It's the past of yesterday's future!

Hey did you see this? According to this internet site, the new Star Trek TV series (yes there is, where have you been?) will be set in the original Trek universe, after Star Trek VI, but before TNG. Yes, the series will be set in the past of yesterday's future, pre-history altering temporal incursion and yes, we're  about to talk about Star Trek, so as always, either bail out now or buckle those nerd belts.

In quantum mechanics, this is known as the multi-Worf theory of reality.

From left to right: dead, dead, bald,
Shatner (also bald), alive, dead, alive.

If you're not at least a journeyman or higher Star Trek geek, that requires some explanation and nerds love to explain things because pedantry. Despite being watchable by non-fans, the recent J. J. Abrams movies were set in an alternate version of the Star Trek universe created by Eric Bana having access to a magic time hole. Here, I did a whole thing about it. This allowed Abrams to cast younger, sexier (and alive) versions of the original crew and to use sets that don't look like they use vacuum tubes and a Lite-Bright to navigate at faster-than-light speeds.

This re-booted universe was similar to the original series from the 1960's but effectively overwrote it. Now Kirk is into the Beastie Boys, Spock and Uhura are totally doing it and Khan, originally an Indian Sikh played by an hispanic actor, is Benedict Cumberbatch.

"Because science Kirk, because science."

-Kahn on why he no longer

looks like Ricardo Monttalbán

"Puny Hew-mons! Tremble before
our strong third quarter earnings!"

But whatever, you can forget all that now, because according to this rumor the new show will be set in the original, un-re-booted continuity, but will be an inbetween-quel, specifically picking up sometime after Star Trek VI-the last movie to feature the entire original series cast-but before Star Trek: the Next Generation. Supposedly this is because Bryan Fuller wants to use the Klingons as adversaries and by the time TNG rolls around they've made peace with the Federation and nobody ever found the capitalism-obsessed Ferengi menacing.

While this is all still a rumor it does seem to jibe with the involvement of Nicholas Myers who directed both Star Trek VI and the action-y Wrath of Khan which is like everyone's favorite.

Above: Pew-pew!

Parallel Captain Archer fighting the Gorn
on the Defiant. It's a fan-service smoothie.*

Anyway, as a big huge nerd I obviously have an opinion about this and while it'll be nice to see a new Trek series, I would have preferred a next, next generation. If Enterprise, the Star Trek prequel series from a few years ago showed us anything it's that prequels (and inbetween-quels, whatever) have a tendency to rehash and remix rather than come up with anything new. But the good news is that the new show is also supposedly going to be an anthology, sort of like American Horror Story, so season two might well pick up after TNG or even further into the future of the future.

Yup, there's still hope that we might still get to see The Adventures of Captain Worf or a medical drama where the pompous Doctor from Voyager teams up with the arrogant doctor from Deep Space Nine.

And they start a band.

*if that reference made sense to you, pat yourself on the back. And then go outdoors, get some fresh air or something. You're looking a bit pale.