Stewart Says TNG Cast Wanted To Do Trek XI

Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) revealed recently that had it been up to the Next Generation cast, they would have appeared in one final Star Trek film.

"You know, all of us in the cast have always had the same conversation -- 'Should we really be doing this film?,' Stewart told the British Star Trek Magazine (via the Sci-Fi Pulse). "It didn't look like Star Trek: Nemesis was going to happen, but then it did. After Star Trek: Nemesis we decided that we really did want to do another one -- a final one."

Stewart said that a story idea for such a final film already existed, developed by Brent Spiner (Data) and Nemesis screenwriter John Logan. "It would have brought all the Captains and all the principal casts together into one movie. It would have been a winner, but the studio decided that that was it," he said. "It wasn't that they weren't making money from the franchise, it was they weren't making enough money to justify the spend on that size of project. [...] Their phrase was ‘franchise fatigue'. They weren't interested, and so our movies came to an end."

The TNG actor made his comments in issue 121 of the British Star Trek Magazine, which has just gone on sale in the United Kingdom and Eire. Besides the Stewart article, the magazine also features an interview with Rick Berman (story), an article in which former Enterprise showrunner Manny Coto reveals what he would have liked to have done in season five, and interviews with Nicole deBoer (Ezri Dax), Voyager designer Tim Earls.and Pocket Books editor Marco Palmieri.

Also included in the magazine is an article on the future of Star Trek, including comments by leading science fiction producers such as Dr. Who's Russell T. Davies, Babylon 5's J. Michael Straczynski, and Stargate SG-1's Brad Wright. Wright told the magazine his number one goal when he broke into the screenwriting business was to write for Trek. "I'm still not sure if Paramount even knows who I am," he said. "I love the universe of Star Trek. I love Starfleet, the Federation, and any ship named Enterprise. This is ripe ground for storytelling. [...] There will be another Star Trek, and fans will give it a chance."

For more information about the new issue of the Star Trek Magazine, head over to the mag's official web site. Meanwhile, a few more excerpts from the Stewart interview can be found over at the Sci-Fi Pulse.

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