Watch ‘Discovery’ and ‘Strange New Worlds’ EP Alex Kurtzman Explain Why ‘Star Trek Will Go on Forever’

“Star Trek” fans can tell you that there are really three eras of the beloved franchise: The era of “Original Series” creator Gene Roddenberry (which also encompasses the first few seasons of “The Next Generation”). Then the era of Rick Berman, who steered a growing galaxy of series and movies from the early ‘90s to 2005. And now we are living in the era of Alex Kurtzman, who’s been overseeing an explosion of “Star Trek” series on Paramount+ ever since “Star Trek: Discovery,” which he co-created, first streamed on CBS All Access in 2017. During that time he also presided over the launch of “Picard,” “Strange New Worlds,” “Lower Decks,” and “Prodigy.”

To celebrate the end of “Discovery” and also a second season of “Strange New Worlds” considered among the best runs of episodes in “Trek” history, Kurtzman joined IndieWire alongside his VFX Supervisor on these series, Jason Zimmerman — someone who’s done as much as anyone to shape the look of “Star Trek” in the 21st Century and give the franchise a whole new cinematic gloss — for our Consider This Event at The Grove June 8. The event was presented by Paramount+, and you can watch the video of our interview above.

Kurtzman practically beams about where “Star Trek” is seven years after “Discovery” launched.

“I’m so proud of ‘Discovery’ because I think that it’s been enormous,” Kurtzman said. “It’s been enormous for ‘Star Trek,’ for sci-fi, for streaming, and in the area of representation. I think that it took hugely bold swings in terms of storytelling, with a leap 900 years into the future, which was a huge risk that could have just both ended ‘Discovery,’ and it could have ended any future ‘Star Trek’ shows, but in fact, it paved the way for more.”

Kurtzman’s tenure with the franchise actually extends even before “Discovery” — he was a co-writer of J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” film as well as its follow-up, 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness.” But in all these years of being involved in the events of the 23rd Century and beyond, Kurtzman has never lost his zeal for it. In fact, he seems more committed to “Trek” — which he calls “one of those truly rare and precious gems” — now than ever.

His lead VFX Supervisor on all these shows, Zimmerman, shares that appreciation. When this writer suggests he’s able to do things that weren’t possible on previous “Trek” shows, he immediately rallies to those earlier series’ defense: “‘Star Trek’ was always at the cutting edge of visual effects,” Zimmerman said. “Even back in the day, the things that they were doing at the time were the absolute newest technology.”

Citing a number of “Trek” historians they have always working on the latest production, Zimmerman is careful to understand where the franchise has been so that what’s happening now is consistent with what came before. “The first thing we do, even with the new script that doesn’t seem to have as much to do with the past, is that we always go back and look at everything, see what the ships look like, see how they behave,” he said. “There are certain behaviors you still have to stick to. A starship is a massive thing. It needs to move like a battleship. It doesn’t matter if we’re doing that model from miniatures back in the day or if we’re doing it digitally now. But we also have a lot of reference to choose from.”

For “Strange New Worlds,” that’s meant creating effects that feel like evolved or polished versions of the technology seen in “The Original Series” from the ‘60s, as that show was set at roughly the same time in the mid-23rd Century. “I think everybody’s got 4K, 8K TV now, right? If you’re going to add that much detail, you might as well make sure the effects match ‘The Original Series.’ The audience is a lot more visually, I think, educated than ever before. People know what good visual effects are, or bad visual effects. My wife will tell you when we’re watching TV. She’ll look at it and be like, ‘That’s bullshit.’ I think everybody knows what looks good and what doesn’t now.”

The evolved ship designs for the far future of the 32nd Century also built off what came before: The 29th Century Federation starship designs glimpsed in “Star Trek: Voyager” and the 31st Century designs seen on “Star Trek: Enterprise.” As Zimmerman put it, “You’re always looking, ‘Well, what’s the last closest era [that’s been depicted]?’ ‘What did we see there?’ And then ‘How would we evolve from there?’” You want to feel that each show in some form is represented in some total of what Discovery looks like or what anything in the 32nd century looks like.”

To that end, Kurtzman gives an intriguing tease for what to expect from the forthcoming “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” a series that will be set following the events of “Discovery.” He said, “We took a risk in the 32nd century because we started separating the ship parts in a way that hadn’t been done before [as in, the warp nacelles are now not actually connected to the ship]. And in ‘Starfleet Academy,’ we will end up explaining how that works, which is actually interesting because one of the questions that we always ask ourselves is, ‘What is the reality of this? It can’t be magic, so what’s actually going on there?’”

Those kind of choices build off the past, but don’t linger on it overly other than to evolve it: Such as the way “Discovery” in the final season used the previously mysterious “Deep Space Nine” villains, the Breen, in a whole new way that revealed more about their culture. They were a part of the previous show, so, for the worldbuilding of “Trek” going forward, they played an integral role again: It wasn’t just a shout-out for the sake of a shout-out, something Kurtzman is increasingly keen to avoid. “[Using the Breen] wasn’t really just like, ‘Oh, fan service,’” he said. “I think typically fan service can be very annoying. If you do it wrong and you are tipping your hat to it, but you’re not actually giving it any depth, it actually feels, weirdly, like it achieves the opposite of what you are intending to do.”

“I believe ‘Star Trek’ can only go on if you take big bold swings,” Kurtzman added, such as the musical episode of “Strange New Worlds” that became an instant fan favorite. “If you play it safe, it won’t last. And that is going to get a lot of reaction. It’s the nature of ‘Star Trek’ fans, it’s their reaction to have a big debate about what you like or don’t like about ‘Star Trek.’ That’s the point. That’s what it means to be a ‘Star Trek’ fan. I think that’s a good thing.”

He’s also had a sounding board in Roddenberry’s son, Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, who provides some guidance as to the original intent of the franchise, and was in attendance in the audience with his own 10-year-old son at IndieWire’s Consider This Event June 8. “I value my relationship with Rod so much because I think that he gives us the freedom to explore and to claim a certain authority over ‘Star Trek’ because we all understand that ‘Star Trek’ belongs to his father and to the family. That’s who it really belongs to. So we’re all stewards of it in the meantime, and our goal is to take care of it and to treat it like a very precious egg, and then hand it on to the next person, and hopefully they’ll treat it like a very precious egg.”

That next person… whenever that fourth era of “Trek” begins, it won’t be anytime soon. Kurtzman’s devotion to it is not just as a Kevin Feige-like mastermind who’s planning out what’s happening for it years in advance, he literally sees “Star Trek” as “a lens that allows us to understand who we are. It’s a compass that points up toward the better people that we can be. And to me, that is why ‘Star Trek’ is timeless and will go on forever, is because we will always need that compass, always, always, always. That’s incredibly rare to entertain people at this level, but also to elevate our thinking, and to somehow do it like a magic trick invisibly while you’re entertaining them. That’s the best of gifts.”

A gem, a precious egg, a gift. Just some of the things Kurtzman in the span of a 20-minute conversation likened “Star Trek” to. As the franchise boldly approaches its 60th anniversary and beyond, it’s hard not to think it’s in fantastic shape — and in the best hands.

Watch the video of our conversation with Kurtzman and Zimmerman above.