TOS Spinoffs?

[telerites]

Reading through Assignment Earth made me remember that I had read that Roddenberry had tried to make the episode into its own series with Lansing and Garr continuing their roles.

Were there any scripts written for a continued series? If so, is it available online anywhere?

Were there other episodes/characters considered for spinoff status?

Thanks!

 

[Mysterion]

I don't know if there were any scripts or other material written, but I have heard over the years that there was some discussion behind the scenes of a Harry Mudd-centered spin-off. I fully admit I may have mis-read or mis-heard something else entirely and this is just bad data stuck in my head. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

GR wanted to get "Assignment: Earth" picked up as a series, so he would have a job when ST got canceled (as it appeared to be headed for at the end of Season 2).

I never heard of a Harry Mudd spinoff being planned. Would it be a space comedy like Quark with Richard Benjamin?

 

[Sir Rhosis]

In a very short episode premise (only a paragraph or so long, never expanded) called STAR TREK TIME MACHINE, GR suggests there could be a spin off about time travel.

Sir Rhosis

EDIT TO ADD LINK: http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2014/04/unseen-trek-star-trek-stories-by-gene.html

 

[Maurice]

Honestly, almost no producer writes more than the pilot until after the show is picked up, because it's wasted effort if the pilot doesn't sell. Gene couldn't get anyone interested in Assignment: Earth, so he turned it into a "backdoor pilot" by shoe-horning it into a Trek episode, so it's super doubtful any other scriptwriting work was done.

 

[arch101]

Starbase Law- Samuel T. Cogley and his team of outer-space attorneys combat the issues of the day in a 23rd century frontier settlement.


It could work

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Wait, don't you all remember the "Star Trek" spinoff that happened in 1969 after contract negotiations with Shatner and Nimoy fell apart.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkuJG1_2MnU[/yt]

 

[Karzak]

 

[BillJ]

I'd wish one of the fan film groups would give something like Assignment: Earth a try instead of all of them constantly going to the TOS well.

 

[MANT!]

I'd wish one of the fan film groups would give something like Assignment: Earth a try instead of all of them constantly going to the TOS well.

There appears to be a fan film just that way..

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-0CYfzCRho[/yt]

 

[FormerLurker]

^If the actual show is as good as those credits are, whoo boy, are we in for a treat!

 

[Karzak]

I disagree. It's lazy. The editing and pacing are quite rudimentary. It looks like someone whipped it up in a fancy Power Point presentation.

Also, everyone knows that damn Iron Man theme song by now. They might as well have used 'Enterprising Young Men.' They said they were going to have a musician compose an original theme for it, but it obviously hasn't happened yet.

 

[Maurice]

There's nothing to that title sequence. It's one image, some animated text, and some repeating patterns of animated squares. It tells you nothing about the show.

 

[Karzak]

^Exactly.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Starbase Law- Samuel T. Cogley and his team of outer-space attorneys combat the issues of the day in a 23rd century frontier settlement.


It could work

Mirror Spock can't bring himself to kill the Mirror James T. Kirk, so instead he exiles him to the parallel Earth that the Kirk that inspired him to such a difficult new path came from. But unknown to Spock, a spacetime anomaly results in the transporter not just transporting Mirror Kirk to that world, but to that world in the year 1968.

Stranded in the past of an Earth with a much more mild history than his own, Mirror Kirk initially sets out for conquest, but quickly softens and gives up due to the love of a good woman. Fascinated by the differences between his world and this one, especially in the law, he takes on the alias Denny Crane and begins a legal career....

 

[PCz911]

There's nothing to that title sequence. It's one image, some animated text, and some repeating patterns of animated squares. It tells you nothing about the show.

Wow, you guys are a tough crowd. For what it's worth, I thought the credit sequence was very appropriate for the era it came from. Sorry, it's all personal opinion. I liked it.

Remind me never to show you my work for broadcast TV.

 

[Karzak]

There's nothing to that title sequence. It's one image, some animated text, and some repeating patterns of animated squares. It tells you nothing about the show.

Wow, you guys are a tough crowd.

As you say yourself, "it's all personal opinion."

 

[Patrin-Zero]

While not a ST-TOS based spin-off, Roddenberry did do his best to get Genesis II-Planet Earth going, perhaps if he had 'back-storied' such as a pre-Trek progenitor the fans might have give the projects more support.

 

[Nerys Myk]

While not a ST-TOS based spin-off, Roddenberry did do his best to get Genesis II-Planet Earth going, perhaps if he had 'back-storied' such as a pre-Trek progenitor the fans might have give the projects more support.

I watched both and Specter too! What more could I do???

 

[Patrin-Zero]

Doubtful there was much of anything anyone could do, the quality of SF of network TV was soon to degrade with the 'adaptations' of Planet of the Apes, Logan's Run and others.

Sadly such lowered the bar to intelligently written TV fare, SF or otherwise, that it would never return to the levels of ST:TOS, The Prisoner or Dr.Who.

Case in point, Battle of the Network Stars.