Would Star Trek Still Exist?

[T'Girl]

Would Star Trek still be with us if there had been no productions after TOS's third year? No cartoons, no movies, no follow on TV series.

Novels yes, fan clubs yes, conventions yes, fan videoes yes..

Tech manuals, role playing, etc, etc, yes, yes, yes.

A friend told me that many years ago she visited a scifi/fantasy convention (somewhere in the UK) and some of the actors from the UFO series were there. Wow.

Fandom would likely be smaller, or would it be completely gone?

What say you?

 

[The Wormhole]

There would eventually be a reboot of some sort. Even if it were short-lived like the Lost in Space movie back in the 1990s.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If it weren't for 1987-2005 Trek the fan base would be significantly older. And if there was a film reboot it wouldn't have been as high budget.

Star Trek would be in the same category as Twilight Zone in terms of current appreciation.

 

[bbjeg]

^The 22 year later revamp/reboot movie would have sucked. I imagine it would be like the Lost in Space movie, aiming to catch the original point as opposed to connecting to the established universe. Though TOS was a phenomenon for its time, the movies was where it shined. It gave Star Trek it's edge. NuTrek pulled some material from the series but it pulled some from the movies as well (Kobayashi Maru, Carol Marcus, Kaaahhhnn, etc.)

 

[Lance]

Would Star Trek still be with us if there had been no productions after TOS's third year? No cartoons, no movies, no follow on TV series.

Novels yes, fan clubs yes, conventions yes, fan videoes yes..

Tech manuals, role playing, etc, etc, yes, yes, yes.

A friend told me that many years ago she visited a scifi/fantasy convention (somewhere in the UK) and some of the actors from the UFO series were there. Wow.

Fandom would likely be smaller, or would it be completely gone?

What say you?

Interesting question, T'Girl. My belief is that it would still have a cult following, but as you say it wouldn't be nearly as "big" as it actually is. I expect the original 79 episodes would be revered as cult television, but nothing to the levels the franchise has reached. Possibly as others have suggested a revival/reboot would have happened at some point (remaking 1960s TV shows was "in" for a while in the 1990s), but yeah, it wouldn't be the astronomical franchise that it currently is.

In the movie Galaxy Quest, the titular 'Galaxy Quest' tv series was still well known enough to sustain convention appearances by its cast members, a fandom and merchandise, and continual television repeats; but apparently not popular enough to have spawned spin-off movies or follow-up tv shows. Perhaps that would have been Star Trek's fate. A fondly remembered sci-fi series from the 1960s whose fandom is devoted, but not large scale.

 

[HaventGotALife]

Firefly is the best analogy I have.

 

[HIjol]

^The 22 year later revamp/reboot movie would have sucked. I imagine it would be like the Lost in Space movie, aiming to catch the original point as opposed to connecting to the established universe. Though TOS was a phenomenon for its time, the movies was where it shined. It gave Star Trek it's edge. NuTrek pulled some material from the series but it pulled some from the movies as well (Kobayashi Maru, Carol Marcus, Kaaahhhnn, etc.)

AGREE, but look what DID happen with a base of just 79 episodes and some ancillary publications and materials...the inertia of the thing somehow moved forward...I say there would be some form of Trek today...and how interesting a form I bet that would be...

 

[Bad Thoughts]

An interesting, and depressing, notion. As a kid of the 1970s, I can think of many shows in reruns that are nearly forgotten or are revisited only periodically. Even something like Gilligan's Island failed even after many revivals.

 

[bbjeg]

Firefly is the best analogy I have.

Yeah, Firefly would be a better analogy than Lost in Space.

^The 22 year later revamp/reboot movie would have sucked. I imagine it would be like the Lost in Space movie, aiming to catch the original point as opposed to connecting to the established universe. Though TOS was a phenomenon for its time, the movies was where it shined. It gave Star Trek it's edge. NuTrek pulled some material from the series but it pulled some from the movies as well (Kobayashi Maru, Carol Marcus, Kaaahhhnn, etc.)

AGREE, but look what DID happen with a base of just 79 episodes and some ancillary publications and materials...the inertia of the thing somehow moved forward...I say there would be some form of Trek today...and how interesting a form I bet that would be...

True, if T'Girl's situation were true and there were no movies or next generations, Trek would probably make a limited/revamp series in the 2000s, most likely in the TOS century.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I suspect STAR TREK would've hung on, in the public consciousness, because of certain spoofs and comedic references, over yay, these many decades. But not with any greater standing or importance than old Westerns, maybe. Now, when Hollywood started going reboot crazy with Bewitched, Lost in Space and all that, I do not doubt that STAR TREK would've been touched on. What effect this would've had is impossible to know. But the original series was not enough to endure forever on its own. We definitely owe a debt of sorts to Rick Berman for keeping STAR TREK "current," for so many years ...

 

[Isolinear]

Well, look at Space:1999. There's your answer.

But seriously, I often wonder what would've happened if the third season hadn't happened? Would it have made any difference for Trek's popularity in the seventies?

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

After frequent rumours and attempts to revive the series with its original cast members (a campaign spearheaded by William Shatner himself who also published several novels continuing the series), Ronald D. Moore would have produced a re-imagined version of Star Trek in the late 90s. Except that Spock would have been a woman and McCoy would have been a black guy now. And Shatner would have appeared in the role of a recurring anagonist.

 

[Shawnster]

Firefly is the best analogy I have.

TOS Battlestar Galactica came to my mind. Same basic generation of fans, nothing after the abysmal Glactica 1980 except books, toys (short lived) and conventions. 20 some years later it gets rebooted into a series that ran longer than the original.

But we've got no NuBSG movies, not a lot in the way of marketing franchise. Successful reboot but it's done nothing to reshape the landscape or impact culture.

If we had no movies, no Phase II plan, no TAS, or no spin-off series, Trek could have gone the route of BSG.

Or ir could have gone the way of a similar series with a similar cult following - Space 1999. How's that franchise working these days?

 

[Greg Cox]

Hard to say. It could be a revered classic like Twilight Zone, or it could be more akin to, say, Dark Shadows . . . remembered fondly by a devoted fandom, but largely forgotten by the general public.

 

[Shik]

As others have said, on the one hand: Firefly, BSG, Hawaii Five-O, Dallas. On the other: Lost In Space, Charlie's Angels, Dragnet.

Part of it is that the reboot/remake crowd often has no idea of the original. When my friend Jessie (born December 1987; of Viet-Cambodian heritage) started getting into nuBSg (which I've yet to see), I told her about watching the original & she had no idea there was an original. This conversation followed:

"Yeah, it had Lorne Greene as Adama."
"Who?"
"Lorne Greene. Ben Cartwright from 'Bonanza'."
"I've never even heard of that show."
(sigh) "Well, anyway, he was Adama, who's essentially Moses."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the whole story is essentially a retelling of Exodus."
"Is that another show?"
"No, EXODUS. From the Torah & the Bible. (blank look)....OK, honey, I know you're Buddhist, but EVERYONE know Exodus. The Jews wandering in a desert for 40 years because Moses refused to pull over & ask for directions?"

I love her dearly & she's very smart & college-educated, but really. I hade the same problems when I talked with Casey & Joe about having Fred Mertz as oneof my role models. ("Who?" "Fred Mertz. From 'I Love Lucy'?" "...I've never seen that show..")

 

[Greg Cox]

As others have said, on the one hand: Firefly, BSG, Hawaii Five-O, Dallas. On the other: Lost In Space, Charlie's Angels, Dragnet.

Part of it is that the reboot/remake crowd often has no idea of the original. When my friend Jessie (born December 1987; of Viet-Cambodian heritage) started getting into nuBSg (which I've yet to see), I told her about watching the original & she had no idea there was an original. This conversation followed:

Just the other day, at another site, I stumbled across a fan who seemed genuinely startled to discover that John Carpenter's The Thing was a remake. They'd had no idea that there had been an earlier version in the 1950s.

And just wait until the new MUMMY reboot comes out and people start complaining (as they already have) about Hollywood remaking the "classic" Brendan Fraser version. Never mind that the 1999 movie was, by my count, the third remake of the original Karloff film.

"Karloff who?"

 

[Shik]

As others have said, on the one hand: Firefly, BSG, Hawaii Five-O, Dallas. On the other: Lost In Space, Charlie's Angels, Dragnet.

Part of it is that the reboot/remake crowd often has no idea of the original. When my friend Jessie (born December 1987; of Viet-Cambodian heritage) started getting into nuBSg (which I've yet to see), I told her about watching the original & she had no idea there was an original. This conversation followed:

Just the other day, at another site, I stumbled across a fan who seemed genuinely startled to discover that John Carpenter's The Thing was a remake. They'd had no idea that there had been an earlier version in the 1950s.

And just wait until the new MUMMY reboot comes out and people start complaining (as they already have) about Hollywood remaking the "classic" Brendan Fraser version. Never mind that the 1999 movie was, by my count, the third remake of the original Karloff film.

"Karloff who?"

Word. Same girl wanted me to watch Battle Royale, the Japanese flick with the kids on the island. I saw about 15 minutes & went, "OK, this is Lord Of The Flies in Japanese." "It's what?" (I also said the same thing about Hunger Games: "American Battle Royale, which is Japanese Lord of The Flies.")

I saw a broadcast of The Fog on FX & people were surprised when I was pissed that it had kiddie Clark Kent & no Jamie Lee Curtis OR Adrienne Barbeau.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Yes. But the fandom would be older and mostly American.

 

[Galileo7]

If it weren't for 1987-2005 Trek the fan base would be significantly older. And if there was a film reboot it wouldn't have been as high budget.

Star Trek would be in the same category as Twilight Zone in terms of current appreciation.

Agree.