Unmade Star Trek spin-offs

[MacNimon]

Looking through some old books and magazines, I've came across a few articles about various Star Trek series and/or films which were mooted but never came to pass, for various reasons.

The most obvious being the 70s sequel series (called Star Trek:Phase 2 iirc) which eventually became The Motion Picture. This would have reunited most of the original cast, with the exception of Leonard Nimoy; another Vulcan character would have replaced Spock. This series actually reached quite an advanced stage before the decision was made to make a movie instead, indeed several scripts were completed (which were later adapted into Next Generation episodes). Also, at various times over the years, a Captain Sulu series was proposed, as well as the Starfleet Academy idea.

Were any of these ideas a missed opportunity? Was the right decision made to go down the movie route rather than a tv series? Could any of these ideas actually have been any good? Would Star Trek have worked as a 70s tv series?

And finally, were there any characters (lead or supporting) from any incarnation of the series which you felt were strong enough to carry a series of their own? If you any could cast the original actors in their prime, who would be your choice to head a new spin-off series, and when would it be set? For example, would a Sulu series work best with a younger Sulu just having received promotion, or as the older more experienced Captain we saw in The Undiscovered Country and Voyager?

[SiHart]

I think the Sulu series could have been really good. In the brief scenes we saw of his crew, there was certainly potential in the idea, as they seemed to gell as characters pretty well. It would have been nice to have had a series set at the same time as the films, as there seemed to be a lot of interesting stuff going on in that era of Star Fleet. I think the older Sulu would have been best putting to good use all the lessons he learnt from Kirk, but doing things his own way. There was also potential for cameos from other TOS stars when it was needed (ie flagging ratings and stuff!).

Phase 2 was certainly an interesting idea, but i'm glad it wasn't made so we got the films instead!

Si xx

[MacNimon]

I think a Sulu series could have been good, I think that would have been a better idea for a series than Voyager was. Unfortunately the producers didn't want to go back in time at that point, preferring to remain in the 24th century. A mistake imo, as I think that Voyager was the weakest of the tv series.

I'm quite glad that Phase 2 never made it to the small screen either, because when you look at tv sci-fi around that time, what would it have been competing with? Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers...and that's the style that I think Star Trek would have followed. A Star Trek series like this would have dated very quickly, I think...and I doubt it would have had the same charm as the original.

[Wayne]

I don't know much these proposed unmade spin-offs to be honest, but i'm one of the few who thinks the best unmade one could've been Season's 5,6, & 7 of 'Enterprise'.

[MacNimon]

I think the biggest problem with 'Enterprise' was the fact that came at the end of a run of several years of sub-standard Trek product, and audiences had already started to lose interest, even though it was a superior series to Voyager. I think that they should have kept DS9 the sole Trek series for the duration of it's run (after TNG ended, at any rate) rather than the overkill they had with 2 series running side-by-side. Then after DS9 had finished, everyone would have been looking forward to the new adventures of the original Enterprise, which may have got a full seven years. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) this would have meant that Voyager had never existed...

[Wayne]

'Voyager' was still mostly good, but nevertheless my least fave Trek series overall. No-one else seemed to like 'Enterprise' except for me. And obviously the American public didn't.......

[Lord President]

'Voyager' was still mostly good, but nevertheless my least fave Trek series overall. No-one else seemed to like 'Enterprise' except for me. And obviously the American public didn't.......

Wayne, you know I'm on your side with Enterprise. It was excellent and could have done with a few more seasons.

[Wayne]

Good for you LP!

[Lissa]

I'm not a Trekko by any means (and haven't watched Star Trek with any seriousness since I watched Babylon 5 in the late 90s and saw how good Trek ought to have been) but much of its history is down to network politics. Phase II was scuppered because the Paramount Network collapsed before it could launch - it was meant to be the franchise show of that network and had nowhere to go. Voyager had to be made when it was because the Paramount Network (now UPN) was eventually launched in the 90s. They wanted Trek, DS9 was already contracted in first-run syndication so they had to make a brand new series. Enterprise was always a flagship series first and a true creative endeavour second. Now that Paramount don't have a network (just a share in one) there may be the chance to reboot Star Trek and produce something with more edge because the series won't have to be the face of the network.

[WhiteCrow]

Looking through some old books and magazines, I've came across a few articles about various Star Trek series and/or films which were mooted but never came to pass, for various reasons.

The most obvious being the 70s sequel series (called Star Trek:Phase 2 iirc) which eventually became The Motion Picture.

I think I have the same book - ironically you read through Star Trek Phase 2, and you realise a lot of it is very much like Star Trek Next Generation.

You have a full Vulcan - who is trying to be more human (DATA?).

You have a young second in Command who does the away missions (Riker) who used to be involved with an exotic alien with empathic powers (Deanna Troy).

It's hard to believe they could ever come up with anything worse than Star Trek Voyager.

[Alex]

I quite like Voyager! Sure, there's a lot of very poor episodes, most of which featured Neelix crazily enough, but I liked what they did with the Borg in the series, especially the ever lovely Seven of Nine. And whilst it did have it's fair share of naff characters, Janeaway made for a great captain.

For me Enterprise dragged and dragged for me during the first three years, and then got quite good in it's fourth, so I did think it was a shame that it all came to an end then, but I didn't miss it that much.

I'd like them to jump forward a few generations now, perhaps even to the timeline where the time police (or whatever they're called) exist, as there's a lot of fun things they could do jumping around all era's of the Trek universe, but a new tv series isn't that likely I imagine, even if the new movie's a success.

[Wayne]

For me Enterprise dragged and dragged for me during the first three years, and then got quite good in it's fourth, so I did think it was a shame that it all came to an end then, but I didn't miss it that much.

But Season 3 was a stormer i thought! Even better than 4. It had that '24'-esque continuity where you just had to see it through to the end of the season as quickly as possible. I got through my S3 box set in about 2 days, i was so addicted!