It turns out that William Shatner and Jonathan Frakes both wanted to boldy go back where they’d gone before.
While Star Trek is once again a hot property, thanks to the recent film by J.J. Abrams, it still has yet to return to its original medium, the television. However, this isn’t for lack of trying. Aside from Bryan Fuller’s failed attempt to get a new show off the ground a couple of years ago, but it turns out there were some even more recent tries from series’ alums.
Jonathan Frakes (better known as William Riker on The Next Generation) recently sat down with UGO to talk about how he and William Shatner (Captain Kirk himself) had both tried to -separately- start up new Star Trek series:
[blockquote]I had a Star Trek that I developed for TV, and we were told in no uncertain terms that they said no to Bryan Singer television Star Trek, they said no to a William Shatner television Star Trek. They feel at CBS Paramount that they don’t want to make the same mistake that’s been made before, which was watering down the brand by having a TV show and a movie. That’s what happened with Star Trek: Nemesis, and that’s why I think Star Trek: Enterprise didn’t last the way they expected to. It was the classic corporate greed of “we’ve got something good, so let’s continue to milk it” and we milked it so dry that the fans had no appetite for a movie. So I think what they’ve done by taking time off before the Abrams Star Trek, and they’re doing it again because they haven’t even begun to shoot the second one, is a much smarter business plan. Much to my chagrin! Not that wouldn’t love the Titan, or the Rikers in Space, or any of those shows on the air.[/em]
Presumably, Frakes meant Bryan Fuller instead of Bryan Singer, but it’s possible that the latter also wanted to get a new show on the air, too (there’s just no information confirming such a pitch). I was a pretty big fan of Voyager and The Next Generation, though Deep Space Nine will always be my one true Star Trek love; that said, I’d like to hear what kind of a show Shatner wanted to make.
