Babylon 5 has been one of my favourite TV shows, not only because of the underdog battle it’s faced at every series renewal, but also the epic view of it’s writing. The story runs through all the episodes with the beginning and conclusion being at either end of the series, or indeed five series. For me that ended the poor and mind numbing formulaic style of episodic stories. It had me from the beginning.
It also saw some of the writers move onto shows such as Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager to bring that same style to the shows, and for a while they worked. Enterprise also tried it, but it had many other issues and has now been scrapped.
So it was quite a heartening rise to see a story over at Screen Rant – cheers Vic – about J. Michael Straczynski‘s offer to make a Star Trek series. He…
…stated during a panel at Wizard World in Philadelphia that he would love to develop a Star Trek series, and did in fact pitch an idea to Paramount.
Straczynski said: “They’re driving that franchise into the ground because they don’t understand what it is,”
Wise words indeed. So what was their reply?
…they wanted Trek to sit on the shelf for a couple of years. In reference to that, he said:
“When the door is open again, I’ll be there.”
Idiots. That’s a golden opportunity. I don’t think anyone is sick of Star Trek, what they are is sick of the mishandling and ill conceived ideas around it. Give full control to a real believer in the genre and in Star Trek, and let him create something strong and unique. Leaving it on the shelf means giving people time to forget the mistakes and for the studio executives to do it all over again for money. Star Trek fans, this is a wonderful chance for a successful series, believe me.
