Best News Ever, Part 3: Bryan Fuller gets Nick Meyer onto #ST2017

See how simple it is when the right mix of pro producer and Trekkie get the keys? 

We are barely out of the gate, but if Bryan keeps making boldly obvious choices like adding Nick Meyer to his writing staff (and is allowed to) there's no telling what we'll be warping with come January. 

It also shows the paradigm-ripping nature of streaming, now. Just go be smart and creative--no TV-vs-film "boxes"/ labels to stop up the flow.

Hmmmm--maybe it's time to dig out my long Hi8 vidchat w Nick I never posted back from 2009.

Ironic it is that I last saw Nick at Harve Bennett's memorial last spring (photo above)--and now it's news because another Trek runner has come calling. Of course there's a lot of hurdles, both financial and human, to get over between now and premiere night. Nothing is ever certain, sadly.
But let's hope for at least an equal outcome to ST II Etc .... and to more undiscovered country in Trekland.

Thank the Prophets: Bryan Fuller as ST17 showrunner!

Not to be melodramatic... but I'd dared hope for this. And to have my gut guesses borne out. 

In the Venn diagram of "practical Hollywood outcomes" intersecting "available Trek veterans" concerning a hands-on show runner for the new "Star Trek" series, I had seen one obvious option …but thought naaawww, it'll never happen.


So, consider today's news "faith restored":


Bryan Fuller Named Co-Creator of New Star Trek TV Series

Bryan Fuller, who launched his career writing for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, will return to the television franchise as co-creator and executive producer of the new CBS Star Trek series. … 

That's this guy—seen here  in 1995 during our original interview in his Voyager rookie days! 

After the internal divisions surrounding the Paramount/Bad Robot staffing and vibe, would CBS actually reach out to a Trek veteran(s) to helm the new streaming series? Especially, a writer with Trek DNA and bona fides, AND showrunner cred AND not tied up in a deal with another studio?

And, as it's turned out, Alex Kurtzman's linkage was mostly as a CBS-family nameplate, to launch with. To all appearances, Bryan will "co-create" but be the hands-on showrunner.

Bryan was about the only who who fit all those criteria on my bill… criteria I was hoping for, way back in 2006 in my pre-blog Star Trek Magazine column … so today's news is Just. So. Invigorating.  He combines the best of available Trek DNA with a dose of reality about today's TV landscape and market. 

And somehow, when it's a guy who you've sat down and shared Trek minds with, and watched evolved professionally from roots IN Trek…it's pretty reassuring.

Believe me when I say, given all the practical Hollywood hoops... this is about as good an outcome as we could have hoped for, Trekland. I'm so jazzed! And happy for Bryan as well—he's in a place where this challenge is a win-win, career-wise, for him. It would not have been so for everyone.

Now, of my original five clarity-seeking questions posed after the November announcement, we still don't know where filming will occur, or even the number of episodes. Maybe that news will fall in short order. But this is a HUGE start. 

Bryan's come a long way through all his other series, most recently Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. Here's a quote back from my original 1995 interview with the Voyager staff rookie after his first full season on Star Trek, much less as a TV professional:

“Not a minute goes by that I don’t realize how lucky I am, just to be here and have all these mentors,” he enthuses.  “We will be in story meeting and it sounds like we’re all raving lunatics talking about the aliens coming, and they’re coming from a different dimension and they’re going to be doing this ... We sound like crazy people, but then we stop and think, ‘Wow, this is Star Trek, and it means so much to so many people’ -- and it‘s very special to be a part of that." 

Good for you, Bryan. And good for all of us.

Bryan Fuller: Emmy calls!

Hey--congrats to onetime Voyager scribe Bryan Fuller on his Emmy nomination for Comedy Writing for the pilot—or "Pie-lette"—on his new hit Pushing Daisies.

Time capsule ALERT: Here's Bryan—all smiles in his old Hart Building office after one of our "chats on tape" in spring 1998... (Note of course the obligatory action figure museum...)


In case you haven't caught it—and you should—it's the quirky and lushly-colored tale of a guy who gains the ability to bring corpses back to life with a single touch—but a second touch forever leaves them lifeless again, endearing him to a certain private detective who loves the first-hand reports of dead victims, etc. And guess whom our saves from death, and then can never touch again? Yep, his boyhood girl crush. Oh—and his pie store is home base for the stories...thus the cute pilot title.

Back on Voyager, Bryan wrote Voyager tales like "Mortal Coil" and "Barge of the Dead," and confessed in our interviews a real fascination for tales about death and life. (He was also behind the Captain Proton idea—his first draft for "Bride of Chaotica!" was deemed "too over the top" and pulled back (sadly)—so don't paint him grim just because of the death thing. ) After great, too-brief series like Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, I'm so tickled for him that Pushing Daisies has caught on for hopefully an even longer run.

Kudos also to Trek vets Doug Drexler and Gary Hutzel for their visual FX noms from Battlestar Galactica, and to Ron Moore overall for his show's four bids—as well as The Shat once again for supporting actor on Boston Legal; I'm not forgetting any of them. But aside from a staff-wide entry for Heroes' rookie season, this is Bryan's first solo Emmy chance—and thus my note.