With its strong writing, gripping storytelling, adventurous spirit, and passion for exploration, Star Trek‘s older series have a timeless quality about them — so much so that modern audiences are rediscovering The Original Series and The Next Generation thanks to reaction videos on YouTube and realizing how well they still hold up. Which is good, because modern Star Trek doesn’t scratch the same itch, with its modern-sounding dialogue (which even previous show runners Rick Berman and Brannon Braga dislike) and over-indulgence in action, which steers the show away from what made people fans of the franchise to begin with (Star Trek: Picard Season 3 is a notable exception). While there’s no one specifically to blame for the current state of Star Trek, it’d be easy to think that the aspects that made older Star Trek series great are gone from modern sci-fi forever…if not for the writing of Andy Weir.
A few months back, Weir revealed on the Critical Drinker podcast that he’d pitched a Star Trek show to Alex Kurtzman, which he ultimately passed on. That’s unfortunate, because the movies adapted from Weir’s novels The Martian and Project Hail Mary (still waiting on Artemis), and the books themselves strongly share the themes of Gene Rodenberry‘s vision of Star Trek. The focus on an optimistic depiction of the future, full of people getting along and working together on a large scale, and especially the premium placed on legitimate science fiction all make Andy Weir’s material feel in line with the Star Trek universe.
Weir’s Stories Are Optimistic
Part of what makes Star Trek unique is that it portrays a hopeful future in which humanity’s values have evolved and Earth has become a utopian society that has achieved world peace. Even though there is outside conflict with different planets and cultures, as well as individual disputes between people, it’s an idealized world to live in.
The worlds predicted in The Martian and Project Hail Mary work as almost a precursor to that vision of Earth. While the world in Project Hail Mary faces an impending dystopian future due to eventual food shortages, the titular project only comes about because of the Petrova Taskforce that’s assembled to solve the problem, and Stratt was chosen through a secret vote conducted by the U.N. to effectively be given complete free rein to do whatever it takes to save the planet. They yada-yada over the specifics on how she was chosen or why, but the fact that all the world’s leaders unanimously agree to give one person complete autonomy to figure out the problem and then work together on a solution shows a rare level of cooperation — both the book and movie don’t draw too much attention to it, but it is clearly a key part of the story.
The same can be said for The Martian, where the threat that catalyzes the plot is the potential death of a single astronaut. It’s more of a noble pursuit, rather than the dire circumstances that set Project Hail Mary into motion, but it grows in scope — at first, all of NASA is working to bring Mark Watney home, but soon, it becomes a joint effort with CNSA (China National Space Administration), who volunteer their booster rocket, the Taiyang Shen (which was unknown to the public and was originally going to be used to orbit Venus and Mercury) when the original supply ship was destroyed. They could have not gotten involved and no one would’ve ever known about it, but they chose to help because it was the right thing to do. Weir sums up the theme of this and the story overall with Watney’s closing remark:
“The cost for my survival must have been hundreds of millions of dollars. All to save one dorky botanist. Why bother? Well, okay. I know the answer to that. Part of it might be what I represent: progress, science, and the interplanetary future we’ve dreamed of for centuries. But really, they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out….Yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re massively outnumbered by the people who do. And because of that, I had billions of people on my side.”
Weir’s Characters Would Fit In on the Enterprise
The other aspect of Weir’s work that’s reflective of Star Trek is the focus on science in the writing, and the abundance of competency porn. Weir puts a heavy focus on the accuracy of science in his stories, which is referenced in an episode of the StarTalk podcast back in April, where Neil deGrasse Tyson quotes Weir as saying, “Whenever I was tempted to use hand-wavy physics or take a shortcut and not be accurate, I honestly thought to myself, what if Neil deGrasse Tyson reads this?”
Because of this, while the lead characters in his stories are funny and affable, they still operate like scientists. What makes both Watney and Grace relatable is that while they’re both really smart, the stories never portray them as geniuses. They don’t rise to the occasion, they sink to the level of their training, and much like the characters in Star Trek, they’re just two guys doing their jobs. They’re methodical about everything they do, and focus on problem-solving — and even if they feel emotions when things go wrong, they know that they have to think objectively to fix the problem.
Andy Weir’s work emphasizes exploration, communication, and humanity’s capacity to work together, not just among themselves, but even with other species, which are all hallmarks of classic Star Trek. Ryland Grace especially (against his own will, but still) explores the universe, seeks out new life forms and eventually becomes a member of a strange new world — he literally experiences the entire mission statement of the Enterprise from the opening monologue of the title sequence for both The Original Series and The Next Generation.
Weir’s material may not have the same fantastical technology or the brand name of the franchise, but it carries the spirit and optimistic point of view that fans associate with it. If you’re a Star Trek fan and feel starved for the warm fuzzies that the old-school series’ brought, the film adaptations and especially Weir’s original novels are likely to satiate your needs.
- Release Date
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March 15, 2026
- Runtime
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157 minutes
- Director
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Christopher Miller, Phil Lord
