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?"

Comments

Let it die.

[nberardi]

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.

I like the idea...not the setting....

[haplo21112]

...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.

You're thinking "New Shatner"

[GuyMannDude]

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

Re:Tekwars

[Winkhorst]

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?