Individual Entry: One can only hope….
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June 27, 2006

TV : One can only hope….

Folks know I am a fan of writer J Michael Straczynski ("Babylon 5", "Jeremiah", etc.). I also appreciate what Bryce Zabel tried to do with "Dark Skies" and the TV series (not the movies) "The Crow". I had also heard rumors (even JMS indirectly mentioned it) that JMS and Zabel had made a pitch to Paramount to run a new Star Trek TV series back in 2004 (as "Enterprise" was dying), although details were sketchy at best … until now.

Last week Zabel posted on his blog the full 14 page pitch he and JMS made to Paramount. The post can be found at:

http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/2006/06/spaced_out_star.html

And the pitch itself can be found at:

http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/files/ST2004Reboot.pdf

If you are at all a fan of what Start Trek was and might have been, I encourage you to read this.

The essence is that they proposed to do a "Battlestar Galatcica" with the original series. The original "Battlestar Galatcica" was a somewhat corny TV series from the 70's. It has some good ideas; but has not aged well, either in terms of style or content. When Ron Moore and David Eicks proposed to revive the series in 2002, they "re-imagined it" – retelling essentially the same story with the same characters; but done in a more modern style and a more modern tone. Enough of the original series was kept to provide a framework; but within that framework they used their freedom to create something new, something better. The result in my opinion is one of the better shows on TV today.

Now imagine doing the same thing with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the original "five year mission" – keeping the framework of the original story and characters; but otherwise abandoning continuity with the original series, movies, and subsequent series, opening up the freedom to tell the story in a more modern style and tone, and with (this is JMS after all) a real five-year arc that tells a consistent story across the whole five year mission (and beyond). For details, read the pitch.

I have to admit, as I read the pitch, I found myself getting excited, even shouting "Yes!" at some points. This is Trek as it should have been, as it could still be if the studio was interested. If there was a petition I could sign to support this, I would.

Posted by Steven at June 27, 2006 05:40 PM

Comments

Posted by: Anne at July 10, 2006 09:38 AM

Posted by: Steven at July 10, 2006 11:36 AM

Posted by: Kristen at July 26, 2006 10:30 PM

Posted by: Steven at July 27, 2006 09:19 AM

Posted by: Forexman at June 4, 2008 05:01 PM