Andy Weir is perhaps one of the biggest names in Hollywood right now, thanks to the booming success of Project Hail Mary, with talks of even more of his bestselling books being adapted and even the potential for a sequel to his latest smash hit. So the fact that Paramount turned down his ideas to make a new Star Trek show at some point probably has an executive somewhere red in the face. Perhaps even more so, now that Weir has decided to phaser a few bridges by lambasting the direction of the modern franchise.
Weir was recently a guest on the “Critical Drinker” podcast, where the writer, alongside host Will Jordan, pitched the success of Project Hail Mary as an antidote for people looking for something like Star Trek that the franchise doesn’t currently offer.
“I forgot who it was—I wish I could remember who it was who said it, some analyst—he said something like, ‘All modern science fiction TV shows and movies have been heavily influenced by the original Star Trek—except for the current batch of Star Trek shows,'” Weir noted. “I’m Gen X, so my sci-fi was like original series Star Trek reruns and Lost in Space reruns. And there wasn’t really much in the way of [new] sci-fi that was airing—where people are off in space doing cool things—until we got to [The Nex Generation].”
After discussing the fate of Starfleet Academy and Jordan suggesting that Paramount should simply decanonize all modern Star Trek, Weir offered something of a rebuttal while also revealing that he had attempted to pitch a Trek series of his own.
“You’re a little more severe than I am—I’ll give you my opinion, and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks, I thought, was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go,” Weir said.
“And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount, and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman],” the writer continued. “I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch, so, you know, fuck ’em.”
It’s clear from the tone that Weir isn’t particularly interested in attempting to convince the current powers-that-be running Star Trek (in so much as the Star Trek that is actually left in some stage of production at the moment) that he should come back to the table with an idea. But this isn’t the first time that Weir has commented on his perception of the franchise. Back in 2018, to promote his novel Artemis—just as Star Trek‘s modern era had kicked off with the launch of Star Trek: Discovery—Weir touched on his issue with the franchise at the time when discussing his own approach to social and political commentary in his work in an interview with Futurism.
“I dislike social commentary. Like… I really hate it. When I’m reading a book, I just want to be entertained, not preached at by the author. Plus, it ruins the wonder of the story if I know the author has a political or social axe to grind. I no longer speculate about all possible outcomes of the story because I know for a fact that the universe of that book will conspire to ensure that the author’s political agenda is validated. I hate that,” Weir said. “I put no politics or social commentary into my stories at all. Anyone who thinks they see something like that is reading it in on their own. I have no point to make, and I’m not trying to affect the reader’s opinion on anything. My sole job is to entertain, and I stick to that.”
“For instance, as a lifelong Star Trek fan, it’s always bothered me that there is a presumed ‘responsibility’ within Star Trek shows to talk about social issues,” the writer added. “I just want to watch Romulans and the Federation shoot at each other.”
We don’t know what Weir’s pitch for Star Trek looks like, but putting aside the paradox of the writer being a lifelong Star Trek fan while also wanting the series to be about phaser fire rather than social allegories—i.e., the thing that Star Trek has been about since its very beginning and even continues to be in the example of modern Trek that Weir does enjoy, Strange New Worlds (for better and worse, at times)—the line of thinking that leads to “I just want to watch Romulans and the Federation shoot at each other” does not necessarily make for an interesting pitch for a Star Trek show.
Even when Star Trek is about conflict—and it often is—the series is always engaging in a layer of commentary and allegory. From the Dominion War in Deep Space Nine as a critique and testing of Star Trek‘s utopian worldview to even the Earth-Romulan war Weir seemed to enjoy as part of the original Star Trek as a commentary on the Cold War, there are few battles in Trek‘s history that are simply about one side shooting at another. “Balance of Terror“, the episode about the Romulans and the Federation shooting at each other that is ultimately about them not doing that, even dabbles in a touch of commentary on racial prejudice, when a member of the Enterprise crew sees a Romulan for the first time and is shocked at their similarity to Spock’s appearance, leading to him questioning Spock’s loyalty to the Federation!
This “presumed responsibility” Weir is frustrated by is a fundamental pillar of what makes Star Trek, and continues to be in its modern iteration. It will continue to be in whatever Star Trek comes next, as this current era of series begins to wind down. If Weir can’t understand that, then it’s probably for the best that whatever his idea for Star Trek was never came to pass.
Project Hail Mary—a movie about a collectivist effort of the world’s governments (a united Earth, if you will) to save a planet on the brink of ecological destruction through scientific achievement, leading to successful first contact with an alien civilization—is in theaters now.
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