Movies - TV
Gene Roddenberry Approved Star Trek: TNG Purely Out Of Anger
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
When Paramount started another "Star Trek" project in 1987, which was to be "Star Trek: The Next Generation," show creator Gene Roddenberry only worked on it out of rage.
After the original series was canceled in 1969, Roddenberry released a reboot in 1979 called "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." It was successful, but not the hit the studio wanted.
Due to this, Roddenberry wasn’t permitted to work on further "Star Trek" feature films. Instead, Paramount started another "Star Trek" project, which would become "Star Trek: TNG."
When Paramount asked Roddenberry to help make the new Trek, he said no, as he wanted control and wasn’t sure about doing such a big project. Paramount began production without him.
The idea of making a "Star Trek" without him made Roddenberry angry. He met with Paramount and threatened to sue if they made the show without him.
Instead, he ended up leaving the room agreeing to make "Star Trek: The Next Generation," which was hardly what he had planned on when he first went in.
David Gerrold, a creative consultant on "Next Generation," intuited that Paramount wanted Roddenberry to do the show initially, but resorted to desperate measures when he refused.
Paramount only wanted to show that they were willing to make a Trek show without Gene…as a bluff. He fell for their bluff, got mad, and agreed to make the show in his own idiom.