The term ‘science fiction’ generally leads your mind to wander beyond our planet, with the majority of the genre’s biggest hits taking place either far in the future or on distant worlds populated by alien species. The definition, though, describes it as an imagined reality where scientific or technological advances, as well as societal and environmental changes, are vastly different to the world we live in, so there’s no reason why sci-fi can’t remain rooted on Earth.
Of course, that would present a problem for a brand like Star Trek, which as you may have gleaned from the title has regularly revolved around treks that take place among the stars. That being said, fourth feature-length installment The Voyage Home saw Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew time travel to 1980s San Francisco to answer a distress call that found them successfully use humpback whales to stave off the threat of planetary destruction, which is as wild as it sounds.
The various episodic shows, meanwhile, haven’t really ventured to Earth all that often, but insider Daniel Richtman now claims that Paramount are developing a new Star Trek project set exclusively on our planet. The tipster doesn’t offer any additional details as to whether it’s a movie or a TV series or even what it’s about, but with the studio promising a new show every quarter, we’re about to be bombarded with fresh content whether we like it or not, so you’d imagine that nothing is off the table.
It would also be a whole lot cheaper to produce, although the fans might have something to say about a Star Trek that doesn’t do any star trekking, which has unsurprisingly always been pivotal to the mythology.
Published: Apr 5, 2021 07:30 am