A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Two   Background: Capt. Picard:  There's still much to do; still so much to learn. Mr. La Forge - engage!   –“The Neutral Zone” (Season One  finale) Star Trek: The Next Generation’s  (ST-TNG) first season officially ended with these optimistic words on May 16, 1988. On that date, many television stations broadcast  The Neutral Zone,  the 26th and last first-run episode of the syndicated show’s premiere season. Created by Gene Roddenberry at the insistence of Paramount Pictures,  ST-TNG  was a daring concept for its time. Intended to be a sequel to the canceled  Star Trek  TV series that aired on NBC  in the late 1960s, The Next Generation  was one of the first direct-to-syndication series produced. Paramount had shopped the show’s concept to ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, but – to the studio’s relief – was turned down. Paramount Television and Roddenberry were secretly glad about the big networks’ rejection. The producers were now free from network c

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One       Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship  Enterprise.  Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.       Background   In the summer of 1986, Paramount Pictures was on a collective “high” about  Star Trek.   Much to the studio’s surprise, Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi TV show was now the company’s crown jewel franchise. It survived cancellation by the NBC TV network in 1969 by becoming a hit in syndication. In 1973,  Star Trek  returned briefly to network television via Filmation’s   Star Trek: The Animated Series .  Plans for theatrical films and TV movies came and went, but by 1977, plans were underway to launch an updated version of the show as the flagship of the Paramount Television Service.  The new series,  Star Trek: Phase II , starred most of  The Original Series’  cast except Leonard Nimoy.  Star Tre

At 7:30 PM Eastern time on Tuesday, June 3, 1969, NBC aired  Turnabout Intruder , the  final first-run episode of Star Trek,  Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction/action-adventure series about the 23rd Century starship  Enterprise and its five-year mission to “explore strange new worlds.  To seek out new life and new civilizations.  To boldly go where no man has gone before.”  Star Trek  (which has been retroactively titled  Star Trek: The Original Series ) had never enjoyed much support from NBC or been a ratings heavyweight.  The network had wanted to cancel the show almost from the start, but the influence of Lucile Ball (owner of Desilu, the studio which produced  Star Trek  during Seasons One and Two) and a now-famous letter-writing campaign by the series’ fans saved Capt. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Mr. Scott (James Doohan) and the rest of the  Enterprise  crew from being consigned prematurely into television’s Phantom Zone of Can