Generally speaking, when an artist or entertainer says in an interview that they want or would like to do something, it is the very definition of non-news. Tom Jane told everyone and anyone who would listen that he’d love to play Jonah Hex. We all know how that turned out. Though things take on a slightly different flavor when the person waxing fancifully is someone like Seth MacFarlane. The schlubby frat-reject who created Family Guy and has since transformed himself into the swaggering and affably smug one-man Rat Pack at the center of the $200 million TV empire that produces Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and will be rebooting both The Flintstones and the classic Carl Sagan series Cosmos (settle down, it’ll be hosted by Daily Show/Colbert fav Neil deGrasse Tyson, not MacFarlane). This is a guy who is gettin’ shit done, and regardless of what you personally think of his creations, the bigwigs clearly want to work with him. So when MacFarlane says something like this to THR…
“MacFarlane is particularly eager to reboot one of his favorite franchises, Star Trek, for TV. “I don’t know who would give me the keys to that car,” he jokes, acknowledging that the films have been so profitable for Paramount that he isn’t so sure they have a lot of interest in getting back into the TV business. “But I’d love to see that franchise revived for television in the way that it was in the 1990s: very thoughtful, smartly written stories that transcend the science fiction audience.”
…I take a little more notice. I’ll also just give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s referring to Next Generation, even though it started in the 80’s. I’m not a big fan of MacFarlane’s, but there is no way he likes Voyager. No one smart enough to get that rich possibly could.
Anyway, as he himself notes, this is a fairly unlikely possibility. Paramount has JJ Abrams and they have the movies. But…as I was saying…if someone who isn’t Abrams is going to be given a shot at relaunching Trek on the ol’ boobular tube – and it has to come back to the small screen sooner or later – the fact that MacFarlane is throwing his hat in the ring like this isn’t inconsequential. If MacFarlane truly wants this, and isn’t just sayin’ shit for funzies, I’d imagine he only needs to make a single call to sit down with the right people and become a serious contender.
Which leads one to wonder — what would his Star Trek be? Could he pull it off? Is it too far outside his wheelhouse? Would he be the voice of the ship’s computer? Or maybe take on Deep Space Nine‘s holographic lounge singer, Vic Fontaine; he did just release a big band album (Music Is Better Than Words).
You guys surely have some feelings about this hypothetical. Thoughts, Chewers?
6 comments
I have seen this god damned story on every site on the web. Maybe I’m the asshole, but where exactly does he, PERSONALLY say, “I want to do it, and I expect its even possible.” The comment that he is eager to reboot it, is paraphrasing at best, from the article writer. The only comments he says are “I don’t know who would let me do something like that” and “I would love ot see it revived and be thoughtful and smart.”
He did not say “I WANT TO REVIVE IT AND MAKE IT SMART.”
Seriously. Is it just me? Since when did some half wit journalist get to put words into someones mouth and have it spread as fact across the interwebs??
Seeing as McFarlen works with Captain Picard often,…wouldn’t it make sense to bring back The Next Generation crew?! How exciting would that be to have a second series staring them all! Hell,…I would even love to see what happened to Riker as Captain?! Tell me that wouldn’t have fans drooling!!! Have it a multi-layered series, where you could follow many different story lines of your favorite Star Trek Alum,…including characters from DS9 and Voyager. I’m sure most of the actors would return,…sure, there would be no Data,…but we will all get past that. And maybe the will convince Spiner to come back somehow,…computer graphics have reached a level were they could do him digitally on the cheap in some weird holodeck sorta way! And as a tie in,…they can do the series up to the point that it crosses over with the new Reboot!!! Cause if you look at the Star Trek extended universe,…the actions leading up to Spock going back in time, involves the TNG crew!!! MY GAWD! Of course this will never happen,…but it had me going,…YES!!!!!!!
Holy shit.
“I don’t know who would give me the keys to that car,”
He’s implying that his interest might be met with skepticism from whoever owns the property…he’s implicating himself in any potential reboot, even if jokingly. It’s not that big of a stretch…so breathe.
One thing I have seen on every site that has this story is how Paramount “has” JJ’s Star Trek, and that would likely prevent any development of a series that is not JJ-derived. I want to point out that CBS Television Studios owns the rights to all Star Trek TV (including any new series) whereas Paramount Pictures produced the JJ Abram’s Star Trek (under license from CBS). Now it is most likely that the two entities would completely cooperate on a new series with JJ’s creation in mind, but there is room for different productions or different directions including prime universe adventures, and “new” universe versions of TNG/DS9/VOY etc. (not likely, but possible).
Hell, let him do it. I’d rather have Trek back on TV than movies anyway. MacFarlane seems like a better choice to run a series than the others who have stepped up and said they want to do it: Shatner and Jonathan Frakes.
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