By Josh Tyler | 9 years ago

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the desire to bring Star Trek back to television, with a new series. Though there are a couple of different plans in motion nothing is really concrete yet. One thing seems certain though: If CBS is going to bring Star Trek back, they need to do something different.

How about Seth MacFarlane?

When I say different I don’t mean juggling time periods or anything like that. I’m talking about a whole new attitude for the show. Something to make it really relevant again. The thing that made the original Star Trek great was the way in which it deftly tackled hot button political issues of the time with great science fiction stories. In Voyager and Enterprise, the franchise really got away from that. And in the movies, Star Trek has just become pure entertainment. That’s fine for the feature films, but if you’re going to do a television series… it’s time Trek mattered again.

Seth MacFarlane is exactly the kind of guy who could do that, and what’s more, he wants to do it.

In a recent interview with THR MacFarlane revealed that he’s kind of ready to be done with Family Guy, and once he’s done, he really wants to be in the Star Trek business. He says, “I don’t know who would give me the keys to that car… But I’d love to see that franchise revived for television in the way that it was in the 1990s: very thoughtful, smartly written stories that transcend the science fiction audience.”



What he’s describing is exactly the way Trek needs to be approached. Better still MacFarlane really is kind of a sci-fi geek. He’s done an entire Family Guy: Star Wars epic, Star Trek references frequently show up on Family Guy, and Patrick Stewart is a regular voice contributor on Seth’s animated shows. He’s even been on Star Trek. MacFarlane appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise as a character named Rivers…

Seth MacFarlane’s the kind of guy you can trust to know his way around the Star Trek universe, while still having the balls to do something fresh and innovative with it. And that’s the kind of Star Trek series I’d like to see.

Ok, maybe not exactly like that.