Bryan Fuller has been picked to be the showrunner and co-creator for CBS’ new yet-to-be-titled ‘Star Trek’ series. Fuller isn’t a stranger to Star Trek as he started his writing career with both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.

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“For the past 50 years, ‘Star Trek’ has been a groundbreaking franchise that not only changed the landscape of television, but made a significant impact on pop culture,” said David Stapf, president of CBS Television Studios. “When we began discussions about the series returning to television, we immediately knew that Bryan Fuller would be the ideal person to work alongside Alex Kurtzman to create a fresh and authentic take on this classic and timeless series. Bryan is not only an extremely gifted writer, but a genuine fan of ‘Star Trek.’ Having someone at the helm with his gravitas who also understands and appreciates the significance of the franchise and the worldwide fan base was essential to us.”

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I really want to be excited about this new ‘Star Trek’ series. I grew up on Star Trek and not having a series on TV these last few years has created a void. Sure, there have been some pretty good replacements. We had Battlestar Galactica and the Stargate series. Recently we got The Expanse, Killjoys and Dark Matter. While they’ve all been great series, they’ve also just increased my desire for a Star Trek series to return. If those other shows can be good, then surely there’s room for a Star Trek series and all the possible stories that could be told there.

So on that level, I’m excited. What doesn’t have me excited is that this show will primarily be only available on CBS All Access, CBS’ online subscription service. At $5.99 a month, it doesn’t seem all that bad but I’m not a cord cutter. I still have my cable subscription, plus Hulu AND Netflix. Outside of Supergirl, this Star Trek series would be the only thing I’d watch. So now I’m forced to decide between yet another subscription service or not watching this series (or finding “other means”). I get that networks want to capitalize on the popularity of streaming services and find a way to cash in. The problem is that instead of working with Netflix & Hulu, they seem to want to each create their own. So we run the risk of having our wallets chipped away. There was recent talk of Time Warner is looking to create a streaming service for CW. Maybe in the end this will all end up being cheaper than what we currently pay. But as of now, I’m still keeping my cable AND I’d have to pay for these services on top of that to get exclusive content. So in my case I’d be paying more. Now, it’s not all bad. CBS All Access, unlike Hbo Now, lets you watch live content. The ability to watch live content allows for a true “cord cutting” experience because it allows for CBS All Access to on the save TV watching experience level as watching on cable. So there are benefits here. But honestly these benefits only matter if this feature works across the board. I can’t use CBS All Access and tell Verizon “Just cut out CBS from my cable bill”.

Maybe by 2017, things with subscriptions services will be different. I hope so. I really want to see this new Star Trek series and I think Bryan Fuller will do a great job as showrunner. I’m just hoping I actually get to watch it.

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