Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has “canon cops” as part of their writer’s room, but do they need such individuals?
Star Trek continues to expand its selection of shows, offering up a new adventure for fans to sink their teeth into called Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The show will feature the goings-on at the Starfleet Academy in San Francisco and will likely target a younger demographic. While we’re not sure who will feature on the show, or if any established characters will be a part of it (or even when the show is set), we do know one name that’s a part of it;
Tawny Newsome. Newsome has joined the crew as a writer for the show, taking a pivot from her work as a voice actress on Star Trek: Lower Decks as Becket Mariner, and she’s fully embraced her new role as a writer.
Speaking to TrekMovie.com’s podcast, All Access Star Trek, Newsome revealed the joy of being part of the writer’s room and also how closely they’re paying attention to the canon of the overall franchise, dubbing herself and a few other writers in the room as “canon cops”.
They’re not actually canon cops, just individuals who take Trek’s lore seriously. And seriously is what Newsome is taking the show, saying;
"“I do [feel it will appeal to fans]. I will say that there are some people in that room—I might be one of them—that are real canon hound dogs. We got some real canon-heads in there with very intense conversations about keeping the Star Trek of it feeling really Star Trek-y. So I hope that’ll make everyone who loves Star Trek happy because it makes me happy. I love being a deputy canon cop.”"
Star Trek’s lore is huge, but that’s part of the fun of it
It’d be fair to wonder if the 60+ years of lore is getting too big and too out of hand if you need people to essentially act as “cops” for the writing process. We don’t necessarily agree though. Trek has done a great job of being both interwoven with other shows and films in the franchise and also distant from them.
Maybe not so much in more recent years, as most shows are now long-multi-part films, but once upon a time you could watch a random episode of Trek, not know anything else, and be able to follow along seamlessly. That’s the beauty of Trek and what makes these older episodes so revered.