Today CBS hired Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) to come aboard its new Star Trek TV series. It’s a match made in heaven, really, since Fuller fully admits he’s a die-hard Trekkie. In fact, he got his start in TV writing for Deep Space Nine and Voyager in the late 90s and early 00s and it’s been a life-long dream for him to run a Trek show.
“My very first experience of Star Trek is my oldest brother turning off all the lights in the house and flying his model of a D7 Class Klingon Battle Cruiser through the darkened halls,” said Fuller in a statement. “Before seeing a frame of the television series, the Star Trek universe lit my imagination on fire. It is without exaggeration a dream come true to be crafting a brand-new iteration of Star Trek with fellow franchise alum Alex Kurtzman and boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before.”
Kurtzman, who’s also no stranger to the Trek universe having served as co-writer and producer on J.J. Abrams films Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, will shepherd the CBS series alongside Fuller.
“Bringing Star Trek back to television means returning it to its roots, and for years those roots flourished under Bryan’s devoted care,” said Kurtzman. “His encyclopedic knowledge of Trek canon is surpassed only by his love for Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic future, a vision that continues to guide us as we explore strange new worlds.”
Kudos to CBS for handpicking the best captain for the job. Bryan Fuller, whose wondrous imagination delighted audiences with such colorfully rich shows as Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, and the late, great Hannibal, is going to bring senses of discovery and awe back to Star Trek. The new Trek promises to “seek imaginative new worlds and new civilizations” and I am brimming with excitement and complete trust that Fuller will deliver something extraordinary.
Have you been following Fuller’s every move since the demise of NBC’s Hannibal? If so, you’d know that the prolific producer is also hard at work on adapting Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods for Starz with Michael Green. Fear not; his showrunning duties on Star Trek will not interfere. And what of the future of Hannibal? I’ll always hold out hope that the cast and crew will reunite to continue the story of the Murder Husbands.
Star Trek will debut on CBS in 2017. Remember, though, that following the series premiere, the remainder of it will exclusively stream on CBS All Access, the network’s subscription-based streaming service. The pill that is the $5.99/month fee was just made a whole lot easier to swallow.