10 Promising Movies Cancelled For Bizarre Reasons
5. Star Trek: Planet Of The Titans Was Cancelled Because There Was Apparently "No Future In Science Fiction"
Although it has since gone on to amass an enormous following, during its original run Star Trek: The Original Series initially proved highly unpopular amongst NBC executives.
This, combined with its poor Nielsen ratings, led to the series being cancelled after just 3 series in 1969 and the syndication rights being sold to other channels.
However, re-runs of the shows proved popular amongst audiences and by the late 1970s broadcast rights for the show had been sold in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets.
The show's newfound popularity gained the attention of executives at Paramount Studios who allocated a multi-million-dollar budget to creator Gene Roddenberry to develop a feature film based on the TV series.
This began a long process of script re-writes and false starts before finally settling on the Planet of the Titans storyline in 1977.
This progress didn't last long however, as uncertainty surrounding the upcoming release of Star Wars and further script disputes caused the film to be cancelled just months later.
This debacle prompted Paramount's Barry Diller to infamously proclaim, "there is no future in science fiction". Unsurprisingly, given the breakout success of Star Wars, this cancellation didn't last long.
After a swift script re-write and negotiations to get the original series' cast on-board, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in 1979.