Roddenberry's 'Questor' May Return

Gene Roddenberry's Questor, an android who first appeared in the 1974 telemovie The Questor Tapes, may be back on television in the near future.

Herbert Wright, a producer from The Next Generation who worked with Roddenberry in the 1970s, has obtained the rights to bring back Questor. Wright told StarTrek.com that he plans to reconceptualize the show yet stay faithful to Roddenberry's original pilot script, written by the Star Trek creator and Star Trek original series producer Gene L. Coon.

Wright and his partners announced their plans at the recent Grand Slam convention in Pasadena, and Roddenberry's son Eugene Roddenberry Jr. is promoting the project on the Roddenberry.com web site. "Herb worked on Next Generation, and I knew his name and heard good things," said the younger Roddenberry. "I felt he'd do the property justice, and do the fans justice."

Produced by Universal and aired on NBC, The Questor Tapes was intended to be a pilot for a series called Questor about a contemporary android. Questor, placed on Earth by aliens, was meant to be indistinguishable from humans and to help further the evolution of humankind.

"A lot of what [Roddenberry] wanted to do originally in Questor, he transposed for Data — the whole 'Pinocchio' angle, the walking encyclopedia not that aware of the human condition," Wright said. "Even though [Questor] will certainly share traits with Data — his interest in humanity, his obviously tremendous intelligence — Questor will carry a deep spiritual wisdom. Think 'Data meets the Dalai Lama.'"

No distribution deal has been reached yet, though production could begin as early as fall 2003. Meanwhile, Wright is seeking fans and collectors with rare Questor materials -- unproduced scripts or story outlines that might have been purchased from a convention dealer. Wright believes there are as many as 14 episodic scripts that were printed and circulated and asks fans to write to questor@roddenberry.com if they possess such material.

More information, including a history of Wright's work with Roddenberry and the saga of the original Questor on NBC, can be found at StarTrek.com.

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