Star Trek Officially Switches Genres In Unexpected 60th Anniversary Release

Published Sep 22, 2026, 6:44 PM EDT Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. Star Trek fans have been celebrating the franchise's 60th anniversary in style, with several incredible new announcements across just about every medium you could hope for. From television and games to books, collectibles, and tabletop releases, the landmark anniversary has become a showcase for just how far Gene Roddenberry's universe has expanded since The Original Series first premiered in 1966. Over the decades, the franchise has ventured well beyond traditional science-fiction, exploring everything from feature films and animation to strategy games, role-playing adventures, and interactive experiences. Star Trek has never been afraid to experiment with genre, either, with individual episodes veering into horror, comedy, fantasy, musicals, and even animation. Strange New Worlds recently took that to another level, transforming much of the Enterprise crew into puppets created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop for its Season 4 episode "Level-Five Transporter Accident," to mixed reactions of course. Even so, one of its newest upcoming anniversary releases stands out as a particularly unexpected departure. In addition to revisiting familiar characters from nearly every era, the project takes Star Trek in a completely different direction, into a genre that fans may never have expected to see it tackle. Star Trek Boldly Goes Where It's Never Gone Before Star Trek is boldly going where the franchise has never gone before with the upcoming release of Once Upon a Stardate, an upcoming officially licensed book that adapts iconic fairy tales and fables through the lens of Starfleet's various captains. Written by Robb Pearlman, Once Upon a Stardate: Fairy Tales and Fables from the Final Frontier effectively transforms Star Trek into a storybook anthology, recasting familiar tales from around the world with characters, locations, and events pulled from across the franchise's 60-year history. Lieutenant Commander Data serves as the book's narrator and storyteller, creating his own Starfleet-inspired versions of classic stories as part of his continuing effort to better understand humanity and its relationship with storytelling. The concept, however silly on the surface, has some wonderfully strange and intriguing combinations. "The Three Little Pigs," for example, becomes a story about La'An, Chapel, and Ortegas defending the Enterprise, while "Rip Van Winkle" draws inspiration from Scotty spending decades trapped inside a transporter pattern. Elsewhere, Wesley Crusher takes on the role of Jack while dealing with Q in a reworking of "Jack and the Beanstalk," and Garak faces an infestation of tribbles in the book's take on "The Pied Piper." Altogether, the collection contains 18 illustrated tales spanning different eras of Star Trek, accompanied by 14 shorter fables sharing lessons and wisdom associated with captains including Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, Pike, and Burnham. It is an especially unusual direction even for a franchise famous for genre experimentation. Star Trek has incorporated horror, comedy, fantasy, musicals, and plenty of other styles into its television adventures, but an officially licensed collection built specifically around classic fairy tales and fables pushes the universe into genuine storybook territory, for better or worse. Star Trek: Once Upon A Stardate Officially Arrives In 2028 Once Upon a Stardate is being published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint within the Crown Publishing Group, with Robb Pearlman credited as author alongside the official Star Trek license. Current preorder listings put the 144-page hardcover at a $24.99 list price, with Bookshop.org also listing a $9.99 ebook edition. Most importantly, the latest listings now point to a September 5, 2028 release, meaning fans still have a considerable wait before Data's unusual collection of Starfleet fairy tales actually reaches shelves. Preorders are already live, although some retailers continue to display older 2027 publication information, suggesting the book's release schedule has shifted more than once. Once Upon a Stardate was originally positioned as one of the franchise's 60th-anniversary publications, with early coverage placing it among the books intended to celebrate the milestone in 2026. Its contents still make that connection explicit: the collection draws characters, locations, and events from across all 60 years of Star Trek. As a result, it is technically still a 60th-anniversary celebration release in concept, even though delays have pushed the quirky storybook collection out to 2028, two years after the anniversary itself. That said, this is a Star Trek 60th anniversary release that might be too unique to pass up, and may be well worth the wait. TV Show(s) Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Video Game(s) Star Trek Online, Star Trek: Resurgence, Star Trek: Bridge Crew First Film Star Trek: The Motion Picture First TV Show Star Trek: The Original Series