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William Shatner Pitches 'Starfleet Academy' Show
Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday reports that William Shatner recently pitched an 'Academy' show to Paramount. The series would feature teen versions of the Classic Star Trek characters Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and be set at Starfleet Academy. The studio turned Shatner down, but he's not letting go of the idea: Pocket Books has asked him to write a two-novel series based on the 'Starfleet Academy' concept. Also, Shatner apparently went over the head of Trek head honcho Rick Berman to pitch his idea straight to the head of Paramount - maybe after Enterprise ends and Berman leaves the franchise, the studio will be more inclined to listen to Shatner?"
Just to add to my own post:
The series would feature teen versions of the Classic Star Trek characters Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and be set at Starfleet Academy.
This doesn't make much sense. From the series,we have a very strong impression that Spock and Kirk met for the first time on the Enterprise. (Note the use of "the". That "other show" sounds stupid without it.) The episode that firmly established Pike's command before Kirk's only bolsters the feeling that Kirk inherited Spock instead of hand picking him as he probably did with Bones.
In short, this sounds like a very fanboyish concept. Let JMZ take the helm and we'll see if the old girl still has any antimatter left in the ol' warp engines.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
"(Its not like the women's starfleet uniforms are all that revealing anyways)"
:)
You forget: If we're going back to the early days of Jim & Co, we're going back to the days of miniskirts and green slave women.
Shatner has a reality show starting Tuesday night, called Invasion Iowa, where he convinces an entire town that he's filming a movie there. It is on Spike TV and is from the creators of the Jow Schmoe Show.
The Iowa town is the town the Captain Kirk is supposedly from...
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
I personally think that J. Michael Straczynski should have a go, he pulled off B5 on a shoestring. See his comments here http://www.joeuser.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=10&AID= 65211. Imagine what he could do with Paramounts financing and marketing muscle.
Like wise I would like to see Jose Whedon thoughts and Quentin Tarantino's ideas. Even Jonathan Frakes has demonstrated enough talent as a director and producer with Roswell to put together a good team.
Contrast this with George Takei, Deforest Kelly, or Jimmy Doohan who have always been big supporters of Trek fandom.
Doohan refused to appear on Futurama reprising his role as Scotty, which is why he got replaced by the fake character Welshie.*
On the other hand, Shatner was willing to poke fun at his own hubris:
Nimoy: Melllvar, you have to respect your actors. When I was directing Star Trek IV, I got a magnificent performance out of Bill because I respected him so much.
Shatner: And when I directed Star Trek V, I got a magnificent performance out of me, because I respected me so much!
(* Site has anti-deep-linking measures in place - copy and paste link)