Some good ideas come around before their time. One of those was for a Star Trek series that almost launched Gene Roddenberry’s franchise on a different course. Now, with the brand new Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in the works, the new series made for kids of today was almost made for their grandparents half a century ago.
Louis Scheimer was a top executive at Filmation that did the heavy lifting to bring many iconic shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to life, quite literally. Scheimer was a passionate creator of animated TV series who also voiced many of He-Man’s supporting characters, including Orko, under the pseudonym “Erik Gunden.” But long before he mastered He-Man’s universe, he had his eyes set on Star Trek’s.
As the original Star Trek series was set to end in 1969 after Season 3, Scheimer was already working on a new type of Starfleet adventure. According to Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series, Scheimer’s idea took some effort to get Roddenberry on board and not before a major adjustment was made. “‘Scheimer had been wanting to do a Star Trek animated series,’ TAS writer David Gerrold recalled, but he wanted to do Star Trek Academy. He wanted to do it with kids or he wanted to do it with our cast as kids. Finally the deal was made one way or the other and Gene said, ‘No, it has to be the real Star Trek and with the real cast.'”
After overcoming Roddenberry’s initial reluctance, the project hit another major roadblock when the show’s creator had a falling out with Paramount. By the time the two sides had reconciled and came back together in the early 1970s, the project had changed dramatically. Once the animated project got rolling again, the series had evolved into the more adult-focused Star Trek: The Animated Series. But that didn’t mean Scheimer was left behind along with his initial idea. His leadership helped deliver something never done before in Star Trek history.
Star Trek: The Animated Series was a hit with both critics and fans. The series followed The Original Series characters in their ongoing adventures. By Season 2, the show had won Star Trek’s first Emmy award. The success helped give Paramount the drive to try and use another Star Trek project to launch a channel of its own.
A few years after the hit animated series wrapped, Paramount set its sights on a continuing series of the original live-action Star Trek. The plan would bring all the original characters back together with Roddenberry, just as it had done for TAS. Those plans were later put on hold and were then eventually rolled into Star Trek: The Motion Picture rather than make a new TV series. Now, over 50 years later, the dream-turned-reality of the Paramount+ network has the new animated Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series in the works. Finally, realizing the late-Scheimer’s vision for a children’s animated series.
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