Although Apple TV+’s hit series For All Mankind isn’t formally part of the Star Trek universe, the show does make several references to the venerable sci-fi franchise. The heroic astronaut Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) is a self-proclaimed Trekkie, there’s an alternate history of Star Trek TV shows and movies unfolding in the show’s timeline, and co-creator Ronald D. Moore wrote and produced for The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. On top of all of that, fans and pundits have pointed out that For All Mankind often feels like it's positing a (relatively) realistic path to a Star Trek future in a timeline only slightly different from our own.
So with each of For All Mankind’s seasons jumping a decade forward, just how much more advanced will the show’s spaceships become? Season 2 gave us the souped-up Pathfinder shuttle in an alternate 1983, and by Season 4’s 2003 there were passenger ships regularly going to Mars. Is the show on pace to take its space travel tech to the next level? The final frontier, if you will? Ronald D. Moore says maybe.
In a new interview with Collider, Moore teased For All Mankind’s upcoming Season 5, confirming the show is already filming and that “there are big changes on the Martian base, and there are big changes politically back on Earth.”
Moore also fielded questions many fans have been asking since Season 2; assuming we’re getting seven seasons total, just how far into the future will the show go? Could it go so far that we’ll see Star Trek-style starships? “It's not out of the question,” Moore said. “We do talk about it. We'll see.”
As pointed out in this interview and elsewhere, For All Mankind’s gradual growth of space travel creates a sort of realistic nuts-and-both origin story for an alternate universe version of Star Trek. In addition to the new companion spinoff series, Star City, there are opportunities for more side stories within the For All Mankind universe, including a world in which we could jump a century ahead of the existing show’s timeline.
When Collider asked if we could ever see a Star Trek-esque spinoff show set a hundred years after the main series, Moore didn’t rule it out, saying a future-tense sequel show could happen. “This too, has been discussed, among many other possibilities.” Just what those possibilities are, like For All Mankind’s future, remains to be seen.
