Posted in: Audio Dramas, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Kirsten Beyer, Star Trek: Khan

Star Trek: Khan EP on Takei/Russ Excelsior Reunion, Expanded Timeline

Kirsten Beyer (Starfleet Academy) spoke with Bleeding Cool about bringing in George Takei and Tim Russ for Star Trek: Khan, and the franchise's future.

From day one of Paramount+, Kirsten Beyer has been one of the major creative forces behind the Star Trek relaunch for the streamer, working with the likes of Alex Kurtzman, who runs the franchise's TV end. Starting with Discovery, she helped forge Trek into the 32nd century from season three until the end of the series, she also helped close the chapter of The Next Generation in Picard, providing that ending, 2002's Nemesis never did, and still contributing to the current live-action shows in the pre-The Original Series series Strange New Worlds and the upcoming Discovery spinoff Starfleet Academy. Her latest expands Khan Noonien Singh, who's arguably the franchise's greatest villain in Star Trek: Khan, working alongside The Wrath of Khan (1982) director Nicholas Meyer and co-writer David Mack.

The audio drama serves as act II of Khan's life as Naveen Andrews takes over for the late Ricardo Montalban as the 20th-century tyrant and Wrenn Schmidt takes over for the late Madlyn Rhue as Lt. Marla McGivers, both originated from the TOS season one episode, "Space Seed" as Khan and his crew attempt to survive the dangerous threats of Ceti Alpha V. Among those featured was TOS star George Takei, who appeared in the original episode and the 1982 film, and makes his triumphant return as Capt. Hikaru Sulu. Beyer spoke to Bleeding Cool about how Takei and Voyager star Tim Russ, reprising his role as Tuvok, reuniting from their season three episode "Flashback"; how the USS Excelsior factored into the story, if there could be more podcasts featuring similar Trek characters in the future, and what Trek era she would like to visit or revisit.

Star Trek: Khan EP/Writer Kirsten Beyer on Excelsior Reunion and Expanding the Trek Timeline

How did George [Takei] and Tim [Russ] get involved, and how did the Excelsior come into play?

One of the first things I realized when I started to look at the existing material was that we needed to answer the question of why we were telling this story now. The fact is that the issue of the Augments has had a profound impact that continues to ripple through our storytelling. The 'Strange New Worlds' season two episode ("Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow") is one of the most recent parts of that. For me, the Augment issue was much bigger than whatever had gone on with Khan and, necessarily, what was happening on the planet.

I wanted to bring that perspective into it for the audience to place it in its proper context, right? This is the story of this very famous character and a lot of the things that he went through that took him from where he was in 'Space Seed' to where he was in 'Wrath,' but more than that. This character's journey and existence had profound impacts on the entire universe, which continue well beyond his lifespan. I felt like that was an incredibly important perspective to have on this story, which made it more meaningful and powerful to tell right now. It was one of those kismet moments when you looked at the timeline and realized, "Oh, right, the Excelsior was there," which had Sulu on it, and "Oh my gosh! Tuvok was his ensign!" Now I know exactly where this is happening, and it's lovely when canon helps you out like that.

If "Khan" becomes a success, will there be other Star Trek-type stories with similar characters who may not have had the opportunity to have that spotlight?

The answer, I suppose, is always "Yes." For me, I'm not looking at anything right now in that area. The great thing about Star Trek is that there are a million stories left to be told, even if you only consider all that we know about it, and more Star Trek is being made every day. Every time we do that, we expand the universe a little bit more, we fill in some of that puzzle, but we still have these delightful, huge blank spaces that remain to be filled in at some point by whoever wants to take us on that journey.

Adding on to that, I know that you guys have 'Strange New Worlds' and the upcoming 'Starfleet Academy' with the Skydance deal coming through finally. Are the spokes on the wheel turning harder now, like normal, or are you still planning on whatever comes next?

For me, I'm just working on the things that I'm assigned to work on, if that makes sense. I'm sure conversations and discussions are going on, but I'm not really a part of any of them. My focus right now has been 'Khan,' and obviously, 'Starfleet Academy.'

Final question. With Star Trek: Las Vegas, there was some chatter with 'Enterprise's' Michael Sussman, who revealed that he was working on something with Scott Bakula in the hopes of pitching a series to Paramount to continue Archer's story with 'Star Trek: United.' There was also Terry Matalas, who wanted to expand on 'Picard,' which, of course, you were very much involved with, and he wanted to continue that for 'Legacy.' Those never left the pitch phase, and I was wondering, were there any concepts that you wanted to see or wanted to work on that you might want to see in the future, perhaps someday?

Yeah, always. I mean, my brain is constantly thinking about the unexplored areas of our tapestry and how the events of the world can be reflected in the Star Trek stories that we are telling. I've got to be honest with you, they keep me awfully busy, so literally, it's about finding the time to think deeply about and develop those stories, and I haven't had nearly enough of that in the last several years.

If you had a wish list, was there an era that you would like to visit or revisit? I'm thinking of The Lost Era between 'The Original Series' and 'TNG,' and how we never had a dedicated series. There's curiosity concerning after 'Picard,' but you can only do so much, right?

You can, and there's like a huge gap between 'Picard' and the Temporal Wars (on 'Enterprise'), and then after that, The Burn (on 'Discovery'). We have some of these big flag poles right that are sitting out there tantalizingly, and then these big gaps in between, and I think they're all fair game, honestly.

The premiere episode of Star Trek: Khan, which also features the voices of Sonya Cassidy, Olli Haaskivi, Maury Sterling, Mercy Malick, and Zuri Washington, is now available with new episodes on Mondays through November 3rd.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!