Multiple upcoming Star Trek shows are at varying spots on the in-development pipeline, and one project that sounds unlike anything we’ve seen before has a better chance than ever to join that lot. Former Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome, also a writer for Starfleet Academy, has been hard at work on her live-action Trek comedy since it was announced at San Diego Comic Con 2024, and I’m excited by her latest update concerning how it’s changing, as well as one way she hopes it stays the same.
While we don’t know if this live-action series will secure an eventual series order that fans with Paramount+ subscription would likely celebrate, Newsome has receieved encouraging support from Star Trek EP Alex Kurtzman and other franchise alums to keep chiseling away at it with collaborator Justin Simien. The actress revealed in an interview with TrekMovie that the series has evolved in the development phase, but also confirmed she hopes to keep it set around the same timeline as Star Trek: Picard. Here’s her explanation:
The era is still shifting, but my dream of dreams is to keep it in the 25th century. . . . Yeah, so anyone who was on Picard could theoretically be [in it also]. My goal is that all of these lovely people, all of our legacy actors, everyone who’s currently on a show, I want people to be able to show up with their real faces where we don’t have to, like, do some insane ‘De Niro in the Irishman’ expensive AI to their face.
I’m sure that many beyond myself would love to see that play out, seeing as Star Trek has no immediate plans for any kind of a Picard follow-up. Granted, we heard chatter that Jeri Ryan rejected a follow-up pitch, and Patrick Stewart was looking at a script for a movie centered on Jean-Luc Picard, but there haven’t been any meaningful updates beyond that.
Beyond any optimism for legacy Star Trek actors taking part age-appropriately, Tawny Newsome confirmed how the show she’s writing has changed since it was first announced. While trying to make sure she didn’t say anything that would get her in trouble with her Paramount bosses, she tried to explain in broad strokes what she’s working on now with the show.
But what I can tell you is what we’re really working on exploring, are the sort of overlooked sections of what happens when a world and a culture that is not that was not in the Federation. What happens when they decide to be?… So, Federation outsiders and what’s kind of the nitty gritty involved with joining the Federation and involved with… yeah, I’m really struggling [to avoid spoilers].
It sounds similar to what Star Trek: Lower Decks touched on in its final season before it was canceled, where a planet was suddenly burdened with removing all its jewels and currency after becoming a post-scarcity society. It sounds like Tawny Newsome is fascinated with exploring the specifics of how the Federation works when it comes to certain policies, similar to what her former boss, Mike McMahan, did.
I’m interested to see if this series ever gets a proper order, given how Paramount has scaled back production on Star Trek shows in recent years. As of writing, there are only two shows (Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy) in active production. I’d love to think Tawny Newsome wouldn’t be working on the show this long if it was all for nothing, but we’ll see if any meaningful updates pop up at San Diego Comic-Con.
Catch Tawny Newsome’s voice in Star Trek: Lower Decks, available to stream on Paramount+. Hopefully, we see her back as Mariner in this new show, but she wasn’t even willing to let us know if that will be the case as she quietly fleshes out scripts.
