Did Alex Kurtzman Personally Sign Star Trek’s Death Warrant?

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 11 seconds ago

One of the many reasons Trekkies were salty about Starfleet Academy is that they wanted a different show entirely. Specifically, they wanted Star Trek: Legacy, a series in which Seven of Nine is the captain of the Enterprise.

Picking up where Picard left off, this show would give us adventures set in the 25th century while mixing new characters with familiar faces from shows like The Next Generation and Voyager. Fan demand for this show was insanely high, and since we never got it, there have been persistent rumors that Alex Kurtzman hated and ultimately killed that project, driving Picard showrunner Terry Matalas away so that he could focus on Starfleet Academy, his passion project.

Now, Jamie Rixom of the popular Tachyon Pulse podcast has presented a different narrative. He claims that both Kurtzman and Paramount were very eager to make Star Trek: Legacy, but that Kurtzman convinced them to do Starfleet Academy first.

However, the merger with Skydance and the subsequent purchase of Warner Bros. suddenly turned the future of the franchise into a question mark. If this is true, then Kurtzman effectively signed Star Trek’s death warrant by insisting on a doomed show that will almost certainly result in Paramount killing the franchise as we know it.

A New Spin On Old Rumors

During his recent podcast, Jamie Rixom addressed the most common narrative about Star Trek: Legacy. Namely, that Alex Kurtzman was jealous of how much fans liked Picard Season 3 and how much credit they were giving to showrunner Terry Matalas. That narrative (which, to be fair, is mostly touted by avowed Kurtzman haters) claims that Kurtzman wanted to ice Matalas out and then shove Starfleet Academy down our throats. There has never been any real confirmation of these rumors, but based on the fact that he was co-showrunner, it seems true that SFA was a real passion project for Kurtzman.

Rixom presents an interesting variant of these rumors. Citing his insider knowledge of studio wheelings and dealings, he claims that Paramount and Kurtzman were very keen to do Star Trek: Legacy, but that the network didn’t want more than two Trek shows streaming at once. Therefore, Starfleet Academy got the green light first, and there were allegedly plans to start working on Legacy after Strange New Worlds wrapped up. However, the merger with Skydance effectively shut down production of new shows in the franchise, though hopes were high that the already greenlit SFA would prove popular. Now, that show has been canceled after Season 1, leaving Star Trek in a kind of creative limbo.

Our Last Hope, Lost

Obviously, the show will go on, and Paramount will create new movies and TV shows in this franchise because it is one of their most bankable IPs. Why, then, do I believe that Alex Kurtzman has killed the brand as we know it? Because we’re never going to get another show anything like the Golden Age of Star Trek. Legacy was our last shot at getting a series that had familiar faces and took place in the beloved time period of TNG and DS9. 

If Legacy had gotten the green light instead of SFA, then its inevitable success (remember how much everyone liked Picard Season 3?) would encourage Paramount to make more Trek shows and movies in this vein. Now, though, I’d bet my last bar of gold-pressed latinum that Paramount’s new leadership will look at the failure of Starfleet Academy and the general train wreck that is NuTrek and decide to reboot this entire universe for a second time. Kurtzman haters may cheer at this prospect, but consider this: new shows headed by a new empty suit who has even less reason to care about canon are going to be even less like classic Trek than ever before.

Star Trek In Name Only

Star Trek: Legacy wasn’t just fans’ wishful thinking: it was, in every way that counts, the last chance to get a new show with the vibe of beloved series like The Next Generation and Voyager. Even in the kinder, gentler narrative of Jamie Rixom’s alleged insider info, Alex Kurtzman is still the guy who personally championed making SFA instead of Legacy. He had no way of knowing about the upcoming changes to Paramount, but his decision still guaranteed the last show of the NuTrek era was a complete failure that will likely doom this franchise as the network builds new shows that are Star Trek in name only.

Before Paramount fully runs Trek into the ground, I have a simple request: can you please shoot Kurtzman’s contract out of the nearest airlock?