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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?"
That has to be the worst idea I've ever heard.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
You gotta give Shatner credit for totally dissing Berman like that. :-)
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
I think Shatner is by far, by far, my favorite Trekker. He's got a sense of humor about himself and his work, yet he's not even remotely afraid to take chances.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
I think, as sad as it might be, that StarTrek has really come to an end. It has had a good 50 some odd years of episodes. Let it die with at least some dignity.
...the idea would be better served in the pre/post TNG/DS9 time frame and with new characters....perhaps with camio here or there from the established charaters.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
This is a horrible idea. Just what would be needed to completely kill off the franchise. How about a whole show full of Wesley Crusher teen angst in a Federation uniform.
Visually it would be hard to jive with the old series, and having actors who are trying to potray the old characters might lead to pure campiness.
Ok so now everyone can tell how it would be great if they did it right - but come on people, you KNOW they wouldn't do it right.
I'm just hoping whatever new series comes out has Shatner singing the theme song. Hell, just have him sing the lyrics to the orignal theme from the '60s series.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
But isn't Spock like x00 years old? So when the humans are teens, say 30 years younger then Mr. Spock would still be x00 - 30 and still not a teen. But this is crazy. As much as I like the StarTrek universe I think the series should be put on hold (remember in the 80's) to allow our minds to become interested in the shows again.
I wonder if Shatner will use the same ghost writer this time?
So long as he doesn't sing the theme song.
Seriously though, I'm glad he went over that douchebag's head.
Considering the vast age differences and career paths (before joining on the Enterprise) between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, I seriously doubt they were in Starfleet Academy at the same time.
Also, I would think that Starfleet Academy would be like other military academies, which means most of the student population would not be teenagers, but that's just a nit.
I do believe, however, that this would make a great replacement show for Smallville, once that gets cancelled.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Teen versions of McCoy and Kirk? Aren't their characters like, 20 years apart in age?
Now, I don't know the details, but isn't Spock like, older than all of those (using the "every race is longer lived and better than humans" rule that applied to all sci-fi fantasy since forever, especially those with pointy ears)?
Get around that crap, and the idea is actually pretty cool. Well, I think so. More tech gadgets, little to no combat, all people stories...
Or maybe we'd just watch as the group bravely runs around to bars after school hours, attempting to bravely go where no man has gone before...
I think Shatner is by far, by far, my favorite Trekker. He's got a sense of humor about himself and his work, yet he's not even remotely afraid to take chances.
Really, I think that's a bit shortsighted. Shatner has only become that way in the last decade or so. Prior to that, he's tried to distance himself from the Trek fans as much as possible. Compared to how much he has benefited from Trek fandom, Shatner has given very little back. Contrast this with George Takei, Deforest Kelly, or Jimmy Doohan who have always been big supporters of Trek fandom. In a previous message, I talked about how Jimmy Doohan took it upon himself to use his fame to help a single fan back to health. Shatner would never do anything like this -- then or now. I'll admit that Shatner is likeable but that's been a recent thing. Read Takei's book sometime and listen to the shit that Shatner used to do. Shatner didn't even show up at Roddenberry's funeral, for chrissake!
You're entitled to your opinion but I'm baffled how you can consider him a Trekker at all, let alone your favorite.
GMD
watch this
Why would Pocket Books need another academy novel? They already have Kobyoshi Maru (or however you spell that) - and it was written by a good author!
There's apparently so little writing ability and creativity in Hollywood that they can't get beyond Star Trek as the only possible metaphor for space-based Sci Fi. There is an incredibly large universe out there, yet it doesn't appear to have enough room for anything other than ONE plot structure based on ONE metaphor? Here's an exercise: Create a program with the dynamism of the original Star Trek with NONE of the structural baggage. Tell me, is this really an impossible challenge?
"Is this Winkhorst a nova criminal?" "No just a technical sergeant wanted for interrogation."
That said, I can't rule out the possibility that Shatner's concept might result in something worth watching. I'm not a fan of teen angst shows, which is another genre that's been done to death. But all genres you see on TV -- cop shows, medical shows, workplace comedies, household comedies -- have been done to death. TV doesn't have the courage to try anything really new. But if you get the right combination of good writing and good acting, you can actually do something good with even the most cliched material. As every Buffy fan knows.
Much as I'd like to see Star Trek just disappear and be replaced by something really original, I know that's not going to happen. Next best is to have Berman and his hack stories retired, replaced by somebody with some actual creativity. Which person is certainly not Joseph Michael Straczynski; aside from having too many names, he's even more of a cliche-monger than Berman.
William Shatner might not seem any better, since his occasional attempts at writing have been truely pathetic. But at least he knows that he's a bad writer, and knows how to hire good ones. And he seems to have some sense where the Trek franchise has gone wrong -- more so than anybody else connected with it.
Tell me, is this really an impossible challenge?
Making the show is not the challenge. It's getting people to watch it that's hard. Branding power and all that. It's like Nintendo and Tetris.
-mkb
The only issue is that it has to be story with a clear beginning and a clear end. Just like a novel.
The problem is that Hollywood isn't interested in that format for TV. They want it episodic so there's always room to wiggle and try to squeeze more money out of it.
Think of it as filming a movie, in 26 blocks.
It was called Firefly. They cancelled it.
Seriously, the problem seems to be with the perceived risk. Star Trek has an established fan base, so even a very sucky new series is guaranteed at least SOME measure of support. People spending several tens of millions on a new show don't want to take risks on something unproven. It's the same reason Miss Congeniality 2 is playing down the street from me. Sequels are (perceived as) safer than originality.
"There's apparently so little writing ability and creativity in Hollywood that they can't get beyond Star Trek as the only possible metaphor for space-based Sci Fi"
Stargate (both shows), Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars: Clone Wars... these are just the good shows that I know something about.
Just how many space-based shows do there have to be to convince you?
Exactly, I sometimes wonder if he's ever actually seen the whole original series. Some of the things that happened in that movie were so out of character (for the characters) that at the point where Kirk orders Spock to shoot / kill Sybok that I wished I had walked out. He doesn't seem to have any real feel for the characters, not even his own.
Star Trek as a TV series has just about exhaused all possibilites and just needs to take a break. I've actually been afraid of where Star Trek has been going, since I believe that had Enterprise run it's full course with halfway decent ratings that next we would have had a recast Star Trek The Original Series... which would have bombed since as Paramount and Berman have learned you just can't rewrite history and expect the fans to support you.
Star Trek is a very large body of work encompassing many years, many cultures, and many interesting locales. Like Stargate, it's a framework that allows a writer to do whatever he wants.
Personally, I think the Star Trek still has a lot of potential left in it, but it's the writers, the actors, the directors, and the producers of any given project who will determine whether a new franchise is worth anything.
Sometimes that mixture has to age a bit before it matures enough for all of those ingredients to start working together. Star Trek TNG was embarrasingly overacted and rough in its first few episodes, perhaps even the first season or two -- but it eventually grew to be a favorite of mine. Enterprise was decent entertainment, and was getting better. I didn't like Kate Mulgrew, so I couldn't enjoy V-ger. DS9 was too political for me, but from all accounts it also matured with age and became something worth watching. However, the Trek movies are an exercise in nostalgia and CGI, and I despise them for their cheap tricks and bland plots. Although I really didn't care for the TOS-cast movies when they came out, they at least had character and substantial plot. The TNG-cast movies just seem to be blah excuses for a lot of CGI and routine plots.
I think a Starfleet Academy could be a great series if done well. It all depends on how the casting, writing, directing, etc work out. I don't think it's a good idea to feature the big characters from ST:TOS, however. Perhaps their younger selves, maybe even via CGI, can be featured in cameos or whatnot. If they went back and tried to put Kirk and Spock as major characters in a new series, it would be an exercise in nostalgic masturbation.
There was a reason B5 was cancelled... Ugh
Yeah, and that reason was that it finished it's plotline. Now I realize that plotline was an alien concept in US sci-fi series until B5, and is again an alien concept afterward, but really, it can be a good thing, trust me.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Walter Koenig did a bangup job as Bester on Babylon 5. Completely convincing, completely unlike Chekov.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Wow. We must not have been watching the same show. At first blush I disliked Firefly due to the "Space Western" theme as I thought it sounded rather contrived. Why would we unlock tech in space flight and colonization and yet regress technologically?
Fortunately my friends convinced me to watch the show, and I was hooked. After I understood the story, it made perfect sense. I enjoyed how they accepted the advanced technologies of space travel but did not let them dominate the story. I enjoyed how the story stayed focused on the characters, and I especially enjoyed watching the characters and their relationships develop.
I'm not sure why you felt Firefly seemed like a space comedy. There were certainly some very funny moments but the thrust of the series seemed to focus on the serious morale issues of working within the grey areas of the law and surviving between those groups that considered the laws absolute and the criminal elements that would rather ignore the laws completely. If anything I would think you would take exception of the melodrama, considering how you cite that grievance against the Star Trek franchise. I also agree that Star Trek was too melodramatic for my tastes, which is why I considered Firefly a welcome change. I didn't feel like the script was talking down to me and appreciate how they directly tackled hard issues like religion ("You don't 'fix' the Bible, River.") and didn't make me feel like I was being preached too.
A steaming cup of soykaf would be real wiz right now.
"Sliders was good."
BWHAHAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
HAHA!
You're killing me....oh my god, HAHAHAHAHAA!
"Imagine a world where Sliders was a good show" is the motto of that show.
Early on Sliders was okay but as soon as the Professor left the show (gotta love John Ryes-Davies) the show quickly deteriorated into utter, utter fucking crap.
I mean, jesus near the end there the only original cast member on the show was fucking Rembrandt! The SINGER! He'll just SING HIS WAY OUT OF THIS MESS. NO MATTER THE WARPED REALITY!
Firefly did not "suck" Firefly was actually a well done show that wasn't trying to fit into a Trek mold and was trying to be something newer and better. It would have succeed better too had FOX not fucking assraped the show by showing it OUT OF ORDER. My god, how can you start a show off without INTRODUCING PEOPLE TO THE CHARACTERS YOU FUCKING FOX IDIOTS! That plus changing the shows timeslot around so that the only people who ever watched the shows were people who had Tivos. Way to fucking go there FOX, goram idiots.
B5 was good, we agree there.
Earth: Final Conflict was good I think for like the first 3-4 seasons and then the show just went fucking wierd/bad. Reminds me of the old War of the Worlds tv show that was on the air, great series for a few seasons and then one season it turned into super-dark "We're all fucked" post-apocalytpic or something for no apparent reason and then died quietly.
Haven't gotten into Andromeda, I still think of it as "Hercules Saves Space".
Enterprise was ok the 1st season, however the Temporal War crap has to go, jesus when will B & B let GO of the fucking time travel jesus christ.
BTW, particle of the week was pioneered on ST:TNG FYI.
There have been many other space based sci-fi shows over the years, mostly on the sci-fi channel, including both original series such as Farscape and remakes of classic franchises including DUNE and BattleStar Galactica. However, the problem with sci-fi in general and quality sci-fi in particular is that it is very expensive to create on a weekly serialized television production schedule. This problem is compounded by the fact that sci-fi programming mostly appeals to a small, relative to the mainstream, and very demanding audience which is not very tolerant of any faults or perceived lack of quality in the programming. A smaller audience means that advertisers are not willing to pay as much for commercial slots and high production costs mean that a greater percentage of revenue is simply covering costs and not generating profit. Finally, because science fiction is a niche market there are fewer good writers with television production and script writing experience who also understand the special needs of the science fiction genre, particularly with regard to integration of technical details in their scripts. This killer combination has been the bane of even popular sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek and Stargate SG-1. For example, the original BattleStar Galactica was the number one show in 1978 with the highest ratings, but even then the advertisers were only willing to pay so much and the show was so expensive, because of the high expectations that people had after Star Wars that the show was costing one million dollars per episode to produce. Universal and ABC were making a profit, but not nearly as much as they could by producing several less popular shows for the same budget so the show was cancelled even though it was the highest rated show for that year. These factors have changed somewhat with the advent of cheaper and more powerful computer hardware, effects/editing software, and dedicated networks such as the Sci-Fi Channel which serve to concentrate the audience and maximize the advertising revenue. However, there is still quite some distance to go before this type of programming begins to approach the profitability of more mainstream television fare. So the long answer to your question is no, it is not impossible, but merely difficult to squeeze good science fiction programming into a weekly television production schedule and budget.
The point is that the Firefly universe is built on a model in which the average tech level decreases the further away from the core civilised planets you go. And I think this is a perfectly sensible model.
Complex technology needs to be maintained. It requires a support structure of factories, spare parts and qualified technicians. When you colonise a primitive planet, there's nothing there to begin with. It would be silly to try to start with city dwellers and a complex tech level system when you can start with farmers and seeds.
I'm not saying that it would be impossible to maintain a high tech level on colonised worlds, but it would certainly be more expensive, whereas dumping farmers, cows and seeds out of a spaceship is about as cheap as you can get.