Trekmovie.com is reporting that CBS is considering a new webcast animated Star Trek series. The project has yet to get the greenlight, but producer David Rossi shares details about the pitch, along with character designs by the merely amazing Jeff Parker (he of Agents of Atlas fame).

The Zero Room team felt that the time was right for a new approach to Trek. The setting is the year 2528 and the Federation is a different place after suffering through a devastating war with the Romulans 60 years earlier. The war was sparked off after a surprise attack of dozens of ‘Omega particle’ detonations throughout the Federation creating vast areas which become impassible to warp travel and essentially cut off almost half the Federation from the rest. During the war the Klingon homeworld was occupied by the Romulans, all of Andoria was destroyed and the Vulcans, who were negotiating reunification with the Romulans, pulled out of the Federation. The setting may seem bleak and not very Trek-like, but that is where the show’s hero Captain Alexander Chase comes in. Relegated to border patrol, Chase is determined to bring the Federation (and a ship called Enterprise) back to the glory days of seeking out new life and new civilizations.

I've said before that I'd prefer to see Trek moldering in the grave a while longer before we got another iteration, but I also think that the only way to move Trek forward is to move it forward, which is the core concept of this pitch. And what's not to love about these retro-ish designs?



I remain cautiously optimistic about JJ Abrams's new Trek flick, though perhaps less optimistic than I might have been had I not seen the last season of Alias, but I must admit that I find the idea of seeing the future of the Trek franchise a more attractive notion than simply revisiting its past once again. As anyone who saw them can attest, Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars shorts were the best the Star Wars franchise ever got. Could the same thing happen for the Trek franchise, as well, if this new series were to get the greenlight? I certainly wouldn't complain.