Entertainment
Paramount Already Has the Answer to Its Colossal ‘Star Trek’ Problem
2026 marks the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, yet the iconic franchise is approaching a crossroads. The trailer for Season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a grim reminder that the series is slated to end next year. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, a series meant to carry the Star Trek franchise into the future, is being cut short after two seasons. While Paramount has said it intends to keep the franchise going on the silver screen, Star Trek‘s future on television is looking fairly bleak. There is one creative voice who could help steer the ship in the right direction, and it’s a figure who has a long and surprising history with Star Trek.
That figure is Terry Matalas, who shouldn’t be a stranger to Trekkies. Matalas got his start in television working on Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise, and cited Star Trek: The Next Generation as one of his all-time favorite television shows. His biggest claim to fame, though, is serving as showrunner on Seasons 2 & 3 of Star Trek: Picard, which remains one of the most beloved entries in Star Trek’s modern era. But there’s another aspect of Matalas’ work on Star Trek: Picard that makes him a perfect fit for the franchise, especially as Paramount is undergoing a major shift in priorities.
Terry Matalas Can Deliver a ‘Star Trek’ Show That Doesn’t Break The Bank for Paramount
Those not in tune with the major business decisions behind Hollywood’s major studios probably don’t know that Paramount was recently acquired by Skydance Media, leading to a major shift in what movies and TV shows are being made. That shift was deeply felt after the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but other television ventures across Paramount’s vast library have been feeling a financial squeeze. Chief among them is Star Trek, as sets are being dismantled and even sold off. Any future show would have to work on a reduced budget, which is where Terry Matalas comes in.
During his tenure as showrunner on Star Trek: Picard, Matalas was responsible for Seasons 2 and 3 filming back-to-back in order to help with cost control and cast schedules. That approach also shaped Season 3’s story, which saw Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) reuniting with the former cast of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. Despite the first two seasons of Picard introducing a whole new cast of characters, Matalas had to write them out to accommodate the legacy characters, which he admitted was a hard decision.
“I think probably it’s a bit more difficult to go to the studio and say, ‘Great, we’re doing this, we need to make deals now with all of these legacy characters, and financially what can we afford and what does that mean for some of the new cast?’ I think that was probably the hardest thing is that we just don’t have infinite cash or run time to do justice to the characters.”
Should Matalas take up another creative position on a Star Trek project, he’d more than likely have to deal with similar constraints due to Paramount’s potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Should this merger be finalized, it means that Paramount will have to cut even more costs…and that’s not even considering the fact that Paramount+ and HBO Max could merge, leading to yet another seismic shift in programming. Yet Matalas managed to deliver a season of Picard that was both a hit with audiences and critics, proving that you don’t need a blockbuster-sized budget to tell a good story.
Terry Matalas’ Work on ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Set Up The Perfect ‘Star Trek’ Spinoff
While a common criticism of current Star Trek shows is that they haven’t been able to attract new viewers or exclusively cater to longtime Trek fans, the final season of Star Trek: Picard offers a solution to both problems. Throughout the season, Picard learns that he has a son, Jack (Ed Speelers) and must deal with the resurgence of the Borg. In the series finale, “The Last Generation,” Jack becomes an officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise-G, which is captained by Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan); he’s also visited by the extradimensional being Q (John de Lancie), who frequently appeared to torment Picard during Star Trek: The Next Generation. This all but hints at a potential spinoff, which fans have dubbed Star Trek: Legacy and cast members have said they’d love to be a part of.
Getting Matalas back to helm Star Trek: Legacy would be tricky, as he’s currently working on a wealth of genre projects. In addition to the upcoming VisionQuest, Matalas is also developing a Magic: The Gathering animated series for Netflix and a remake of the sci-fi classic Enemy Mine. Still, if Paramount is looking to give Star Trek a new lease on life, it should reach out to Matalas.
- Release Date
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2020 – 2023
- Network
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CBS All Access, Paramount+
- Directors
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Jonathan Frakes, Hanelle M. Culpepper, Akiva Goldsman, Joe Menendez, Lea Thompson, Michael Weaver, Terry Matalas, Deborah Kampmeier, Dan Liu
- Writers
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Matt Okumura, Kiley Rossetter, Christopher B. Derrick
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