Although the future of Star Trek on the small screen is still unclear, there is a new movie in the works from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the duo responsible for 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. While promoting their upcoming action comedy Mayday, the pair dropped a few tidbits about their new Star Trek movie, including two of the movies which are serving as an inspiration.
“I would say it’s really kind of a look at the institution of Starfleet and any institution as a whole that has existed for a long time and what that does,” Daley told Inverse. “I think the portrayal of Starfleet and the people that work within it have always been generally idealized versions of what the future could be. And while this [script] isn’t a cynical or nihilistic take on it, I think it does acknowledge that there are some bad apples in every institution that can have a strong voice and can really make an impact on that institution and everything it stands for.“
Goldstein added, “Two movies we cite as comps for what we’re hoping to do are Training Day and Crimson Tide.” Both films follow a grizzled vet and a younger subordinate who butt heads, and you can see how that would easily work in a Star Trek setting.
Daley dropped another interesting tease, saying the film “takes place almost in real time, and it just is a whole other look at what a Star Trek movie could be without betraying the fundamentals of what it should be.“
More than a few Star Trek movies (and episodes) have dealt with a “bad apple” in Starfleet, including Admiral Marcus in Star Trek Into Darkness, Admiral Dougherty in Star Trek: Insurrection, Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Admiral Pressman in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Admiral Leyton in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and more. Never trust an admiral, apparently.
Daley and Goldstein want to make a Star Trek movie that not only appeals to existing fans but also brings in new ones. Easier said than done.
“I mean, look, we don’t want to rely on fandom,” Goldstein said. “We don’t want to just hope that there’s enough fans of the original [TOS] or The Next Generation or whatever who will turn out for this. We want to just make a great movie that lives in the world that people are familiar with — some people are familiar with — and that others will discover. And then, with good fortune, we launch a new franchise into existence.“
Star Trek has come a long way, visually at least, from its humble beginnings. The streaming-era shows have delivered cinematic visual effects, and Daley says any Star Trek movie will need to have “a spectacle to it” to justify why audiences should pay to see it in theaters. So long as the story is there to back it up, sure, but Star Trek will never work on pure spectacle.