Roddenberry Entertainment COO Trevor Roth on Wednesday paid tribute to an unlikely savior for the original Star Trek TV series: Lucille Ball.
“Star Trek was a failed television series for a very long time. It did not do well, and by the stars aligning, it found its way into the hearts and minds of audiences in the United States and around the world,” Roth told the MIA Market in Rome. One star to save the series created by the late Gene Roddenberry was comedy legend Ball, who after NBC canceled the original series had seen how husband Desi Arnaz and his Desilu Productions put the iconic I Love Lucy comedy series into reruns.
“So when Star Trek had 80 episodes, Desilu was able to able to get it into reruns, or syndication, to allow it to be used as programming for places outside of NBC,” Roth recalled of the actress-turned-producer and her studio saving Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek from its earliest incarnation. “That’s where Star Trek really found its audience, and that really was where it became an entity that it has become today,” Roth added.
Roddenberry Entertainment was founded by Gene Roddenberry, with his son, Rod Roddenberry, today serving as CEO. The Star Trek series originally hit the air in 1966 and has since sustained a Trekkie fan base.
The resulting sci-fi franchise has Roth these days executive producing a host of spinoff series, including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard. Roth develops and produces sci-fi entertainment properties inspired by the late Gene Roddenberry.
Those have mostly been TV series, filled with iconic characters like Captain Kirk and Spock, played by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, respectively. But Roddenberry’s Star Trek and its Enterprise crew managed to travel far beyond the final frontier to the big screen, including when J.J. Abrams rebooted the franchise with the Star Trek movie.
The Star Trek franchise in the streaming age has meant shorter 10-episode seasons commissioned by online platforms and longer periods between seasons to retain audience interest. “It’s very different, and it changes the dynamic between the audiences and the television shows they are watching.” Roth explained.
Industry consolidation, including Paramount Skydance acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, has also put a question over what the future of the Star Trek franchise may look like as it inevitably evolves. “It was one of the earliest franchises and it has lasted 60 years. Star Trek continues to be made today, remains alive and well and something that people still believe in and look for,” Roth said.
He added another Star Trek movie appears in the works. “I can tell you that things are being worked on in the film area very hard,” Roth told the MIA Market audience. Last year, Paramount tapped John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to write and direct a new Star Trek movie said to be unconnected from anything previously done and to be produced via their GoldDay banner.
As with the Star Trek series, the movies have had their own highs and lows during the life of the long-standing franchise. Star Trek has not appeared on the big screen since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond underperformed with $343.4 million globally.
A half-dozen or so projects have been in development since, including multiple takes that would reunite the Chris Pine-led crew, and even an R-rated, Quentin Tarantino script. But none made it over the finish line, with Star Trek living on in streaming via various shows on Paramount+.