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Star Trek Uncharted - TV Series Pitched to Paramount

In late August, Michael Gummelt pitched [I]Star Trek Uncharted[/I], his own [I]Star Trek [/I]series, to a “very high-placed producer at Paramount,” whose name Gummelt didn’t disclose. We talked with him again, and here's what we know about his meeting with Paramount

By KraziyK Tue 15 Sep, 2015 5:35 PM - Last Updated: Sun 03 Apr, 2016 10:56 PM
In late August, Michael Gummelt pitched Star Trek Uncharted, his own Star Trek series, to a “very high-placed producer at Paramount,” whose name Gummelt didn’t disclose. We talked with him again, and here's what we know about his meeting with Paramount.
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From our initial interview with Gummelt, he explained that while he would love to have his series picked up. His ultimate goal was to get Star Trek back on the air. With the first part of his pitch Gummelt said he explained how Star Trek is a “cultural phenomenon,” as well as how the show could explore a broader range of stories, as well as the generation of people it inspired.

From there Gummelt went into pitching Star Trek Uncharted as a series. “Nobody in the room was under the impression that I was there to sell a TV series pitch to Paramount,” Gummelt said in on his blog, explaining that Paramount has the rights to any Star Trek movies, while CBS has the rights to the TV show. In the second half of his pitch, Gummelt talked about how a new series would capture a new generation of viewers and Trek fans. It would also work as a transition between the new films - assuming that Paramount continues to produce new films on some regular basis - as well as open the doors to spin-offs, new merchandise, and even more movies of their own.

“So, what did Paramount think? I wish I knew. As I understand it, you don't often find out in the pitch meeting itself. I take the producer at their word that they will read the pilot script and get back to me. I don't expect them to do this anytime soon, however, since they will obviously be extremely busy producing Star Trek Beyond for the next year (as well as several other projects). One thing to remember is that this producer is a movie producer, not a TV producer, so this is probably not at the top of their list of concerns - nor are they responsible for the direction of the Trek franchise overall - that's a higher-up, Viacom-level concern.”

Gummelt also stated that he met with the manager of an actor from the concept cast. Again Gummelt didn’t disclose who he met with. This actor wants to be “attached” to the script. Gummelt explained in his post that they may be able to arrange a meeting with CBS, through their own contacts, if Paramount doesn’t or isn’t able to set up such a meeting.

During the process, Gummelt has been working on a script for the fifth and sixth episodes. Gummelt has been reworking some of his characters to make them more “nationally diverse,” and also settled on a new design for the latest ship to bear the name Enterprise. The ship was designed by Ryan Butts, who is a co-worker of Gummelt's at Raven Software.

The Enterprise, designed by Ryan Butts, would be the ninth starship to bear the name Enterprise. The eighth Enterprise was lost during the Galactic War, which Gummelt explains on the Star Trek Uncharted website.

Next year is the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, and with that we already know that the new movie, Star Trek Beyond, will premier, as well as the documentary, For the Love of Spock. But will we have a new series or at least the announcement of one? “Maybe the movie and the anniversary will come and go with no new series announcement,” Gummelt said. At this point Gummelt has done everything he can to essentially put the bug in the ear of studio executives and producers. Now all we can do is hope.

You can stay up to date with Gummelt and Star Trek Uncharted via the series’s website, and you can learn more about the new Enterprise here. You can also find Gummelt on Twitter and Facebook.

What do you think Gummelt's series and pitch, as well as the new Enterprise design?
WRITTEN BY CALLIB CARVER | KRAZIYK - CALLIB.CARVER@UFPLANETS.COM
EDITED BY BEN KELDER | FLICKY
17 Comments
Tue 15 Sep, 2015 6:12 PM
Great article KrazyiK. I would love to see another Star Trek TV series and the premise they have seems interesting. However I am not a huge fan of that Starship Design though.. looks like something Cryptic would come up with for a T6 Connie lol
Tue 15 Sep, 2015 9:19 PM
Looks like an in game Excalibur. The website itself had image of the Exeter Class.

I don't know what the NXA prefix is, but I'm excited for this premise because this is..I feel..where Star Trek should be going instad of staying put where it has been since 2002.
Tue 15 Sep, 2015 11:38 PM
Please don't try to bridge any gap between the new so called "Star Trek" JJ-movies and proper Star Trek. I want the gap to remain as immensely huge as it is right now (Forrest Gump and Spiderman have more in common than JJ-trek and Star Trek).
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 12:00 AM
Looks like an in game Excalibur. The website itself had image of the Exeter Class.

I don't know what the NXA prefix is, but I'm excited for this premise because this is..I feel..where Star Trek should be going instad of staying put where it has been since 2002.
The premise is that this is the eighth ship to carry the name Enterprise, so we know its set after Nemesis (I think?), so we could be looking at 25th Century Trek but on their website the Federation know encompasses over 1,000 members worlds and most of the known Galaxy becoming known as The Galactic Federation.

The website also notes "Galactic Starships" so we can assume that Federation ships of this time period can travel at transwarp or Quantum Slipstream speeds. So this vessel we're seeing could the birth on a new type of Starship designed to leave the Milky Way for Andromeda maybe? Hence the NX (Prototype) NXA part of the ships registry. Cool
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 12:49 AM
Please don't try to bridge any gap between the new so called "Star Trek" JJ-movies and proper Star Trek. I want the gap to remain as immensely huge as it is right now (Forrest Gump and Spiderman have more in common than JJ-trek and Star Trek).
Excuse me??

Apologies, but there is no gap. The issue I have with "fans" is this kind of mentality. that you all know what the true version is and discard the rest because it doesn't fit into your boxes or doesn't bring back the nostalgia you once felt>

That mentality is what was killing Star Trek. It's remade, it's successful, deal with it.
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 1:48 AM
Excuse me??

Apologies, but there is no gap. The issue I have with "fans" is this kind of mentality. that you all know what the true version is and discard the rest because it doesn't fit into your boxes or doesn't bring back the nostalgia you once felt>

That mentality is what was killing Star Trek. It's remade, it's successful, deal with it.
I don't think he was being rude, I think he was simply stating a point. But as you say that kind mentality can potentially kill ANY franchise, and I stress the any part.

There are going to be people who don't like J.J Trek for various reasons. Smile
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 9:34 AM
The ship design is a bit disappointing, it is a spruced up Constitution, not very original..

Also a bit surprised that some of the images on their character pages are just taken from other things (a VOY cap of a Vulcan, Rom as the first Nagus in Quark's nightmare that one time, EDI from Mass Effect) to name a few
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 11:54 AM
By looks of that ship and the way the article reads, seems we are sadly going to continue with this JJ'verse. Sad... unless they can magically repair the damage they've done to the franchise. I'm not opposed to pretty graphics - unless you use flare every second, explosions and action but that wasn't what Gene Roddenberry had in mind with Star Trek and this is why I like the new ones for the entertainment value but I love the old stuff. It made you think, it didn't stretch the science past what we deemed possible but most of all it made you reflect on human issues. Of course the verdict is out on Star Trek Beyond...

I think I'm mostly looking forward to Axanar (yes a fan made film in the prime universe) more than Star Trek Beyond at this juncture. Thank you for the article Kraziyk!
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 1:41 PM
I don't think he was being rude, I think he was simply stating a point. But as you say that kind mentality can potentially kill ANY franchise, and I stress the any part.

There are going to be people who don't like J.J Trek for various reasons. Smile
Apologies for being defensive. My point being that who are any of us to even try to dictate what is Star Trek and what isn't when the franchise...through it's many incarnations..have appealed to numerous people? This is a franchise that successfully thrives off diversity and yes some of us won't like certain aspects of it, but when we start classifying what is Star Trek and what isn't...we're heading into the ugly waters of prejudice.
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 2:38 PM
Apologies for being defensive. My point being that who are any of us to even try to dictate what is Star Trek and what isn't when the franchise...through it's many incarnations..have appealed to numerous people? This is a franchise that successfully thrives off diversity and yes some of us won't like certain aspects of it, but when we start classifying what is Star Trek and what isn't...we're heading into the ugly waters of prejudice.
Your point has merit, you are correct that franchises need to evolve via reboots or dynamically changing and keeping it modern to prevent stagnation.

For a lot of Trekkies they grew up on TOS, TNG, VOY, DS9 etc. so anything else like JJ trek is abhorrent and not what they know..

People just cant cope with change, through stubbornness, inability or it simply doesn't appeal to them Smile


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Wed 16 Sep, 2015 3:21 PM
I would like to note we did report on this before the actual pitch took place. You can see the article via the link below.

Link: https://ufplanets.com/content.php?64...s-to-Paramount

Also that while some material on the website is taken from other places, you should bear in mind that the series isn't in production, and some of it is just a place holder. As well as that everything is up for change, such as the ship design.

I would have to say though, at the risk of brining another can of worms to the whole jj trek vs. Roddenberry trek party, that Star Trek needs a revamp. If nothing else to get it produced. I love Voyager. I loved TOS and next Gen. as well.

However with studio's and networks being how they are it needs the flashy aspect to capture new and modern audiences. But it also needs and I think it would be best to keep classic trek elements. A nice meshing of the two, which as we all know is easier said than done, would well received. It would bring in new people, and it wouldn't alienate the current fans that grew up or came into the idea of trek as a classic sco-fi show that was about the people, universe, and the science behind it, instead of the flashy explosions and bank busting sets.

But hey that's just me.

Sent via Tapatalk. Please excuse any typos.
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 4:16 PM
I hope it gets picked up. I think the premise is "fascinating" and it could work well.
Wed 16 Sep, 2015 8:45 PM
I really do just wish that the Star Trek rights would belong to one company, CBS and Paramount both seem equally terrible at managing the Star Trek licence but if one of them held all the rights there wouldn't need to be so much cooperation between the two to get anything half decent to happen.
Thu 17 Sep, 2015 11:09 AM
New Show = Yes, in the JJ Universe = NO
Thu 17 Sep, 2015 11:15 AM
I wouldn't mind a new show based in the JJ universe. Like a TOS show remake, that would actually be pretty cool if done right. However if they wanted to do something new then they have to TNG it. What I mean by that is jump very far in the timeline than what we're used to and start anew like TNG did from TOS. It seems almost every Star Trek spin-off since TNG has been nothing but adding on to that small time gap in the timeline (Or prequel of the timeline). They need to get a whole new set of faces, new uniforms, new ships, ect. Take the chance and try something new.
Thu 17 Sep, 2015 8:28 PM
I don't like the pic as well.. An idea could be to focus on long distance travel for inspiration.. Hence, being farther away from home than ever before should also be part of such an enterprise's design I believe. German u boots in WW2 which were able to reach the US were, for example, way bigger than the more agile type7 atlantic boats..

I wanna go further into the future, so pls no JJ, pretty please Surprised
Mon 21 Sep, 2015 4:29 AM
Your point has merit, you are correct that franchises need to evolve via reboots or dynamically changing and keeping it modern to prevent stagnation.

For a lot of Trekkies they grew up on TOS, TNG, VOY, DS9 etc. so anything else like JJ trek is abhorrent and not what they know..

People just cant cope with change, through stubbornness, inability or it simply doesn't appeal to them Smile


Sent via Subspace Communication Channel Omega
Personally I'm not a huge fan of JJTrek...entertainment wise both were entertaining...they're great if I pretend they aren't called Star Trek...

To me JJTrek is nothing but generic action and has little to do with the spirit of Star Trek...Star Trek was to do with Exploration of new worlds and new people...JJTrek just seems to be about the pew pew...the explosions and lens flare.

I'm not saying it's bad...just feels like another generic sci-fi action film...may as well been directed by Michael Bay...