There’s really no way that Fuller leaving the showrunner position on Star Trek: Discovery isn’t a blow to the show.
It’s really hard for me not to see the loss of Bryan Fuller as showrunner for Star Trek: Discovery as a serious blow to the show. Sure he’s staying on as executive producer and helping with the story, but he won’t be involved in the day to day operations of the show, and that has me worried.
As we get closer and closer to the new series I’ve used Bryan Fuller (and to some extent Nicholas Meyer) as my example of why the series will be great, now that’s been taken away.
“Really, another prequel?” – commenter on Facebook
“Yeah, but Bryan Fuller!” – me
“Oh no the Discovery looks awful!” – commenter on Facebook
“Yeah, but Bryan Fuller!” – me
“They are delaying the series, that sucks!” – commenter on Facebook
“Yeah, but Bryan Fuller!” – me
Bryan Fuller was putting himself in a position to be the new face of Star Trek for Trekkies. I don’t mean that he would be more recognizable than the star of the show, but that he would be the guy Trekkies would connect with the series and future Trek productions.
The Doctor Who fanbase and the Star Trek fanbase have a lot in common. Both are classic science fiction shows that try to make a point that’s bigger than just entertainment. The rebirth of Doctor Who would not have been the same without Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat. Moffat and Davies took a show that was already going to appeal to the fans of Doctor Who and made it not only work for those fans, but for a huge new audience, especially in America. Now some people have problems with Moffat and Davies, but the truth is they steered the ship and made Doctor Who the huge success internationally that it is now.
Star Trek needs this kind of captain and showrunner, and I was really convinced that Bryan Fuller was our person. Fuller will be handing off the showrunner position to producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts. While Berg and Harberts may be fantastic, are they going to be that visionary and face that Trek needs to be properly revived?
There’s a lot going against the new Trek, most of it due to CBS being just shy of incompetent in their handling of the Star Trek franchise, will Trek be able to overcome all this without Fuller? I’m not sure the ships out of danger anymore.
I’m not writing off the series before we’ve seen it, but I’m also not going to be able to be as wildly optimistic as I was before.
NEXT: Alien Species We Want To See In Star Trek Discovery
So what do you think? Do you think CBS is mismanaging Star Trek: Discovery? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below.