Since my earliest recollections, Star Trek has always been a favourite of mine. I grew up with up Star Trek, loved it for too many reasons to mention; the series ingrained itself into my life, so it is quite exciting to see it reach a milestone of a half century this year. Hopefully, the new film Star Trek: Beyond and the recently announced TV series with Rod Roddenberry, Nicholas Meyer and Bryan Fuller at the helm will bring back Star Trek to its former glory.

Personally, I am looking forward to the TV series. Star Trek originated on TV so I believe that’s where it rightfully belongs. Not to take anything away from the new movies, they are entertaining, but there is something missing.

This new team for the series have an uphill climb ahead of them. They need to come up with some very engaging characters. I’d love to see the series bring back that sense of excitement in exploring the final frontier. I also believe that another aspect of these new Star Trek adventures that are solely missing is social commentary. like race relations or the unity of humanity. Who knows maybe the new crew could be made up of mostly aliens and have our protagonist as the sole human on board.

What I do hope, is that the new writers and producers take some notes from the series on the BBC and Netflix or dare I say it, Fox. Doctor Who, Sherlock and recently The X-Files have all benefited from a minimum number of episodes, let the cream rise to the top. I would rather watch 6 to 8 amazing episodes of a new Trek series instead of getting a whole bunch of cheap filler episodes and ruining its return. I would go as far as having a new batch of writers and producers for each mini-series. Hey, it’s working wonders for the Mission impossible movies.

If Star Trek wants to survive for another half century, they need to really take their time and get things right or Star Trek will boldly go where many mishandled franchises have gone before; Oblivion.