Straczynski Still Wants To Run Star Trek

In a panel at the WizardWorld convention in Philadelphia last week, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski was critical of Paramount for its mismanagement of the Star Trek franchise and said that he would like to work on a reboot of the series when the studio is ready to produce more Trek.

Newsarama reported that when Straczynski was asked about whether he had met with Paramount executives about the possibility of him writing for a new Star Trek series, he said that he and Bryce Zabel (of Dark Skies and The Crow: Stairway To Heaven) had written a treatment for a "reboot" of Star Trek, presumably similar to the way Ron Moore reimagined Battlestar Galactica.

Straczynski added that they had spoken to people at Paramount, but the studio felt that the franchise needed to take a two to three year break after the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise. When they decide that it is time for more Star Trek, said Straczynski, "I'll be there" if an offer is made.

In another report on the convention at Comics Continuum, the writer said that he still loved the original series and would like to see it return in triumph. "They're driving that franchise into the ground because they don't understand what it is," he said of Paramount. He also talked about his plans for a television project featuring Marvel comics characters and insisted that he has no further plans for Babylon 5.

Earlier this year, Straczynski had implored internet fans to support his bid to take over the Star Trek franchise by bombarding Paramount with letters and phone calls "call[ing] for a jms take on Trek." As previously reported, he changed his mind two days later after a source at Paramount told him that there would be no new Star Trek for over a year.

Reports from WizardWorld on Straczynski's comments are at Newsarama and Comics Continuum.

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