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Star Trek: Prodigy - Supernova - Trailer

The video game is now available!

Set off into space as Dal and Gwyn in a race against time to save their friends, the Protostar , and a new alien species before a supernova destroys them all.

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is now available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Stadia!

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix outside of markets including Canada where it is available on CTV.ca and the CTV App, France on France Televisions channels and Okoo, in Iceland on Sjonvarp Simans Premium, as well as on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Prodigy is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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About This Game

System Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 64-Bit
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 /Intel Core i3-7100
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 550 4GB / Nvidia GTX 950
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 8 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2500X / Intel Core i5-8400
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 / Nvidia GTX 1060
• Storage: 16 GB available space

TM & © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and all related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. NICKELODEON and all related marks and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. Published by © 2022 Outright Games Limited. Developed by © 2022 Tessera Studios S.L. All rights reserved.

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STAR TREK PRODIGY: SUPERNOVA

After the Protostar picks up strange readings from a dying star, Dal R’El and Gwyndala must race against time to save their friends, their ship , new alien species and an entire planetary system before a supernova destroys them all! 

Using their unique skills to overcome ingenious puzzles, endure hostile environments and battle deadly robot armies, Dal and Gwyn must save their captured crewmates Jankom Pog, Rok-Tahk, Zero and Murf.

But they soon discover a deadly new enemy, one that will stop at nothing to destroy the Protostar and change the very course of history! 

Key features

JOIN STARFLEET

Play as Dal R’El  and  Gwyndala , and  rescue their scattered crew . Play solo or in 2-player cooperative mode in this exciting  action adventure. 

Explore the alien worlds of  Orisi ,  Mirios  and  Taresse , each with its own hostile environments, puzzles , challenges  and  mysteries . 

FIRST CONTACT

Make first contact with a new alien species, learn about their history  and discover their secrets. 

CUSTOMIZE THE PROTOSTAR

Collect iconic trinkets from the Star Trek universe and use them to customize the Protostar . 

Choose Platform

Standard Edition

Includes full game

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Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova From Outright Games Launches Today on Consoles and PC

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova From Outright Games…

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TM & © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and all related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. NICKELODEON and all related marks and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. Published by © 2022 Outright Games Limited. Developed by © 2022 Tessera Studios S.L. All rights reserved.   

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There’s a lot of good banter between all the crew members that would fit right in on the show. There are direct references to already-aired episodes, including “Dreamcatcher,” “Kobayashi,” “Time Amok,” and “A Moral Star, Part 2.” My children loved that they knew the lore behind the game.

Besides residing deep in the heart of Prodigy , there are some wonderful touches from the greater Star Trek universe as well. References to various species ( Xindi !), locations ( Rura Penthe !), and substances ( Kemocite !) add to the immersive experience. There’s even a little history lesson from Holo-Janeway… about a mission when some older heroes went back in time to find some whales. This made me smile and I made a mental note that it might be time to plan a family movie night to watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home  together.

The actual gameplay itself was very entertaining to both myself and my kids. It consists of levels with mini objectives that contain both puzzle points and combat portions. The puzzles are the correct level of challenging for the age group and they do a great job of utilizing Dal and Gwyn as a team. Each has their own unique abilities, so you have to pick the right person for each job.

This makes the two-player co-op mode very satisfying for both players, as both are required at every stage — but you can also enjoy the game in single-player mode, swapping control of one character to another with the touch of a button.

As a parent, the co-op mode is one of the best things about this game. Needing both characters to complete the puzzles made it a really satisfying bonding experience to play with my kids. It was really fun to say, “Ok, Gwyn, we need you now, press that switch!” to my child — compared to other games we’ve played together, where two player co-op just increases the number of bad guys you’re fighting.

My child on the younger edge of the age group, who isn’t as experienced with these type of puzzles as my older two, liked playing this way best. (I did, too, but not from a gaming perspective as much as I just loved seeing my kid’s face light up as we solved puzzles together!)

This game takes full advantage of the type of side quests that my kids love to do. There are several things to collect, including isolinear chips (which they call “relics”, which made me feel old!). You can trip out the Captain’s quarters with treasures from all different eras of  Star Trek history, and the holodeck offers mini “training levels” which you can complete to upgrade your crewmates abilities.

Jankom Pog can upgrade your weapons in exchange for the in game currency. My kids really got a kick out of getting to be on the Protostar in between levels of the main quest to manage all of these extras.

There are a few issues that distract from the overall experience. (Noting here, that I am reviewing a prerelease copy of the game). There were a few times where the characters glitched into places that I could not “unstick” them from and had to reset, losing some progress each time. That was frustrating to my kids, especially.

Semi-related to that, this game needs at least three times as many save points as it has, because you pretty much have to finish a level to save — which is even more inconvenient for kids who can only handle shorter gaming sessions due to attention span (or math homework that they have to finish!).

I found the combat portions to be a little repetitive, as groups of “watchers” would frequently appear, but the ability to upgrade your weapons and the fact that other crew members would appear to help occasionally relived some of that monotony. And the “boss battles” were fine. There was also an issue with the on screen dialogue not matching the words spoken by the characters.

We are very sensitive to that issue as a household with a hearing impaired child. It took us out of the story every time it happened.

But these issues were relatively minor overall. Star Trek: Prodigy — Supernova is a really fun game with a great Star Trek story and gameplay that kept all ages in my household entertained. Sharing Prodigy with my kids has been really exciting for me as a parent, and this game adds to that experience by meeting them at their level in a way only a great video game can.

I highly recommend it for kids and their parents, but I also think that adult Star Trek fans in general would have a fun time going through it as long as they understand that while it truly is a “kids game” in the sense of difficulty level, it is also a Star Trek game story well worth the time — if the kids ever let you get a turn to play!

We also had the chance to get the inside story on  Star Trek: Prodigy — Supernova from Outright Games producer Rudy Lamy, who answered a few of our questions over email earlier this month.

TREKCORE: How did you approach developing a game with over 50 years of Star Trek lore behind it — and how much does a new player have to know about the Star Trek universe going into Supernova ?

RUDY LAMY (Producer, Outright Games): The game has been designed with the whole family in mind, so parents and kids can enjoy playing together. Veteran fans can teach the newer players all the references they find, but we are sure that the younger players will have a lot to say about the lore of the show and the saga in general.

As game developers — although we are fans of the Star Trek saga — we don’t know all of the details of every incarnation. However, we were fortunate to have the continued support of the Star Trek teams at Nickelodeon and Paramount, who were always on board to help us give the game an unparalleled Trekkie layer.

The game does occur after the Protostar crew has united during Season 1 of the series, and does tie into the history of the Vau N’Akat, but due to the specific time setting and new locations, Star Trek: Prodigy —Supernova is also a great opportunity to jump into the Prodigy lore.  The game design and narrative express the core Star Trek values of cooperation, diversity, and friendship, and we believe it can also serve as a solid introduction to the Star Trek universe.

TREKCORE: What was the process like working with the Star Trek: Prodigy cast to help bring their characters to life? 

LAMY : It was a privilege (and lots of fun) to collaborate with the cast from the series, and get them to bring their characters to the game. Working with the different cast members, they genuinely feel like a crew: with their own personalities, senses of humor, and motivations.  We’re especially proud of how natural the banter and emotions come across in this game.  It can be hard to juggle the transition between jokes and the epic, emotional stakes of adventure, but the Protostar crew really delivered.

The gameplay is full of fundamental Star Trek staples: characters, rich personalities, their abilities, knowledge and cultures, and the use of the Star Trek technology such as the Tricorder, the Transporter, etc.

TREKCORE: You mentioned targeting the 6-to-11-years age range, which is a pretty wide target when it comes to video games. How is this game designed to appeal to all kids in this group?

LAMY : Supernova is a co-op game where kids will find it very accessible to have a lot of fun, the difficulty progression of the game is designed to be played by everyone. We have tested the game so players don’t get a high level of frustration, etc.; the conversations between characters are meant to be fun, engaging, and authentically Star Trek for the whole family.

We put a lot of work into ensuring this game can be enjoyed by all ages. We think we’ve hit a really nice balance between ease vs challenge, so it’s going to test the younger players but parents for example will be able to enjoy the settings, characters and exploration so it’s not all about difficulty.

The co-op mode is fully drop in/drop out, so anyone can play together — and we have our companion AI take over in single player, which definitely helps keep the game nice and approachable if you are a younger or less experienced gamer.

TREKCORE: My kids love discovering Easter eggs, glitches and fun things like that inside games, so they wanted me to ask: are there things like that for them to discover in  Supernova?

LAMY : Yes, of course, we also love the secrets behind every video game.  In Star Trek:  Prodigy — Supernova you can find a variety of relics from the different Star Trek series which will appear in the captain’s quarters aboard the Protostar, and we dare you to find them all! Also, there are some fun cheats to unlock by completing certain gameplay objectives.

TREKCORE: Any chances for a future Supernova DLC?

LAMY : We don’t have anything to say about future add on content for the game at this point — but do keep an eye on our socials for any updates about the game.

TREKCORE: Is this a standalone adventure? Is there room open to continue in this story, or would another game be a completely separate story?

LAMY : Our game is very much a standalone adventure, however it is also deeply tied to the events and characters of the existing TV series — so we really get to have the best of both worlds! We worked incredibly closely with the Star Trek teams at Nickelodeon and Paramount to see where our game would take place in relation to the show.

We identified a really curious window that was unaccounted for due to a time jump, so our game is set then and explains what happened during this time. We’re not at a point where we are able to talk about our future titles, but we’re just so proud of what we’ve made here and are incredibly excited to see the reaction from fans and newcomers alike.

Star Trek: Prodigy — Supernova is out now on PlayStation 4 and 5 , Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox X|S, and and on Steam for PC players.

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Star Trek: Prodigy -- Supernova

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Star Trek: Prodigy - Supernova

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Summary [ ]

After the Protostar picks up strange readings from a dying star, Dal R'El and Gwyndala race against time to save their friends, their ship, new alien species and an entire planetary system before a supernova destroys them all! When the Protostar 's malfunctioning transporter scatters the crew across three alien planets, Dal and Gwyn must use their wits and skills to overcome ingenious puzzles, endure hostile environments, and battle deadly robot armies to rescue Jankom Pog , Rok-Tahk , Zero , and Murf . But as they search for their friends, they soon discover a sinister and deadly new enemy, one that will stop at nothing to destroy the Protostar and change the very course of history!

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External links [ ]

• Star Trek: Prodigy - Supernova at OutrightGames.com
• Star Trek: Prodigy - Supernova at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
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‘Star Trek: Prodigy – Supernova’ Video Game Announced

| April 8, 2022 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 9 comments so far

Star Trek: Prodigy is getting its own family friendly video game. The game has banners up at Mission Chicago this weekend, and now has an official announcement from the publisher Outright Games . We don’t have many details yet, but it will be available for PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.

Also writer/Producer Aaron Waltke also tweeted about the banners, saying that the video game was written by Prodigy writing staff member Lisa Boyd.

Full press release:

At Star Trek: Mission Chicago 2022, taking place this weekend,  Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova  was revealed as the first ever video game based on the recent hit animated series Star Trek: Prodigy , which follows the intergalactic adventure of six alien teenagers aboard an abandoned Federation starship. This game also marks the first ever Star Trek video game aimed at younger players, bringing gaming to a new generation of Trekkies.  Held over 8th -10th April 2022, Star Trek: Mission Chicago made its return as a physical event this year, welcoming Trekkies from across the globe. The ultimate Star Trek fan experience for all ages, fans can boldly explore the past, present and future of the blockbuster franchise, including interactive exhibits, major announcements, exclusive merchandise, celebrity guests, and more from the ever-evolving Star Trek universe. More details on the upcoming game will be shared over the coming months.

Check back with TrekMovie for more information in the coming weeks.

Find more  Star Trek gaming news and analysis .

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Can’t say I have much faith in this coming from the studio behind such classics as “My Friend Peppa Pig” and upcoming gems like another “My Little Pony” game, but maybe it’ll be fine.

Outright Games is just the publisher, the actual developer is Tessera Studios, who I’ve not heard of before, but they seem to have a much more adult/advanced portfolio, so there’s hope yet it might be more sophisticated than others. https://twitter.com/jairocamps_/status/1512493642925199362?s=20&t=WRZVRCn9cTc8vZSe-eN-gw

Oof, can’t believe I missed that – I work in games journalism ffs, I should be on the ball. LOL.

Great catch, Matt, thank you!

Ah… The giants.

Prodigy is aimed at kids. It’s a nice show and i’m glad its been able to appeal to adult viewers, but let’s not be too annoyed that tie-in products are being produced alongside other stuff for kids. Because that’s the target audience.

Made by a company who’s produced stuff for Peppa Pig, My Little Pony, Paw Patrol, and Hotel Transylvania? That’s a good thing.

“Another” My Little Pony game? What was the first – one of the mobile games? Did they do one of those? I know the Gameloft one…

I’d actually hoped for a really good one back in the PSP era, but one never materialized, and I’d assume one done now would be for G5 rather than G4, but oh well…

Very sweet! It’ll be great to have a game with this ship and crew.

And now we have both this and Star Trek: Resurgence to look forward to. When was the last time there were multiple video games in development and upcoming simultaneously in this franchise?

I really need to add some storage space on my PS4…

Ooops, forgot Star Trek: Lower Decks – TBD !

I do of course know that’s a mobile game and not for PCs or consoles, but still…

All well and good, but WHEN IS THE REST OF S1 COMING?? JC shippers are going nuts lmao

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Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova Review

I’d call myself a mid-level trekkie (loved Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, can’t get into Discovery or Picard), but I’m now questioning that label thanks to Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova. Honestly, I had no idea that Star Trek Prodigy, the TV series that this game is based on, even existed. But it’s there, squirreled away on Paramount+ and aimed at younger viewers. I hang my head in shame and hand in my Starfleet lapel pin. 

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is the latest game to come from the collaboration between Paramount+ and Outright Games, a deal that has already produced Dreamworks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms . It’s also the twenty-millionth game that Outright seem to have unleashed in the past few months, having furnished the holiday period with L.O.L Surprise! B.B.s BORN TO TRAVEL , PAW Patrol: Grand Prix and the previously mentioned Dragons game, among DLC to their other games. But rather than spreading themselves thin, Outright Games are onto something of a quality run. And Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova, rather than bringing the run to a screeching halt, keeps it going. 

It’s the age-old tale of a starship crash-landing on a planet about to be subsumed by a supernova. Even more thrillingly, the crew of said starship has been teleported out, willy-nilly, across various planets before the crash. It leaves you, Dal R’El and Gwyndala, racing against time to save the crew, fix the Starship Protostar, and yeet out of the system before everyone becomes stardust. But that’s not all! This system has been enslaved by an old nemesis of yours, and they’re harvesting the planets for as much energy as they can before it’s not there anymore.

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova attempts to straddle the grown-up themes of conventional Star Trek, and the attention levels of your average teen, and it gets there, just about. We’re personally not fans of the Marvel-like tone, with everyone quipping like there’s no tomorrow, defusing any potential drama by joking about it (the simmering romance also makes us wince), but there’s a surprising epicness to proceedings, and the themes of slavery and isolationism are a little heavier than you might have expected. It’s actually too talky, in our view, pausing the action too often when we wanted a greater flow. But it’s far from poor quality.

What this is welded onto is an adventure-puzzle game that reminds us a little of Lara Croft: Temple of Osiris , the zoomed out, co-op take on the Tomb Raider universe. Like that game, Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is unashamedly co-op, to the point that playing it solo feels like you are losing something of the experience. When playing alone, you are constantly tapping B to switch to the other player, when there’s a much greater energy and flow that comes from playing together. If you can find another trekkie, it’s the optimum way to play. 

It also shares Temple of Osiris’s viewpoint and mix of combat and puzzling. Roughly one-third of Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is fighting, which feels about right: Star Trek has always liked a wrestling match with a Gorn, but it’s predominantly cerebral, and so it goes. We expected the combat to be slight and repetitive, and – you know what – it really does knock it out of the park. We’re not talking Devil May Cry here, but there’s substance that we really didn’t expect. 

Much of the strategy comes from whether you fight close-quarters or at range. The Watchers, the game’s one and only enemy, swarm you, and the latter parts of the game become a firework display of grenades, lasers, charging attacks and explosive death rattles. You’re always on the move, switching between the two attack types, and even switching characters in single-player, as both Dal R’El and Gwyndala have their specialisms. Negotiating this chaos is great fun, and – while there are safety nets in the form of revives and extra life points – it can get pretty challenging. We found ourselves hitting the deck more times than we expected. 

But the real reason we like the combat is the choice of weapons. There are three per character, and they are decently inventive and pack quite the punch. Our favourite was a phaser rifle that would absolutely leather the enemies, and we’d swing it round at speed like we were playing a twin-stick shooter. But, equally, there are power-fists that Gwyndala uses that can be charged by holding X, leaping over enemies, or a lance that cuts through Watchers like metallic butter. A lot of work has gone into making these punchy, and it’s time well spent. There’s more heft to the combat than it has any right to have. 

Which makes it all the more bewildering that upgrading your combat abilities is so slimline. It’s a bit arse, really, and could have added another dimension with very little work at all. At various points in the campaign, you are arbitrarily told that a weapon can be upgraded. There are three levels of upgrade, and they just dink up the speed or strength. Slightly better are some holodeck challenges that improve your crewmate powers (an automatically triggered effect that deals AOE damage), but those crewmate powers were poor to start off with, and we often forgot they were there. 

Away from combat, Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova expects you to think. As you move through chunky, lovingly realised environments, you are often confronted with laser walls and blocked corridors. You are stuck, and your aim is to become unstuck. Often, this means utilising the two characters’ skillsets. Dal R’El can lift up fallen pillars, allowing Gwyndala to duck underneath, or he can don a camouflage suit and escape the view of cameras. Gwyndala, meanwhile, has a disturbing arm-tentacle ability that can create a bridge for Dal R’El. Helping each other through the levels is one flavour of the cooperation.

The other is blocks. Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova absolutely loves a cube: enough that we expected it to feature in the title somewhere. There are heavy blocks, light-emitting blocks, teleporting blocks and switch blocks. There are small blocks and big blocks. You push them, drop them off cliffs, drop them onto switches or teleport them across an arena. This is all in the name of environmental puzzles, and, by golly, there is an endless number of them in Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova. 

Now, your reaction to this may differ. The puzzles are supremely well designed: they escalate in difficulty, and no layout is the same as another. They wring every last drop out of cube-based puzzling. But there is an opportunity for fatigue here, and we can imagine teenage trekkies with their Vulcan ears on, slamming down the pad and huffing off to their bedroom, cursing the ‘sodding blocks’. We love a good Sokoban-puzzler , and even we were starting to get sick of all the similar puzzles. Heaven knows what Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova will feel like for players who like combat, but couldn’t give a flying tribble for puzzles. 

More so than perhaps any Outright Games title that we’ve played, there is a deal of substance to Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova. Levels can run to thirty minutes in length, and there are plentiful secrets to find in nooks and crannies (although we’d have opted for an upgrade system that better used them). You’re looking at close to ten hours of gameplay here, particularly if you are chasing medals for strong performance in the level. And Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova needed to be substantial: it’s an expensive little title, coming to £44.99 – a world of prices that no Outright Game has ever gone before. 

Is Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova worth that outlay? Yes, but with some directives. One, bring a second-in-command. This has been designed from the ground up for two players. Two, prepare yourselves for long bouts of puzzling. This isn’t the action-packed romp that you might expect. And three, fans of the series are going to get so much more from the experience. For our part, the goofy dialogue had us wrinkling our nose so much that we looked like a Klingon. 

We expected Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova to arrive in a red shirt, virtually dead on arrival. Instead, we’ve got a game with substance and style, and there’s nothing more Star Trek than that.

You can buy Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova from the Xbox Store

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Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova

After the Protostar picks up strange readings from a dying star, Dal R'El and Gwyndala race against time to save their friends, their ship, new alien species and an entire planetary system b... Read all After the Protostar picks up strange readings from a dying star, Dal R'El and Gwyndala race against time to save their friends, their ship, new alien species and an entire planetary system before a supernova destroys them all! After the Protostar picks up strange readings from a dying star, Dal R'El and Gwyndala race against time to save their friends, their ship, new alien species and an entire planetary system before a supernova destroys them all!

• Alex Cervantes
• Martin Korda
• Kevin Hageman
• Dan Hageman
• Ella Purnell
• Kate Mulgrew

• Dal R'El

• Hologram Janeway

• System Slayer Drednok

• Yarm'orn

• Lorn'ess
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• October 14, 2022 (United States)
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Swapna Krishna

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova Breaks an Infamous Video Game Curse

Tie-in games get a bum rap. Often, deservedly so. They can be amazing, but too frequently they’re rushed efforts that seem developed just to make a buck off fans. Some don’t even coalesce with the canon of the franchise they’ve allegedly been created to expand upon. (Don’t forget the notorious E.T. title, which was not only one of the worst video games of all time but also so poorly received that many cartridges were buried in a landfill .)

Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova breaks this curse.

Set between the first and second half of Star Trek: Prodigy 's premiere season, the franchise’s all-ages animated series, Supernova succeeds where so many others failed. It’s got solid game mechanics (save for some slightly frustrating camera controls) and fantastic characters (many of them voiced by their TV counterparts), and it actually feels like a story arc that could happen on Prodigy itself. You don’t need to play it to appreciate the show, but you can appreciate the show more if you do.

Believe me when I say I was not expecting to type any of this. Just knowing it was a tie-in game had my hopes about as high as a tribble’s butt. Visions of Street Fighter: The Movie (the game) and Raiders of the Lost Ark for Atari 2600 still haunt me. But it was so well done, I felt compelled to talk to the people who made it. Turns out they knew the low expectations they were up against but were given the tools needed to beat them.

“It’s very rare for a game to tie in to a TV show or a movie to have the level of support that we had,” Martin Korda, a script writer for Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova , told me. “We were given the scripts for all the episodes.”

In addition to scouring those scripts, Korda also worked with Lisa Boyd, one of the show’s writers, to make sure the game’s story would jive with the overall Prodigy universe. According to Boyd, he nailed it. “It was presented to me as already a very authentic Star Trek story,” she says, “I didn’t really need to do much except have Dal and Gwyn flirt a little more.”

But surely it takes more than romance below decks, right? To hear Supernova producer Rudy Lamy tell it, yes. Star Trek has a huge, decades-long canon—and the kind of detail-oriented fans who tend to notice when things created to play in their universe don’t fit. So it was on the game’s creators to make sure not just the story, but all the little details—the things that make a tie-in game tie in with stuff—worked too. Everything from creating meaningful collectibles to giving achievements names that made sense in-universe was fair game.

“[We contacted] dozens of people, working multiple times a week with [ Prodigy networks] Nickelodeon and Paramount+ to get things right, to make sure the gameplay fit,” Lamy says. The team also paid special attention to the audience of Star Trek: Prodigy . They wanted the game to a have an appeal similar to the show’s, making it enjoyable for adults and kids alike.

Those details may seem trivial, but they’re not—and they ensure Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova stays out of the trash for good.

Dell Cameron

Andy Greenberg

Julian Chokkattu

Reece Rogers

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Screen Rant

Star trek discovery's alex kurtzman & michelle paradise tease season 5's coda & talk tie-ins.

Star Trek: Discovery executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise discuss ending the series, the coda, and THAT TNG reference.

Warning: MAJOR SPOILER for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is the final season, with an epic intergalactic treasure hunt story leading to a proper ending.
• The season includes tie-ins to Star Trek: The Next Generation , exploring unanswered questions from the past.
• The focus on character relationships sets the show apart, with reshoots adding a cherry on top for a fitting series finale.

Star Trek: Discovery executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise are sending the USS Discovery on its last ride. The final season of Star Trek: Discovery has premiered on Paramount+, marking the beginning of the end of the first Star Trek streaming show.

Kurtzman and Paradise didn't know season 5 would be the final season of Star Trek: Discovery during production. After Paramount+ canceled the show, the streamer granted Kurtzman and Paradise 3 additional days of filming in spring 2023 to create a coda that would properly end Star Trek: Discovery . Fortunately, Discovery season 5 's intergalactic treasure hunt story naturally lends itself to endings.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 - Everything We Know

Screen Rant spoke to Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise prior to Star Trek: Discovery 's season 5's world premiere at SXSW about that tie-in to Star Trek: The Next Generation , balancing big ideas with emotional character stories, and what Star Trek: Discovery' s legacy is.

Alex Kurtzman & Michelle Paradise Tie Star Trek: Discovery Back To "The Chase"

Screen Rant: Alex and Michelle, thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you for Discovery. Alex, thank you for Star Trek .

Alex Kurtzman: Well, I wish I could say it was mine, but it ain't. (laughs)

Let's talk about Discovery season 5. Epic treasure hunt. But it also ties back to the 24th century. Can you talk a little bit about that? And the decision-making process, and how cool that was?

Michelle Paradise: Sure, yeah, it's really cool to get to go back there. I assume that this will come out after the premiere so we're not spoiling anything. But yeah, [Star Trek: The Next Generation's] "The Chase" has been an episode that had stuck with a lot of us because of the thematics of that episode. And the ideas that it explores. And for me, anyway, it left me with so many questions. When we were thinking about an epic adventure for this season, that was, of course, the thing that came to mind. And using this season to kind of go back there and say, 'Well, what if? What happened after that?' became a really great jumping-off point.

As a quick detour, Alex, can I ask about how Section 31 and Starfleet Academy are coming along?

Alex Kurtzman: They're coming along great. We're in the middle of shooting Section 31. And we're about halfway through the writers' room on Starfleet Academy. And we start shooting at the end of the summer.

Star Trek: Section 31 wrapped filming in late March after this interview was conducted.

Star Trek: Discovery Will Have A "Beautiful Conclusion"

Discovery is such a cosmic show. Big ideas, big concepts, big problems. But when I think about the show, I think about relationships. Burnham and Book. Saru and T'Rina. Moll and L'ak. Tell me about balancing Star Trek with these big ideas and all of these love stories going on in the ship?

Michelle Paradise: Well, I'm glad to hear that because we start every season with the characters. You know, we're always going to have the big ideas, the big themes, but it always comes down to the characters and their relationships, and how are they growing individually? How are they growing in their relationships? How are they growing as a family unit, as a team? That's always at the heart of everything we do. And using that as the starting place, that's where we can get into the bigger thematic ideas, the big bad guys of the season, whatever that may be. But it really is the characters we know that we latch on to and that we know our audience latches on to. And so, that's always where we start.

There were reshoots to create an epilogue for the season 5 finale. Can you talk a little bit about that, like the challenge of creating a capstone for the whole series?

Alex Kurtzman: What was so interesting was that this season had really kind of come to a beautiful conclusion. And Michelle and I looked at each other when we knew that it was going to be the last season and went, 'Wow, I don't know that we could have necessarily planned it better for a final season. Now, what we really need to do is just put the cherry on top of the cake. And we were able to do three days that were very targeted and surgical. It wasn't actually reshoots, it was sort of an additional [filming]. And we were really grateful to be able to do that because it felt like it allowed us to take a natural ending, and give it a series ending on top of it.

What would you say the legacy of Star Trek Discovery is?

Alex Kurtzman: I think modern Star Trek. And without Discovery, there would be no modern Star Trek. It opened the door for every show that came after. It opened the door for Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, Starfleet Academy, Section 31, and everything that's going to come after that. So I think it really kicked the door down for a new era.

About Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well … dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.

Check out our other Star Trek: Discovery season 5 interviews here:

• Sonequa Martin-Green
• David Ajala and Doug Jones
• Wilson Cruz, Mary Wiseman & Blu del Barrio

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premieres April 4 on Paramount+

Source: Screen Rant Plus

Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman Speaks To The Strength Of The Franchise Following Speculation Of Mergers: ‘There's A Couple Of Surprises Coming Up’

The man running Trek spoke out.

Star Trek: Discovery will premiere its final season soon, and with the flagship modern Trek show ending, it only seems natural fans are taking stock of where things stand. After all, we know the series ended prematurely, and the past year also brought cancellations of Star Trek: Prodigy and the official convention Mission: Seattle. Amidst the many questions about the future of the franchise, especially with rumors of Paramount going into a merger or selling off the franchise, Alex Kurtzman was able to share his thoughts with CinemaBlend.

Kurtzman and Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise were kind enough to speak to me during the junket for the series' final season which premieres for those Paramount+ subscriptions on April 4th. I mentioned Discovery 's cancellation has led to worry Star Trek is in a downturn, and he assured me it's more just the common trend in streaming:

Well, listen, a couple of things you have to keep in mind that, again, five seasons of any television show is a really good run for a show, and part of what also happens, given the way that the streaming cycles work, is that shows are quicker to be changed over. The good news is that the health of the franchise is vibrant now. We're shooting Section 31, we're about to start Starfleet Academy, and there's a couple of surprises coming up after that. So there's definitely no shortage of Star Trek incoming.

The future of Star Trek is bright, and as Alex Kurtzman said, there are a couple of surprises coming up after Starfleet Academy . We know that Patrick Stewart has openly talked about a Picard movie being written and that many fans are hoping it's a tie-in that follows up on the crew's adventures following Season 3. We also know Star Trek 4 took a major leap forward bringing in a new screenwriter, and there's even chatter of a new movie that will tackle the origins of the franchise.

We also know that Kurtzman teased some conversations happening tied to a Deep Space Nine project a while back, as well as Kate Mulgrew has pushed for a chance to appear as Janeway again in live-action . In short, there's no shortage of ideas or actors for Alex Kurtzman and the company to work with, so we'll just have to wait and see what these surprises end up being.

It all sounds very promising, but with rumors of Paramount entering a merger, plans can always change. There's even speculation about another company purchasing Star Trek , which could always put all current plans in flux while they meet with their new bosses and figure out which direction to proceed. Alex Kurtzman doesn't seem worried about that, however, as he assured me that the franchise will remain strong regardless of where it ends up when the dust settles:

I would also say that to the first part of your question about Paramount, Star Trek is bigger than any one moment or any one company. Star Trek is an institution; no matter where, no matter what changes, there will always be Star Trek somewhere. Maybe it's at Paramount, maybe it's not. That is so beyond my control, and that is so beyond anybody's control at the end of the day. But I don't think Star Trek is going anywhere ever.

If Kurtzman isn't worried about Star Trek going away, I would say it's safe for any readers to take a sigh of relief. As we recently learned, one out of every five people with Paramount+ is watching a Star Trek series.

Of that group, over 50% are watching two or more other new Trek shows (via Variety ). Considering that the shows and other upcoming Trek projects are available to stream in the states and 200 international markets, the bottom line suggests there are plenty of people who prove this isn't a dying franchise. Personally, I'm thrilled to hear that because it means I can re-launch my campaign to get Voyager a feature film .

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Star Trek is here to stay, though Discovery is going to say goodbye soon. Stream the two-episode premiere starting on Thursday, April 4th, and get ready for the final ride of this wonderful crew.

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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• Star Trek Discovery: Season 1 to 4 (Digital HD) $39.99
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• Nikita: The Complete Series $29.99
• Note: Must purchase on iOS device using Apple TV app or on PC using iTunes for Windows software.
• Star Trek Lower Decks: Season 4 (Digital HD) $9.99
• Barry: The Complete Series  (Digital HD) $24.99
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• Star Trek Lower Decks: Season 4 (Digital HDX) $9.99
• Star Trek The Original Series: The Complete Series (Digital HDX) $29.99
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• Star Trek Discovery: Season 1 to 4 (Digital HDX) $39.99
• The Conners: Seasons 1-5 (Digital HDX) $24.99
• Vice Principals: The Complete Series  (Digital HDX)  $17.99

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'Star Trek: Discovery' opens its 5th and final season in unremarkable fashion (Red Directive recap)

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 1

Well, here we are. Again. It's the fifth and final time around for "Star Trek: Discovery" and the single biggest question every sci-fan will be asking themselves is, will this season actually be any good. The tragic thing is, no one can really remember what happened in season 4 and that speaks directly to the fact that "Discovery" is not exactly a high-scoring show when it comes to rewatchability.

It's been two years and two weeks, give or take a day, since we last saw the crew of the USS Discovery risk everything to save all life in the universe, again. During that time, we've seen a lot of sci-fi, both awesome and awful, including two seasons of " Picard " and " Strange New Worlds ," the third and final season of " The Orville ," season 1 of " Andor ," "The Book of Boba Fett," "Ahsoka" and the less said about "Obi-Wan Kenobi," the better. If you're wondering where to see all that Trek, check out our Star Trek streaming guide for Paramount Plus and more.

Not to mention, the vastly underrated second season of "Invasion" and "Halo" seasons 1 and 2, plus, the first mind-blowing season of "Silo" the second and sadly last season of " Avenue 5 " and two seasons of " For All Mankind ." The point is that the standard has, for the most part, been refreshingly high. And frankly before we even get into season 5 of "Discovery," it's worth remembering that what executive producers and showrunners Alex Kurtzman  and Michelle Paradise have given us up until now, has not exactly been a consistently high quality of sci-fi writing. In fact, it's been rather disappointing.

Related: 5 things Star Trek: Discovery season 5 needs to fix

Watch Star Trek on Paramount Plus: Get a one month free trial  

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Are we in-store for another cookie-cutter season of what's-in-the-box plot threads that deliver misdirected build ups with unsatisfying pay offs...you know like we have for the past two seasons plus all three seasons of "Picard"..? Even "Andor," despite its peak and trough-style of repetitive set-piece storytelling, was impressive and that was down to how well those set pieces had been fleshed out along with well written character development and dialogue. Less can very easily be so much more. 

Moreover, now we're in the 32nd century and we've seen that transporter technology can be used to replace stairs and even change outfits, so to be perfectly honest, there really isn't a single story idea that cannot be solved by a simple combination of transporter and replicator technology. Not to mention smartmatter. Ah, hello smartmatter, my old friend. Because this is what happens when you throw three seasons of a "Star Trek" series 1,164 years into the future.

Regardless, it would seem that within the story, between four and six months have passed since the events of last season , where you may remember, the United Federation of Planets was desperately trying to save all life as we know from being accidentally exterminated by species 10-C, all while Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) was still hell bent on using the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator to destroy the dark matter anomaly. Book (David Ajala) gets killed when his ship explodes then bought back to life before he faces repercussions for siding with Tarka. General Ndoye (Phumzile Sitole) seems to get away scot-free despite sabotaging the Discovery's warp drive and everyone lives happily ever after. 

Coming in at nearly 60 minutes long, the premiere episode is titled "Red Directive" and drops at the same time as the second episode, entitled "Under The Twin Moons." Michelle Paradise wrote the former, which could explain why it's so dull, and Olatunde Osunsanmi directed. The latter was written by Alan B. McElroy and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski, so fingers the second installment might be a bit better. Aarniokoski directed the season 3 premiere episode of "Picard" and while the rest of that was a disappointing, drawn out, nostalgia-fueled, 10-episode long epilogue to another series that ended three decades ago, the premiere installment was actually okay. 

The gang seems mostly all here, including Lt. Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Adira (Blu del Barrio) and there are some characters who don't seem to have made it back, some of whom will be very much missed, like Grudge, while others won't be. No sign of Zora yet either. It's also entirely likely that the amazing talents of Callum Keith Rennie, who plays a Starfleet Captain named Rayner, will be spectacularly underused, much like Todd Stashwick was in season 3 of "Picard."

Credit to the production team though, as they're are really making the most of their Volume-esque video wall soundstage. There are a couple of interesting choices in terms of editing, much like there were in the second season premiere where Alex Kurtzman showed us what he'd learned in the Vince Gilligan School of Cinematography. It's doubtful we'll ever see them again, just like we didn't before. 

To conclude then, the opening episode of the final season "Star Trek: Discovery" is a far, far cry from strong openings that this show has demonstrated it's capable of in the past. And that's a sentence we've had to write far too many times. The TNG throwback right at the end is...well, disappointing, mostly because of the extent that nostalgic fan service has been dialed up since the first episode of Nu-Trek aired in September 2017. However, it could still provide an interesting story thread — we will just have to wait and see.

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" and every episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US while "Prodigy" has found a new home o n Netflix.  

Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

The Future of ‘Star Trek’: From ‘Starfleet Academy’ to New Movies and Michelle Yeoh, How the 58-Year-Old Franchise Is Planning for the Next Generation of Fans

“I can’t believe I get to play the captain of the Enterprise.”

“Strange New Worlds” is the 12th “Star Trek” TV show since the original series debuted on NBC in 1966, introducing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a hopeful future for humanity. In the 58 years since, the “Star Trek” galaxy has logged 900 television episodes and 13 feature films, amounting to 668 hours — nearly 28 days — of content to date. Even compared with “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Star Trek” stands as the only storytelling venture to deliver a single narrative experience for this long across TV and film.

In other words, “Star Trek” is not just a franchise. As Alex Kurtzman , who oversees all “Star Trek” TV production, puts it, “‘Star Trek’ is an institution.”

Without a steady infusion of new blood, though, institutions have a way of fading into oblivion (see soap operas, MySpace, Blockbuster Video). To keep “Star Trek” thriving has meant charting a precarious course to satisfy the fans who have fueled it for decades while also discovering innovative ways to get new audiences on board.

“Doing ‘Star Trek’ means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time,” Kurtzman says.

The franchise has certainly weathered its share of fallow periods, most recently after “Nemesis” bombed in theaters in 2002 and UPN canceled “Enterprise” in 2005. It took 12 years for “Star Trek” to return to television with the premiere of “Discovery” in 2017; since then, however, there has been more “Star Trek” on TV than ever: The adventure series “Strange New Worlds,” the animated comedy “Lower Decks” and the kids series “Prodigy” are all in various stages of production, and the serialized thriller “Picard” concluded last year, when it ranked, along with “Strange New Worlds,” among Nielsen’s 10 most-watched streaming original series for multiple weeks. Nearly one in five Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. is watching at least one “Star Trek” series, according to the company, and more than 50% of fans watching one of the new “Trek” shows also watch at least two others. The new shows air in 200 international markets and are dubbed into 35 languages. As “Discovery” launches its fifth and final season in April, “Star Trek” is in many ways stronger than it’s ever been.

“’Star Trek’s fans have kept it alive more times than seems possible,” says Eugene Roddenberry, Jr., who executive produces the TV series through Roddenberry Entertainment. “While many shows rightfully thank their fans for supporting them, we literally wouldn’t be here without them.”

But the depth of fan devotion to “Star Trek” also belies a curious paradox about its enduring success: “It’s not the largest fan base,” says Akiva Goldsman, “Strange New Worlds” executive producer and co-showrunner. “It’s not ‘Star Wars.’ It’s certainly not Marvel.”

When J.J. Abrams rebooted “Star Trek” in 2009 — with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldaña playing Kirk, Spock and Uhura — the movie grossed more than any previous “Star Trek” film by a comfortable margin. But neither that film nor its two sequels broke $500 million in global grosses, a hurdle every other top-tier franchise can clear without breaking a sweat.

There’s also the fact that “Star Trek” fans are aging. I ask “The Next Generation” star Jonathan Frakes, who’s acted in or directed more versions of “Star Trek” than any other person alive, how often he meets fans for whom the new “Star Trek” shows are their first. “Of the fans who come to talk to me, I would say very, very few,” he says. “‘Star Trek’ fans, as we know, are very, very, very loyal — and not very young.”

As Stapf puts it: “There’s a tried and true ‘Trek’ fan that is probably going to come to every ‘Star Trek,’ no matter what it is — and we want to expand the universe.”

Every single person I spoke to for this story talked about “Star Trek” with a joyful earnestness as rare in the industry as (nerd alert) a Klingon pacifist.

“When I’m meeting fans, sometimes they’re coming to be confirmed, like I’m kind of a priest,” Ethan Peck says during a break in filming on the “Strange New Worlds” set. He’s in full Spock regalia — pointy ears, severe eyebrows, bowl haircut — and when asked about his earliest memories of “Star Trek,” he stares off into space in what looks like Vulcan contemplation. “I remember being on the playground in second or third grade and doing the Vulcan salute, not really knowing where it came from,” he says. “When I thought of ‘Star Trek,’ I thought of Spock. And now I’m him. It’s crazy.”

To love “Star Trek” is to love abstruse science and cowboy diplomacy, complex moral dilemmas and questions about the meaning of existence. “It’s ultimately a show with the most amazing vision of optimism, I think, ever put on-screen in science fiction,” says Kurtzman, who is 50. “All you need is two minutes on the news to feel hopeless now. ‘Star Trek’ is honestly the best balm you could ever hope for.”

I’m getting a tour of the USS Enterprise from Scotty — or, rather, “Strange New World” production designer Jonathan Lee, who is gushing in his native Scottish burr as we step into the starship’s transporter room. “I got such a buzzer from doing this, I can’t tell you,” he says. “I actually designed four versions of it.”

Lee is especially proud of the walkway he created to run behind the transporter pads — an innovation that allows the production to shoot the characters from a brand-new set of angles as they beam up from a far-flung planet. It’s one of the countless ways that this show has been engineered to be as cinematic as possible, part of Kurtzman’s overall vision to make “Star Trek” on TV feel like “a movie every week.”

Kurtzman’s tenure with “Star Trek” began with co-writing the screenplay for Abrams’ 2009 movie, which was suffused with a fast-paced visual style that was new to the franchise. When CBS Studios approached Kurtzman in the mid-2010s about bringing “Star Trek” back to TV, he knew instinctively that it needed to be just as exciting as that film.

“The scope was so much different than anything we had ever done on ‘Next Gen,’” says Frakes, who’s helmed two feature films with the “Next Generation” cast and directed episodes of almost every live-action “Trek” TV series, including “Discovery” and “Strange New Worlds.” “Every department has the resources to create.”

A new science lab set for Season 3, for example, boasts a transparent floor atop a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench, and the surrounding walls sport a half dozen viewscreens with live schematics custom designed by a six-person team. “I like being able to paint on a really big canvas,” Kurtzman says. “The biggest challenge is always making sure that no matter how big something gets, you’re never losing focus on that tiny little emotional story.”

At this point, is there a genre that “Strange New Worlds” can’t do? “As long as we’re in storytelling that is cogent and sure handed, I’m not sure there is,” Goldsman says with an impish smile. “Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!”

This approach is also meant to appeal to people who might want to watch “Star Trek” but regard those 668 hours of backstory as an insurmountable burden. “You shouldn’t have to watch a ‘previously on’ to follow our show,” Myers says.

To achieve so many hairpin shifts in tone and setting while maintaining Kurtzman’s cinematic mandate, “Strange New Worlds” has embraced one of the newest innovations in visual effects: virtual production. First popularized on the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” the technology — called the AR wall — involves a towering circular partition of LED screens projecting a highly detailed, computer-generated backdrop. Rather than act against a greenscreen, the actors can see whatever fantastical surroundings their characters are inhabiting, lending a richer level of verisimilitude to the show.

But there is a catch. While the technology is calibrated to maintain a proper sense of three-dimensional perspective through the camera lens, it can be a bit dizzying for anyone standing on the set. “The images on the walls start to move in a way that makes no sense,” says Mount. “You end up having to focus on something that’s right in front of you so you don’t fall down.”

And yet, even as he’s talking about it, Mount can’t help but break into a boyish grin. “Sometimes we call it the holodeck,” he says. In fact, the pathway to the AR wall on the set is dotted with posters of the virtual reality room from “The Next Generation” and the words “Enter Holodeck” in a classic “Trek” font.

“I want to take one of those home with me,” Peck says. Does the AR wall also affect him? “I don’t really get disoriented by it. Spock would not get ill, so I’m Method acting.”

I’m on the set of the “Star Trek” TV movie “Section 31,” seated in an opulent nightclub with a view of a brilliant, swirling nebula, watching Yeoh rehearse with director Olatunde Osunsanmi and her castmates. Originally, the project was announced as a TV series centered on Philippa Georgiou, the semi-reformed tyrant Yeoh originated on “Discovery.” But between COVID delays and the phenomenon of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” there wasn’t room in the veteran actress’s schedule to fit a season of television. Yeoh was undaunted.

“We’d never let go of her,” she says of her character. “I was just blown away by all the different things I could do with her. Honestly, it was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, because I believe in this.’”

If that means nothing to you, don’t worry: The enormity of the revelation that Garrett is being brought back is meant only for fans. If you don’t know who the character is, you’re not missing anything.

“It was always my goal to deliver an entertaining experience that is true to the universe but appeals to newcomers,” says screenwriter Craig Sweeny. “I wanted a low barrier of entry so that anybody could enjoy it.”

Nevertheless, including Garrett on the show is exactly the kind of gasp-worthy detail meant to flood “Star Trek” fans with geeky good feeling.

“You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans,” Kurtzman says. “You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans.”

On its face, that maxim would make “Section 31” a genuine risk. The titular black-ops organization has been controversial with “Star Trek” fans since it was introduced in the 1990s. “The concept is almost antagonistic to some of the values of ‘Star Trek,’” Sweeny says. But he still saw “Section 31” as an opportunity to broaden what a “Star Trek” project could be while embracing the radical inclusivity at the heart of the franchise’s appeal.

“Famously, there’s a spot for everybody in Roddenberry’s utopia, so I was like, ‘Well, who would be the people who don’t quite fit in?’” he says. “I didn’t want to make the John le Carré version, where you’re in the headquarters and it’s backbiting and shades of gray. I wanted to do the people who were at the edges, out in the field. These are not people who necessarily work together the way you would see on a ‘Star Trek’ bridge.”

For Osunsanmi, who grew up watching “The Next Generation” with his father, it boils down to a simple question: “Is it putting good into the world?” he asks. “Are these characters ultimately putting good into the world? And, taking a step back, are we putting good into the world? Are we inspiring humans watching this to be good? That’s for me what I’ve always admired about ‘Star Trek.’”

Should “Section 31” prove successful, Yeoh says she’s game for a sequel. And Kurtzman is already eyeing more opportunities for TV movies, including a possible follow-up to “Picard.” The franchise’s gung-ho sojourn into streaming movies, however, stands in awkward contrast to the persistent difficulty Paramount Pictures and Abrams’ production company Bad Robot have had making a feature film following 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond” — the longest theaters have gone without a “Star Trek” movie since Paramount started making them.

First, a movie reuniting Pine’s Capt. Kirk with his late father — played in the 2009 “Star Trek” by Chris Hemsworth — fell apart in 2018. Around the same time, Quentin Tarantino publicly flirted with, then walked away from, directing a “Star Trek” movie with a 1930s gangster backdrop. Noah Hawley was well into preproduction on a “Star Trek” movie with a brand-new cast, until then-studio chief Emma Watts abruptly shelved it in 2020. And four months after Abrams announced at Paramount’s 2022 shareholders meeting that his 2009 cast would return for a movie directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”), Shakman left the project to make “The Fantastic Four” for Marvel. (It probably didn’t help that none of the cast had been approached before Abrams made his announcement.)

The studio still intends to make what it’s dubbed the “final chapter” for the Pine-Quinto-Saldaña cast, and Steve Yockey (“The Flight Attendant”) is writing a new draft of the script. Even further along is another prospective “Star Trek” film written by Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and to be directed by Toby Haynes (“Andor,” “Black Mirror: USS Callister”) that studio insiders say is on track to start preproduction by the end of the year. That project will serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise. In both cases, the studio is said to be focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling for “Star Trek” feature films.

Far from complaining, everyone seems to relish the challenge. Visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman says that “working with Alex, the references are always at least $100 million movies, if not more, so we just kind of reverse engineer how do we do that without having to spend the same amount of money and time.”

The workload doesn’t seem to faze him either. “Visual effects people are a big, big ‘Star Trek’ fandom,” he says. “You naturally just get all these people who go a little bit above and beyond, and you can’t trade that for anything.”

In one of Kurtzman’s several production offices in Toronto, he and production designer Matthew Davies are scrutinizing a series of concept drawings for the newest “Star Trek” show, “Starfleet Academy.” A bit earlier, they showed me their plans for the series’ central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada.

But this is a “Star Trek” show, so there do need to be starships, and Kurtzman is discussing with Davies about how one of them should look. The issue is that “Starfleet Academy” is set in the 32nd century, an era so far into the future Kurtzman and his team need to invent much of its design language.

“For me, this design is almost too Klingon,” Kurtzman says. “I want to see the outline and instinctively, on a blink, recognize it as a Federation ship.”

The time period was first introduced on Season 3 of “Discovery,” when the lead character, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), transported the namesake starship and its crew there from the 23rd century. “It was exciting, because every time we would make a decision, we would say, ‘And now that’s canon,’” says Martin-Green.

“We listened to a lot of it,” Kurtzman says. “I think I’ve been able to separate the toxic fandom from really true fans who love ‘Star Trek’ and want you to hear what they have to say about what they would like to see.”

By Season 2, the “Discovery” writers pivoted from its dour, war-torn first season and sent the show on its trajectory 900-plus years into the future. “We had to be very aware of making sure that Spock was in the right place and that Burnham’s existence was explained properly, because she was never mentioned in the original series,” says executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise. “What was fun about jumping into the future is that it was very much fresh snow.”

That freedom affords “Starfleet Academy” far more creative latitude while also dramatically reducing how much the show’s target audience of tweens and teens needs to know about “Star Trek” before watching — which puts them on the same footing as the students depicted in the show. “These are kids who’ve never had a red alert before,” Noga Landau, executive producer and co-showrunner, says. “They never had to operate a transporter or be in a phaser fight.”

In the “Starfleet Academy” writers’ room in Secret Hideout’s Santa Monica offices, Kurtzman tells the staff — a mix of “Star Trek” die-hards, part-time fans and total newbies — that he wants to take a 30,000-foot view for a moment. “I think we need to ground in science more throughout the show,” he says, a giant framed photograph of Spock ears just over his shoulder. “The kids need to use science more to solve problems.”

Immediately, one of the writers brightens. “Are you saying we can amp up the techno-babble?” she says. “I’m just excited I get to use my computer science degree.”

After they break for lunch, Kurtzman is asked how much longer he plans to keep making “Star Trek.” 

“The minute I fall out of love with it is the minute that it’s not for me anymore. I’m not there yet,” he says. “To be able to build in this universe to tell stories that are fundamentally about optimism and a better future at a time when the world seems to be falling apart — it’s a really powerful place to live every day.”

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