“Star Trek” has been one of the seminal sci-fi properties on TV and film for several decades now, especially with its general premise of a professional crew of space explorers travelling the galaxy on beautiful and powerful starships. One element of the franchise, providing backstories to many TV episodes and even settings for videogames, is Starfleet Academy. It is the Earth-based institution for cadets entering the Federation’s Starfleet military and exploration corps. While primarily a background thing for many “Star Trek” series, a producer is conceptualizing a show centered on the Academy that could become an original program for Paramount+.

Comic Book Resources tells us that Paramount+ is looking at multiple irons in the fire that could become new series in the overall “Star Trek” franchise. One of them is most likely to be a “Starfleet Academy” show that will skew closer to young audiences according to Alex Kurtzman, current “Star Trek” franchise producer for CBS Television Studios who first made his mark on the property in 2009 for producing J.J. Abrams’ film reboot, the “Kelvin timeline.” It has not been specified however whether the series will be done in live action or in animation.

Granted, “Star Trek” has ventured into children’s entertainment before. In the 1970s there was an animated series done by Filmation, featuring voices from the cast of the original show. More recently Paramount+ has teamed up with Nickelodeon to develop the yet-to-release “Star Trek: Prodigy.” While animated, the “Star Trek: Lower Decks” series is geared more for grown-up humor. But a “Starfleet Academy” show could easily draw in a young-adult audience if done right. While Kurtzman is down for the series to be realized, there are other “Star Trek” projects he and CBS Television Studios have in mind. “I think we’re just getting started,” he says.

Aside from the Kelvin timeline “Star Trek” films, Alex Kurtzman also had a hand in developing new TV series for the franchise in the form of “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard,” both of which premiered on CBS All Access before it was rebranded into Paramount+. Getting just as much attention as a Starfleet Academy show is a spinoff of “Discovery” that focuses on Starfleet’s Section 31 black-ops division. Michelle Yeoh, whose character Capt. Philippa Georgiou premiered in “Discovery” and later becomes a member of Section 31, is set to reprise her role as the spinoff’s lead star. Both these series are still in planning, with production still far-off.

Image courtesy of TrekMovie.com