5 Star Trek Spin-Offs That Never Were

(Image: CBS)

By now, you've heard the great news: CBS is planning a new Star Trek television series in 2017. New Star Trek has not been present on television since the glorious conclusion to the franchise with the finale of Enterprise.*

There have been many spin-off and reboot attempts since the end of the original series in 1969. A few, such as The Next Generation, were successful. Others never made it to written scripts, let alone prepared pilot episodes.

Uproxx has described and ranked 5 failed attempts at new Star Trek shows, including my favorite: a Harry Mudd-focused show. Yes, Harry Mudd--the funny and fun-loving criminal who appeared in 2 episodes of the original series and 1 of the animated series. Gene Roddenberry once told Roger C. Carmel, the actor who played Mudd, that NBC wanted a Harry Mudd spin-off show:

A Harry Mudd spin-off series was, at one time, being considered. After TOS ended, there was a party at the studio. In Roger’s words, “Gene Roddenberry was there and we started talking and Gene said, ‘It’s a shame that series thing for you never worked out.’ I said, ‘what series thing?’ He said, ‘Oh, didn’t you know? Well, after the successful Harry Mudd episodes, NBC wanted to know if I would develop a spin-off series for you starring the Harry Mudd character. A space pirate, intergalactic con-man kind of thing.’ ‘My God Gene, I didn’t know anything about that. What happened?’ He said, ‘Well, the artists didn’t have enough time to develop it.’ And, of course, you couldn’t blame Gene; he didn’t want to let somebody take it off in a direction he didn’t approve of. Since he didn’t have the time to handle it all, the Mudd series project died. But it was a real blow to me because that was the first time I had heard of it. But what a great chance that would have been for me to star in my own spin-off series.”

You can read the rest of the Uproxx list here, including a 2004 reboot proposal by J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5. If there's one person who can definitely be trusted with the Star Trek legacy, it's Straczynski.

*Which I will argue to my dying day. Enterprise was an excellent show and final episode was perfect.


Comments (2)

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I believe the main difference between the pre-internet 'selfies' (among which I include painted self portraits) and the selfie phenomenon of today is the massive scale of it. This makes it possible to compare they way we perceive ourselves and want to be perceived. And what do we see when we make those comparisons? We are all te same:

http://www.avadenticals.org/categories/95.-salute
http://www.avadenticals.org/categories/81.-bubble-gum
http://www.avadenticals.org/categories/59.-duckface
http://www.avadenticals.org/categories/61.-headset
http://www.avadenticals.org/categories/86.-fist
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While this image could certainly be considered the first selfie (*gag*), it is not the first picture of a human being and certainly not the first "light picture". That honour belongs to Nicéphore Niepcé, with his "View from the window at Le Gras".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_from_the_Window_at_Le_Gras
The first known photograph of a person is from 1838, by Joseph-Louis Daguerre. It is of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, and shows a street scene devoid of people except for an unknown gentleman standing and having his shoes shined. He was the only one in the scene standing still long enough to be captured by the nearly 10-minute exposure.
http://petapixel.com/2010/10/27/first-ever-photograph-of-a-human-being/
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