George Takei Once Pitched A Captain Sulu Star Trek Show - With A Young Picard

At the beginning of Nicholas Meyer's 1991 film "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," it's established that Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) has ascended to the rank of captain, and now commands a starship called the USS Excelsior. It is the first of its class, so Sulu gets to command a rather notable ship. In 1994 and 1995, Simon & Schuster Audio, acknowledging Sulu's new rank, released a trio of audio-only adventures featuring the character on board the Excelsior. George Takei reprised his role, and Trekkies got to hear about what Sulu was up to after the events of "Star Trek VI." The adventures are low-stakes, but they are intriguing, and we learned what kind of commanding officer Sulu was. It should come as no surprise that he had a great deal of integrity. The three adventures were called "Transformations," "Cacophony," and "Envoy." Sadly, there were only ever these three. 

The same year as the first of the Simon & Schuster audio books, Paramount released "Star Trek: Generations," the first film based on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." "Generations" began with a prologue set on board the Enterprise-B with Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), Commander Scott (James Doohan), and Commander Chekov (Walter Koenig). Sulu was not part of those scenes. The bulk of "Generation" took place 87 years later, however, with the "Next Generation" crew. 

The crossover, it seems, inflamed Takei's imagination. In a 1996 issue of Cinefantastique Magazine, Takei talked about his "Star Trek" legacy, and his idea — which he actually pitched — for a Captain Sulu TV series ... with a young Jean-Luc Picard.

How would this work? Well, if you check out /Film's extended "Star Trek" chronology, you'll find that "Star Trek VI" took place in the year 2293. According to expanded universe lore, Sulu was promoted to Captain in the year 2287. Jean-Luc Picard, meanwhile, was born in the year 2305 and would have entered Starfleet Academy at the age of 18, in 2323, and graduated four years later in 2327. Although William Shatner's novel "The Return" declared that Sulu eventually retired, that postulation can easily be undone by a canonical TV script. That means Sulu could very well have been captain of the Excelsior in 2327. The character would have been hovering around 90, but medicine is excellent in the 24th century, and a 90-year-old could easily have been an active and alert captain. 

In the Cinefantastique interview, Takei noted that the crossover was possible, and he liked the idea of an older Captain Sulu serving as the captain over a young Ensign Picard: 

"I'm still plugging hard for the Captain Sulu TV series. [...] I would love to have a lot of my colleagues with me. But if I can be vague and not mention any names, the impression that I get is that if they should go with a TV series, they want a different mix of characters, you know, youth. I've suggested the idea of a young, British-accented, very shaggy-haired young ensign as the helmsman of the Excelsior. I'm thinking about a young Ensign Jean Luc-Picard. I could teach him his fencing." 

This is a fun idea. We know that, as an ensign, Picard served on board a ship called the Reliant, but there's no reason writers can't also invent a stint on board the Excelsior. 

George Takei ended his thought about a young Picard by saying that "The thinking is that they want to get the captain from a recognizable world, and then work in younger characters. What I'm lobbying for is at least one from my generation." It's a fair way to compromise. 

As we now know, the Captain Sulu series never actually happened. Luckily, Takei did get to have one further Captain Sulu adventure on an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager." In the episode "Flashback" (September 11, 1996), the Vulcan security officer Tuvok (Tim Russ) begins having memories of an event that never occurred; he sees a young woman falling off a cliff and his attempt to save her. To investigate these memories, Tuvok delves into his own brain via mind-melds, and recalls one of his early assignments ... on board the USS Excelsior. "Voyager" may have taken place in the 2370s, but Tuvok, a full-blooded Vulcan, is a very long-lived character, having been born in 2264 (his age is discussed in the episode "Alice"). A 105-plus-year-old Vulcan can look like a 38-year-old human. 

That means Tuvok was about 29 during the events of "Star Trek VI," and was just the right age to have served under Captain Sulu as a young officer. George Takei got to reprise his role for "Flashback," and his character had the opportunity to pass his expertise onto a new generation of Starfleet officers. It was only one episode, but it was a great way to acknowledge the extended legacy of Sulu, as well as the prolonged age of Tuvok. Tim Russ always felt that Tuvok was underutilized. 

Still, a Captain Sulu TV series would also have been fun.