Link: https://trekmovie.com/2026/10/02/interview-rod-roddenberry-on-how-new-paramount-wants-to-do-right-by-star-trek/

Not much to chew on here but the fact that he is optimistic is a good sign for me (I will take any hope I can get).

I will say that everyone I’ve interacted with in the — I’ll call it the new Paramount — understands what Star Trek is in the sense that they don’t want to mess it up. They understand how important it is. This isn’t just a cash cow to them. This isn’t something where they just need to put laser guns and a spaceship together and get it out there. They understand that this is something special, and so they’re working very hard to make sure that what they do next lives up to that.

Best thing he can do for the future of Trek is make sure Kurzmann and anyone who sat with him at the lunch table never get their pens near it again.

Well forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

Let me get this straight, Paramount was recently purchased by the Ellisons yet you feel the greatest threat to Star Trek is... Alex Kurtzman? Wait wait, let me guess, you don't like how political Star Trek suddenly became this past decade?

It's always the same with you. Here is an interesting – perhaps shocking – fact: People can dislike both the Ellison takeover and the Alex Kurtzman creative era. There's no sort of contradiction here. I don't like Kurtzman because the Star Trek he was involved in was mostly trash, in my opinion. That doesn't mean that I am happy about MAGA infiltration at Paramount, and I assume that it is the same for the other commenter.

Star Trek was always political, internet ragebaiter.

Kurzmann is a shit writer who writes shit plots with holes so big you could drive a Vor'Cha class cruiser through them.

Its almost like the two are related Kurtzman drove it in to the ground due to bad writing and focus on action set pieces vs progressive normalization storytelling. So Ellison had the chance to buy it.

Alex Kurtzman single-handedly drove the entire Paramount corporation into the ground, keeping his job the entire time, personally enabling Skydance to purchase the entire thing for the low price of $8 billion?

This to you is a sensible theory, and not mind-numbingly stupid?

Brave words. But I've heard them before. From thousands of executives across thousands of franchises.

And now they are all boring.

No not directly related but star trek was their biggest draw to their streaming platform and he somehow pissed off both audiences with his poor creative choices. The fact he kept his job is a failure of leadership of thinking special effects equal quality content. So do I think there was an active effort as some kind of Conspiracy. God no that would be stupid but we live in a world of systems and the actions of one party benefit another party even if they are not working together. Even if the motive was not to help.

No matter how much people may want to portray this most recent era as a failure, I don't think there's any sort of data that would back that up (but if there is, I'd love to see it). This is from early last year:

Live Long and Prosper: How the long running Star Trek franchise continues to be a moneymaker in the age of streaming

Parrot Analytics Streaming Economics System shows how the long running Star Trek franchise has been a reliable money maker not only for Paramount+ but other streaming platforms around the globe. From Q1 2020 until Q3 2024 our model estimates that shows and movies in the Star Trek franchise have generated over $2.6B in subscriber revenue for major streamers globally.

You could sort of, probably make the case that the landscape has changed since then - the fact that there are no live-action series in development would certainly support that, though I don't think it really proves anything other than that the company is in shambles right now.

But the idea that the franchise has somehow been killed in the streaming era? It's essentially fantasy.

I know that everyone is wary of David Ellison having control of Paramount IPs because he's a son to a Trump supporter, but we need to remember that money talks more than trying to fling propaganda. Don't forget that David has also donated to leftist polticitians anyway. Trek viewers range from socially progressive to moderates. If they started making trek a conservative propaganda machine, it would alienate viewers and their investments would lose them money. And we know how much investors hate losing money. Plus the new movie won't be out until after Trump is out of office. Nothing to apease, just to make money.

Conservative Trek? You mean the Terran Empire?

Sounds about right.

I don’t expect it to swing dramatically conservative; just to stay safely middle-of-the-road and say very little. But I do really hope to be proven wrong.

I was mod of /r/StarTrek for a decade and I have yet to see a single situation where a vague "bad writing" complaint wasn't serving as cover for a (let's just say) less socially acceptable criticism.

If you're being honest about your feelings then my advice to you is be significantly more concrete with exactly what it is you are criticizing about Kurtzman, or people are going to assume you're obfuscating your true feelings.