There has been a rumor report going around beginning Wednesday that talks about identifying the timeline for the next Star Trek series, currently planned for a January release on CBS All Access.

According to this report, the show would take place after “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County” and before “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the “prime” canon timeline, that’s controlled primarily by CBS Corp. (the same company doing the series).

The report further states that additional information was received that the next series would be an anthology series.

At the present time (although it can always change in the future), 1701News is NOT going to present this as a viable rumor. For nearly two decades, I have covered entertainment news, especially the rumor side of it, and the best way to differentiate a viable rumor from just plain fiction is to find corroboration.

The source of this rumor (the reporting blog) does not talk about seeking or finding corroboration. And if it did not receive corroboration, the source of this rumor does not explain why he posted the rumor anyway without corroboration.

In my years as a journalist, I have done this a handful of times, posting a rumor without corroboration. But just as I would clearly point out a rumor, I also would clearly point out any efforts to corroborate it, and if I hadn’t, explain why I felt I should still report it without corroboration (and letting you know that you should take it with even a bigger grain of salt).

We already know that the new series is going to be set in the “prime” universe, because the reboot universe from the J.J. Abrams’ films are owned by Paramount, a separate corporate entity that has common ownership with CBS — but is still a separate corporate entity.

We do not know for sure which timeline the series will take, although I will say that uncorroborated reports I’ve received (and it’s been hard to corroborate anything from the new series) is that it will be post-“Star Trek: Nemesis,” but we don’t know for sure.

It is possible that this blog is correct on its timeline, but without proper corroboration, we cannot do a disservice to our readers by publishing it as if it’s a viable story, because it’s not quite there yet (if it would ever get there).

Also, the further reports of this being an anthology is clearly nothing more than repeating speculation made over the past few years by many observers that an interesting approach to a new Star Trek series would be the anthology model, which more recently has been made popular by “American Horror Story.”

Does that mean it WON’T be an anthology? No. But the fact is, we don’t know, and there is nothing to currently corroborate the rumor that this blog has put out.

We will not publish or even re-publish reports that we don’t feel confident are at least viable. We have done this many times in the past, more recently with the story about the fan making a “pitch” for a new Star Trek series to Paramount (when in reality, it was just something they let him do so they could get the StarTrekBeyond.com domain name), and also these silly reports over the last few months that Bryan Fuller was bringing in Angela Bassett to star in the new series, based on off-the-cuff remarks Fuller made during an interview a few years ago — long before he joined the new Star Trek series.

This always is subject to change, but I wanted to make sure you knew that we are indeed aware of this report, and that these are the reasons why we have currently chose not to report it.

Of course, if you agree or disagree or have further questions, please feel free to leave a comment on our Facebook page or start a new conversation in our Facebook social area, TrekTalk, and I will respond as quickly as I can.

And thanks for your continued support of 1701News!