Cancelled Before It Began: Star Trek Final Frontier

Star Trek: Final Frontier was an interesting idea for an animated series set to carry on the franchise after the cancellation of Enterprise, but CBS pulled the plug on the project.

What Is It?

By late 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise had wrapped up its final season and there were no Trek movies in the works, but an animated web series was put in development to run on the CBS-owned StarTrek.com site to keep some original content running for the franchise during the lull. Five episodes were planned with the possibility that the series could carry on beyond that point. The show would take place 150 years after we had last seen the Next Generation crew, in a time after violent attacks had torn the Federation apart. A powerful weapon known as the Omega device was used to rip up sub-space, making warp travel impossible in some sections of the galaxy and cutting off entire systems. After a war with the Romulans–the Federation believed they initiated the attacks–Starfleet retreated from space exploration. But after a period of isolation, many pushed for a return to the stars and this series would have tracked the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise, led by Captain Alexander Chase, venturing back out into this fractured galaxy.

Aired: Never Aired

Starring: N/A

Developed By: Dave Rossi, Jose Munoz, Doug Mirabello

Why Didn’t it Fly?

From 2006 to 2007, scripts and complete storyboards for two episodes were prepared as the series moved in the direction of animating its first episode. But behind-the-scenes changes led to a layoff of the entire staff of StarTrek.com, and the series was put on hold. A push for a big screen reboot had gained momentum with J.J. Abrams jumping onboard to helm the project. And so the animated series basically fell into limbo as the new movie was seen as the future of the franchise.

The people who developed the series, Zero Room Productions, consisted of industry professionals, several of whom had worked on previous Star Trek shows. And to preserve the memory of this series that never happened, they put up a website that gave a history of the production along with character bios, ship galleries, and the scripts and storyboards for the first two episodes.  Sadly, that is no longer available, possibly pulled down over rights issues.

Would It Have Worked as a Series?

Final Frontier definitely had promise and could possibly still fit into the Trek continuity today (remaining with the original timeline most likely). It delivered an interesting premise of re-exploring the galaxy as well as the Federation re-uniting and discovering its true purpose once again.  There are any of a number of storylines the show could have followed, and it is a shame this never happened.  There are no plans that I know of to move forward with reviving the series, but it would be great to see this one realized as a comic book if nothing else. The completed scripts are no longer available online that I am aware of, but perhaps those will get collected or novelized at some point.  This was definitely a missed opportunity, but maybe it can be revived in some format.

Read about more Sci Fi TV pilots that did not fly at this link.

More from CancelledSciFi.com:

Keep up with the status updates of all the airing, returning, and upcoming sci fi and fantasy shows for the current season with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site  for breaking news and updates.

Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.