13 Star Trek Pitches Out There (And Where They're At)

So many Star Trek ideas floating by—so unsettled, and yet so public. So confusing!

by Larry Nemecek
Star Trek United Mike Sussman Pitch
OTOY / The Roddenberry Archive / Adobe

It’s a time of transition for Star Trek.

An inflection point.

The “end of an era.”

And, at least on one level, a changing of the guard.

Yes, 2013 just called — to tell you that 2026 is nothing new.

We’re in such a frustrating time of flux right now — and yet, just as in the 2010s, Star Trek is still so popular after six decades that for years now we’ve been inundated with all kinds of news and pitches for future Treks. Even as the size of the screen, who’s making the decisions, and where they’re going has been a moving target.  

So let’s clear up all the subspace static  — at least as of now.

15. HOW DID WE GET HERE— AGAIN?

Bryan Fuller
Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

But first: If it seems crazy that there are so many Star Trek ideas floating around out there—well, we've been here before.

Sixty years of Star Trek have had the peaks—and the valleys. The survival of Gene Roddenberry's baby has always been thanks to passionate fans who even in fallow studio times felt *compelled*  to make their own Trek at home: from fan fiction to fan films. And a lot of those fans work IN the industry— Trek veterans and Trek wannabes alike — and that's who's flooding the zone right now with all these pitches. You never know who’s listening—maybe even the next overseer of the franchise!  Remember: When the same public pitch frenzy bloomed in the 10-year Trek desert after Enterprise,  one of those “public pitchers" was one Bryan Fuller.  

But for now, while all these series and film ideas may be a blur, let's get some clarity:  that term “pitch” you hear out in the blabosphere could be anything from *just* a cool idea to a full treatment prepped for a studio meeting, to a finished script, to an actual pilot or show order, or even one hot and then later abandoned.

Oh — and what’s the source of this “pitch” news?  A studio announcement, in the trade papers? A writer-producer on social media? Rumors from a shady Tuber? 

You get the picture. 

Contributor
Contributor

Back when nerds and geeks were just called "hobbyists," Larry's ninth-grade science teacher ended a bewildering conversations with him about Halkans by finally saying, "Oh Larry — don't tell me you don't know Star Trek!"— along with a commandment to go home and begins watching the daily after-school rerun. The rest is history — well, future history, anyway. Larry had always been a NASA kid and a history fan (not so much sci-fi), so Star Trek fit right in: for the phenomenon that was worldbuilding before the term was invented, Larry felt passion-called to take up "backgrounding" and gap-filling before the term "retcon" was invented. Star Trek is fun and inspiring, but it doesn't pay the bills —at least in those days— but after college and work in theatre and print news, Larry somehow managed to combine both fields with his non-fiction Trek fandom and created the monster that today is Dr. Trek. His self-published, pre-Internet star charts and TNG Concordance were precursors to the official Stellar Cartography map set and the bestseller TNG Companion, after a move to Hollywood /SoCal in the 1990s boom years. Add in a stint as managing editor of official ST Communicator magazine, the first editor and later content producer of the original startrek.com, and the franchise consultant for everything from the Star Trek World Tour to the storied Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. When Star Trek went wandering in the wilderness for the first time in 18 years amid the "Paramount divorce" of 2005-06, so did Larry — until, finally, the entrepreneur web world eventually found a path and a way to stay afloat. Since then, Larry's "Trekland" has come to mean more media projects and podcast/streaming alongside the old standbys like convention guest speaking and even text writing. Sure, there's The Trek Files for Roddenberry, his own Trekland Tuesdays Live, and Dr. Trek;s Second Opinion reaction shows — but that passion for spotlighting and archiving the creatives of Trek across all arenas and eras still drives him to pioneer experiences like the monthly backstage Portal 47 features, and the Trekland Treks day tours of Trek location sights. And now ... in-depth Dr. Trek turns for TrekCulture, too!