Star Trek almost got a reboot from one of the greatest sci-fi creators of all time! Imagine how different things could have been with that!
In 1993, sci-fi fans were buzzing over the premiere of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The spinoff took a different direction with the franchise, set on a space station and pushing more conflict than other Star Trek shows.
The series would of course become a beloved hit that became more epic with the Dominion War. However, its premiere was mirrored by the syndicated premiere of Babylon 5. Obviously, two shows set on a space station filled with alien life and later involving intergalactic war would be an odd coincidence for fans and reporters.
After a bit of a rough start, Babylon 5 soon became one of the hottest and most respected sci-fi shows around. Writer/creator J. Michael Straczynski was crafting a true five-season novel for television, handling cast shakeups and conflicts with network bosses to create what is now regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi shows of all time.
Fans have tried to make out some sort of rivalry between the two shows. Indeed, there were times the writers of each seemed to tweak the other, such as a B5 character saying, “This station is about something, not some deep space franchise.”
However, there seemed to be a respect for Star Trek from JMS (to use his much easier initials). He had Walter Koening in a prime guest star role as sinister psychic agent Bester. JMS even said he was tempted to make a cameo on DS9 but turned it down as “my face would make folks change the channel.”
Babylon 5 ended its run in 1999 with a short-lived follow-up series, Crusade. JMS has kept busy with numerous comic books and other projects and one of them could have been a Star Trek revival!
Star Trek Rebooted?
In 2004, after Star Trek: Nemesis’s box office failure and Enterprise winding down, the franchise looked dormant. Paramount was hoping to revive it while recognizing that a “blank slate” of sorts might be needed.
At the time, JMS and Bryce Zabel (who created the cult NBC show Dark Skies, which starred a pre-Voyager Jeri Ryan, were developing a series called Cult, which looked at cult fandoms. Obviously, that would include Star Trek with the pair chatting on the show.
Before they knew it, the pair were hammering out a 14-page treatment for a new tale that took what was already becoming a popular idea: Retelling the early days of the Enterprise and the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic. Rather than being in the Academy days, it was just the start of the five-year mission, and new ideas were integrated into it.
In the excellent The 50-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years book, Zabel discussed the “audacious” ideas of retelling the original tales in a new way. And a treatment suggests it could have been interesting.
What was Star Trek Rebooted about?
A copy of the treatment found its way online to showcase what JMS and Zabel were looking for. It opens with JMS’ usual lush prose on how fans would want the original characters with a 2000s vibe to them and fresh takes on past adventures.
The character descriptions hold true with Kirk the adventurer, Spock warring with his dual natures and McCoy balancing the pair out. The rest of the crew would be there, too, with JMS pointing out that it was what fans would care about, not some original characters pushed into this universe.
The two-hour pilot would tell how Kirk and McCoy (already friends) meet Spock while searching for clues about an alien race who lived millions of years ago and influenced the rest of the universe. It would end with the trio taking command of the Enterprise.
We then get what anyone would expect from JMS: a “mystery” theme. He takes the idea of how odd it seems for Starfleet to let a young captain like Kirk take their most advanced ship to journey through the universe…unless there’s something specific they want him to find. This would touch on an idea already shown in The Next Generation (and later returned to in Discovery), that an ancient race spread DNA across the universe and the reason there are so many humanoid species.
This would lead to a big turn in that the Prime Directive was no longer preventing interfering with alien species but doing “whatever is necessary” to find this race and their secrets. It would take an episodic approach while also JMS pushing for stand-alone episodes written by the top sci-fi writers of the day (name-dropping folks like Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, and Anne Rice, among others).
JMS also wanted spins on classic characters and tales. As in Tribbles who were vicious monsters, Scotty being a woman, and how other stories were linked to the mystery plot. Overall, he pushed this to be a true reboot, free of any past history, no time travel retcons, and such, and truly believed this was what fans would want.
Could this have worked?
JMS’s passion for the project is clear in his talk on how Star Trek needed a change. Certainly, Babylon 5 proves he knew how to make a sci-fi epic work. The idea of him taking on the classic Trek characters is more than tempting, as he could have given the characters and storylines a vibrant air.
There are concerns with his talk on this mystery race sounding a bit too close to some B5 storylines. His belief Trek just seemed too old and dismissive of anything besides the Original Series sounds a bit smug, as if thinking no Trek fan could enjoy anything but the original show.
Also, as great as Babylon 5 could be, even its biggest fans have acknowledged JMS’ long-reach storytelling could be too convoluted for its own good. He loves to plot things out in advance, maybe too much so and there’s a very long list of series that had these massive mystery plotlines meant to run for years and not last long because viewers got tired of vague hints.
The more fascinating idea is JMS seriously wanting episodes crafted by notable sci-fi and genre writers. The idea of Star Trek written by Stephen King or some legend like Ray Bradbury is fabulous and some writers might indeed have wanted to take a crack for an episode. That they could be stand-alone stories makes it better.
Obviously, this never happened, as Paramount had a few other projects going around, including other reboot ideas. It is interesting how this closely resembled the final plot of the 2009 Star Trek revival and how Discovery would utilize some other takes on the “ancient race” plotline.
That’s as close as JMS has come to Star Trek yet many fans can’t help but wonder what could have been. After all, if anyone could have made Star Trek more epic, it’s the man who crafted another sci-fi TV masterpiece.
Babylon 5 streaming on Tubi.