TMC
11-03-2016, 04:47 PM
I think that most people are aware that Star Trek: The Motion Picture was initially going to be a different sort of relaunching of Star Trek. Around 1977-78, Paramount was planning a Star Trek series that would've reunited the Original Series cast, sans Leonard Nimoy called Phase II. Phase II would've been the flagship program for a network called the Paramount Television Service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Television_Service
Of course, this sort of thing (i.e. Paramount launching its own TV network w/ Star Trek as the main linchpin) wouldn't actually happen until the '90s with Voyager on UPN. But what if Paramount launched their own network about a decade earlier with The Next Generation as the flagship? It was around this same time that the Fox Network was starting and trying to cement itself as the fourth major network.
From what I've heard, Fox considered carrying TNG but would only commit to 13 episodes instead of the 26 that Season 1 actually did get in first-run syndication.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Television_Service
Of course, this sort of thing (i.e. Paramount launching its own TV network w/ Star Trek as the main linchpin) wouldn't actually happen until the '90s with Voyager on UPN. But what if Paramount launched their own network about a decade earlier with The Next Generation as the flagship? It was around this same time that the Fox Network was starting and trying to cement itself as the fourth major network.
From what I've heard, Fox considered carrying TNG but would only commit to 13 episodes instead of the 26 that Season 1 actually did get in first-run syndication.