William Shatner is heading back into Star Trek’s orbit as an executive producer on The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television and the World, a documentary set to open exclusively in Regal Cinemas nationwide on October 9, timed to the franchise’s 60th anniversary. The film pulls together interviews with all three living cast members from the original series, Shatner, George Takei, and Walter Koenig, along with Gene Roddenberry Jr. and a wide roster of writers, directors, and producers who built the franchise from its 1966 debut.
Writer-director Mark A. Altman, who previously authored the Star Trek oral history book The Fifty-Year Mission, built the documentary around hundreds of interviews conducted over several years. Altman called it a love letter to the franchise and said he expects it to resonate with longtime fans and newcomers alike. Producer Michael S. Broder, of Galaxie Pictures, said select theatrical screenings will include live Q&A appearances from Star Trek talent, giving the release a convention-style component Regal doesn’t typically offer for standard documentary bookings.
Executive producer Ashley Edward Miller, a writer and Star Trek fan whose credits stretch across television and film, marked the announcement with a personal reflection on what the franchise has meant to him across decades, “Anyone who knows me at all knows I’ve been a Star Trek fan for so long that I have no clear memory of becoming a Star Trek fan. It’s always been an important, meaningful part of my life — it’s been the basis of friendships, the platform for career change, the subject of a podcast, and lately it’s been an opportunity to bond with the twins. (Griffin asks story questions, Locke asks about makeup and visual FX shots, I ask them to hold their freaking questions until the end of the episode). Today, I’m so happy to share the best news in my ongoing, longstanding love affair with Star Trek. This film is the result of hundreds of interviews, a lot of travel and years of work. More than that, I’ve been blessed to be a part of a true passion project with good friends, and make a tiny mark on this story universe that’s so much bigger than all of us."
The documentary’s arrival lands at a strange moment for the franchise on screen. Paramount+ is still working through the final stretch of Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy, while the next Star Trek film has been described by its own writers as jumping to a far-future setting disconnected from any existing cast. Against that backdrop, a theatrical release built entirely on affection for the original 1960s series, fronted by the man who first played Captain Kirk, stands out as a rare piece of Star Trek content this year with no creative uncertainty attached to it.
Does a documentary built on 60 years of goodwill toward the original series do bigger business than anything currently airing under the Kurtzman era, and if it does, does anyone running the franchise actually take the hint?
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Was unfamiliar with this documentary, interesting. I did see a trailer for The Center Seat II, also about the 60th Anniversary, but I fear it will be mostly about the Star Trek I don't care for after the Center Seat 55th Anniversary doc.
Why is George Takei still alive?!?