The next Star Trek film, scheduled for release in 2002, will be "bigger in scope and concept" and feature a heroic struggle between Jean-Luc Picard and an evil villain. However, what it will feature are guest appearances from one or more characters from other series than 'The Next Generation', according to Star Trek Executive Producer Rick Berman.

"We have planned surprises in the feature film that we'll be shooting this year with some characters from other series than 'Next Generation'," Berman told the Star Trek Communicator (via TrekWeb). When asked if the DS9 or Voyager cast would ever appear in TV movies, he said, "As far as the Voyager and DS9 casts are concerned, those are all decisions that will be made at some point but there has been no discussion of anything more with them at this point."

'Star Trek: First Contact' featured cameo appearances by Robert Picardo (the Holodoc) as the Enterprise's EMH program and by Ethan Phillips (Neelix) as the host in the holodeck nightclub. For 'Star Trek: Insurrection', both Armin Shimerman (Quark) and Max Grodénchik (Rom) filmed short cameo appearances, though neither actor ended up in the final cut.

Berman said he and scripwriter John Logan were "very excited" about the second draft of the screenplay, which was met with "great enthusiasm" at the studio. He described the film as being "bigger in scope and concept" than the last few Star Trek films.

"It is more of a heroic Picard vs. the evil villain type of picture as compared to some of the previous films," he said. "I think there is more action in it and it's a film that takes place primarily in space. We have wonderful villains, wonderful species both known and new and I would describe the film as being in the same style as John's film 'Gladiator'. The film has a real epic quality to it."

In a few short answers, Berman gave a few more tidbits about the setting and characters of the film. "The movie does not take place entirely in space," he said. "There are some sequences done on terra firma, so we will be doing some location work. [...] Like all of our films, Picard and Data have the greatest focus but I would like to think that our other five characters all have cool stuff to do in this picture."

The film is currently in pre-production, with shooting intended to start in October 2001. No budget has been approved for the film yet, and the script itself still needs to get final approval from the studio. Also, no director has been selected, despite the recent claims by LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge) that he would be directing the film (story).

Interestingly, it apparently isn't at all certain that Trek X will be the final film featuring the cast of 'The Next Generation'. "This picture is a TNG film, but whether the next one will be a TNG film, or one with a different or a mixed cast, is a couple of years down the pike."

Besides Star Trek X, Berman also briefly spoke about 'Star Trek: Voyager', for which the final scenes where filmed yesterday. The Voyager finale script was another one he was very excited about.

"We have spent a tremendous amount of time working on the story. Ken Biller, Rob Doherty, Brannon and myself have worked for weeks on a very complex storyline. I think we had some big shoes to fill. If you look at the final episode of TNG and DS9, they have a certain sweeping heroic quality to them. I think they focused not only on our characters, but also on an action/adventure story on the grander human scale. We wanted the same thing to be true of the last episode of Voyager. I'm very excited and I think the story we finally came up with is a great way to send the crew off."

Some of the crewmembers might be sent off in unexpected ways. When asked whether it was safe to assume all regular characters would emerge intact and alive from the finale, Berman said, "I don't know why you would assume that!"

More from Berman can be found in the new issue of the Star Trek Communicator, which you can subscribe to by following this link. Transcripts of Berman's comments on Trek X and Voyager can be found here and here on TrekWeb, respectively.

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