An Open Letter to Star Trek’s Bryan Fuller

The new Star Trek Discovery has been delayed until May 2017.

Bryan Fuller, creator and Executive Producer of Star Trek: Discovery

Dear Bryan,

I read last week Star Trek: Discovery will not air in January as it was planned. The new sci-fi series got officially postponed until May 2017 to meet the production demands for a show that takes place entirely in space with the quality it deserves.

It sucks. It really sucks. The news hit me really hard and I couldn’t help but feel devastated. That being said, you have always outdone yourself in every project you get involved with. I’m sure you will deliver a mind-blowing Star Trek series for all of us to enjoy.

The reasons behind the delay make sense. I know you want to make Discovery different from the rest, without losing the essence of what makes the Star Trek franchise unique.

Now that you have more time to work on it, I have a few suggestions for you to consider:

1. No holodeck malfunctions

Between Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, we got to “enjoy” 19 episodes of holodeck malfunctions. It’s enough for Paramount to release a collection of “Star Trek: The Best of Holodeck Malfunctions” on DVD and Bluray.

It’s not logical to have enough holodeck malfunction episodes for at least three Vulcan lifetimes. I suggest you turn off the safety protocols and shoot a holographic bullet to the head of this exhausted plot line.

2. Enough obsessing with the 20th/21st century

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes every time a character would make a reference to the time the show was filmed. Or when three middle-aged men from the 23rd century had nothing better to do than to sing “Row Row Row Your Boat.”

Do you have friends who throw colloquial phrases from 1790 just as casually as Tom Paris did in Voyager with 20th-century slang? No? That would be very weird, right?

So, please Bryan:

No cheesy punch lines similar to “Well, as they used to say in the 21st century, chill!”

No nostalgic memorabilia from our current time.

No unhealthy obsessions with the details of a baseball game from the 20th century.

No interaction with primitive technology (i.e. an iPhone 7) where it feels like that monolith scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

3. Go easy on the time travel

I could bet that a time travel episode was the second favorite safety net for the Star Trek writing staff, right after -you guessed it!- a holodeck adventure gone wrong. Even worse is when they conveniently time travel to the year the series was filmed.

We could spend hours debating the real reasons behind these episodes (a canned formula that worked in the short term, production and effects budget was low, it was nice outside…), but don’t forget that what we want is space exploration!

If we want to see things from the year we live in, we could just go outside or watch something else. Give us more first encounters, conflicts and resolutions with other beings, tough decisions to make under stress, and a hell lot of warp drive.

And before you mention it, no, finding a 20th-century-looking colony of humans who descended from abductees from the past does not work either.

And, oh please! No temporal wars!

4. Pay Attention to the Bechdel Test

With the outstanding exception of Star Trek: Voyager (86.9%), the rest of the series scored very poorly in the Bechdel Test.

Gene Roddenberry, creator of the franchise, had a great vision that his work would be a space of inclusiveness, tolerance, and diversity. However, it’s disappointing the original series scores a low 7.5% in the test.

For Discovery, I’m glad the lead character will be a woman (I’m a bit worried that she will not be the captain, but I trust you know what you’re doing there), and the series will include LGBT characters as well. Well done!

Make sure female and LGBT roles are not portrayed as special, weird, or out of the ordinary. That would imply that inclusion and tolerance is still a hot topic in a few centuries.

5. Wil Wheaton and other Star Trek alumni

I’m sure by now Wil Wheaton has asked you for a part or at least a cameo. You should tell him… YES!

It’s not a secret that Wheaton loves to participate in sci-fi series and movies. He has been a huge Star Trek fan since before he got cast in The Next Generation as the young Wesley Crusher.

He’s a very capable actor and can play whatever you tell him to from the Star Trek universe. He knows it like the palm of his hand.

As long as it doesn’t ruin the storyline, why not having a few familiar faces? I’m sure they would love to and it’d be a nice treat for old fans.

6. Don’t be afraid to cut off from past series

It’s great that there’s an overall chronological order in the Star Trek universe. However, sometimes it feels series has bent over backward to make sure everything fits.

Star Trek: Enterprise is the perfect cautionary tale. When they weren’t trying to forcefully fit the technology (like the episode where they find the “Enterprise of the Future,” which turned out to be the original starship from 1966), they were trying to justify plot gaps like why the Klingons looked like humans in the 23rd century.

That was just awful! It would be best for everybody if you just go ahead and ignore those plot holes from the past. They weren’t your fault, and sure as hell they’re not your responsibility.

We loved the past series, but we need to learn how to move on to new things. We can make better assumptions about the future today than the ones we did in the past.