Star Trek
"You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home."
—Space… the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
(Opening narration for Star Trek: The New Frontier.)[1]
Gulf+Western had been considering a new Star Trek TV series ever since they had planned to launch a fourth television network headlined by Star Trek: Phase II a decade earlier. The original Star Trek had become the most valuable show in syndication over the years and by 1986 was the crown jewel of Paramount Pictures' programming. In addition the movies were becoming too expensive with an aging and high salary demanding cast that, despite the incredible success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, naturally compelled Paramount Pictures to think they would have only one or two more movies left. This meant that their thoughts and plans shifted to a potential new Star Trek TV series. The problems arose when they began to shop this new Star Trek show to the networks.
NBC & ABC both asked for pilot scripts, not willing to commit to anything more than that. CBS offered a miniseries deal, with a potential pick-up after that. Fox, the brand new network desperate to have a major program to start with, offered 13 episodes but wanted them in March of 1987. Paramount Pictures was offended by the NBC and ABC deals, and didn't feel much better about CBS or Fox.
Throughout the early half of 1986 Paramount Pictures looked for a way around this by potentially cobbling together a syndication based "network". However Fox sweetened the potential deal in the wake of the Japanese earthquake causing economic effects (and LeVar Burton's new high profile, after reports had leaked of The Living Daylights) which led Paramount to reconsider, and so they gradually warmed up to Fox. The 13 episode deal for March 1987 was unacceptable but Fox was open to possibilities and had heard rumours of the CBS offer which they mistakenly thought was bigger than it was. Therefore Fox agreed to picking up the whole first season of 24 episodes for September 1987, down slightly from the 26 Paramount was looking for, after some additional time in back and forth between them and Paramount. As Paramount wanted a wider audience they made an offer to Fox: any network affiliate could play Star Trek once one week of the first-run airing had passed, in return Fox would receive a percentage of those profits. Paramount managed to find a number of ABC/CBS/NBC affiliates that would commit to the deal, and based on the ratings would be theoretically willing to preempt their own network's prime time shows. Fox was willing to take the risk, especially on anything that would disrupt the Big Three competition as they well realized they were the underdog.[2]
Some observers in Hollywood noted that Paramount Pictures going to Fox was darkly funny as it had been at Paramount where Barry Diller had proposed a new fourth television network and when they passed on it he went to 20th Century Fox and… started a new fourth network. Gulf+Western executives were not nearly as amused by this undercurrent of Hollywood thought as the rest of the town was.
With the unique partial syndication deal in place Fox managed to get away with a low price for Star Trek, once they committed to a major advertising campaign, of just half the cost of an episode which meant Fox only had to cover $700,000 an episode, except for $3.5 million for the $7 million two hour pilot[3]. Fox demanded and received some creative control as well and this led to turmoil in the staff of the purposed new Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry had, in his older age, become increasingly fixated on particular elements of the Star Trek universe that Fox absolutely refused to go with. With the lucrative Fox/early-syndication deal on the table Roddenberry found himself increasingly sidelined, especially as his entire writing staff—led by veteran Star Trek writers David Gerrold & D. C. Fontana—were actually with Fox on that issue, especially since Fox had made it clear that Standards & Practices would be sidelined on most items.
For the moment, at least, Gene Roddenberry would remain show runner but many of his weirder ideas, such as no interpersonal conflict between the crew, were junked by a combination of both Fox and Paramount pressure. The entire writing room would work on the two-hour pilot, Where No One Has Gone Before, and it was both an expensive undertaking with a particularly unhappy set (although the actors got along well with each other).
Original plans to set the new Star Trek series in the 25th century with a registry number of NCC-1701-7 quickly changed when Star Trek IV: A Voyage Home was released with the Enterprise NCC-1701-A first to NCC-1701-G and than to a new time period roughly eighty years after the end of the original series, with the second-to-last registry number change of NCC-1701-D.
The design of the new Enterprise was contentious, both inside and out. The interiors had been designed by Andrew Probest based on Roddenberry's thoughts and were mostly ready to go, as was the first idea of the Enterprise's exterior. The ship design was based on a sketch Andrew Probest had done for his wall at the office but story editor David Gerrold had seen it and liked it, as had Roddenberry. However when Fox saw these sketches they once again refused, citing the "hotel lobby" nature of the bridge colours and carpeting and the weird wide saucer of the ship. Paramount was also starting to remember how difficult Roddenberry was to work with as (Star Trek: The Motion Picture flashbacks were filtering in, especially as they talked to former executives from Paramount) after he pitched a fit over Fox's notes.
Paramount asked Andrew Probest to take another crack at, stating they still liked his early sketches. They also brought up the fact that the fans had liked the Excelsior, perhaps he could work elements of her into the design? Andrew Probest went back to his original sketch and also went back to study all the previous concept art that been generated in the movies and for Phase II.
The final design of the Enterprise was a cross between Probest's sketch, the Excelsior, and switching from lower-than-saucer nacelles to flat out horizontal nacelles, inspired by one of the Phase II Enterprise's and taken to a logical extreme. This final design made everyone happy, even Gene Roddenberry, and it was sent off to the model-makers. The Enterprise NCC-1701-C was the new registry, as the time period had changed yet again so as to allow the use of the Reliant and Excelsior models as standard parts of the Star Trek fleet with everyone still undecided about the use of the Enterprise-A model.[4]
Next up was Fox's objection to the interior style of the ship. Probest once again went back to the drawing board designing a brand new bridge based on the spacious layout—at least from the only angle shown, since it was a partial set in the movie—of the Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and on a piece of concept art for that movie that envisioned the front half of the bridge as a massive wraparound screen. Paramount managed to get additional money from Fox to build the set as it was projected to be quite a bit more expensive than the first version they had presented would have been.
Minor changes in interior design were also made, moving closer to the whiter palate of Star Trek IV and eliminating all the carpets from the concepts (over Roddenberry's strong objections). Many of the sets needed quite a lot of work done to them but it was still cheaper to do that than build new ones and the movie quality of the older sets helped set the tone—to Paramount's late and unfortunate realization of how much money it would cost—for brand new sets like the Bridge. The accounting justification transferred much of the expense forward onto the as yet untitled Star Trek V.
Engineering was not in the pilot script so naturally Paramount refused to build the set. Reminiscent of the Original Series not getting a shuttle until specifically put in the script, Engineering was promptly written into the pilot… and Paramount responded in kind, by promptly handing over the Engineering set used in the movies, which required a fair bit of work to make it look different and to that end they added an upper level and redid the lower one (naturally much of this was also charged to Star Trek V).
To save some money somewhere and capitalize both on the popularity of Star Trek IV and the idea of this being a fairly close successor crew modified versions of the movie uniforms were used, the main difference being the reintroduction of blue and gold as main top colours with red being using for command (to avoid the red shirt syndrome). Early trials of spandex uniforms had been rather uncomfortable, a little too revealing, and Fox—continuing their streak of wanting to just put the movies on television—hated them as well. So, at least for the first season, it was the movie uniforms with two more colours.
Casting went on through the fall of 1986 and the spring of 1987:
Captain Jean-Luc Picard saw a number of actors considered, including: Patrick Stewart, Mitch Ryan, Roy Thinnes, Yaphet Kotto, and Patrick Bauchau. Stewart and Bauchau were the early frontrunners but concerns were raised about their "toughness" following Kirk in the role as Captain, despite the plan being not to have the Captain constantly going on away missions in the new show. In a surprise choice the producers went with Yaphet Kotto for the role, marking a major milestone in casting with a black man at the helm of a starship for the first time in Star Trek history. His casting did result in a name change for the character, however.
Executive Officer William Ryker needed a youthful Kirk-like persona, as head of the away teams and second-in-command of the Enterprise. Among those in the running for Ryker were Michael O’Gorman (an early stand-out), Gregg Marx, Jonathan Frakes, Ben Murphy, and Jeffrey Combs. Unknown Jonathan Frakes impressed everybody but in the end Jeffrey Combs was the final choice, demonstrating more of an edge that the producers felt would help balance out the otherwise potentially bland role. On an interesting note Jonathan Frakes found himself on the crew of the new Star Trek and he would go on to play a number of minor roles as well as working to help put the show on the screen: he directed his first episode in the second season and developed a career as a prolific and well regarded television director.
Counseller Deanna Troi saw Denise Crosby as the early choice but Gene Roddenberry took a shine to Marina Sirtis and in one of his increasingly rare victories against the network managed to get her cast in the role. A strange kerfuffle over eye colour promptly ensued with a number of producers claiming her green eyes were incongruous with her dark hair but in the end the exotic nature of it won out as she was technically playing an alien.
Chief Engineer Geordie La Forge[5] had perhaps the largest potential list of names but the heightened profile of one of the actors they had already talked to about it, LeVar Burton, virtually guaranteed him the part as he had also been an early favourite. Among the stranger names considered was Reggie Jackson, former Major League Baseball player, and it seems certain that if cast Wesley Snipes would have missed out on much of his movie career.
Chief of Security Tasha Yar was a difficult role to cast with Lianne Langland, Julia Nickson, Rosalind Chao, Leah Ayers, Marina Sirtis (also considered for Troi), and Bunty Bailey all considered for the role, as was Denise Crosby (also considered for Troi). The role was based on the character of Vasquez in Aliens but Dorothy Fontana brought up that Jenette Goldstein was in fact blue-eyed and blonde, so they moved away from their idea of picking a Latina. Rosalind Chao, an early favourite, was beat out by another Asian American actor: Julia Nickson.
Science Officer Data had a relative newcomer, Brent Spiner, become the late favourite beating out Mark Lindsay Chapman, Eric Menyuk, Kevin Peter Hall, and Kelvin Han Yee. Spiner had been guest starring on Night Court and that show soon created an episode centred around a fight between a fan of the original series and one of the new.
Finally the key role of Doctor Beverly Crusher was a tough choice to cast as she was originally planned as a love interest for the Captain. With Ryker and Troi filling that particular slot and with the favourite—Cheryl McFadden—preferring to continue her stage career the runner-up choice, Jenny Agutter was cast. Her youthfulness did, however, make the idea of her having a son rather unlikely. Therefore Wesley Crusher was cut from the already large cast, although the producer's liking of Will Wheaton would see him become a recurring character as as an agent working for Star Fleet headquarters who invariably managed to interfere in an annoying manner.
The last main character of the cast wouldn't join the show until after the tenth episode (over Paramount's handling of the sixth and seventh episodes). The Worf character had been considered from the beginning but vicious fights between Roddenberry (who wanted a never before seen alien) and Paramount (who wanted an alien from the original series) had sidelined him, despite the incredible audition Dorn had had. With Roddenberry on the way out as show runner Dorn was brought back—of course it had nothing to do with him being black—as the Klingon second in command of security.
The members of the cast that hadn't yet leaked to the media and the name for the new Star Trek television series were revealed in April of 1987 and soon fans and non-fans were talking about the series. The popularity of syndicated Star Trek episodes and the success of Star Trek IV that had gone beyond the traditional fanbase combined to form a major launching pad for Star Trek: The New Frontier. That, along with a joint Fox-Paramount marketing push throughout the summer, made it seem clear that at least the first episode would be seen by a wide audience.
However a bitter dispute between the various sides broke out soon after filming the first few episodes over Yaphet Kotto and he parted ways with Star Trek: The New Frontier. The writing room and Roddenberry managed to convince the producers to at least keep Kotto on for two additional episodes than Paramount had planned, the sixth and seventh, as a two-part event to close out his character. That let him both introduce the new captain, Patrick Stewart using the previously settled upon name Jean-Luc Picard, and memorably sacrifice his life to save the Enterprise. Critics would view Kotto's performance highly favourably (unlike Paramount), and his departing pair of episodes was a major turning point in the series after the not so well received second through fifth episodes.
This was kept under wraps until Paramount kicked off a major promotional event for the sixth and seventh episodes… coincidentally the first two of November "sweeps", that key month where the ratings that help determine the advertising rate were studied. Indeed the two-part wrap-up of Kotto were the second and third highest rated episodes of the entire first season (as they aired on separate nights, unlike the pilot). As for Yaphet Kotto he had nothing but good things to say about the actors he worked with and he took both his payday and his newly raised profile and vaulted into the soon-to-be highly successful Midnight Run movie almost right away.
The two hour pilot, Where No One Has Gone Before, had a high bar to uphold. Some of Gene Roddenberry's ideas from the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture provided the central frame of the episode: in what case is force justified? The pilot was a tense yet philosophical thriller as the Enterprise raced towards a potential conflict and confronted internal issues over the nature of Starfleet and the strong divide between humans and New Humans and their approach to the pending confrontation that left the crew torn apart. Coupled with conflicting orders from different factions in Starfleet this left the Captain isolated in his choices, as he attempted to reconcile the two sides and save the universe from plunging into war.[6]
The only thing left was to see the reception.
Star Trek: The New Frontier was a major media event, with some 28 million people tuned into the first episode airing on Sunday 27 September 1987 on Fox, and a further 12 million people watched it at some point the week of 4 October through syndication on both Fox and non-Fox affiliates[7]. Although those ratings would decrease it was easily Fox's most popular show for the 1987-1988 television season and much like the original series the demographics of the people watching were excellent. Fox, Paramount, and the affiliates were incredibly happy with the show. Indeed the Big Three networks saw a number of their shows pushed out of primetime in both major and minor markets to make room for Star Trek on Sundays.
Critically the pilot was highly praised as was the sixth and seventh episodes. The ones in-between were poorly reviewed, and reviews for the the latter seventeen episodes varied. Audience response, however, was excellent throughout as they latched on to the hopeful future themes that were inherent throughout the show.
Star Trek: The New Frontier was off to a solid start, the only question in Paramount's minds was whether or not the film franchise could hold up its end of the bargain.
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[1] They adopt the "her" referring to the Enterprise from Star Trek II instead of the "its" used in the original series and OTL's TNG, but also use the "no one" instead of "no man" phrasing (ships are girls, damn it… except Russian ones). I don't know if they considered any name except Star Trek: The Next Generation and I couldn't find evidence but it seems possible, and the name was always a little silly.
[2] With the economic ripple effects Fox wants Star Trek even more than OTL, and Paramount is less sure about the first-run syndication plan as that had never been done before for a drama in the 1980s. The syndication deal is unique but it seems like an interesting idea to me. 1987 Fox didn't have nearly the coverage of the Big Three and Fox is traditionally the network willing to take the most risks. The affiliates are getting a slightly better deal than OTL: the show for free, six minutes of commercials to them, six minutes to Paramount (of which a third of that money heads back to Fox), and a massive amount of free-to-them advertising.
[3] At that time the networks usually paid about $800,000 for an hour long and Paramount probably could have squeezed for a million dollars. ITTL the syndication deal lets Fox get the show cheaper from Paramount. If my math is reasonably okay the syndication money heading to Fox drops the cost to them by a third, in the first season. OTL's budget for an episode was $1.3 million at the beginning and 1.5 million at the end of the first season, ITTL it's $1.4 million increasing to $1.6 million. The two hour Encounter at Farpoint IOTL cost $5 million.
[4] Think mostly the first sketch, with horizontal nacelles similar to how the one's on the Phase II Enterprise concept seem to heading at the beginning of the thread (but not the same refit-Enterprise style, of course), and detailing/lights more like the Excelsior. In other words it's the next flagship class after the Excelsior, a more direct continuity, on Fox's insistence and for budgetary reasons. Or something like a cross between the Renaissance class, and the Excelsior.
[5] Minor butterflies have resulted in Geordi being the Chief Engineer from the beginning, instead of the collection of people that played that role IOTL's first season. Incidentally all mentioned alternatives were considered IOTL and the fragile nature of casting is inherently subject to butterflies.
[6] Thanks to Jello_Biafra for reminding me of the New Humans. And don't worry, the level of militarization in Star Trek: The New Frontier is only a little higher, more reminiscent of TOS and certainly not DS9.
[7] IOTL around 20 million watched Encounter at Farpoint in the first week. The combination of a broadcast network and much greater promotion has increased this. The second week syndication number is pure speculation, but of course there is no TiVo or streaming internet video yet and Fox only airs two nights a week in the 1987-1988 television season so they don't do many reruns, therefore the only chance to see it again (or catch up, having missed it) is through syndication.
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And… Star Trek, easily the longest section so far of this timeline (in other words: don't expect this length going forward
). I hope everything seems reasonable and that Brainbin feels a tiny bit better about this new series. A positive case of network interference! The Writers strike will be covered at some point in a little bit along with tech '87, but I haven't decided upon the next post yet.
I was a little hesitant about reversing the Picard casting, but I really loved Stewart in the role and with Kotto's example (and other factors) to play on his Picard is probably a little different in good ways—it was also a fun twist, and cast shake-ups are rare in Star Trek but reasonably common in other shows. Star Trek: The New Frontier gets a major two-part event early on in the shows run and Kotto gets a nice chunk of change, a great ending, and a little more publicity heading into Midnight Run.
As always, comments are very welcome.
—Space… the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
(Opening narration for Star Trek: The New Frontier.)[1]
Gulf+Western had been considering a new Star Trek TV series ever since they had planned to launch a fourth television network headlined by Star Trek: Phase II a decade earlier. The original Star Trek had become the most valuable show in syndication over the years and by 1986 was the crown jewel of Paramount Pictures' programming. In addition the movies were becoming too expensive with an aging and high salary demanding cast that, despite the incredible success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, naturally compelled Paramount Pictures to think they would have only one or two more movies left. This meant that their thoughts and plans shifted to a potential new Star Trek TV series. The problems arose when they began to shop this new Star Trek show to the networks.
NBC & ABC both asked for pilot scripts, not willing to commit to anything more than that. CBS offered a miniseries deal, with a potential pick-up after that. Fox, the brand new network desperate to have a major program to start with, offered 13 episodes but wanted them in March of 1987. Paramount Pictures was offended by the NBC and ABC deals, and didn't feel much better about CBS or Fox.
Throughout the early half of 1986 Paramount Pictures looked for a way around this by potentially cobbling together a syndication based "network". However Fox sweetened the potential deal in the wake of the Japanese earthquake causing economic effects (and LeVar Burton's new high profile, after reports had leaked of The Living Daylights) which led Paramount to reconsider, and so they gradually warmed up to Fox. The 13 episode deal for March 1987 was unacceptable but Fox was open to possibilities and had heard rumours of the CBS offer which they mistakenly thought was bigger than it was. Therefore Fox agreed to picking up the whole first season of 24 episodes for September 1987, down slightly from the 26 Paramount was looking for, after some additional time in back and forth between them and Paramount. As Paramount wanted a wider audience they made an offer to Fox: any network affiliate could play Star Trek once one week of the first-run airing had passed, in return Fox would receive a percentage of those profits. Paramount managed to find a number of ABC/CBS/NBC affiliates that would commit to the deal, and based on the ratings would be theoretically willing to preempt their own network's prime time shows. Fox was willing to take the risk, especially on anything that would disrupt the Big Three competition as they well realized they were the underdog.[2]
Some observers in Hollywood noted that Paramount Pictures going to Fox was darkly funny as it had been at Paramount where Barry Diller had proposed a new fourth television network and when they passed on it he went to 20th Century Fox and… started a new fourth network. Gulf+Western executives were not nearly as amused by this undercurrent of Hollywood thought as the rest of the town was.
With the unique partial syndication deal in place Fox managed to get away with a low price for Star Trek, once they committed to a major advertising campaign, of just half the cost of an episode which meant Fox only had to cover $700,000 an episode, except for $3.5 million for the $7 million two hour pilot[3]. Fox demanded and received some creative control as well and this led to turmoil in the staff of the purposed new Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry had, in his older age, become increasingly fixated on particular elements of the Star Trek universe that Fox absolutely refused to go with. With the lucrative Fox/early-syndication deal on the table Roddenberry found himself increasingly sidelined, especially as his entire writing staff—led by veteran Star Trek writers David Gerrold & D. C. Fontana—were actually with Fox on that issue, especially since Fox had made it clear that Standards & Practices would be sidelined on most items.
For the moment, at least, Gene Roddenberry would remain show runner but many of his weirder ideas, such as no interpersonal conflict between the crew, were junked by a combination of both Fox and Paramount pressure. The entire writing room would work on the two-hour pilot, Where No One Has Gone Before, and it was both an expensive undertaking with a particularly unhappy set (although the actors got along well with each other).
Original plans to set the new Star Trek series in the 25th century with a registry number of NCC-1701-7 quickly changed when Star Trek IV: A Voyage Home was released with the Enterprise NCC-1701-A first to NCC-1701-G and than to a new time period roughly eighty years after the end of the original series, with the second-to-last registry number change of NCC-1701-D.
The design of the new Enterprise was contentious, both inside and out. The interiors had been designed by Andrew Probest based on Roddenberry's thoughts and were mostly ready to go, as was the first idea of the Enterprise's exterior. The ship design was based on a sketch Andrew Probest had done for his wall at the office but story editor David Gerrold had seen it and liked it, as had Roddenberry. However when Fox saw these sketches they once again refused, citing the "hotel lobby" nature of the bridge colours and carpeting and the weird wide saucer of the ship. Paramount was also starting to remember how difficult Roddenberry was to work with as (Star Trek: The Motion Picture flashbacks were filtering in, especially as they talked to former executives from Paramount) after he pitched a fit over Fox's notes.
Paramount asked Andrew Probest to take another crack at, stating they still liked his early sketches. They also brought up the fact that the fans had liked the Excelsior, perhaps he could work elements of her into the design? Andrew Probest went back to his original sketch and also went back to study all the previous concept art that been generated in the movies and for Phase II.
The final design of the Enterprise was a cross between Probest's sketch, the Excelsior, and switching from lower-than-saucer nacelles to flat out horizontal nacelles, inspired by one of the Phase II Enterprise's and taken to a logical extreme. This final design made everyone happy, even Gene Roddenberry, and it was sent off to the model-makers. The Enterprise NCC-1701-C was the new registry, as the time period had changed yet again so as to allow the use of the Reliant and Excelsior models as standard parts of the Star Trek fleet with everyone still undecided about the use of the Enterprise-A model.[4]
Next up was Fox's objection to the interior style of the ship. Probest once again went back to the drawing board designing a brand new bridge based on the spacious layout—at least from the only angle shown, since it was a partial set in the movie—of the Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and on a piece of concept art for that movie that envisioned the front half of the bridge as a massive wraparound screen. Paramount managed to get additional money from Fox to build the set as it was projected to be quite a bit more expensive than the first version they had presented would have been.
Minor changes in interior design were also made, moving closer to the whiter palate of Star Trek IV and eliminating all the carpets from the concepts (over Roddenberry's strong objections). Many of the sets needed quite a lot of work done to them but it was still cheaper to do that than build new ones and the movie quality of the older sets helped set the tone—to Paramount's late and unfortunate realization of how much money it would cost—for brand new sets like the Bridge. The accounting justification transferred much of the expense forward onto the as yet untitled Star Trek V.
Engineering was not in the pilot script so naturally Paramount refused to build the set. Reminiscent of the Original Series not getting a shuttle until specifically put in the script, Engineering was promptly written into the pilot… and Paramount responded in kind, by promptly handing over the Engineering set used in the movies, which required a fair bit of work to make it look different and to that end they added an upper level and redid the lower one (naturally much of this was also charged to Star Trek V).
To save some money somewhere and capitalize both on the popularity of Star Trek IV and the idea of this being a fairly close successor crew modified versions of the movie uniforms were used, the main difference being the reintroduction of blue and gold as main top colours with red being using for command (to avoid the red shirt syndrome). Early trials of spandex uniforms had been rather uncomfortable, a little too revealing, and Fox—continuing their streak of wanting to just put the movies on television—hated them as well. So, at least for the first season, it was the movie uniforms with two more colours.
Casting went on through the fall of 1986 and the spring of 1987:
Captain Jean-Luc Picard saw a number of actors considered, including: Patrick Stewart, Mitch Ryan, Roy Thinnes, Yaphet Kotto, and Patrick Bauchau. Stewart and Bauchau were the early frontrunners but concerns were raised about their "toughness" following Kirk in the role as Captain, despite the plan being not to have the Captain constantly going on away missions in the new show. In a surprise choice the producers went with Yaphet Kotto for the role, marking a major milestone in casting with a black man at the helm of a starship for the first time in Star Trek history. His casting did result in a name change for the character, however.
Executive Officer William Ryker needed a youthful Kirk-like persona, as head of the away teams and second-in-command of the Enterprise. Among those in the running for Ryker were Michael O’Gorman (an early stand-out), Gregg Marx, Jonathan Frakes, Ben Murphy, and Jeffrey Combs. Unknown Jonathan Frakes impressed everybody but in the end Jeffrey Combs was the final choice, demonstrating more of an edge that the producers felt would help balance out the otherwise potentially bland role. On an interesting note Jonathan Frakes found himself on the crew of the new Star Trek and he would go on to play a number of minor roles as well as working to help put the show on the screen: he directed his first episode in the second season and developed a career as a prolific and well regarded television director.
Counseller Deanna Troi saw Denise Crosby as the early choice but Gene Roddenberry took a shine to Marina Sirtis and in one of his increasingly rare victories against the network managed to get her cast in the role. A strange kerfuffle over eye colour promptly ensued with a number of producers claiming her green eyes were incongruous with her dark hair but in the end the exotic nature of it won out as she was technically playing an alien.
Chief Engineer Geordie La Forge[5] had perhaps the largest potential list of names but the heightened profile of one of the actors they had already talked to about it, LeVar Burton, virtually guaranteed him the part as he had also been an early favourite. Among the stranger names considered was Reggie Jackson, former Major League Baseball player, and it seems certain that if cast Wesley Snipes would have missed out on much of his movie career.
Chief of Security Tasha Yar was a difficult role to cast with Lianne Langland, Julia Nickson, Rosalind Chao, Leah Ayers, Marina Sirtis (also considered for Troi), and Bunty Bailey all considered for the role, as was Denise Crosby (also considered for Troi). The role was based on the character of Vasquez in Aliens but Dorothy Fontana brought up that Jenette Goldstein was in fact blue-eyed and blonde, so they moved away from their idea of picking a Latina. Rosalind Chao, an early favourite, was beat out by another Asian American actor: Julia Nickson.
Science Officer Data had a relative newcomer, Brent Spiner, become the late favourite beating out Mark Lindsay Chapman, Eric Menyuk, Kevin Peter Hall, and Kelvin Han Yee. Spiner had been guest starring on Night Court and that show soon created an episode centred around a fight between a fan of the original series and one of the new.
Finally the key role of Doctor Beverly Crusher was a tough choice to cast as she was originally planned as a love interest for the Captain. With Ryker and Troi filling that particular slot and with the favourite—Cheryl McFadden—preferring to continue her stage career the runner-up choice, Jenny Agutter was cast. Her youthfulness did, however, make the idea of her having a son rather unlikely. Therefore Wesley Crusher was cut from the already large cast, although the producer's liking of Will Wheaton would see him become a recurring character as as an agent working for Star Fleet headquarters who invariably managed to interfere in an annoying manner.
The last main character of the cast wouldn't join the show until after the tenth episode (over Paramount's handling of the sixth and seventh episodes). The Worf character had been considered from the beginning but vicious fights between Roddenberry (who wanted a never before seen alien) and Paramount (who wanted an alien from the original series) had sidelined him, despite the incredible audition Dorn had had. With Roddenberry on the way out as show runner Dorn was brought back—of course it had nothing to do with him being black—as the Klingon second in command of security.
The members of the cast that hadn't yet leaked to the media and the name for the new Star Trek television series were revealed in April of 1987 and soon fans and non-fans were talking about the series. The popularity of syndicated Star Trek episodes and the success of Star Trek IV that had gone beyond the traditional fanbase combined to form a major launching pad for Star Trek: The New Frontier. That, along with a joint Fox-Paramount marketing push throughout the summer, made it seem clear that at least the first episode would be seen by a wide audience.
However a bitter dispute between the various sides broke out soon after filming the first few episodes over Yaphet Kotto and he parted ways with Star Trek: The New Frontier. The writing room and Roddenberry managed to convince the producers to at least keep Kotto on for two additional episodes than Paramount had planned, the sixth and seventh, as a two-part event to close out his character. That let him both introduce the new captain, Patrick Stewart using the previously settled upon name Jean-Luc Picard, and memorably sacrifice his life to save the Enterprise. Critics would view Kotto's performance highly favourably (unlike Paramount), and his departing pair of episodes was a major turning point in the series after the not so well received second through fifth episodes.
This was kept under wraps until Paramount kicked off a major promotional event for the sixth and seventh episodes… coincidentally the first two of November "sweeps", that key month where the ratings that help determine the advertising rate were studied. Indeed the two-part wrap-up of Kotto were the second and third highest rated episodes of the entire first season (as they aired on separate nights, unlike the pilot). As for Yaphet Kotto he had nothing but good things to say about the actors he worked with and he took both his payday and his newly raised profile and vaulted into the soon-to-be highly successful Midnight Run movie almost right away.
The two hour pilot, Where No One Has Gone Before, had a high bar to uphold. Some of Gene Roddenberry's ideas from the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture provided the central frame of the episode: in what case is force justified? The pilot was a tense yet philosophical thriller as the Enterprise raced towards a potential conflict and confronted internal issues over the nature of Starfleet and the strong divide between humans and New Humans and their approach to the pending confrontation that left the crew torn apart. Coupled with conflicting orders from different factions in Starfleet this left the Captain isolated in his choices, as he attempted to reconcile the two sides and save the universe from plunging into war.[6]
The only thing left was to see the reception.
Star Trek: The New Frontier was a major media event, with some 28 million people tuned into the first episode airing on Sunday 27 September 1987 on Fox, and a further 12 million people watched it at some point the week of 4 October through syndication on both Fox and non-Fox affiliates[7]. Although those ratings would decrease it was easily Fox's most popular show for the 1987-1988 television season and much like the original series the demographics of the people watching were excellent. Fox, Paramount, and the affiliates were incredibly happy with the show. Indeed the Big Three networks saw a number of their shows pushed out of primetime in both major and minor markets to make room for Star Trek on Sundays.
Critically the pilot was highly praised as was the sixth and seventh episodes. The ones in-between were poorly reviewed, and reviews for the the latter seventeen episodes varied. Audience response, however, was excellent throughout as they latched on to the hopeful future themes that were inherent throughout the show.
Star Trek: The New Frontier was off to a solid start, the only question in Paramount's minds was whether or not the film franchise could hold up its end of the bargain.
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[1] They adopt the "her" referring to the Enterprise from Star Trek II instead of the "its" used in the original series and OTL's TNG, but also use the "no one" instead of "no man" phrasing (ships are girls, damn it… except Russian ones). I don't know if they considered any name except Star Trek: The Next Generation and I couldn't find evidence but it seems possible, and the name was always a little silly.
[2] With the economic ripple effects Fox wants Star Trek even more than OTL, and Paramount is less sure about the first-run syndication plan as that had never been done before for a drama in the 1980s. The syndication deal is unique but it seems like an interesting idea to me. 1987 Fox didn't have nearly the coverage of the Big Three and Fox is traditionally the network willing to take the most risks. The affiliates are getting a slightly better deal than OTL: the show for free, six minutes of commercials to them, six minutes to Paramount (of which a third of that money heads back to Fox), and a massive amount of free-to-them advertising.
[3] At that time the networks usually paid about $800,000 for an hour long and Paramount probably could have squeezed for a million dollars. ITTL the syndication deal lets Fox get the show cheaper from Paramount. If my math is reasonably okay the syndication money heading to Fox drops the cost to them by a third, in the first season. OTL's budget for an episode was $1.3 million at the beginning and 1.5 million at the end of the first season, ITTL it's $1.4 million increasing to $1.6 million. The two hour Encounter at Farpoint IOTL cost $5 million.
[4] Think mostly the first sketch, with horizontal nacelles similar to how the one's on the Phase II Enterprise concept seem to heading at the beginning of the thread (but not the same refit-Enterprise style, of course), and detailing/lights more like the Excelsior. In other words it's the next flagship class after the Excelsior, a more direct continuity, on Fox's insistence and for budgetary reasons. Or something like a cross between the Renaissance class, and the Excelsior.
[5] Minor butterflies have resulted in Geordi being the Chief Engineer from the beginning, instead of the collection of people that played that role IOTL's first season. Incidentally all mentioned alternatives were considered IOTL and the fragile nature of casting is inherently subject to butterflies.
[6] Thanks to Jello_Biafra for reminding me of the New Humans. And don't worry, the level of militarization in Star Trek: The New Frontier is only a little higher, more reminiscent of TOS and certainly not DS9.
[7] IOTL around 20 million watched Encounter at Farpoint in the first week. The combination of a broadcast network and much greater promotion has increased this. The second week syndication number is pure speculation, but of course there is no TiVo or streaming internet video yet and Fox only airs two nights a week in the 1987-1988 television season so they don't do many reruns, therefore the only chance to see it again (or catch up, having missed it) is through syndication.
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And… Star Trek, easily the longest section so far of this timeline (in other words: don't expect this length going forward
). I hope everything seems reasonable and that Brainbin feels a tiny bit better about this new series. A positive case of network interference! The Writers strike will be covered at some point in a little bit along with tech '87, but I haven't decided upon the next post yet. I was a little hesitant about reversing the Picard casting, but I really loved Stewart in the role and with Kotto's example (and other factors) to play on his Picard is probably a little different in good ways—it was also a fun twist, and cast shake-ups are rare in Star Trek but reasonably common in other shows. Star Trek: The New Frontier gets a major two-part event early on in the shows run and Kotto gets a nice chunk of change, a great ending, and a little more publicity heading into Midnight Run.
As always, comments are very welcome
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