About a month ago Paramount+ launched its new STAR TREK show STRANGE NEW WORLDS. A prequel to the original STAR TREK, SNW actually has a very similar remit, to explore, discover and just see what happens.
At the same time, this is the seventh STAR TREK TV show, the ninth if you include the two animates shows (which, why wouldn't we?). And there's been about a dozen movies as well.
So the question you have to ask when you're beginning is, how do we make this fresh and new? Because hasn't it pretty much all been done.
The answer is, probably. But I gotta say, tonight's SNW, episode 104, definitely seemed like a new twist. The premise is actually pretty familiar: the Enterprise is being hunted by a superior foe, so they have to play cat and mouse in a gas cloud thingy to survive. And of course there are complications, namely the thingy is actually a high gravity brown dwarf near a black hole, so they are, in the words of Freddie Mercury, "Under Pressure."
But that situation allows the show to do something that has always been right in front of us, and yet I don't think I've ever seen: they turned the cat and mouse into a submarine hunt. First you've got the shipping dropping a torpedo like a mine to destroy the enemy. Then, when that was actually itself a trap--the Gorn are fantastic strategists; immediately I love them--the Enterprise becomes the vessel going deeper in an attempt to escape, while dealing with increased pressure and buckling hulls. It has great suspense, but really what is so satisfying is the fact that it is such a fun fresh take on a space battle.
And again, it was always right there in front of us: we're dealing with ships that move in three dimensions (four if you nasty). Usually that translates into flight and dog fighting metaphors. But another version of that is being undersea, and submarines.
I have no idea how the writers came up with this. (This episode was written by Davy Perez & Beau DeMayo, and we should definitely keep our eyes on them, because this episode fucking rocks.) But seeing what they came up with seems like a great invitation for us, whether we're creating our own show or even more when we're staffing something, to stop and consider the genre we're doing, and see what kind of ideas it kicks up.
Here's a fun exercise: Pick a show that's on the air right now, one you know well. And then just write a list of things that the show makes you think of, stories or types of stories that your show is like. And see if that leads to anything, a kind of story the show could do that it hasn't yet.
Here's mine for SNW: It's like detective shows. It's like the X-Files. It's like 3D chess. It's a monster movie.
It's like sailing around the world for the first time. So it's like being trapped at the North Pole. It's like being eaten by cannibals. (You'll notice here I'm doing my best not to self edit, just letting it all fly and seeing what comes.) It's like doing anthropology. It's like hunting for buried treasure.
It's like a dog fight. It's like World War II. It's like being shot down. It's like going on a bombing run. It's like Dresden.
Right away, I get a couple ideas to chew on: Is there an alien abduction X-Files mystery to tell? A being trapped at the North Pole? A bombing run? 3D chess? Maybe I come to the room with a solid pitch. Or maybe it's just something I keep in mind, keep developing and wait for the right moment, or the right reference to make--Have you seen The Terror? What if we did that here? How would a huge crew survive being stranded? Would Star Trek officials be any better at holding it together?
Finding something new in something familiar--it's such a thrill for an audience when you can pull that off. And it can open whole new veins for story.
