Six bucks a month for new 'Trek'? Beam me up

Klingons, Romulans and Vulcans (oh my!) are coming back to TV ... for one episode.

I could complain that the forthcoming “Star Trek” series was created solely to get people to pay for CBS' streaming subscription service — which it totally was — but I'm going to gladly fork over the money and watch new adventures set in Gene Roddenberry's universe.

Produced by screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, the first episode of a new “Star Trek” series will debut in January 2017 on CBS. Future episodes, as the plan stands now, will be available only through CBS All Access — which I hadn't even heard of before Monday's announcement.

So what is CBS All Access? It's an app boasting an archive of more than 7,500 episodes of CBS shows, and it's available on your PC, tablet or smartphone. New episodes of current shows are available the day after they air, and you can live-stream local affiliate WBBM Channel 2. The $5.99 monthly subscription also includes classic shows such as “I Love Lucy,” “Cheers,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “The Twilight Zone” and all previous “Star Trek” series. (No, not all of those shows aired on CBS back in the day, but they are now owned by CBS Television Studios.)

To this lifelong fan, six bucks seems like a fair price to watch new “Trek” episodes and the hundreds of episodes that came before it. But what will that new “Trek” be?

It won't continue the story of the film series that was rebooted by J.J. Abrams in 2009, nor will it cast new actors as characters from the subsequent “Trek” series. To quote the startrek.com news release, “The brand-new ‘Star Trek' will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.”

So, no Kirk. No Spock. No Picard. No Data. No Janeway.

The obvious direction for the new series would be to cast a bunch of 20-somethings as cadets finding love and adventure at Starfleet Academy — “Star Trek Goes to College,” if you will. We got a hint of that in the 2009 film with characters we already know and love, and that setting would make for a pliable, relatable show. Uninitiated audience members would be more receptive to a series whose characters are just as new to the “Trek” universe as they are.

The Trekkie in me recoils at this idea because the resulting show could easily shun its allegorical sci-fi roots in favor of action, laughs and sex. The new movie series, which continues next summer with “Star Trek Beyond,” is already making “Trek” more accessible and mainstream; I want a new show to be more challenging, more grown-up.

Of course, I'll watch either way. “Star Trek” works best as a weekly serial, with characters we grow to love over time. The new movies with Kirk and Spock didn't have any heavy lifting to do in that regard; the real excitement of the show will be forming relationships with a new crew.

Here's hoping the new “Trek” and its cast will live long, and prosper.

• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. His favorite “Trek” series is “The Next Generation.” You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.