Conference noted::sf

399.0. "Star Trek Returns!" by TAMARA::HASKELL (Franklin Haskell) Fri Oct 10 1986 19:59

Associated Press Fri 10-OCT-1986 16:01                              Star Trek

   `Star Trek' To Return As Television Series
   
   LOS ANGELES (AP) - ``Star Trek,'' which became a show business
legend after its cancellation nearly 20 years ago, will return to
television next September with a new cast in a first-run syndicated
series.
   ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' will begin with a two-hour
first episode. After that, there will be 24 one-hour episodes,
Paramount Television Group announced at a news conference Friday.
   The new show will adhere to creator Gene Roddenberry's ``vision,
credibility and approach,'' said Deborah Rosen, a spokeswoman for
Paramount. Roddenberry will be executive producer of the series.
   Full details have not been worked out, but it is anticipated the
show will be set a century after the time of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock
and the Enterprise. The original ``Star Trek'' was set 200 years
into the future.
   ``Twenty years ago, the genius of one man brought to television a
program that has transcended the medium,'' said Mel Harris,
president of Paramount Television Group.
   ``We are enormously pleased that that man, Gene Roddenberry, is
going to do it again. Just as public demand kept the original series
on the air, this new series is also a result of grass roots support
for Gene and his vision.''
   ``Star Trek'' made its debut on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. Nearly
canceled at the end of its second year because of low ratings, it
remained for a third year, then ended in September 1969.
   But those original episodes are still broadcast in this country
on 145 stations, and those stations have bombarded Paramount with
requests for new episodes, Miss Rosen said.
   ``Star Trek'' has also been made into four big-budget motion
pictures, with the fourth due out this Christmas. The movies have
starred the original cast of William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk,
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard McCoy,
George Takei as Sulu, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, James Doohan as
Montgomery Scott and Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov.
    

    	See THEBAY::STAR_TREK Note 76.
    
    	Larry