Back in May of 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise ended its 4-season run to less than mediocre reviews. It was the end of an era. After nearly 40 years of (mostly) consistent programming, be it on television or the big screen, Star Trek’s impulse engines came to a full stop.
Thankfully, Star Trek returned the big screen in the 2009 J.J. Abrams alternate timeline/reboot, followed by Into Darkness in 2013 and Beyond in 2016. Though many Trek loyalists saw this new take as a far cry from the source material, it injected a much-needed boost of adrenaline in a staling franchise.
Cut to 2017, where the airwaves (or stream-waves, rather) are ready to activate their warp drives with Star Trek: Discovery, a new story in the prime timeline set 10 years before Kirk’s deep space mission on the Enterprise.
In that decade-plus gap, there have been many attempts to get Trek back on TV, as well as the big screen, that were not successful. Here’s a look at the shows and movies proposed to revive Star Trek between the time of the cancellation of Enterprise in 2005 and the premiere of Discovery this month.
7. Kelvin Timeline Animated Series
After the release of the 2009 Star Trek, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman pitched an animated series to CBS, showing the continuing adventures of the alternate timeline versions of Kirk, Spock, and Uhura.
However, Orci said the success of the first film did not prove an animated series would be viable. “One movie doesn’t make a trend,” Orci said in an interview with Trek Movie in 2012. “Two movies starts to indicate that there is a trend and its viable. It will become more real as the year goes on.”
After a less than positive response for Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, the animated series was put on an indefinite hold.
