In 1966, a show premiered known as Star Trek. It was created by Gene Roddenberry, and he had pitched it as "a wagon train in space", and it had a terribly low budget. It was not predicted to last long, and it lasted three years before it was cancelled. Eventually, it was put into syndication, and the show grew its fanbase through Star Trek conventions. After several movies, five more TV shows set in its universe, and a galaxy of fans, Star Trek celebrates its 50th Anniversary today. The fans are showing their love on Facebook, and an old Star Trek game of Star Trek Online is free to play. Not only that, there are already plans laid for the Star Trek: Discovery TV series, with rumors and spoilers.
Facebook Celebrates Star Trek's 50th Anniversary
You probably already know that Star Trek is 50 because all of your friends on Facebook have probably posting things about it already. The Verge reports that the Like buttons have changed to show off Spock's Vulcan salute, Kirk's laugh, Spoke saying Wow, Geordi as Sad, and Klingon as Angry. They will be available for a limited time in the United States and Canada.
'Star Trek Online' is Free to Play
According to Engadget, Star Trek Online has arrived online on PS4 and Xbox One, and it is Free to Play (FTP). For those that aren't aware of the game, it premiered in February 2010, when the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) genre was starting to wane. The game relaunched in January 2012 with a Free-to-Play tier along with a semi-annual season expansion of content with no cost. It is a definite gift to what has made Star Trek great over the years, the fans.
Star Trek: Discovery New TV Series Release Date
It was announced a while ago that Star Trek will have a new series, and it will be taking place on a new ship known as The Discovery. The series is run by Bryan Fuller, a veteran in the TV business who has been involved in Star Trek before.
Where will the new Star Trek: Discovery Series Air?
Star Trek: Discovery will air in 2017 as the first original series on CBS new VOD platform, which will cost users about $5.99 a month. For those that don't want to pay that, Netflix has announced that each episode of the new series will be available globally within 24 hours of its U.S. premiere. (As a side note, all of original series including the original, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and even the animated series will be available until the end of 2016.)
What Will Star Trek: Discovery Be About?
Considering that Star Trek has essentially two versions of itself, Star Trek: Discovery is probably going to take place in the first version. That is, the one established by the original series, and is essentially the canon universe of all the other series, and it has had decades of development. J.J. Abrams established that new alternative universe with his films, and it could be in this one which has been developed in three movies so far.
According to TV Cheat Sheet, there have been some saying that the show will take place after the events of Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country, which was the last old-generation movie. It was a film that established the peace treaty between the Federation of Planets and the Klingons, and it began a new world for the series. It pre-dates Star Trek: The Next Generation, and could serves as a bridge for the two series.
Some say that the show could be a "seasonal anthology" with a setting and time period changing every season. There would have to be a large and well-established gameplan for that to happen, but it would be something that Star Trek has never done before, and could really be excellent. After all, both Marvel has interconnected shows on Netflix, and DC has its connected CW superhero shows, and Star Trek, one of the biggest connected storyline franchises of all time, should be able to pull something like this off.
Who will be the Crew on Star Trek:Discovery?
Star Trek has always had diverse members of its crew on any of its show. It was groundbreaking in the original series having Uhura, a black member of the crew, on the bridge. Many of the main characters have been aliens, and there has also been androids and holograms in the mix as well.
There is a report on iDigitalTimes that there could be a Muslim crewmember. Considering that Star Trek tends to downplay religion, it will be interesting to see how this character would be represented.
Showrunner Fuller has said that there will probably be a gay character, which has actually been done before. The last film, Star Trek Beyond, revealed that the character Sulu is gay.
What is interesting is that there is talk that the main character won't be the captain. That is definitely something different when it comes to Star Trek, and there is talk that the star of the show will be a female lieutenant commander. This would be someone who is still calling the shots, but still has someone over her.
The Future of Star Trek Overall
Whatever the case, Star Trek is one franchise that will probably not die even if we ever have giant spaceships and meet up with aliens on planets far away. Perhaps that is the spirit of hope and our desire to explore that keeps us coming back to it. What direction will it take on TV or in the movies should reflect what the fans want, but also be something that feels very real.
