If TOS Actually Had A Fourth and Fifth Season...

[ClassicTVMan81]

How would Star Trek TOS have fared if it actually had a fourth (1969-70) and a fifth (1970-71) season, and thus actually completing its five-year mission as Captain Kirk narrated in the opening title sequence?

~Ben

 

[gottacook]

I don't think that question can be answered without speculating about how the decision-making circa 1968 might have differed from reality. Survival past season 3 might have depended on such things as (i) whether NBC would have given the series a better season 3 time slot, given that Roddenberry had promised to return as line producer if they'd gotten the slot eventually given to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (the big midseason hit of 1967-68); (ii) whether Coon or Lucas had stayed, therefore obviating the need to hire Freiberger, when Roddenberry withdrew after the series was instead assigned the Friday 10 p.m. time slot; (iii) whether Justman and Fontana hadn't quit as they did midway through season 3; (iv) whether NBC would have refrained from decreasing the budget for season 3 as they did, which greatly reduced location shooting and other elements that had enhanced the show in seasons 1 and 2; etc.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Since the one season = one in-universe year convention didn't come along until Next Gen, they could have made TOS forever and kept the original intro monologue intact.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Syndication is what made TOS popular in the 70's, along with where NASA was at that time. The Moon was still being visited by space-suited Humans driving dune buggies around and I'm sure, for kids, namely and especially ... it made STAR TREK seem even more accessible than it already was. Without a Syndication deal for fresh episodes and continuing to run on Network Television, TOS could not have continued to avail. It would've been shit on, during the 4th Season and what effect that would've had on the rabid fanbase ... who can know?

 

[Christopher]

^Yup. They never would've actually "completed" the five-year mission. They would've just kept on going into year 6 and ignored the passage of time, because that's how shows of the era generally worked. Like Run for Your Life, a 3-season show about a guy who had 18 months to live when it started. Or M*A*S*H, an 11-year series about a 3-year war.

After all, the "five-year mission" was never actually mentioned in TOS outside of the opening narration. Its only actual mentions in canonical dialogue are in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Voyager: "Q2." So it's not like it was ever an actual story point.

 

[StarCruiser]

Basically - if Star Trek had hit the air in 1967, one year later, it might have made it to season 4 and 5.

Why? Remember that the first moon landing came just AFTER Start Trek ended in 1969, if the show had been renewed for 1969-1970 it would have had the advantage being around when the space program had it big moment.

 

[UnknownSample]

Basically - if Star Trek had hit the air in 1967, one year later, it might have made it to season 4 and 5.

Why? Remember that the first moon landing came just AFTER Start Trek ended in 1969, if the show had been renewed for 1969-1970 it would have had the advantage being around when the space program had it big moment.

The space program was very popular through the 60s. Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo all got headlines and lots of news coverage and viewers. It wasn't just about the first moon landing. Right after Apollo 11, that popularity went down. The next few Moon landings were like stale reruns to people.
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Apollo 8 made almost as much of an impact as Apollo 11.
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People generally didn't connect the real space program with fictional science fiction movies or TV.

 

[Harvey]

whether NBC would have refrained from decreasing the budget for season 3 as they did, which greatly reduced location shooting and other elements that had enhanced the show in seasons 1 and 2; etc.

NBC did not slash the budget. The per episode license fee they paid went UP for the third year (as it did every year ). Paramount -- the studio, not the network -- slashed the budget.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Hopefully, GR would have returned to be Executive Producer, with Bob Justman as Producer. And maybe solicit more scripts from Sturgeon, Matheson, etc.

 

[urbandefault]

Basically - if Star Trek had hit the air in 1967, one year later, it might have made it to season 4 and 5.

Why? Remember that the first moon landing came just AFTER Start Trek ended in 1969, if the show had been renewed for 1969-1970 it would have had the advantage being around when the space program had it big moment.

Delaying the first season by a year doesn't necessarily translate into a longer run. It might have been canceled after the second season, or the first. The only thing for certain with network television is there are no guarantees.