The Star Trek TV series just got an incredible addition to the writing staff in Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer.
As we told you back in November, the CBS series will be developed by Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, both of whom have been involved in the current Star Trek film franchise. The series will feature new characters exploring “dramatic contemporary themes.” The series will debut in 2017 on CBS All Access, which has a monthly subscription fee of $6.
On top of landing Bryan Fuller as showrunner, who wrote for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager series, this new series has also gained Nicholas Meyer, beloved director (and unaccredited writer) of Wrath of Khan (1982).
According to a statement made by Fuller, “Nicholas Meyer chased Kirk and Khan ’round the Mutara Nebula and ’round Genesis’ flames, he saved the whales with the Enterprise and its crew, and waged war and peace between Klingons and the Federation. We are thrilled to announce that one of Star Trek’s greatest storytellers will be boldly returning as Nicholas Meyer beams aboard the new Trek writing staff.”
Den of Geek was lucky enough to catch up with Meyer after the announcement, who says of the new Trek installation, “I think it’s going to be a different Star Trek. It will go in a different direction. And I think that is probably good. Because the thing that mainly troubles me about Star Trek is the fear of it being maybe re-treads of itself. And to the degree that I had any influence on the thing [Star Trek] at all was that at least while I was there, we were fooling around. And if you’re not fooling around, then things can become stale. And I think that Bryan [Fuller]—who is a very clever fellow—has ideas—some of which I’ve heard—that are innovative and different. Different is what got me interested.”
It really all does come back to Meyer, who also says Fuller is fond of his 1991 Star Trek film Undiscovered Country, which may be a “sort of taking off point, or touchstone for how I guess he’s thinking about the direction of the new show.”