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Michael Gummelt Pitches New Star Trek Series to Paramount

We recently had a conversation with Mr. Gummelt where he outlined to us his concept and plans for a brand-new Star Trek series for the small screen, taking place in a whole new galaxy, far far away.

By KraziyK Thu 25 Jun, 2015 8:30 PM - Last Updated: Sun 03 Apr, 2016 11:15 PM
FONT=Arial]We recently had a conversation with Mr. Gummelt where he outlined to us his concept and plans for a brand-new Star Trek series for the small screen, taking place in a whole new galaxy, far far away.

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Michael Chang Gummelt, 43, has worked on many Star Trek projects before. One of his more notable contributions was the PC game Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. Now Gummelt has taken on a new challenge - bringing Star Trek back to TV. Recently Gummelt was contacted by Paramount, and asked if he would like to pitch them his idea for a new series - almost unheard of for Paramount.

The series Gummelt has written,
Star Trek Uncharted, would take place in the uncharted Andromeda galaxy on-board the latest Perseus-class starship Enterprise. “I see this as the new anchor show, a show that would bring Star Trek back and revitalize it” Gummelt said, “I don't think you (can) do that without using the name Enterprise". It’s primary mission, other than exploration, is to find the source of a mysterious signal that is suppose to be from the creators of life in the Milky Way.
attachment.php?attachmentid=4590&stc=1Michael Chang Gummelt.

attachment.php?attachmentid=4591&stc=1The future combadge?

attachment.php?attachmentid=4594&stc=1Early test render of possible ship, by AdamKop.

“We've already visited every quadrant and made the [Milky Way] Galaxy feel small. I felt like it would be best to not pretend that the mystery hasn't been lost from the Milky Way.” Gummelt said, “Now, at first, the idea of sending the Enterprise to another galaxy may seem like a lazy, reflexive choice. Unoriginal, even. But I put a good amount of thought into it and there are a lot of story and character related benefits to doing this.

This includes a “higher concept” that would be easier to sell to both the original and new audience members. It also ties into our modern world, Gummelt explains, where this new Trek era would consist of entire worlds being tied together by resources, grand endeavours, and collaboration. Diversity and Mystery; “You can get away from the budget-driven conceit of every alien having to be humanoid,” Gummelt explained, “So much so that they had to make the episode "The Chase" to explain how all the Humanoid species were related and seeded here.” Finally the return of frontierism. During season one Gummelt said that the only Andromeda-based station will still be under construction. By the end of the season it will be completed and two more ships will join the expedition, “including one captained by a descendant of Kirk who feels like the Enterprise should have been her ship.” Gummelt said.

Gummelt told us he started writing a series in 1994, which involved a female captain and Native American first officer. The crew of the USS Nova would explore the Gamma Quadrant. “Then Voyager came out and it was actually very similar, which was kind of cool, but also threw off my idea.” Gummelt said. Since then there have been several rewrites and changes to his series.

While he is the only dedicated person working on this project, Gummelt has reached out to actors, artist, and members of the Star Trek community, including Rick Sternbach and Doug Drexler who helped design some of the starships, sets, and technology of the Star Trek universe, for advice and or help. “I contacted them and asked if they were interested,” Gummelt said, referring to his conversation with Rick Sternbach and Doug Drexler, “they have their own careers that they actually get paid for and are obviously very busy people. But I also just wanted to ask their advice, having been Star Trek pros for so long. They were very nice and supportive.” However neither Sternback or Drexler are working on this project, Gummelt stated he simply reached out to them for advice.

“It's a very tricky thing to redesign such a classic ship without aping the original too much, but also without bastardizing it.” Gummelt said, explaining that he has been working with a few design artists on the possible design for the new ship. “I'd like to have a design that's faithful to the elegance and "tall ship" design of the original/refit, but with more modern design sensibilities.” Gummelt also said he plans for the ship to be larger than the original Enterprise, but smaller than the Enterprise-C or D. However due to the nature of the mission there are plans for the ship to be modular so that it can be easily refitted and changed to suit the current needs.

If by some miracle Paramount could actually get CBS to buy the pitch and it actually went into production, I imagine *that* would be when the design of the next Enterprise would begin in earnest.” Gummelt said, “But for my pitch, I do plan on trying to bring in a beautiful new design, at least for the sake of presentation.”

He has also created a concept cast, which includes Scott Eastwood as Expedition Leader Cole Weston, Daniel Henney as Captain Solon Vega, and Christina Hendricks as Doctor Joli to name a few. “I have gotten one of them to actually read the script and they said they were interested, so that's a start!” Gummelt said, but didn’t say as to who had read the script or liked it.

Gummelt wrote the script for Star Trek Voyager: Hazard Team, for Raven Software, where he has been a software engineer for 18 years. “I wrote the Hazard Team AI for Elite Force, the combat AI, co-wrote the scripting system, developed the camera system (using my film school experience) as well as working on multiplayer.“ Gummelt said, going on to explain he was a student filmmaker and made mods for Doom and Quake on the side, which helped land him the job at Raven Software. Since then he has also worked on several games, including Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy, Wolverine, Singularity, and the Call of Duty franchise.

We asked Gummelt if he could tell us more about his upcoming pitch with Paramount, and unfortunately he couldn’t comment at the time. But with any luck the fact that Paramount asked a fan to pitch their series to them, we will see Star Trek return to our small screens. He did say however; “My game plan is this: work on my pitch, really boil it down to the essentials.” With a seven-season story arc, and seven seasons worth of character arcs to develop Gummelt has quite a task ahead of him.

“I also plan on spending some time in the pitch advocating for the mere idea of Trek returning to TV, why Trek needs it so badly, why the fans want it so much and how it will get Star Trek a whole new generation of fans.” Gummelt explained, “There's a lot of ways that Trek's return to TV would make the franchise stronger and, though maybe I'd be preaching to the choir, I plan on making the case passionately. Even if it's not my show, I strongly believe Trek needs to return to the format that it was born from. If the only thing I accomplish with this opportunity I've been given is helping convince Paramount & CBS to bring Trek back to TV, I'll consider the whole experience a huge success.

Gummelt said "It may seem to be on a large scale, but you still need to tell small stories about the people - the crew. The larger story is told through their personal stories. The huge scope is just the background that their stories unfold within.“

You can read the current draft of the pilot episode,
Rendezvous With Destiny. However due to rewrites the other four episodes Gummelt has written are unavailable at this time. You can also follow along with his endeavor via the "Captain's Blog" or on Twitter.

WOULD YOU WANT TO SEE STAR TREK BACK ON TELEVISION?
TELL US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!


WRITTEN BY KRAZIYK
EDITED BY McCLINTOCK - UFP.CLINT@HACARI.COM
6 Comments
Fri 26 Jun, 2015 3:34 PM
A very comprehensive and enlightening read Kraziyk! You always manage to raise the bar! Thank you for bringing us this article. I too would love a good new Trek series return to tv. The concept seems perfect to breath new life into the tv franchise... I can only hope that Paramount asking for a pitch is really good news.
Fri 26 Jun, 2015 9:41 PM
Thank you. I'm hoping for a new series. By time i really got into Trek it was ending or it was DS9, which I didn't care for. So hopefully I'll get a few eyars of Trek on TV.
Mon 29 Jun, 2015 1:58 PM
PLEASE say yes, paramount and CBS. I would be great to finally see a return to TV. The time is ripe
Wed 08 Jul, 2015 9:41 PM
Very interesting ideas. Taking things further in the chronology of Trek is interesting to me, the future of humanity. Having a way to jump to another galaxy and explore the great beyond. And it sounds as if he wants to keep to the altruistic views of Roddenberry, while keeping the inner humanity of the characters with their own wants and desires. I'm going to check out the Voyager game he worked on and see how I feel about his film work.
Sun 12 Jul, 2015 6:06 PM
great news! There's always reason for Trek to be on TV. Trek is the vessel to bring a point across which is something that is almost forgotten and partially the reason why I don't watch TV anymore or why hollywood sucks so much nowadays..
Fri 24 Jul, 2015 6:03 AM
Yes I want Trek back on TV. On the "other galaxy" idea, would we finally get back to truely alien aliens? The Horta and the Crystaline Entity are the only ones I can really think of from the various series that were not just humans in make up. And in the same vein, make the aliens more alien, different social, government, senses, technology... And how about showing the early stages of settling a new world? Set up a side character ala Chief O'Brien to be one of the settlements leaders. Show how they handle the problems of this new world. Do you bring in farm equipment, replicators, or horses? Do you settle with high tech, mid tech, or low tech? How about stabilizing the atmosphere? Blah blah blah. This is the series that I could get into.