TZN Exclusive Interview with Ethan Calk from Star Trek: Renegades

TrekZone Network talked to Ethan Calk, co-author and co-producer of Renegades, about the background of the project, the producers' aspirations and the possibility of a pick-up by CBS.

The team around actor/director Tim Russ (Tuvok) and producer Sky Conway is back, six years after the release of their web film Star Trek: Of Gods and Men. Their goal this time: a new Star Trek show. With Star Trek: Renegades they want to continue to tell the story of the 24th century and reveal a different side of the Federation. They plan to present their pilot to CBS as the basis for a possible new (web) series and want to finance the whole thing through crowdfunding.

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This looks rather awesome, ive seen Of Gods and Men and it was awesome.

It looks intriguing. I'll keep an eye on the story.

I know right, have you seen of Gods and Men? It is really good, its not what we have seen on TV in being clean, but it is really good story.

The official synopsis describes Renegades as "bold, edgy and a little dark".
I don't know about this, Stargate Universe did not do good things for the Stargate franchise, and they were using the same catchphrase "bold, edgy and a little dark".
We all know that even the Federation has a seedy underbelly but do we want to see a series about it?
If they are talking about crowdfunding then it clearly isn't going to be involving a major network, that's probably a good thing, we don't really need to see another abortion like Enterprise or some similar tripe that has Star Trek slapped on the box to try and milk a few more ounces of blood from the franchise.
Of Gods and Men and Star Trek Phase II were crowd funded webcasts and they are pretty good so I guess we'll see what they do with this.

Trek, as Roddenberry described it, has always been about hope for Mankind's future. "Dark", if overdone, would really clash with that.

Pretty much this might end up as Star Trek 31, which follows Mulder and Skully of S31 going about saving the Federation from itself...

But really, I think this is an attempt to bring some JJ-ism to the prime universe. Which would open up the series to the masses, but I for one can't do too much about drama. I miss the good old days when technobabble was all the rage...

Cringe .

Looks really bad, and will no doubt end up as an internet miniseries.

Part of the deal with Paramount is that Orci, Kurtzman, and Abrams EACH get veto rights.

I think it was Orci who said he'd be a hard sell on any live action Trek before the films are three movies into the new run but he would eagerly endorse an animated show.

Which is why, for instance, I think Michael Dorn's pitch should be modified to be a Worf CGI show or anime.

Frankly, live action on a TV budget will always undersell Worf anyway.

But get an Aeon Flux-style Worf show and I think you have a winner. He'd never get punked like he did on TV live action.

This kind of seems similar to the stories i've been doing in the literary challenges. A ship whose captain is a section 31 member getting orders from an old friend who is also a high ranking admiral, dealing with the darker, less federation friendly missions. It seems interesting given how many familiar faces it would have, but i might have to keep an eye on this one.

Cringe. Good reaction. I shall cringe as well.