Star Trek: Phase II was supposed to be the second series on television.
Star Trek: Phase II is Star Trek’s favorite long-lost relative. Not every fan knows about it, mostly because it’s a near-50-year-old idea that never came to fruition, but still, it is history. So for those new here, the story goes that Phase II was going to be a sequel series to the original Star Trek show from the 1960s. The show began development in the mid-70s, just shy of a decade later.
The show would see William Shatner and most of the original crew return as the stars of the show. The lone holdout was Leonard Nimoy, who was having a tiff with Gene Roddenberry but was offered to appear in two of the 13 pitched episodes. Though the next part is disputed, Nimoy rejected the offer, finding it insulting himself and the character of Spock.
That meant the show needed new characters.
Now, the project was set for a Paramount-focused television network and when the network died a death, they shifted their focus towards making Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Before the movie was optioned, the show was pretty far along in its development; to the point that characters were created and had even begun being cast. Some of these characters would see a second life on the first Star Trek film and some of the episodes that had already been created would be repurposed and retooled to fit other pieces of Trek lore.
A group of fans even made the episodes if you’re interested in how it could’ve turned out.
So who were these new characters?