09on.
01:10So, if that is the case, what does that mean for Star Trek as a whole?
01:17Specifically for Starfleet Academy, I actually think that that would be a positive development.
01:24And let me explain.
01:25We had an awful lot of uncertainty over what would happen if Starfleet Academy,
01:29which is currently filming its second season, suddenly finds itself the, I suppose, recipient of new orders in charge.
01:38Would that mean a nail in the coffin for potentially a third season of Starfleet Academy?
01:44We have theorised at length about it.
01:47If there is now not going to be a change of the guard, well, by no means does that mean,
01:52whoa, we're guaranteed for 17 more seasons.
01:55But it does mean that the reasons that we felt would contribute to a to-and-done run for Academy
02:04now seem not to be in place.
02:07Based on Academy, I, this is, this is positive news.
02:12It also helps to allay some of the uncertainty about what's happening with Star Trek going forward.
02:17We, I suppose I should avoid saying we now know,
02:21but it is heavily implied that Kurtzman will be staying on in charge of Star Trek.
02:26We know that there's a movie on the way that is not connected to the television side of Star Trek,
02:35but is still on route.
02:37And we also know, thanks to, actually, shout out to our colleagues over at SFX,
02:43editor Darren Scott, who, I will go into a bit more detail,
02:46but as part of their big celebratory issue about Starfleet Academy,
02:50Alex Kurtzman teased that there are many things that he can't talk about that are in the plan.
02:57So it does seem that we're looking at a period of more Star Trek.
03:02Whatever it looks like, we don't yet know.
03:05So that's kind of the, one of the big news is that, again, it's not set in stone,
03:10but it looks like Alex Kurtzman is staying for the foreseeable future.
03:15I know, by the way, and I'm not going to pretend that this isn't the case,
03:19I know that that will cause concern to a lot of people in the audience,
03:22people who have perhaps not connected to Star Trek since it returned in 2017.
03:28And I'm not here to say, oh, you're wrong.
03:31I'm not here to do that.
03:33I'm saying I get that.
03:35I do.
03:35Star Trek is quite different these days from what it was back in,
03:40you know, from starting 1966 up into the 80s, the 90s and the early 2000s.
03:45So I'm not here to brush aside your concerns.
03:49I personally, I'm a bit, I feel optimistic about this because, you know,
03:55I quite like what I've seen of Academy so far.
03:57And I specifically, I don't want that show to be the victim of, you know,
04:04corporate nonsense in the way that, you know, kind of Star Trek prodigy was.
04:10So, but as I say, I do hear the concerns and I'm not here to be like, you're totally wrong.
04:19I don't know.
04:19Perhaps this will go away to, you know, helping people think I'm not actually a shill.
04:25But sure, listen, that's going to happen regardless.
04:27Going into a lot of the things that have been released about, oh, actually, do you know what?
04:32No, before I do that, one more thing.
04:35There's two other questions, really.
04:36One is the ongoing question of will there be a Star Trek legacy?
04:41I would take this as a sign that legacy just became less likely.
04:46I will be honest with you, at least in the form that people have been calling for, hoping for,
04:53which is the Avengers of the Enterprise G, with Jerry Ryan returning,
04:56with Michelle Hurd returning, with Ed Spilliers returning.
05:00I think this might be indicative that perhaps we're not going to get that.
05:07Obviously, never say never, never say never.
05:09And several times on this channel, we've been proved wrong.
05:11So that's all good.
05:13Star Trek year one, this purported perhaps continuation of the Strange New Worlds era,
05:18once Strange New Worlds comes to an end at season five.
05:21I don't know.
05:22This might make it more likely that something like that might happen.
05:26As of recording, there is no confirmation of it.
05:29We do know that they have cast Sulu and McCoy, obviously, for the final episode of Strange New Worlds,
05:36be that, you know, as this is a backdoor pilot for year one.
05:40I don't know, but that perhaps, I would keep that candle lit.
05:46I think there is a chance for that to happen.
05:50And who knows?
05:51We could yet see a Star Trek United as well.
05:54There has been a lot of fan clamour for this idea that we spoke to Michael Sussman about during the
05:59year two.
06:00So it is, as much as this has given a tiny bit of clarity, there's also complete lack of clarity
06:06as well.
06:06Right, I'm going to get into what we've seen about Starfleet Academy so far.
06:09Over on social media, over the last month or so, Star Trek has been teasing clips,
06:16giving us little backstories and little snippets about the characters that we're about to see in Star Trek Starfleet Academy.
06:24You know, Paul Giamatti, who is, of course, Oscar nominated, will be playing Noos Braca,
06:29who we know is a mix of a Tellarite and a Klingon.
06:33In interviews, he says that this guy is an absolute psychopath.
06:37He's got ritual scarring on his skin.
06:39What I thought was very important for me as a Trekkie is that in an interview with Collider,
06:43when he was asked to rank Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation, and the original series,
06:47he put Deep Space Nine in the top spot.
06:49Do you know what, Paul?
06:50You get a pass from me.
06:51I will give you any amount of bad acting, which I'm not saying that you do have bad acting.
06:56I'm going to move on.
06:57Karim Dena, who has been sort of, I guess, the social face for the last while.
07:03He's done a lot of collaborative posts with Star Trek on his socials.
07:08He, you know, we've probably seen the clip at this point where he talks about the process of becoming Jaden
07:13Craig.
07:14He spoke about how he had contacted Michael Dorn and Doug Jones, both of whom wore prosthetics for almost their
07:20entire runs on their various shows.
07:22And he spoke about how, yeah, it can be a lot wearing prosthetics.
07:27And even though he is by no means an unfit individual, there is a little bit of additional padding put
07:33in the uniform as well for Jaden.
07:36So there is a process of becoming a Klingon.
07:39But in the clips that have been released, you can see that Jaden is slightly more of, I won't say
07:47a pacifist, but, you know, his focus is on medicine.
07:51He is not your typical Klingon, as we have come to know Klingons in the last 60 years, which I
07:58think is good.
07:59You know, give us a wider breadth of this, you know, is it still an empire?
08:04Is it now an even bigger empire?
08:06You know, who knows?
08:06But give us something more than just the warrior class, because we've seen so much of the warrior class.
08:13And I love the warrior class, but we've seen so much of it.
08:15And it looks like with Jaden, we're going to get a different side of the Klingons.
08:21And of course, I will, of course, say as well, I love the look of the Klingons as presented through
08:28Jaden.
08:29I am, I like me some head ridges.
08:31Sandro Rasta, who will be playing Caleb Mir, he's described as sort of this fearless leader with a rebellious streak.
08:38And I think this is kind of, it feeds in a little bit to the concern, if you will, that
08:46people might have about, you know, how many times have I seen the comment Star Trek 90210?
08:50Look, we've used it here as well.
08:53And I get it.
08:55You can see I'm smiling.
08:56I get it.
08:57I do.
08:58But this is your elevator pitch for a character.
09:01I feel like we're going to see more than just, oh, I'm a rebel.
09:07That's my audition.
09:09So I'm looking forward to seeing what we get.
09:12Now, it's funny because in, you know, press interviews, I was lucky enough to speak to some of the cast
09:18of Starfleet Academy this week.
09:21Sandro Rasta is a big guy.
09:23He is a big guy.
09:24He is roughly 11 foot 6 and he has enough strength.
09:28He could play Superman in the first issue of Action Comics.
09:32He could do that.
09:32He could lift a car over his head.
09:34So George Hawkins, for example, who plays Darum, talked about how, yeah, this is intimidating, trying to intimidate someone.
09:40And I quote, the size of a fridge.
09:42So I am looking forward to seeing how that relationship translates onto the screen.
09:48Carice Brooks, who, by the way, I owe a big massive apology to because in our interview, I called her
09:54Carice.
09:55Carice, I am so sorry.
09:57I am a fool and I will own that.
10:00Is this beacon of joy.
10:03Series acclimation mill or SAM for short.
10:06She is a hologram, a photonic, who is, although she's programmed to look 17, is actually only four months old.
10:13You know, she is very much the baby of the group.
10:16And as such, there seems to be this positivity, this optimism and, yes, this naivety in how she views the
10:23universe.
10:23But also, what do we know about photonics?
10:26Robert Picardo's EMH is back as well.
10:29And we see him interacting with SAM, with the other characters in interviews with Robert Picardo.
10:36For example, we interviewed Robert on the channel a couple of months ago.
10:39He talks about the excitement and the weight as well of being a 900-year-old or 800-year-old
10:46holographic character who has crystal clear memories of all of the people he's ever known and loved.
10:54I'm looking forward to seeing how that translates as well.
10:57You have two photonics on complete extreme opposite ends of the scale.
11:04George Hawkins, who plays the first Theonian character to ever attend Starfleet Academy, named Darum.
11:12I like him a lot because when I started speaking, he went,
11:15Hey, an Irishman!
11:16George, you're a legend.
11:17I appreciate it.
11:18And he talks about this pressure that this character has.
11:23Last to bed, first to rise.
11:25And there is some scenes in the trailers where I'm just like,
11:29How are you getting your body to do that?
11:31That is impressive.
11:34But there is this energy as well there.
11:37Just to reiterate, I'm specifically referencing all these social clips.
11:40These are like little, a few seconds long focuses on each of these characters and actors.
11:44And I really, really dig it.
11:46For example, Bella Shepard, who plays Genesis Lithe, who is a Darsha attending the Academy,
11:51is also the daughter of a Starfleet Admiral.
11:54You can see that she is laser focused on what she's doing.
11:59But also, we see clips of her straight away befriending Sam.
12:04The description of her as well is that while Bella Shepard is the youngest member of the class,
12:09she's also one of the most experienced that she's been acting for years and years.
12:13So I want to see what that brings to the dynamic of the group as well.
12:18And you've got Zoe Steiner then, who is playing Tarima.
12:22We see that she seems to be part of this Betazoid delegation that we've seen in things like
12:29Entertainment Weekly and in some of the clips online.
12:32So it's certainly suggested that she's not a cadet in the same way that the others are.
12:39So interesting to see how that will play out.
12:43You know, if the USS Athena, which we know is both the actual Starfleet Academy campus,
12:47but also parks in San Francisco from time to time.
12:51If that's out exploring the universe, how are we going to spend time together?
12:55We see as well in Nala Aki's introduction to Starfleet Academy, that clip went out.
13:00We can see as well behind the scenes clips.
13:03Oh, Dead Fair is returning.
13:04There was a quick cameo for a certain Jonathan Frakes there as well,
13:07who we know will be directing an episode of Starfleet Academy.
13:11And also, so a lot of people online have commented on the fact that Starfleet Academy
13:15definitely seems to have carried over a little bit of a strange new world's aesthetic.
13:20And yeah, I see it.
13:22I do.
13:23Yeah, I think that is a fair comparison to make.
13:26So some people have said, well, you know, these are a thousand years apart.
13:29Why would they look so similar?
13:31Especially when you have something like Next Generation and Voyager in the middle.
13:35You know, why did the designer go, actually, no, we're going to go like that.
13:39So yeah, I will say, yeah, we've seen that too.
13:43And I guess it is worth pointing that out.
13:45There was a great clip where Star Trek alumni were asked for their,
13:51you know, advice that they would give to cadets.
13:55And I mean, we have such a roster.
13:57We have Sonequa Martin-Green.
13:58We have Robert Picardo.
14:01We have David Ajala.
14:03We have Anthony Rapp.
14:05We have Kate Mulgrew, who was joined by Brett Gray as well.
14:09Roxanne Dawson.
14:10We had Gates McFadden, Patrick Stewart, Jerry Ryan, Todd Stashwick, John Billingsley, and Linda Park.
14:17Of course, all of whom have appeared in all of these wonderful, wonderful Star Treks.
14:21And it's great just to see as well this connection to Legacy.
14:25Yep, I'm going to talk about that Legacy trailer that was released as well.
14:30Now, there was no new footage per se for Academy.
14:34But what it did do was connect to some of the greats of Star Trek past.
14:38We get quotes from Archer, Sisko, Spock, Kirk, Worf, Burnham, Janeway, Pike, and Picard.
14:47And there was a specific quote picked by Picard, which I really thought suited it.
14:52The past is written.
14:53The future is left for us to write.
14:56Now, this comes from a conversation he was having with Rios in Star Trek Picard.
15:00But I think in the context of these new cadets going forward to create their careers, to create this new
15:08version of Starfleet,
15:09and also at a time when we're trying to figure out what's happening with Star Trek going forward,
15:15I think that is a crucial inclusion for that kind of a line.
15:20There was a game as well on socials of Red Flag, Green Flag, one of which showed a Mugatu mascot
15:27costume,
15:29which will be the Halloween costume of 2026.
15:33I'm saying it right now.
15:34There was the blue carpet premiere there during the week where we had the cast and crew turn up for
15:39interviews with Celia Rose Gooding,
15:41who was emceeing on the carpet.
15:44Becky Lynch turning up with her title belt.
15:48How much more of a flex do you need?
15:51I mean, everyone was looking pretty fantastic on that blue carpet, but I mean, yeah, like,
15:55hi, how's it going?
15:57Yeah, title belt.
15:58All right.
15:59Do you know what?
16:00You earned that.
16:02That is cool.
16:03Just a couple of last bits, but one is an interview with Holly Hunter in, as I said, this issue
16:09of SFX,
16:10where she speaks about how Starfleet Academy is a place where failure is not necessarily discouraged.
16:15And I thought that was, that was a crucial thing to remember, because I think it's sometimes we as reviewers
16:21and as fans,
16:24it's probably something we should remember as well.
16:26I often use the example of Encounter at Farpoint, which certainly has aged well, and I enjoy it for what
16:32it is.
16:33But I did not love that pilot episode.
16:36And if I was to judge the next generation based on that pilot episode, I'm not sure how the next
16:42gen would have done.
16:44You know what I mean?
16:45So, you know, then I apply that to Starfleet Academy.
16:49You know, it's season one of the first few episodes.
16:52It's like, you know, if something you feel maybe is not great, do we write the show off immediately?
16:58That's it.
16:59Kill it.
16:59That's the end of it.
17:00And it sounds like I'm joking, but unfortunately, a lot of networks tend to take that approach.
17:08So, it's something that I hope we will all take on board as we go into this show.
17:13That sometimes something that we don't enjoy, or we maybe think is, oh, that's the wrong decision.
17:19Maybe don't write a show off based on one thing.
17:22You know what I'm saying?
17:23Again, Encounter at Farpoint.
17:26As much as The Next Generation is one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made, it wasn't a great
17:32pilot.
17:32You know what I mean?
17:33I want to close on just another wee interview with Alex Kurtzman there, where, first of all,
17:39he took responsibility for Nala Aki running around barefoot a lot of the time, which is definitely,
17:43I think, quirky would be a fair word to put on this show.
17:47But also, he specifically speaks to the optimism that is key and central to Star Trek,
17:54that you cannot remove optimism from Star Trek and still call something Star Trek.
17:58And I think that is something that a lot of us have been very aware of over the last few
18:05years.
18:06Again, something we've spoken of here, and something that I agree with completely.
18:11You need to have that optimism for the future for it to be Star Trek.
18:16It's not to say you can't go dark.
18:17Look at things like the Dominion War.
18:19Look at Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country.
18:20But even in those, there was an optimism that things would turn out okay in the end.
18:26And if that is part of the central ethos of Starfleet Academy,
18:31I think we're looking at something that could be a bloody good entry to the series.
18:37And as I previously said as well, Kurtzman has teased that there are more things on the horizon.
18:43It is the 60th year of Star Trek.
18:46It is an exciting time.
18:48And I'm really happy to be here with you going through it.
18:51So, folks, thank you so much, everyone, for watching along.
18:54You're awesome. You are wonderful.
18:57Please make sure that you're subscribed to the channel.
18:59Please make sure that you are subscribed to us on the social media bits and bobs as well.
19:03You are awesome. You are wonderful.
19:05How cool is this?
19:06I just wanted to show you that as well.
19:09Look, it's a dog and it's Spock.
19:11Look after yourselves, folks.
19:13Live long and prosper.
19:14And I'll chat to you soon.
19:15I'll see you soon.
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