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| STAR TREK: UNIFICATION Long time Star Trek Executive Producer Rick Berman, just prior to taking a less prominent role in the Star Trek franchise, dropped a bombshell this afternoon via his weekly teleconference. Plans are underway for a new Star Trek series, this incarnation under the moniker “Unification”. With one series midway through its projected run and hints of another film in the works, Berman explains his reasoning behind the announcement. BERMAN: “We (Brannon Braga) have been bouncing ideas back and forth about where the Trek story should for a year or so. It occurred to us that a good amount of the recent content had a sense of the ‘recycled’. Fans have been antsy about our current direction. It then hit upon us that what we had in front of us was a creative glut. We could go back again, way back to the beginning or a prequel direction. But then it was like painting ourselves into a corner. How to keep it solid and not step on the rich mythology that is Star Trek was the issue truly at hand. The fans simply deserve to know they are being listened to and we have learned from it.” “So we went, pardon the phrase, where we hadn’t gone before–beyond the limits of warp speed, the limits of the Federation and the limits of what we thought of and defined as a Starship.” “We took a long look at Gene’s [Roddenberry’s] vision, the Starship as a living community, a vessel with a task to explore, discover and all those other things that made Star Trek Star Trek. He did that twice, back in the 60s and again in the 80s. When you think about it, The Next Generation is what the man would have done if not for the social and technological limitations in which the first series was born. We took the Roddenberry philosophy and pushed it to the extreme.” TREKWATCHER: And what does this mean for Star Trek fans? What can we look forward to in a year? (In a rare moment, Berman gives us a glimpse into the 26th Century): BERMAN: “The premise for ‘Unification’ is borrowed from that Next Generation episode in which Spock is attempting to bring his Romulan brethren back into the fold. We took that little bit of lore and spun that idea into more of an intergalactic-scale scenario. Like Gene wanted in his last show, not to go back to the old stand-bys, but to move forward and expand literally and figuratively into new territories. From that we got the Q, Ferengi and a host of other new beings and places. Later, when he brought back some old favorites, it was done in a secondary fashion. The new guys got center stage. That’s what we’re doing again. It’s an evolution of the galaxy as a whole.” TREKWATCHER: What is does this “evolution” entail? BERMAN: “Gone are the old conflicts. Forget the Neutral Zones, Treaty of Algeron, and all that other stuff. It’s over. In fact, our story for the first episode deals with this transition. It’s out with the old and in with the new. Suddenly, the galaxy becomes at once at lot bigger and so much smaller. Our central theme explores what this new openness means to our characters. We did something like this with Voyager, but only skimmed the surface. This new century brings on a true Renaissance. The mission to explore strange new worlds is really gonna hit home.” TREKWATCHER: So the big question is, will there be a Starship Enterprise? BERMAN: “Oh yes, there will be an Enterprise. And, in keeping with our ideas and Gene’s, she’ll be a true community in space. The guys in the art department have outdone themselves coming up with the ship that looks like the vision of the show. When you see her for the first time, you won’t have look for a nameplate to know who she is. This Enterprise is going to knock your socks off.” (Berman lets one more teaser through): BERMAN: “And she’s REALLY fast.” |
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| They haven't said anything about that yet. Such a change would likely take place over the summer, however bear in mind that the article above is almost certainly bogus anyway :) |
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| 1 - set 100 years forward from Picard's time and do 'another' generation |