Kiefer Sutherland sees 24 becoming just like Star Trek
By Chad Porto
Star Trek continues to influence the world around it
Star Trek has become the standard barrier for a show that can exist in multiple genres throughout the course of a season or across an entire franchise. It’s been able to do even as early as the original series in the 1960s. Ranging from comedic episodes like “The Trouble With Tribbles”, to submarine war stories as seen in “Balance of Terror”.
Other series would further explore this. With The Next Generation doing several horror-centric episodes. Deep Space Nine also followed suit with a heavy lean into some horror, as did Voyager. Shows like Strange New Worlds upped the ante and did a fantasy episode that was well received.
So the notion that a show can evolve and change over time isn’t new to Star Trek fans and apparently one actor, Kiefer Sutherland, would like to take the Trek approach with a different series.
Kiefer Sutherland wants to “Star Trek” his show, 24
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly about his new upcoming show, Rabbit Hole (on Paramount+), Sutherland spoke candidly about his appreciation and love of his former hit show, 24. And while the show and he has gone in different directions over the years, he’s still a fan of the concept and would love to see more of it as time goes by. He even compares it to Star Trek, saying that he’d like to see it evolve as Trek did from the original series to the Next Generation.
"If I get to do something else with it (24), I would certainly jump at that. But if it were to simply grow into something else, I would be its champion there as well, because I think the story is such a good idea. What was it, 20 years after the initial Star Trek that they finally started morphing into something different? I certainly see that for something like 24, because I believe it is a franchise-worthy idea. So, yeah — time will tell.”"
While Star Trek and 24 are far from the same genre, it’s clear that Trek still has a massive impact on the entertainment scene all these years later. Plus, it’s funny to see Sutherland name-dropping Star Trek, a sibling show on Paramount+.
Talk about synergy.