Nicolas Meyer Teases New Trek Series

The latest addition to the upcoming Star Trek series spoke with Den of Geek about the job. He kind of dropped cryptic hints but not enough to draw any conclusions about what the new series will be about. Below are the highlights, the full interview is here.

How much do you know about the new show? What can you tell me?
I can’t tell you anything! I know things. But if I told you, I’d have to kill you.

What will be your new role in the writers’ room? Will you be writing individual episodes? Or larger story arcs?
If I’m lucky, I’ll get to write episodes. If I’m less lucky, I’ll just get to sit in that room with all those other clever people.

A lot of Star Trek fans are hoping that this new show might signal a return to self-contained stories, rather than the big season-long arcs we see in most contemporary television. Will this be the case?
I think it’s going to be a different Star Trek. It will go in a different direction. And I think that is probably good. Because the thing that mainly troubles me about Star Trek is the fear of it being maybe re-treads of itself. And to the degree that I had any influence on the thing [Star Trek] at all was that at least while I was there, we were fooling around. And if you’re not fooling around, then things can become stale. And I think that Bryan [Fuller]—who is a very clever fellow—has ideas—some of which I’ve heard—that are innovative and different. Different is what got me interested.

I should have known that! So, the politics of both Star Trek IV and Star Trek VI are what make those movies what they are. Is there something from the existing political landscape that might make its way into these new Star Treks?
The one thing I can relate to you is that The Undiscovered Country—according to Bryan [Fuller]—is a real sort of taking off point, or touchstone for how I guess he’s thinking about the direction of the new show. I don’t want to be misquoted and I don’t want to misquote him, but he’s fond of that film. Let’s put it that way.