Although his name isn’t as synonymous with Star Trek to the general public as creator Gene Roddenberry’s is, writer/director Nicholas Meyer is nearly as important to the Star Trek franchise. Back in 1982, he saved the film series after their critical disappointment of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by making the leaner, meaner Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, still hailed as the best of all 13 Star Trek films.
Years later, when William Shatner’s directorial effort Star Trek V: The Final Frontier nearly sank the franchise with a lousy entry once again, Nick Meyer came in to save the day, and wrote and directed the final installment of the original film series with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which both critics and audiences loved.[brightcove video_id=”5055026330001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=“rJs2ZD8x”]
After the sixth Star Trek feature film, Meyer didn’t have much to do with the franchise, but last year he joined the writer’s room on the upcoming CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery. But it looks like the upcoming show won’t be the nly new Trek coming from Meyer in the near future. While discussing the Wrath of Khan’s 35th anniversary, and only speaking a tiny bit about his involvement with CBS’s Star Trek: Discovery, Meyer did drop one juicy tidbit that he had something else in the works in regards to Star Trek.
He told TrekMovie (via CBR) “One thing that has nothing to do with Discovery is that I am working on another Star Trek project,” and then quickly added “but I can’t discuss that either.” Trek Movie then asked “Are we talking more feature film because as far as I know, there is only one television project, I assume.” Meyer then coyly replied, “You can assume.”
Wait, what?? What the heck could Meyer be talking about? Well, there are actually a few options. Let’s look at the most (and least) likely.
A New Star Trek Movie
Well, this seems the most obvious right? A fourth Trek film is supposedly in the works, but not much has been announced about it since Star Trek Beyond came out last summer. There are some strikes against this happening, so let’s get those out of the way. For starters, Paramount likes young, fresh talent. That’s why they went with “it boy” JJ Abrams back in the day, and then Justin Lin for Star Trek Beyond. Do they really want to go with a 71 year old director who hasn’t directed a feature film in 25 years, and only directed television since then?
On the plus side, Meyer was brought in to do Wrath of Khan because Paramount knew he could make a great movie for a fraction of the price of the first, and the result was an all-time classic. Could they be hoping that Meyer is the guy to make a faster, dirtier, cheaper and still quality film after Star Trek Beyond failed to make money? Stranger things have happened in the world of Trek films.
A Star Trek Novel
Besides, being a director, Nicholas Meyer is a well known novelist, having written acclaimed books over the years like The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. He has written one non-fiction Trek book, but never a fictional one. Certainly fans would gobble up a new Star Trek novel from the man behind the best movies in the franchise. If I were a betting man, I’d be betting on this one, although I’d love to have another Trek film from Meyer.
A Second New Star Trek TV Series
Could CBS be working on another Trek show aside from Discovery, with Meyer involved? Really doubtful. This latest Star Trek show has yet to prove itself in the slightest, so it is way to early to even be talking about spin-offs. In the franchises’ ’90s heyday, they did run two concurrent Star Trek shows at once, but we are a long way from the glory days of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Which Trek project do you think Nicholas Meyer is secretly working on, and what would you like it to be? Give us your thoughts down below in the comments.
Images: CBS / Paramount
