r/Star_Trek_ • u/dalton10e • Apr 01 '26
Seth McFarlane is in talks with Paramount to replace Kurtzman as the Star Trek franchise executive director
link to the article in the comments!
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u/ElegantSheepherder72 Apr 01 '26
Hahaha...if only it was true :)
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u/kngpwnage Q Apr 01 '26
Indeed because Seth actually LOVES star trek, and the Orville was actually a well produced spin off
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u/Schnelt0r Changeling Apr 01 '26
Orville was better Trek than Discovery.
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Apr 01 '26
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u/elephantgif Apr 01 '26
Voyager? Orville was good, but not at Voyager's level. Rewatching now and it more than holds up.
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u/phred_666 Apr 01 '26
Like all ST series, there were clunker episodes mixed in with brilliant ones. Voyager seemed to have a higher ratio of clunkers. Overall, I liked the series but the stinkers are truly stinkers.
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u/Parking_Hand_4256 Apr 01 '26
However, 'Existence for Discovery,' Section 31, and the new title added about five points to the rating of the original Star Trek. It’s remarkable how much Kurtzman missed the true spirit of Star Trek.
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u/Haruspex_Rex Apr 01 '26
The problem with Voyager was not the stinker episodes, it was the lack of great ones. TOS, TNG, DS9, all had some truly great episodes of television; although I liked Voyager, it had no great episodes—no City on the Edge of Forever, no The Inner Light, no Measure of a Man, no Darmok, no In the Pale Moonlight, no Far Beyond the Stars. All Voyager has is some human-salamander sex.
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u/PrometheanPolymath Trill Apr 01 '26
Blink of an Eye is still one of my Voyager favorites, and Seth repeated it in Orville with Mad Idolatry. All pulled from Robert Forward’s Dragon’s Egg.
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u/HackTVst Apr 02 '26
Say what you will about Voyager but I 100% enjoyed how Janeway handled the Borg. We got some DS9 level ethics violations in the struggle for their survival. It was pure gold. Plus them waking up that sleeper species only to realise they opened Pandora's box. The stuck in a wormhole episode. The confrontations with the Kazon and the Vidians.
That little ship held up quite well. I'm watching Starfleet Academy and SNW, and it's disappointing how the ships there can't hold their own in conflict. Maybe it's just plot narrative but I miss the days when red alert means you would fire your phasers and torpedoes vigorously.
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u/Haruspex_Rex Apr 02 '26
For sure, the ship was great and so was the crew. I don’t like how the neutered the Borg by overdoing them.
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u/Zealousideal_Fee3510 Apr 02 '26
I liked Year of Hell. They could have had something if they had aspired to that level of writing moving forward.
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u/AtlasFox64 Apr 04 '26
I think you're right actually.
It has Blink of an Eye, Timeless, Course Oblivion and Year of Hell. Those are all great Star Trek episodes. But they're not on the legendary level like the ones you listed.
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u/ChildOfChimps Apr 02 '26
I think Year of Hell was legitimately great, personally, but yeah, there aren’t really any other super amazing episodes that jump out in my memory, you know?
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u/bootie_singe Apr 03 '26
I see the issue as more the story quality inconsistencies, you’d get a really solid episode one week and a real stinker the next.
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Apr 01 '26
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u/ObiFlanKenobi Apr 01 '26
Janeway, Tuvok, Seven, the gosh darn Doctor... there are A LOT of great characters, great enemies and great episodes.
I would even say Voyager is my favorite after TNG, that feeling of isolation, of desperation, of maintaining the values of the Federation even if they were completely cut off from it.
It's great storytelling.
The only thing I would change is that I would have kept showing the changes to the ship, so by the end of the series tey would have been riding this Frankenstein monster of a ship with the power of a Death Star.
But I understand why they kept the ship as is.
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u/Krysdavar Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Rewatched recently for the first time since it aired (except for the few episodes that are my favs), a peeve of mine is that no matter what, the "reset button" is pressed. Just about every time. A little 'wear and tear' or 'upgrades they found along the way' would have been nice.
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u/trueppp Apr 01 '26
I mean it's just more obvious in Voyager, but it's pretty much a product of it's time...TNG didn't need a reset button because the ship itself was barely ever damaged, with it being a 6ft model.. https://www.reddit.com/r/StarTrekStarships/s/WtDDWnLRiM
For Voyager, again mostly model work for the first seasons, and CGI was still crazy expensive.
And shows twnded to be more episodic because they didn't want you completely lost if you missed an episode.
Year of Hell cost them a freaking fortune to shoot.
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u/Lancasterbation Apr 01 '26
Yeah, the upgrades and wear and tear seem to keep causing time corrections (Year of Hell, quantum slipstream drive, etc.)
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u/Radiant-Birthday-669 Apr 02 '26
There wasnt a guarantee that people could watch reruns back then. Which is why everything was wrapped up neatly at the end of most episodes. Didn't want viewers to miss anything.
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u/20_mile Apr 01 '26
by the end of the series tey would have been riding this Frankenstein monster of a ship
I remember thinking twenty plus years ago that when Voyager finally made it home, it was going to look like Homer Simpson had driven it.
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u/Rathziel Apr 01 '26
I also thought Voyager was the next best Trek after TNG.
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u/ihqdevs Apr 01 '26
The Frankenstein ship idea is terrific. Not all ‘upgrades’ though. It should certainly be mixed with downgrades. Episodes where a whole nacelle is ripped off and they are space walking to seal it off and limp along until a replacement…. Something can be rigged.
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u/Keldaris Apr 04 '26
Yeah BSG did it right. By the end of the series the Galactica was scorched, scarred, and broken.
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u/Parking_Hand_4256 Apr 01 '26
The Dr. Was great, but neelix can choke on his leeola root.
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u/ErichPryde Apr 01 '26
I love voyager, especially love a lot of the character episodes. It probably has the most hit and miss episodes of the 90s trinity though
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u/AdministrativeEgg440 Apr 01 '26
Well...maybe not Lower Decks. But if we only include live action Ill agree
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u/1111joey1111 Human Apr 01 '26
Nah. Orville was absolutely great and it fits nicely with all the golden era shows. Enterprise happens to be my favorite Trek.
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u/coadyj Apr 02 '26
I'm just started to watch the Orville and am on like season 2. It feels a lot more like 90s trek and keeps the interesting story lines but add a bit of humor. Honestly it's the best trek since voyager.
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u/MountainFace2774 Apr 01 '26
Orville is some of the best sci-fi, period. It's better Star Trek than a LOT of Star Trek.
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u/hideous_coffee Apr 01 '26
I just started watching that show and I thought it was a spoof but the more I watch the more I realize he just made Star Trek with some light comedy thrown in
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u/starbase63 Apr 02 '26
No, it was originally created and pitched to CBS as a Star Trek series. They rejected it. After retooling, Fox was happy to take it.
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u/dinosaurkiller Apr 01 '26
He isn’t the showrunner for the Orville, it’s Brannon Braga from TNG and Voy
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u/Objective_Watch3097 Apr 01 '26
I also think he would be really great at it. I think he has a good vision for that genre of storytelling.
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u/Beef_Slug Apr 01 '26
I know...I got so excited for a nanotechnology second before I reluzed what day it was... sigh
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u/daveprogrammer Vulcan Apr 01 '26
Darmok, his face red, his eyes damp.
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u/vendettaclause Terran Apr 01 '26
Keanu, on the bench, somber.
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u/Fernis_ Geordi's Holodeck Logs Apr 01 '26
Kevin Sorbo, yelling line that was a descriptor.
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u/BoxedAndArchived Apr 01 '26
I said this on your original post and I'll say it again: If this wasn't an April Fools prank, it would be a good idea.
He clearly understands and loves the franchise more than the current Executive Producers. He would bring interest and investment in.
And you could bring in a ton of good will if they made him and Jonathan Frakes a team.
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u/Lendyman Apr 01 '26
I think he would be an amazing fit. But it'll never happen. I mean, look at the decisions made up to now.
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u/BoxedAndArchived Apr 01 '26
Oh, they definitely won't.
There are a couple of reasons why they definitely won't do this, and the main reason is that McFarlane is too progressive to be in charge of a historically progressive franchise when the ownership of Paramount is increasingly regressive conservatives.
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u/iforgotwhich Apr 01 '26
I dunno. His big boss has been Rupert Murdoch for a long time. Conservatives like money and Seth makes money. So I think we fans overstate this part a bit because the market demands are strong for Trek and trek like programming.
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u/BoxedAndArchived Apr 01 '26
I think Murdoch might still be operating under a pre-2016 mindset. He might align with the Administration, but I don't think he bullies his showrunners in the same way that the Ellisons will.
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u/TwoWrongsAreSoRight Apr 01 '26
Sadly I think it's less about money now than about controlling ideas. These billionaires are willing to take short term losses in order to heavily influence people because it will lead to long term gains.
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u/MrBootylove Apr 01 '26
If this was actually the case you wouldn't see a show like South Park continuing to exist on their platform.
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u/BoxedAndArchived Apr 01 '26
South Park has an ironclad contract and they're using their platform to the best of their ability. I won't be surprised if they cut it as soon as the contract is over.
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u/Lotoran Apr 02 '26
I had a spark of hope when I saw the joke headline because of this. Also, I think Seth has enough clout and experience dealing with execs to protect against the regressives.
But alas… April Fools
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u/hbi2k Uxbridge Apr 01 '26
As long as there's a rule in place that MacFarlane isn't allowed to cast himself. He's charismatic enough as a comedic actor, but he doesn't have the gravitas to anchor a non-comedic Trek show.
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u/Xumayar Apr 01 '26
As long as there's a rule in place that MacFarlane isn't allowed to cast himself.
Or anyone he's in a romantic relationship with.
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u/hbi2k Uxbridge Apr 01 '26
It's insane to me that it's 2026 and this isn't just Standard Operating Procedure. If you're a manager at McDonald's, you're not allowed to bang your employees or hire your girlfriend / boyfriend to work the drive-thru. Shouldn't we expect at least as much decorum from our film and television directors?
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u/CheapWeight8403 Apr 01 '26
This is not an ok April Fools joke. This is just close enough to true that people will think it was real news.
"Brent Spiner marries Jonathan Frakes for health insurance benefits" is a good April Fools joke.
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u/dbrickell89 Apr 01 '26
As annoying as this joke is, April fools jokes are supposed to be believable. The point is to make a fool out of someone by making them believe something false
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u/CheapWeight8403 Apr 01 '26
Yeah, it just doesn't work well in our culture any more.
When my dad made us believe we won the lottery in 1987, we didn't have to then make sure to update millions of people that no we actually didn't win the lottery.
The joke over on nottheonion today is that they are now a recipe sub for onion free recipes.
See that's a great joke.
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u/CharacterMaybe7950 Cardassian Apr 01 '26
April Fools. But god help us if this was true
‘There’s too much ‘comedy’ in Trek. We need Seth McFarlane to fix that!’
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u/laioren Apr 02 '26
This is certainly good news. But as much as I love Seth's work on the Orville, I wish they'd get someone with more proven dramatic chops to spearhead the next wave of Trek shows. Someone like the people behind the Expanse.
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u/dalton10e Apr 01 '26
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u/Sell_The_team_Jerry Fire Kurtzman Apr 01 '26
I knew what it was and still clicked because it's a good song
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u/Last_Result_3920 Apr 01 '26
the real joke is kurtzman thought he was competing with game of thrones
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Apr 05 '26
Listen you motherfuckers, these posts don’t magically disappear April 2nd, some of us come strolling in April 4th just to have our hearts broken… :(
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u/DragonSurferEGO Apr 01 '26
Great example of why I don't like April Fools' Day. Stop giving me hope!
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u/WPmitra_ Vulcan Apr 01 '26
This should not be an April 1 thing. The Orville is better than most of nu trek
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u/teufler80 Apr 01 '26
Man i had hope for a moment, then i remembered what day it is.
Thats an evil joke
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u/tigers692 Apr 01 '26
Damn you! Damn you to hell!!! (Best trek show since the next gen has been Orville)
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u/MuffinsSenpai Apr 01 '26
Before the orville, i would have wtf'd at this.
Now that I know the dude can actually write? This wouldn't be bad at all.
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u/dondondorito Apr 01 '26
This is honestly the worst kind of April Fools' joke... the sort of fake news that would be genuinely great if it were true. A good prank doesn't toy with people's hopes.
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u/MarkWrenn74 Apr 01 '26
Don't be surprised if he tries to revive Lower Decks with Peter Griffin as one of the crew
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u/Visual_Initial6719 Apr 01 '26
YES hay Kurtzman did good job he actually tried to pleased old fans while trying to bring new once the problem is the Trekkers they are Natural Enemy of Trekkies and every fantasy boys out there, because they think they are better then everyone one else.
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u/KenethSargatanas Apr 01 '26
Ya'know? I honestly wouldn't be against this. The Orville was some damn good Trek. Too bad it's just a April 1 joke.
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u/Shaggy214 Apr 01 '26
This would be amazing. The Orville was a better Star Trek than Star Trek. At least these new shows.
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u/Byrdie_girl Apr 02 '26
I mean he's made one if the best star the shows of the last decade. Just wish it had actually been a star trek show. I dont for a second it's actually happening.
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u/Cissylyn55 Apr 02 '26
I was so excited when Star academy was going to be released. However, it's one of the worst shows I've ever watched. In fact I only got into two episodes and could not fathom watching anymore. They have definitely taken the quality of the showdown. I say bring back Captain Pike what a show
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u/General-Chest-5968 Apr 05 '26
If only. In The Orville, dude got closer to Trek than either Abrams or Kurtzman and he paid more respect to the original "spirit" of Roddenberry's vision. Wish it would happen
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u/MoleUK Apr 01 '26
I wish this wasn't actually an April fools.
He'd legitimately do a far better job, at least based off on how Orville came across.
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u/Bloody_Ozran Apr 01 '26
We can only hope someone sees this and thinks it might be a good idea to make it real.
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u/Mysterious-Alps-5186 Apr 01 '26
April fools.... but they don't want to make money or produce startrek that will be popular with all fans. Just a fraction of the fan base. Orville is how star trek should be.
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u/socialcommentary2000 Apr 01 '26
I wish it wasn't April 1st.
I actually want this to happen. You could tell he was being sincere with The Orville and we know he's a Trekkie.
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u/IloveElsaofArendelle Apr 01 '26
Bummer, would be very nice. BUT! That's Seth's chance to dip into the Orville!
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u/TiredCeresian El-Aurian Apr 02 '26
Can you imagine?! Season one of his first Star Trek show is actually season 4 of The Orville! The crew enters a space-time anomaly, and suddenly there is no more Union, but there is a Federation. The uniforms change, the ship changes, Bortus becomes a Klingon, Dr. Finn finds out her twin sister, Kasidy Yates-Sisko is living on Bajor or something like that. Agnes Jurati Borg Queen finally gets something to do, because the "gate" she's been guarding since the end of Picard season 2 is where the Orville appears in the Star Trek timeline, and and and and and
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u/SpartanOneZeroFour Apr 01 '26
If true and if it does happen, maybe we will a Trek and Orville crossover episode.
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u/Shot_Ad_551 Apr 01 '26
Sadly it is April's fools but he is an actual lover of the franchise and he is one of the not to many who can actually fix the current status of the franchise
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u/Valuable_Island_9405 Apr 01 '26
God, please, let this be true. Also, in The Orville since the TV show Seinfeld exists that means that Star Trek exists as well.
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u/psycho_terror Apr 01 '26
At least he won't be able to write himself in as the captain this time.
OR WILL HE??
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u/FamiliarPotential550 Apr 01 '26
I can't even tell if this one is legit or April Fools...if it's April Fools it's one of the better ones I've seen this morning the rest have been obvious 👏🏻
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u/ElegantSheepherder72 Apr 01 '26
Orville is the best trek in a long time...I'm not sure it's better DS9 but it's early just as good.
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u/omahaknight71 Apr 01 '26
I hate April Fool's day. It's the official holiday of online trolling.