Our ongoing look back at sci fi / fantasy TV shows that were cancelled way too soon or pilots that never made it to series.
The original Star Trek was infamously cancelled by NBC in 1969 due to low ratings and the high cost of production (as well as multiple other reasons, all of which you can read about in Marc Cushman’s excellent These Are the Voyages books). But despite the cancellation, the show lived on in syndication where it became a huge success and built up a massive fan following. Paramount, which owns the rights to the series, took notice and put plans into development for a Star Trek movie in the early to mid 70’s. But the movie failed to move forward (you can read more about the first attempt Star Trek: The God Thing at this link and the second attempt Star Trek: Planet of Titans at this link) and plans for the franchise eventually morphed into a continuation of the series on television. Paramount wanted to start up a fourth broadcast network and decided to use the new Trek series as its flagship show.
All of the original cast was signed to return to the show, including Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand (who had departed after the first season), with the exception of Leonard Nimoy who had no interest in returning to Trek (the Vulcan character Xon was created to replace him). Gene Roddenberry would also be back onboard as executive producer and would have full creative control of the show. There were concerns that William Shatner’s salary would be too expensive for a television budget (not sure why because he wasn’t doing much at that time), so the character of Commander Willard Decker (the son of Commodore Matt Decker from the TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine”) was created as a possible replacement down the line. Also joining the series was the new alien character Ilia. Decker and Ilia ended up acting as prototypes for the William Riker and Deanna Troi characters who would later appear on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Production moved forward on the series and a pilot script titled “In Thy Name” was written by Alan Dean Foster (who had previously novelized the animated series episodes across ten books) along with a dozen additional scripts or story ideas. But it was at that point that the franchise changed course yet again. The producers decided that Foster’s script would work better as a theatrical film, and the success of Star Wars paved the way for the Trek movie getting a higher budget than the aborted films from earlier in the decade. In addition, plans for the Paramount Television Service started to unravel which would leave the series without a network commitment. The pilot episode went through some rewrites and eventually became 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture which also saw Leonard Nimoy returning as Spock.
The movie helped revive the Star Trek franchise in a big way as it led to multiple sequels over the next decade and ultimately set the stage for Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: DS9 and the other television continuations. But it is definitely interesting to ponder how the franchise would have evolved if Star Trek: Phase II had happened. Would it have succeeded and delivered several more seasons of adventures from the beloved original cast? Or would it have failed to meet expectations leading to a quick cancellation and stalling the evolution of the franchise? We will never know the answer for sure, but it is interesting to consider the path the show could have followed if the late 70’s revival had moved forward. You can read more about Star Trek: Phase II at this link.
Aired: Never Aired
Starring: William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, David Gautreaux, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig
Created By: Gene Roddenberry
