I Agree With Picard's Showrunner About The Best Way To Tell Star Trek Stories

Summary

Star Trek : Picardseason 3 showrunner Terry Matalas has the veracious melodic theme when it come to the most effective style forStar Trekto tell stories . Matalas served as showrunner forPicardseasons 2 and 3 , but season 3 told the fib that most come across with fans . Over the course ofPicardseason 3 ’s ten episodes , Admiral Jean - Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) reunited with his previous crowd members from the USS Enterprise - D to make unnecessary the Galax urceolata yet again . With a compelling story and a enceinte dose of nostalgia , Star Trek : Picardseason 3 became the show ’s most successful time of year , and fans have been clamoring for a spin - off since its release .

WhileStar Trek : Picardseason 3had a clear season - long story arc , each episode also had its own mission or battle . Throughout its chronicle , Star Trekhas toyed with dissimilar ways to tell history , from episodic and serialized television to feature films . WhenStar Trek : The Original Seriesbegan in 1966 , the television landscape painting was vastly different from what it is today . Aside from soap operas , very few shows were serialise andTOSembraced the " deputation of the calendar week " access . Modern goggle box tends to focus more on laborious serialization , butStar Trekworks well when it finds the sweet spotlight between the two .

The Star Trek TV franchise has existed for 57 years and consists of 12 shows ( and counting ) . Here ’s how to watch them all in timeline club .

Star Trek Works Best With A Combination of Serialized & Episodic Storytelling

Star Trek can have both season-long arcs and “mission of the week” episodes.

Terry Matalas link members of the Master Replicas Collector ’s Club for a conversation over Zoom . As reported byTrekMovie , the discourse speedily turn to the theme ofStar Trek : Legacy , the proposed spin - off ofStar Trek : Picard . Matalas reiterated thatnothing is presently in the works regardingLegacy , but he ’s more than willing to return if and when it happens . Although Matalas uncover few details about his ideas for the potential spin - off , he did speak some about his storytelling approach . take his full quote below :

There ’s a larger richer story you could tell over ten hour than just one . If I were to do another series , I would do a hybrid . I reckon you do a version of both longer electric arc and ' of the workweek ' Star Trek stories is a swell path to do it — in a path that Strange New Worlds is doing it , but mayhap a hair more serialized . … As far as serialized and ' of the week , ' I call up they live can live together . 12 Monkeys was a show that had an occasional identity in which each sequence was primarily a form of different missionary station , but it was still part of a whole . What ’s interesting with Star Trek is unexampled missions occur in but there can be long arcs . The one I think about the most is FX ’s The Shield with Michael Chiklis . It was a procedural copper show with a unexampled pig thing every week , but there were serialized threads — major single — running through the series that were phenomenal . That ’s the way to do it , in my estimation .

Terry Matalas mentionsStar Trek : Strange New Worlds(and12 Monkeys , which Matalas co - created ) as a potential design for combining serialized and occasional storytelling . unusual New Worldsworks as well as it does because it combines the classicStar Trek"mission of the week " formatting with the more modern tendency of serialization . Back in 1986,Star Trek : The Next Generationbegan to integrate lowly constituent of serialization into its taradiddle , and this became even more marked inStar Trek : Deep Space Nine . By the end ofDS9 , the show leaned into serialized storytelling for a multi - part Dominion War arc .

later on show , likeStar Trek : Enterprise , leaned even more into serialisation , andStar Trek : Discoveryleaned further still .

Star Trek Movies Never Capture What Makes The TV Series Great

The Star Trek films are missing a certain magic unique to the television series.

While it ’s true thatStar Trekhas produce some great motion-picture show , some of the wizard ofStar Trekis lose in its transition to the prominent screen door . Star Treksucceeds for the most part because of its characters , and the length and variety of a idiot box show allow for more character development than a two - hour movie . Two of the most successfulStar Trekfilms , Star Trek II : The Wrath of KhanandStar Trek : First Contact , would not have work out without the persona development and secret plan factor establish inTOSandTNG , respectively .

The storytelling social structure of television , whether episodic or serialized , givesStar Trekmore prison term and originative exemption to explore the population ’s often unanswerable questions in a more meaningful way .

Star Trekexcels at the quieter moments , like Captain James T. Kirk ’s ( William Shatner ) tragical meter traveling beloved account inTOS’s"The City on the Edge of Forever " or Lt . Commander Data ’s ( Brent Spiner ) trial inTNG’s"The Measure of a Man . " These stories may not have had blank conflict or vicious baddie , but they profoundly impacted the characters and had far - reaching consequences . At its heart , Star Trekis a dealership about exploration — not only exploring the stars but also exploring what makes us who we are . The storytelling social organization of television , whether episodic or serialized , givesStar Trekmore time and creative exemption to search the creation ’s often unanswerable questions in a more meaningful way .