Roads not traveled....

[Captain Robert April]

I'd like to get my hands on some TAS scripts. David Gerrold made the comment that there was just about as much story content in one of them as there was in one of the live action scripts; it was the pacing that got everything crammed into a half hour.

I'd kinda like to test that.

 

[Warped9]

I'd like to see that also. That could be a whole thread in itself.

Periodically we have threads about earlier script drafts and story ideas for TOS. Id be very interested in seeing if there is any such materiel out there for TAS as well.

Wasn't there someone around here who used to post links to that kind of stuff?

 

[Warped9]

Roads not traveled:

1965

1966

1981

 

[Noname Given]

TNG and DS9, etc. gave us all the proof we need that STAR TREK can thrive without the TOS cast. And Nimoy and Barrett would've likely been on board for COS anyway...

I FULLY disagree with that assessment as IF TOS had not become as popular as it did; TNG (as realized in its first season in 1987) woiuld NOT have survived past its first season; and while it did eventually gain an audience (around mid season 3); it survived past seasons one and two ONLY becuase TOS had been so popular, and TOS fans were doing all they could to make sure 'Star Trek' got its second chance.

I think a lot of fans don rose-colored glasses in regard to early TNG and tend to forget how much its first two seasons were panned by Star Trek fans and critics alike. Again, TNG's tide turned in season 3 and it was Yesterday's Enterprise and the Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger (first time Star Trek ever did something like that), that brought new viewers and started to get positive press from critics.

 

[Botany Bay]

Assuming TOS’ third season had evolved differently. What if Gene Roddenberry, Gene Coon and others could have stayed with the series? What could have been in store for a different third season and even a fourth season?

If Roddenberry had stayed, I think Season 3 could have even been worse than what we got. I don't think Roddenberry had much to offer post "The Menagerie" - he seemed to be more interested in working on creating the next big hit - fair enough too. He had no reason in the world to suspect TOS would be the birth of a "franchise" (god I hate that word ).

If Coon hadn't worked himself half to death in the 18 months he was on the show, and could have made it one more season I have no doubt whatsoever that third season would have been much, much better. Even with a completely inadequate budget, Coon, Justman and Fontana would have made it work.

The more I think about it, the more I wish John Meredyth Lucas could have produced Season 3. His writing credits included :"That Which Survives", "Elaan of Troyius", "Patterns of Force", and "The Changeling". Not a bad resume.

Maybe they could have utilized two-parters to help stretch the budget? I picked up Mission Impossible Season 4 on DVD - mainly to check out what a 1969/70 season of TOS might have looked like (it was filmed on the same soundstages, and was the "sister production" of TOS), and they had some two part episodes there in that show.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Knew if I searched hard enough...

Yes, TAS could have been the above...
a "relevant" Kids show with lessons in each and every episode..

Like Sealab 2020...IN SPACE!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealab_2020


Damn glad TAS became a 4th season of the show we know and love instead..

Hey got any pics of the ship they were suppost to use in that series?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I was watching "Is There In Truth No Beauty" the other night and thought that Diana Muldaur would have made a good Number One.

 

[Cakes488]

TNG and DS9, etc. gave us all the proof we need that STAR TREK can thrive without the TOS cast. And Nimoy and Barrett would've likely been on board for COS anyway...

I FULLY disagree with that assessment as IF TOS had not become as popular as it did; TNG (as realized in its first season in 1987) woiuld NOT have survived past its first season; and while it did eventually gain an audience (around mid season 3); it survived past seasons one and two ONLY becuase TOS had been so popular, and TOS fans were doing all they could to make sure 'Star Trek' got its second chance.

I think a lot of fans don rose-colored glasses in regard to early TNG and tend to forget how much its first two seasons were panned by Star Trek fans and critics alike. Again, TNG's tide turned in season 3 and it was Yesterday's Enterprise and the Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger (first time Star Trek ever did something like that), that brought new viewers and started to get positive press from critics.

When did that blonde chick die/leave the show on next gen?

 

[Noname Given]

TNG and DS9, etc. gave us all the proof we need that STAR TREK can thrive without the TOS cast. And Nimoy and Barrett would've likely been on board for COS anyway...

I FULLY disagree with that assessment as IF TOS had not become as popular as it did; TNG (as realized in its first season in 1987) woiuld NOT have survived past its first season; and while it did eventually gain an audience (around mid season 3); it survived past seasons one and two ONLY becuase TOS had been so popular, and TOS fans were doing all they could to make sure 'Star Trek' got its second chance.

I think a lot of fans don rose-colored glasses in regard to early TNG and tend to forget how much its first two seasons were panned by Star Trek fans and critics alike. Again, TNG's tide turned in season 3 and it was Yesterday's Enterprise and the Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger (first time Star Trek ever did something like that), that brought new viewers and started to get positive press from critics.

When did that blonde chick die/leave the show on next gen?

The 23rd episode of the first season on TNG.

 

[seigezunt]

Knew if I searched hard enough...

Yes, TAS could have been the above...
a "relevant" Kids show with lessons in each and every episode..

Like Sealab 2020...IN SPACE!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealab_2020


Damn glad TAS became a 4th season of the show we know and love instead..

Ugh. We dodged a bullet.

 

[Praetor]

Knew if I searched hard enough...

Yes, TAS could have been the above...
a "relevant" Kids show with lessons in each and every episode..

Like Sealab 2020...IN SPACE!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealab_2020


Damn glad TAS became a 4th season of the show we know and love instead..

Ugh. We dodged a bullet.

I remember seeing that in the "Art of Star Trek" book from a few years back and just being horrified. And I was like 15 at the time.

Still, I dig Scotty's 'stache.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wild Wild West doesn't get picked up:

Robert Conrad as Jim Kirk and Ross Martin as Dr McCoy.

 

[xman]

COS could never have been. I liked Hunter just fine, but to me he read like a 50's sci-fi actor and TOS ended up being 70's sci-fi largely because of Shatner and how he read on screen. and I too was VERY pleased with my TAS introduction to Trek as a young boy. I'm not sure I would have been with something else.

We got what we deserved with TOS, and TAS made up for a loss of vision in '69.

 

[Omega_Glory]

I believe the Phase II series would have worked just fine, assuming they had good writers. If Nimoy hadn't participated, that would have hurt the show a little, but with Shatner and the others, I think it would have been a success. Paramount wanted something bigger though.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I blame Barry Diller.

If he hadn't been so gung ho for that fourth network, they could've turned right around and sold Phase II to one of the Big Three (NBC would've jumped at it, just to remove that black mark from their history as the network that cancelled Star Trek in the first place). As it was, they'd painted themselves into a corner and really didn't have anywhere else to go but the big screen.

 

[trevanian]

I blame Barry Diller.

If he hadn't been so gung ho for that fourth network, they could've turned right around and sold Phase II to one of the Big Three (NBC would've jumped at it, just to remove that black mark from their history as the network that cancelled Star Trek in the first place). As it was, they'd painted themselves into a corner and really didn't have anywhere else to go but the big screen.

See, and i think based on the dates, that P2 wouldn't have even happened if not for Diller, and that we'd have gotten PLANET OF THE TITANS in 1978 as a feature.

Paramount canceling TITANS (supposedly because there was no feature future for TREK, even though advance word on SW had suddenly gotten good just before its release) without any impetus of doing Trek in another way, such as for TV?

I just don't see it, especially when the cancellation of the feature is early May, and then P2 starts development almost immediately afterward.

The right way to have done the Paramount network would have been to see the feature succeed (and at the price involved, it would have, whether people liked it or not), then use the trek brand PLUS the recent success to leverage advertisers into investing in this partial 4th network. Assuming you go the tv route at all that is.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Maybe if they hadn't pulled the plug on the network before going ahead with the movie....