Star Trek:EXCELSIOR ....a lost series?

[Captaindemotion]

I'll never understand this desire to put minor characters, who were nothing more than set pieces to begin with, into pivotal roles.

It's a good job that they never took that Klingon guy, who didn't get a character breakdown in the original series bible for TNG, and make him a bridge officer. He would have been a disaster.

And imagine if, for example, they'd taken that unnamed transporter chief, played by that Irish guy from The Commitments and given him a name, a rank and a recurring role. Or made him a regular in a spin-off show. Ugh. What a silly idea ...

 

[Galileo7]

I'll never understand this desire to put minor characters, who were nothing more than set pieces to begin with, into pivotal roles.

It's a good job that they never took that Klingon guy, who didn't get a character breakdown in the original series bible for TNG, and make him a bridge officer. He would have been a disaster.

And imagine if, for example, they'd taken that unnamed transporter chief, played by that Irish guy from The Commitments and given him a name, a rank and a recurring role. Or made him a regular in a spin-off show. Ugh. What a silly idea ...

vindication

 

[Tarek71]

Did Paramount/Rick Berman & company miss an opportunity by not producing a Star Trek:EXCELSIOR televison series spinoff of ST VI:UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY and ST VOYAGER episode "Flashback" with Captain Sulu and his crew of the starship U.S.S. Excelsior NCC-2000 ?

Well when I first heard that they were doing something called Star Trek the Next Generation, I had thought it would be the NEXT generation. Saaviks generation, or somesuch. When I heard later that it would actually be 3 or 4 generations later, I was surprised. Yes I thought would have been better to set the action initially concurrent to the remaining TOS movies and then it would continue the late 23rd Century era stories.

Cant say that I think Captain Sulu was the way to go. God bless him, but hes not the best actor and I never thought he could be a series lead. Enterprise B might have been better (no, not with the guy from Ferris Bueller!). Not sure what the crew would have looked like as both the Excelsior and Enterprise B seemed to have mostly throwaway placeholder characters given that they werent going to set much action or dialogue on them.

But for whatever various reasons it wasnt done.

 

[Bishop76]

Cant say that I think Captain Sulu was the way to go. God bless him, but hes not the best actor and I never thought he could be a series lead.

Yeah, this pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject.

 

[BillJ]

I'll never understand this desire to put minor characters, who were nothing more than set pieces to begin with, into pivotal roles.

It's a good job that they never took that Klingon guy, who didn't get a character breakdown in the original series bible for TNG, and make him a bridge officer. He would have been a disaster.

And imagine if, for example, they'd taken that unnamed transporter chief, played by that Irish guy from The Commitments and given him a name, a rank and a recurring role. Or made him a regular in a spin-off show. Ugh. What a silly idea ...

Sometimes you get lucky (Worf) and sometimes you don't (O'Brien, who was nothing more than a rip-off of Montgomery Scott), but neither one was a series lead like Takei would've been in a Star Trek: Excelsior series.

 

[timelord1010]

I'm sorry... but a Sulu/Excelsior series woulda tanked quicker than Space: 1999.

Actually, Space: 1999 didn't do too bad, it went for 3 seasons back when episodes were longer and there were more episodes per season.

I think you are being unfair to Sulu and the Excelsior, there is a large gap in Trek history that could have been filled in by a Excelsior series, and who says Sulu had to stay Captain, he could be promoted to Commodore or Fleet Admiral, wasn't that his rank when Captain Janeway mentioned meeting him?

 

[Bishop76]

I do think that having a series set during the films could be cool - it's a relatively unexplored era - but Sulu just isn't that interesting a dude and as has been mentioned, not a strong enough actor to lead a show.

 

[Expo67]

Space:1999 is still an excellent show to watch(even if it is available only on Blu-Ray).

Actually, the series lasted only two seasons(1975 to 1977). There were plans to make a third season, but Lord Lew Grade(who owned ITC Entertainment)was preparing to go into the motion picture business. His budget for that was the same as the budget for another season of Space:1999.

As a result of that, Lord Grade made the wrong business decision and sacrificed Space:1999 for starting a motion picture division at ITC.

For fans of the classic British Science Fiction series, check out the following website.

http://www.captphilonline.com/powys

 

[Captaindemotion]

[
Sometimes you get lucky (Worf) and sometimes you don't (O'Brien, who was nothing more than a rip-off of Montgomery Scott), but neither one was a series lead like Takei would've been in a Star Trek: Excelsior series.

I don't want to go off-topic but O'Brien was a much more faceted and 3-D character than Scotty, who was only ever defined by his love of the Enterprise engines, his penchant for Scotch and his ability to change the laws of physics.

As for Takei, well, I thought he handled the captaining duties in TUC quite well. I also thought that while Flashback was a weak episode, his persona blew the VOY crew off the screen.

But I would have to concede that an Excelsior series was probably not the way to go. Shame they didn't make a series of direct-to-DVD movies or telemovies though. Put in Koenig as his XO, a younger supporting crew with the odd cameo from some of the other TOS crew (or characters like Saavik etc) and they could have been quite watchable

 

[BillJ]

But I would have to concede that an Excelsior series was probably not the way to go. Shame they didn't make a series of direct-to-DVD movies or telemovies though. Put in Koenig as his XO, a younger supporting crew with the odd cameo from some of the other TOS crew (or characters like Saavik etc) and they could have been quite watchable

We'll have to agree to disagree on O'Brien.

I could have possibly gotten behind a series of direct-to-DVD films... depending on how they were structured and the amount of time each feature focused on Takei.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Someone used the example of Adama in nuBSG. He's an older actor/ character, so he's not going to do the running about and other physical stuff, but he lends presence and authority. And he's surrounded by a (mostly) telegenic young cast who do all the physical stuff.

It would have been a nice way to revisit the movie-era 23rd Century, without putting all of Trek's eggs in one basket.

 

[BillJ]

^ Someone used the example of Adama in nuBSG. He's an older actor/ character, so he's not going to do the running about and other physical stuff, but he lends presence and authority. And he's surrounded by a (mostly) telegenic young cast who do all the physical stuff.

It would have been a nice way to revisit the movie-era 23rd Century, without putting all of Trek's eggs in one basket.

There is a huge gap in talent between Edward James Olmos and George Takei, in my opinion.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Okay, I won't argue with you there, but I still think that Takei could have anchored a series as Captain Sulu.

 

[Bishop76]

What are you basing that on, though? I haven't seen him as a lead in any series or movie, ever. I just don't think he's got the presence or skill to do it.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^On his performances in TUC and in Flashback.

I don't think he could be any worse than Scott Bakula, put it that way.

 

[Bishop76]

He had maybe 2 minutes of screen time in TUC (I'm exaggerating, but not by much) and his performance in Flashback was pretty flat. It was fantastic compared to the rest of the Voyager cast, but that's like comparing a live guy to a room of corpses.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Well, ultimately it's all speculative - and it's all hypothetical anyway, seeing as it's never going to happen.

 

[BillJ]

^ Well, ultimately it's all speculative - and it's all hypothetical anyway, seeing as it's never going to happen.

Read Forged in Fire by Andy Mangels and Mike Martin, great story about Sulu getting command of the Excelsior.

 

[Bishop76]

True that. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Well, ultimately it's all speculative - and it's all hypothetical anyway, seeing as it's never going to happen.

Read Forged in Fire by Andy Mangels and Mike Martin, great story about Sulu getting command of the Excelsior.

I've been meaning to for a while. I've read the Lost Era story they did about Sulu (can't remember the name offhand), it was very good.