From NPR · · 4m
Star Trek turns 60 with nothing next
After six decades and seven streaming series, the franchise may be heading into its first quiet year in a decade.
In brief
After six decades and seven streaming series, the franchise may be heading into its first quiet year in a decade. Star Trek's real problem isn't a bad season, it's that the optimism and faith in technology it was built on feel out of step with the moment, and no new project is on the schedule. Originally reported by…
Sixty years of Trek
NBC aired the first episode in 1966. Star Trek just passed its 60th birthday, one of a handful of screen franchises to survive six decades of pop culture churn.
A mirror held up to us
Jeri Ryan, who joined Voyager in 1997 as Seven of Nine, knew almost nothing about Trek before signing on. She became a convert to what it was doing.
“The way that Star Trek has always held a mirror up to society and always been political in a non-threatening way … it's fascinating to me.”
A Cold War bridge crew
The original series put a Russian officer on the bridge while the Cold War raged, next to a Black woman and a Japanese helmsman. The casting was the message.
If we stop screwing it up
Ryan reads the show as a bet on what humans could reach by celebrating difference instead of fearing it. She says it ruefully now.
“It was an optimistic view … of what we could achieve if we stop screwing it up.”
One show became an empire
Three seasons of Shatner and Nimoy spawned TV shows, films, games, novels, comics, conventions and collectibles, all orbiting Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets.
Seven shows in streaming
The streaming era brought seven series and a movie, from Discovery in 2017 to Lower Decks in 2020. The last two, Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds, are both wrapping up.
Nothing announced next
A Paramount+ executive told Deadline the company wants a new iteration, and a writing team is said to be on a movie script. Neither is officially on the schedule.
The first gap in a decade
If nothing is revealed soon, next year would be the first time in roughly ten years with no Star Trek series or film in production.
Big swings, split fans
Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman knows the musical episode and the Muppet-crew episode lost some traditionalists. He thinks the risk was the point.
“[Its] about optimism, about exploration, about this notion that decency and kindness and empathy are the strengths of our culture.”
1974, and wanting more
Goldsman keeps the program from his first Trek convention framed in his office. Fans traveled to watch one episode in a theater, in better color, with extra scenes.
“From that point on, all we wanted was more.”
Streaming killed the long run
Goldsman blames streaming for shrinking appetite. With endless choice, viewers take a season or two of a show and move on rather than settling in for years.
“Maybe people just want one or two great seasons of everything and then they move along.”
Born in a hopeful decade
Deep Space Nine showrunner Ira Steven Behr points out Trek arrived amid Vietnam, civil rights and the Kennedy assassination, when people still believed movements and technology could fix things.
Technology stopped feeling good
Behr says Trek rests on two beliefs: technology improves life, and our humanity survives it anyway. Social media, disinformation and AI data centers have eaten the first one.
“Those two major thoughts that Star Trek kinda relies on don't make it anymore for people.”
Watching for the explosions
Behr says the fans calling new shows too woke tend to want battles and adventure, with no patience for the small emotional stories Trek has always told.
“They're not interested in any larger thing the show is saying.”
Polarizing beats safe
Anson Mount, done filming the final Strange New Worlds episodes, defends the experiments. He would rather divide the audience than hand it exactly what it expected.
“I think Star Trek would be dead if we delivered the midline of people's expectations.”
The audience is aging
Mount's one criticism of the franchise is blunt: nothing in the current strategy is bringing in young viewers, and it needs a real plan to change that.
“Its audience is aging and the current strategy is not bringing in a new audience.”
No reruns, no movies
Older fans found Trek through after-school syndicated reruns, then through films. The last theatrical movie, Beyond, came out ten years ago, so both on-ramps are gone.
A politics problem too
Ryan suspects the stall at Paramount is partly political under owner David Ellison, whose company scrapped its diversity programs in 2025. Ellison denies bending outlets to please Trump.
“I have a hard time believing some of the disinterest is not political.”
Let them miss it
After Enterprise was cancelled in 2005, Trek went dark until the 2009 Abrams film. Behr thinks another pause might be healthy.
“Even freakin' chocolate gets old after a while if you eat too much of it.”
The headline
Star Trek's real problem isn't a bad season, it's that the optimism and faith in technology it was built on feel out of step with the moment, and no new project is on the schedule.
