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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds producers wanted to follow up its Lower Decks crossover with another, more obscure Trek team-up
The revival of a cult 1970s Star Trek curio didn't happen "for a bunch of reasons," bemoans producer Akiva Goldsman
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Lower Decks was just the beginning — it turns out that producers had hopes of crossing over Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with another Trek show for an episode that would have been even stranger (and, potentially, funnier) than the show’s fan-favorite ‘Those Old Scientists.’
“We really wanted to do a TAS episode, and for a bunch of reasons we couldn't quite get there,” Akiva Goldsman told SFX magazine, referring to the cult series Star Trek: The Animated Series, which ran for two seasons in 1973 and 1974.
The series, produced by Paramount Television and Filmation, was a curious mix of elements: it brought over not just a number of writers from the original Star Trek series — including David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, and Samuel A. Peeples — but also the almost the entire core cast, with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Nichelle Nichols amongst those reprising their roles in animated form. James Doohan and Majel Barrett pulled double duty, not just returning as Scotty and Nurse Chapel respectively, but also voicing new characters Arex and M’Ress.
Despite that, the show can be an awkward watch from today’s point of view, due to cheaply-produced animation and a tendency to overly simplify stories for its Saturday morning younger audience. It’s certainly not without its charm, but more as a curiosity than as an actually good show.
While there’s still technically time for a SNW/TAS crossover — the show has two more seasons to run after the upcoming third, which begins on Paramount+ July 17 — it’s notable that producers keep coming up with ideas to bring Strange New Worlds into animated waters. Is there something they’re trying to tell us?
"We haven't done a straight animated episode and I don't think we will,” Goldsman admitted. “Whether it would break the show or not I don't know. Probably not. It's hard to know what would break it."
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns July 17, with new episodes weekly every Thursday.
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