Ronald D. Moore was one of the major voices in the creative direction of Star Trek during The Next Generation era. His writing and creative vision for Deep Space Nine brought him much acclaim in the sci-fi world, but he departed the franchise after his ideas for serialization in Voyager weren’t embraced. Moore has had a massively successful run in television since, but CinemaBlend had to ask the creative if he’d ever consider a return to Trek after all these years.
While I already learned from Moore that there’s a chance his series For All Mankind adapts Star Trek technology, I asked him if he had any interest in returning to the franchise to work on an upcoming Star Trek show or some original idea. Much to my surprise, he didn’t dance around the question and noted an interest in returning to Trek at some point down the line:
I mean, it’s always one of those things that is in the back of my mind. It’d be fun to go back and do something again before my career is over. It’s in such good hands, you know, they’ve been doing a great job with it. So they don’t need me, but it would be fun to go do something eventually.
Ronald D. Moore confirmed to me during our conversation at San Diego Comic-Con that a return to Star Trek is something he wants to do, but I would think it’s a matter of when he’ll have the time for it. After all, he’s currently still working on For All Mankind, as well as the spinoff with a major key difference, Star City. Additionally, there’s his work on the current production of Outlander’s final season, as well as its upcoming prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood. In short, it could be quite a while before he returns to Star Trek, but this is only speculation.
Much to my surprise, Moore added that he’s been trying his best to keep up with the franchise in spite of his busy schedule. He did mention the fact that Trek is going more into serialization and noted a particular interest in one series available with a Paramount+ subscription that he’s “enamored” with because of how it handles such an approach:
I think that to the serialization point, yeah, I was a big advocate of serializing it. But now you know, surprisingly, in that sense, Strange New Worlds is more or less episodic. I’ve become very enamored of that show, and that formula and it does feel more in keeping with what the original started. They’re able to strike that balance that we were talking about back in the day where you could do episodic structure but still continue character storylines.
Moore is impressed with how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has managed to keep the episodic core nature of previous franchise entries while allowing characters to have serialized arcs as well. It’s a formula necessitated by modern television, as many had grown weary of the story largely resetting for the crew each and every week as it did in TOS and other shows.
The news of Ronald D. Moore being interested in returning to Trek surely excites some Deep Space Nine fans, who have hoped for a proper follow-up series to reference the beloved show. I asked Moore about his thoughts on DS9 getting a follow-up in this new era, even if he wasn’t involved, and he said the following:
It could be fun. I have no idea what it would be. It was a show that was near and dear to my heart. I think it was a very special show in the entire Star Trek franchise and I think it deserves to take its place along all the others.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine could certainly use a little more attention in this modern era. I loved the crossover with Lower Decks, but I also want to see more of what those legacy characters are up to now in a series at some point, even if the show is not strictly centered around DS9.
As Ronald D. Moore noted earlier, the franchise has some great people working for it. Still, I think many would love to see him return and bring the same energy that made episodes like “Yesterday’s Enterprise” instant classics and keeps First Contact near the top of best Star Trek movies. It’d be great to see him do another episode or work on another series.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is currently available to stream on Paramount+. Check it out and re-live one of the most acclaimed shows the franchise ever aired, and get ready for more adventures on the horizon.