Fans of Star Trek may not know that the franchise has had several undeveloped movies that never made it to the big screen. Over the years, there have been thirteen major motion pictures in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: The Original Series spawned six, with Star Trek: The Next Generation contributing another four, and the three JJ Abrams reboot movies completing the set. A number of the Original Series and Next Generation movies are considered iconic parts of Star Trek canon, and the reboot films introduced the Kelvin Timeline and brought new fans to the franchise.

With so much Star Trek available, it is easy to forget that at one time the franchise was struggling to stay alive. After the Original Series was canceled in 1969, Gene Roddenberry and the Star Trek creative team made numerous attempts to figure out a way to revive the series. Besides a few rejected television shows, there were a number of undeveloped film scripts that were ultimately subsumed by Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.

Related: The Complete Star Trek Timeline Explained

The Original Series isn't the only show to have movie ideas that never saw the light of day. The Next Generation had a few, as well, and there were some attempts to do something similar to the reboot movies before 2009. To date, there have been nine failed Star Trek movies, beginning all the way back in 1975 and ranging up through as recently as 2019.

Star Trek: The God Thing

God In Star Trek The Final Frontier

In the 1970s, Paramount Studios was interested in making a Star Trek feature film. Gene Roddenberry was contracted to write a script in 1975 which became Star Trek: The God Thing. The film was set after the end of the Original Series' five-year mission, with the crew of the Enterprise having gone their separate ways after the mission. Ultimately, they were all brought back together when an alien entity calling itself God began to terrorize Earth. The script had elements that would later be added to both Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, including the dissolution of the Original Series crew, and the idea of an entity that thought of itself as Earth's God.

Ultimately, the script was rejected for a variety of reasons, including a feud between Gene Roddenberry and one of the Paramount studio heads that Roddenberry interpreted as having to do with religious objections to the film's premise. After the rejection, Roddenberry worked on adapting The God Thing into a novel with the help of Original Series actor Walter Koenig. The novel never managed to get off the ground either, but The God Thing's legacy lives on in The Motion Picture and The Final Frontier.

Star Trek: Planet Of The Titans

Star Trek Planet Of The Titans Concept Art

Star Trek: Planet of the Titans was another attempt to bring Star Trek to the big screen after The Original Series was canceled. Unlike The God Thing, the script was written by outside Star Trek collaborators, although it was consulted on by Roddenberry during rewrites. The plot focused on a conflict between Starfleet and the Klingons for control over a planet that had been home to a technologically advanced race called the Titans. Time travel was also involved in the plot; in the first draft of the script, the Enterprise crew traveled back in time to the Cro-Magnon era, while in the rewrite they traveled into the far future.

Related: Star Trek: How Time Travel Works In Each TV Show & Movie

Ultimately, the script was involved in rewrites by so many different people that it became unrecognizable and much less appealing in its final form. Paramount still attempted to get the film made, but after struggling for nine months to get production off the ground, the film was shelved and production was canceled in the summer of 1977. Like The God Thing, Planet of the Titans was yet another casualty that paved the way for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Star Trek: The Billion Year Voyage

Kirk And Spock In Star Trek The Motion Picture

The final casualty before Star Trek: The Motion Picture was Star Trek: The Billion Year Voyage. The script was written by famous science fiction writer Robert Silverberg, and the plot bore similarities to Planet of the Titans. In the film, the Enterprise crew becomes involved with the Great Ones, a technologically superior race that the Klingons are also interested in. After using the Great Ones' technology to defeat the Klingons, Kirk struggles to figure out what to do with something as powerful as the technology.

Silverberg's script dealt with some interesting themes, but the film was ultimately abandoned mostly because of Paramount's ambivalence to the premise. Instead, the studio decided to move ahead with Gene Roddenberry's idea of a new Star Trek series, entitled Star Trek: Phase II. The show was never fully produced, however, because Paramount decided that the pilot episode was actually the story they wanted to serve as the basis for a Star Trek movie. This story was what finally became Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Star Trek III

Despite mixed reviews, once Star Trek: The Motion Picture was made, Paramount ordered a second film almost immediately. The second film would end up being Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, arguably one of the franchise's most popular and best-loved movies. Before Wrath of Khan was developed, however, Gene Roddenberry wrote the script for what he called Star Trek III, which involved time travel, the Klingons, and most interestingly, the assassination of President Kennedy.

Related: Star Trek: The Klingons' Greatest Enemy Were The Tribbles, Not Starfleet

Roddenberry was very proud of the story and was sure that Paramount would give him the green light on it. The studio rejected the idea almost immediately, however, and hired producer Harve Bennet to create Wrath of Khan instead, leaving Roddenberry somewhat crushed. Wrath of Khan was so popular that it paved the way for the rest of the Star Trek films, but Roddenberry never gave up on his Star Trek III idea and attempted to pitch it to the studio several more times over the years, all without success.

Star Trek: The First Adventure

Kirk And Spock In Star Trek Where No Man Has Gone Before

After the release of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Paramount was interested in doing one more movie to close out the saga. Star Trek: The First Adventure was an idea floated by Harve Bennet, who had become an integral part of the last three Star Trek movies. Bennet was interested in exploring a story about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy during their Starfleet Academy days, a prequel to The Original Series not unlike the later Abrams movies, except set in the normal timeline instead of an alternate reality.

The film got to the script stage and had a few pieces of concept art, but because of a studio regime change and the perceived need for a more conventional storyline, the whole thing was rejected soon after. Additionally, some of the Original Series cast including James Doohan felt offended that the film would not include them among the cast, despite being about their characters. The film that ended up becoming the sixth Star Trek movie was Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which did include the original cast and wrapped up the run of Original Series movies.

Star Trek: IMAX

O'Brien looks startled in Star Trek Deep Space Nine

During the 1990s renaissance of Star Trek television shows, a script was developed by then-executive producer Rick Berman to be produced and released in IMAX format. The script mainly focused on the character of Miles O'Brien from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, played by actor Colm Meaney. A number of other characters from across the franchise were rumored to return as well, including David Warner's Chancellor Gorkon from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Related: Star Trek Gives A Massive Tribute To Chief O'Brien

It is a bit unclear why the IMAX film stalled, but in 1999 Rick Berman reported that the movie was on Paramount's back-burner. Berman said that the film getting shelved had to do with internal issues between IMAX and Paramount. There has not been any movement on the film since the 1990s, and although Berman has continued to express pride in the script, the idea has never seen the light of day.

Star Trek: Nemesis Sequel

Star Trek: Nemesis was the fourth film in the run of Star Trek: The Next Generation movies, and the 10th film in the Star Trek movie franchise overall. While Nemesis was in production, plans were already in the works to make a sequel to the movie. The film was slated to be a crossover movie of sorts, bringing together all the great Star Trek villains like Khan, and incorporating characters from across the franchise like Kirk, Spock, and even Captain Jonathan Archer. It was also supposed to be a definitive farewell to The Next Generation.

Unfortunately, Star Trek: Nemesis ended up being a flop, receiving a dismal reception at the box office and criticized roundly by fans. After the failure, the idea of a follow-up movie was scrapped altogether, despite interest in the sequel from people like actor Brent Spiner. Nemesis ended up becoming the Next Generation farewell, and the scrapping of its sequel resulted in a lull in the production of Star Trek movies that lastest seven years.

Star Trek: The Beginning

Kirk looks on in Star Trek the Motion Picture

During the lull in Star Trek movie production in the early 2000s, there were still attempts to get scripts off the ground. One such script was Star Trek: The Beginning, which was developed to bridge the gap between Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Original Series. The Beginning would deal with the Federation-Romulan war that had been previous mentioned in The Original Series, and the main character would be an ancestor of Captain Kirk named Tiberius Chase.

Related: Why Star Trek's New Shows Completely Ignore Kirk (& How To Fix It)

The project was shelved because Paramount was not happy with the concept. While it might sound interesting to hardcore fans, the idea of a movie with no established Star Trek characters did not appeal to the studio, mostly because they did not think a cast of entirely new characters would draw people in. There was also another regime change at Paramount during the time that the movie was in development, and the new studio head ultimately scrapped Star Trek: The Beginning to make way for the reboot movies beginning in 2009.

Star Trek 4

Since the release of Star Trek: Beyond in 2016, there have been talks about a sequel which would be the 14th film in the franchise and the 4th film in the Kelvin Timeline saga. The premise of Star Trek 4 was never officially announced, but there were talks about bringing Chris Hemsworth back to portray George Kirk as he did in Star Trek (2009). There were also rumors that legendary director Quentin Tarantino would be brought on for the project, a decision that would likely have caused a big tonal shift in the franchise due to Tarantino's unique style.

The sudden and tragic death of Anton Yelchin in 2016 caused many of the reboot movies' cast to become disillusioned with the idea of doing another movie without him included. This, combined with issues in signing both Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine due to salary disputes, meant that production on Star Trek 4 stalled quickly. In 2019 Paramount announced that it had shelved the project indefinitely, citing the salary issues as the main reason. It is unclear whether or not the project will ever become viable again.

The shelving of Star Trek 4 seems like it may bring on another lull in Star Trek movie production. Luckily, the franchise is in the middle of another TV show renaissance with shows like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, so there will still be content for fans to enjoy in the meantime. Star Trek films have a long and storied history, and even when things have seemed bleak for the franchise, it has pulled through, so there is no reason to think it won't do so again despite current issues.

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