Star Trek fans often desire to see a show centered on the USS Excelsior, which Hikaru Sulu led.
“The USS Excelsior’s voyages are chronicled here…” Those are the lines that Hikaru Sulu could have spoken in the opening scene of the Star Trek TV series that he never made. Sulu, portrayed by actor George Takei since the pilot part of Star Trek: The Original Series and has appeared in 52 of the show’s 80 episodes, is a pivotal figure in the “Star Trek” canon.
USS Excelsior from Star Trek VI. Image Credit: YouTube Screenshot.
Even though fans demanded a series based on his time as captain of the USS Excelsior (NCC-2000), he never made it.
The USS Enterprise has appeared in numerous Star Trek media adaptations as a tribute to the US Navy battleships of the same name. Still, the narrative of the Excelsior has remained untold, which many viewers see as a squandered opportunity.
The Excelsior (NX-2000/NCC-2000) was promoted as the first of a new class of Starfleet exploration vessels in the 23rd century.
Awe-inspiring notions of “transwarp drive” were implemented in her design, and she was said to be capable of becoming the fastest starship in the entire United Federation of Planets.
Without going into detail about the ship’s capabilities, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’s Draught from 1982 is the first to refer to the vessel. The original script said that Sulu would promote to the captain of the Excelsior at the end of the month, but ultimately scrapped this change.
In the sequel film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Captain Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) describes the ship’s capabilities and then dismisses them. Despite his doubts about the technology, Scott is promoted to engineering captain on the vessel.
Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew stole the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) when “Scotty” sabotaged the ship’s trans-warp computer so they could begin their “quest for Spock.”
What Might Have Been: The USS Excelsior/Sulu TV Series
Despite his part in rescuing Spock and then in a time travel adventure involving whales and saving Earth, Sulu eventually took command of the USS Excelsior, though only after the ship had been retrofitted with more conventional warp drive technology. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, released in 1991, was the last film to feature the original series cast and have Sulu in the command chair.
Star Trek: The Next Generation had already spawned popular offshoot series that included Deep Space Nine and Voyager before the franchise began to experience viewer fatigue with the release of the prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise.
Nonetheless, many Trek fans throughout the ’90s wished for a spinoff series in which Sulu led the USS Excelsior. Fans had planned to convince Paramount that they would watch such a show.
Takei had previously stated that he was “baffled” by the studio’s decision to pass on the series, indicating he was enthusiastic about the concept. The Asian-American actor said he was surprised the show was canceled when fans demanded more episodes in a 2020 interview with StarTrek.com:
One fan said, “That’s what the fans imagined. They sent out a deluge of letters, and we were all using email by then. After that film, fans flooded Paramount with emails demanding a new spinoff series called “The Excelsior with Captain Sulu.” They used to write letters to us when we were on TV, but they switched to email after that. The executives at Paramount failed to see the potential because they could not see or hear it. Fans, though, felt it was brilliant and would have been a smashing success on every scale imaginable.
The closest fans ever got was in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager appropriately titled “Flashback,” which detailed Lt. Commander Tuvok’s time serving under Captain Sulu and fleshed out the events that transpired during the operation to rescue Kirk and Spock in Star Trek VI. The episode was decided as a “backdoor pilot” for a potential miniseries but failed to gain momentum at Paramount.
Takei had previously stated that, despite the passage of three decades, he would be willing to reprise his role as captain of the USS Excelsior if there was enough fan demand for it. With various Star Trek programs currently in production for the Paramount+ streaming service, there is still hope for us to watch the USS Excelsior’s travels.
