Star Trek Challenger: Rediscovered Roddenberry Files

Originally published by Star Trek Challenger.

It’s been reported that  was at times a contentious personality, but that appears to be typical of creative and visionary people – you either love them, or you don’t.

Despite what has been said about Gene, there was no denying the fact he had a fertile imagination and his drive to make humanity look at itself and question its decisions, as well as aspire to be better, was deeply ingrained in him.

Gene’s legacy continues in Star Trek, but after his death, it also continued in two properties based on his work – the television series Earth: Final Conflict which ran for five years from 1997 to 2002, and another series, Andromeda which also ran for five years from 2000 to 2005.

Many of us thought that Andromeda would be the last original work of Gene’s that we ever saw on television (or in any other format), but it looks like there’s a slight chance we might have been wrong… thanks to a little data recovery business called DriveSavers.

A number of news sites (both science fiction and mainstream) are reporting on this at the moment, and over on the DriveSavers Twitter feed they’re celebrating their discovery with the photo below.
DriveSavers have unpacked the contents of 200 discs of information owned by Gene, and for now, they’re remaining enigmatic about what they’ve found.  Judging by the looks on their faces, it’s something special!

Their work even received a big thank you from Rod Roddenberry, Gene and Majel Barrett’s son.

The wonderful TrekMovie website has the coverage on this story right here.  It’s a good read, and I bet I’m not the only Trek fan wondering what ideas might be floating around on those old discs.

Whether it was intended as a 50th Anniversary gift to fans or not, that’s exactly what it is.  The discs could have old script ideas or even completed scripts from Next Gen on them, and they might even contain a new series idea.

Though Gene had taken a step back from writing and producing toward the end of his life, you don’t just stop being creative if you’re a creative person.
Hopefully we’ll get more information soon.  I would love to see a new show sporting Gene’s name on it in the near future.