Thursday, May 7, 2009

Star Trek: The Quest for a Younger Audience

Tonight's (or tomorrow's depending on who you listen to) Star Trek movie won't be the first time that Paramount has tried to update their aging property to attract a younger audience. Back in 1997 David Hines posted to several Usenet newsgroups a modified version of a Paramount press release. The release detailed the addition of a cast member to Star Trek: Voyager named 7 of 9. This character was played by an actress named Jeri Ryan. While fans might have cut the casting choice some slack, the press release dashed all hope that anything other than her figure had been considered. It was so blatant an attempt to change the demographic of the show to favor younger males, in fact, that a full Mystery Science 3000-style script was the only resort. And so I present you with the only link I can find to this fine example of creative fan scripting:

MiSTed: Press Release on New Voyager Borg Character

If anyone can find the original post, rather than the re-quoted version, I'd much appreciate it.

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