Unfruitful Pitches

[Prax]

What are your thoughts on some of pitches for Trek TV shows over the last ten years or so?

Some examples include:

• Bryan Singer, Chris McQuarrie, and Robert Meyer Burnett's fully developed pitch (that was never pitched)for "Star Trek: Federation" around the time that JJ Abrams was hired to make the 2009 film.
• David Foster's allegedly "thoroughly developed" treatment for a new show in 2011.
• Jonathan Frakes pitch of show concept that revolves around his character of Riker.
• Michael Dorn's similar idea
• William Shatner's unknown pitch
• A "superfan's" pitch of a Series called "Star Trek: Dark Horizon"

A thread was begun recently asking why Trek isn't doing any show that take place after the other series. These (except for maybe Shatner's) all take place after all the other series. Some, like Frakes' and Dorn's take place a few years later. Others, a hundred years; or in Singer's case, 500 years later.

These are mostly all conceived as a serialized format that breaks the old 5-act episode mold.


Which do you think had, or have the most potential?

(I will try to post some more details shortly)

 

[F. King Daniel]

You missed out the animated series Star Trek: Final Frontier which has some neat ideas.

• William Shatner's unknown pitch

I'm pretty sure this became the novel Star Trek Academy: Collision Course. It's probably my pick of all the unamade TV concepts, because I think there's loads of potential in a Smallville-style prequel thing with Kirk and Spock saving the galaxy between academy classes.

 

[Markonian]

I liked ST: Final Frontier and the website was charming to explore. I do, however, loathe the idea of the Federation becoming decadent or falling because that's too clichéd, and unlikely for a society that consists of more than 150 separate cultures.

One thing I love about Bryan Singer's Federation pitch is the idea that the Klingons become a monastic culture, like Shaolin. It is a logical step of them becoming 'housebroken' while retaining the warrior ethos.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I like the Captain Riker idea, because it would bring back welcomed faces, for another series that might have kept in line with TNG to an extent.

 

[Prax]

Oh, You're right. I forgot about the "Starfleet Academy" idea. I've heard that that was a concept that continued to be brought up from the 70's onward.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Leave out anything from previous Trek characters and it would've been good to see. Have to admit Dark Horizon sounds interesting--any details on it anywhere?

 

[Doom Shepherd]

There was also Straczynski's reboot proposal. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5pYsyQJx6f4Q084YTFiWFoxdjA/view

 

[Balok's Decoy]

If the Captain Riker concept featured him aboard the USS Titan, that would be cool. I would also be interested in a Captain Worf concept, especially if it were a Klingon ship.

 

[Prax]

Leave out anything from previous Trek characters and it would've been good to see. Have to admit Dark Horizon sounds interesting--any details on it anywhere?

I'm either really confused, or there is more than one story like this, but on this website it's called "Star Trek: Uncharted" and was formerly titled "Star Trek: Beyond."
http://www.slashfilm.com/star-trek-uncharted/

In what would likely be a dream come true for any Trekkie out there, Paramount Pictures has made the unprecedented move to invite Star Trek fan Michael Gummelt to pitch a new TV series that could allow him to boldly go where no fan as gone before.

Gummelt isn’t an entertainment industry professional or anything like that, which makes this all the more incredible. But he has a thoroughly thought-out pitch for a new TV series called Star Trek Uncharted, formerly known as Star Trek Beyond, which would bring Star Trek into the 21st century, complete with an all-new crew, new technology, and a new Enterprise.

 

[Jedman67]

I'm either really confused, or there is more than one story like this, but on this website it's called "Star Trek: Uncharted" and was formerly titled "Star Trek: Beyond."
http://www.slashfilm.com/star-trek-uncharted/

Some dude was planning a fan film called "Star Trek Beyond" and Paramount invited him to LA to pitch his idea to the studio; in exchange, he changed the name and gave up the domain so Paramount could use thestartrekbeyond.com domain for marketing the movie.

 

[O_Kav]

Straczynski's proposal sounds like the most interesting pitch so far to me. I'm fond of the idea of adapting short SF stories from famous Writers. Doctor Who Neil Gaiman stories aren't adapted from any short stories of his, as far as I know... However, having him doing DW Stories was good for publicity.

I'm part of the group of people who doesn't mind TOS Reboots. Actually, I wouldn't mind if we never stopped going back to TOS Era. If Straczynski's pitch actually worked, it would have been nice to see him taking some risks with the casting and making some changes to the characters.

My only concern is the date this was pitched. My personal impression of 2000s Sci-Fi is that its Movies and Television Series tried too much to be gritty. It feels like in the last few years we've been welcoming more light hearted Live Action Sci-Fi. Much more than than we did a decade ago. So I don't know if some concepts that dominated Sci-fi during the 2000s would have digested well with TOS concepts. I could be wrong, of course. I loved JJTrek so far because they balanced well grittiness and lightheartedness. A reason for that may be because most of the Franchise was produced during our Decade, so they had space to work around with way more flexible visions.

Something else that would have been lovely too was if this unmade Straczynski Reboot never actually cared to explain why the Universe is different. The TV Pilot could have been a good standalone Sci-Fi Story, in the middle of the Five Year Mission. No big promises, no "we need to Save the Universe" stuff. Just the Enterprise, its Crew and the Strange Planets they have to visit. Obviously, later on, they would have started retroactively exploring the characters throughout the Season as well laying foundations for bigger Story Archs.

 

[Jedman67]

So that's a problem for the two-thousand "teens" TV- everything has to be Epic and Drama and Save the Universe.

 

[Prax]

So they stole the kid's title? Ouch.

Actually, I'd probably be ecstatic if they stole my title.

Anyway's the story is post TNG. The galaxy has been explored. The Federation is huge. They receive signals from Andromeda at some time in the past, and have now created the technology to travel that far. A new Enterprise is commissioned with a new "exploration mission." It's a publicity thing to reinvigorate their society.

It sounds better reading the description in the articles, then reading my own here.

 

[F. King Daniel]

There was also Straczynski's reboot proposal. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5pYsyQJx6f4Q084YTFiWFoxdjA/view

This could have been great. But it could also have been another Crusade.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

This could have been great. But it could also have been another Crusade.

Would have depended on how much executive meddling was permitted. That's what wrecked Crusade (they even snuck it in to an episode.)

 

[KirkusOveractus]

So they stole the kid's title? Ouch.

Actually, I'd probably be ecstatic if they stole my title.

Anyway's the story is post TNG. The galaxy has been explored. The Federation is huge. They receive signals from Andromeda at some time in the past, and have now created the technology to travel that far. A new Enterprise is commissioned with a new "exploration mission." It's a publicity thing to reinvigorate their society.

It sounds better reading the description in the articles, then reading my own here.

You could tie it in with the TOS episode "By Any Other Name". Something where the TOS Enterprise, on her way to Andromeda, had actually started receiving communications from there before she turned back.