It’s out of control, Captain!

When Gene Roddenberry created the concept, I don’t think that he ever imagined this:

1. Star Trek – original Television Series (79 episodes, 1966-1969)
2. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
3. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
4. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
6. Star Trek: The Next Generation (178 episodes, 1987-1994)
7. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
8. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
9. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (176 episodes, 1993-1999)
10. Star Trek: Generations (1994)
11. Star Trek: Voyager (172 episodes, 1995-2001)
12. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
13. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
14. Star Trek: Enterprise (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
15. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Wow. That’s 19 hours and 14 minutes worth of movies, and a whopping 524 hours and 59 minutes worth of television series. If you were to somehow get a job watching Star Trek movies and television series for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, you’d have to “work” for more than 13 1/2 weeks to watch it all. That doesn’t count all of the special features and interviews and commentary involved.

Now, Paramount pictures has announced that it will produce an ELEVENTH Star Trek Movie, this one a prequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Apparently, it will go back to Starfleet Academy and show the meeting of Kirk and Spock and show their first missions into space. It’s supposed to be released sometime in 2008.

Again, I’ll say that Roddenberry probably had absolutely NO IDEA what he was creating when he worked on the first pilot back in 1966. I wonder how much money this idea has been worth to him and to his estate. (He died shortly before Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was released in 1991.)

Why can’t I have ideas like that?