Kurtzman: Why Trek Matters Today
2 min read
Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman was a guest on the Official Star Trek Podcast, The Pod Directive, as reported by TrekMovie, where he spoke about the relevance of Star Trek to life today, and why so many shows are in production.
In these somewhat turbulent times, Kurtzman spoke of Star Trek’s positive outlook as something to which we can aspire. “I would say that in this particular moment in time where everyone is rethinking a lot of the assumptions that they made about the world and the systems that are in place in the world,” he said. “Star Trek speaks to those in a way that I think no other franchise does. It’s always been incredibly relevant, but it’s really relevant now.
“Given the state of the world, no matter what side of the political line you’re on, nobody can disagree with the fact that we are as close to a civil war as we’ve ever been since the Civil War. And this [Star Trek] gives you a roadmap to the possibility and the potential of human beings and what we can accomplish if we stop thinking the way we’ve been thinking. Because if we keep thinking this way, we’re not going be around. And I think that’s the beauty of Star Trek is it actually gives you a positive for the future.”
So why are there so many Trek shows? “My hope is that this sort of misnomer that Trek is only for people who know Trek — the whole point is yes, of course, it’s for those people first and foremost — but it’s also for people who have never seen it and don’t know anything about it,” said Kurtzman. “Because if we don’t also get those people in, then ten years from now, twenty years from now, we’re not going to have new generations of Star Trek fans.
“I think that some of [the Trek shows] are rollercoaster rides. Some of them are more meditative. Some of them are hilarious. Some of them are interesting explorations of the state of humanity. And some of them are just about the pure joy of seeing the world through the eyes of children.
“Our universe wants to be different color crayons in the same box…There’s a common thread between all of these things. But if all the shows are the same, we’re failing, right?”
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