A Star Trek: Voyager actor is revisiting his pitch for a show that might make for the next fun Trek audio drama!
Right now, Trekkies are enjoying Star Trek: Khan, the first scripted audio drama for the franchise. It focuses on Khan Noonien Singh (Naveen Andrews) during his exile on Ceti Alpha V and what transformed him into the madman of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It’s amazing, from the voice acting to sound effects which are enthralling listeners. This should lead to the potential for more audio dramas for the franchise, with plenty of options around. And as it happens, Robert Duncan McNeill has an idea perfect for the format: Captain Proton!
The Captain Proton history
Star Trek: Voyager had a few holodeck-based episodes, some better than others (let’s ignore the terrible “Spirit Folk.") One regular bit was Tom Paris, who was portrayed by McNeill, creating Captain Proton, a program based on the 1930s movie serials done in black and white. It got a major focus in the classic episode “Bride of Chaotica!," one of the funniest Trek episodes ever.
In a recent talk with Trekmovie.com, McNeill discussed his pitch for a Captain Proton show that he thought could have worked as a streaming series of shorts, and he now thinks it can work as a regular audio drama, like Star Trek: Khan. McNeill said:
"We had started the Delta Flyers podcast. And I was having so much fun rewatching these episodes, and I think we had seen it—the first Captain Proton… and I was like, ‘This should be a podcast.’ The concept reminded me of the old serialized radio dramas or or the little one-reel shorts that they used to play back in the ’30s and ’40s before the main feature."
"I was like, ‘We should do a Captain Proton podcast in the style of an old radio show," McNeill continued. "And have all the actors, and they can be short.’ It could be like a, you know, a 10-minute podcast story that’s all serialized, and then maybe the whole season is 20 10-minute episodes for a two-hour story. And I got David Goodman, who’s a Family Guy writer and was also on Enterprise and President of the Writers Guild. I got David Goodman very interested in it, we talked about it."
"And I just went and pitched that idea to them, and they thought about it," McNeill added. "And then they came back and said, ‘No, we don’t want to do that. We’ve got like five other podcast ideas that we want to do.'” The latter quote is interesting as it sounds like the Trek producers were already working on ideas. Khan began as a pitch for a TV mini-series before being turned into an audio drama, and the Trek showrunners clearly have more plans for dramas.
Can we hear Captain Proton in the future?
McNeill is hopeful that the Skydance Media and Paramount Global merger will lead to a new focus on Star Trek. He expressed interest in pitching the idea again, noting that it would fit perfectly, given that the Captain Proton concept was inspired by movie serials, which originated in old-time radio. McNeill said during the same sit-down:
“I think, well, maybe I should revisit it with them. Yeah, because I think it begs to be made into some audio version—that’s the DNA of Captain Proton’s source material, is radio dramas, the old-fashioned radio dramas. You know, a couple ways you could do it. You could live totally inside the holographic Captain Proton world."
"Or you could have an A-story that’s on the ship in some way that goes in and out," McNeill continued. "And all the music and everything changes the way that the photography changed when we did it, yeah, you know, we were on the ship, and then once you went into the hologram, it was black and white, very different style.'”
McNeill’s idea sounds amazing. It would be easy to get some other Voyager co-stars to pop in for voice roles, and using the holograms as a framing device makes sense. It could feature some bigger storyline with a parallel to whatever adventure Paris goes on and there’s some nice stuff to explore.
A great bonus would be having Garrett Wang show up as Captain Proton's sidekick, Buster Kincaid, because the Tom Paris/Harry Kim chemistry was always good, and it would be fun to hear Harry getting into a swashbuckler role. Another bonus would be Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres, as hearing the pair together again would be wonderful, with Torres getting into the spirit of the adventures. And just imagine Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway once more done up as the evil Queen Arachnia.
Hopefully, this can happen as it’s a fun idea that McNeill wants, so we may once more enjoy the adventures of Captain Proton soon! What do you think about the possibility of a Proton podcast?
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Star Trek: Voyager is streaming on Paramount+. And for those who don't subscribe to the service, all 26 episodes of Voyager season 4 are available for free on PlutoTV at this time.