When the Gate Closes and the Academy Ends

Like a lot of sci-fi fans, I’ve been watching the recent news around Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Stargate with a heavy heart.

These franchises are more than entertainment to many of us. They shaped how we think about courage, exploration, friendship, sacrifice, teamwork, and the possibility that the future could be better than the present.

Star Trek gave us a vision of humanity reaching beyond its divisions. Stargate gave us soldiers, scientists, and ordinary people stepping through the impossible with humor, heart, and loyalty. Along with stories like Star Wars, Dune, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Marvel, DC, and so many others, they helped form the imagination of generations.

Jonathan Frakes, who directed an episode of Starfleet Academy and has spent decades inside the Trek universe, called the current lack of new Trek in production “a very unfortunate irony.” He also said he believes Trek will resurface. I hope he’s right.

On the Stargate side, Joseph Mallozzi wrote that the team will never get the opportunity to introduce fans to that new world and those characters, or reintroduce some familiar faces from the past. He described the loss simply as: “My heart breaks.”

That hurts because these worlds mattered.

They also helped inspire my own sci-fi universe, Earth’s Secret Alliance.

At first, I thought I wanted to write something that felt like a modern Stargate spinoff or a continuation of Star Trek: First Contact. I loved the idea of humanity discovering it was part of something bigger. But the more I developed the story, the more I realized I needed my own foundation. I needed my own universe’s first contact.

So I went back to the beginning: Roswell, 1947.

That became Earth’s Secret Alliance. The aliens are not invaders. They are refugees asking Earth for help. It’s a story built on the same values I loved in Trek and Stargate: hope, exploration, the idea that we’re better together than alone.

I’m not trying to replace the stories we love. Nothing can do that. But I do believe there is still room for hopeful, family-friendly sci-fi built on wonder, moral courage, first contact, humor, sacrifice, and ordinary people being asked to do extraordinary things.

That’s why I’ve put together a short Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Superhero Fan Survey.

I’d love to know which franchises shaped your imagination, what you miss about them, what you wish modern sci-fi did better, and what kind of new stories you’d like to see next.

Take the survey here:
https://forms.gle/8vaEKncuA4V39UJv6

You can learn more about Earth’s Secret Alliance here:
https://tonybrichard.com/

And if you’re interested in the film/TV development side, you can follow my ReDiscover Backlot page here:
https://www.rediscoverbacklot.com/filmmaker/688353f7-4526-44a1-a3ac-e641adc9936b

Whether you’re a lifelong Trek fan, a Stargate fan still waiting for the gate to reopen, a Marvel/DC fan, or someone who simply misses hopeful adventure stories, I’d love to hear from you.

What shaped your imagination? And what kind of sci-fi future do you still want to believe in?

P.S. For newsletter subscribers: I’ve added a Book Updates Only option for anyone who wants book news without film/TV development updates.

— Tony B. Richard
Earth’s Secret Alliance

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Spark of Adventure: Elemental Sci-Fi & Fantasy Adventures

Books featuring sci-fi and fantasy stories full of power, danger, discovery, and adventure.

If you enjoy stories with strange abilities, impossible choices, hidden worlds, and characters who have to rise higher than anyone expects, this is a great promo to check out.

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