10 TV Shows That Wanted To Be Star Trek
8. Sliders
Sliders debuted in 1995, ran for five years, and was mostly successful for its lifetime. Several Trek stars would appear - including John Rhys Davies and Jerry O'Connell, two of the leads from the beginning.
The show explored the nature of parallel worlds, moving from week to week, attempting to get to a home they feel is lost. There are shades of Star Trek: Voyager in the premise. Voyager too was lost in a far-flung part of the galaxy, trying each week to get home. Though Sliders has more in common with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell's Quantum Leap than anything else, the Trek connections are present.
In addition to this, the show was in part developed by Tracé Torme, who had worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation as a scriptwriter. According to Rhys-Davies, the show began as an exception premise that explored the nature of reality, not unlike the human condition that was so frequently explored in Star Trek. However, the show's cancellation by Fox after its third season, and subsequent acquisition by the SyFy network, resulted in a more action-oriented show, which he felt ruined the potential that it had.
The show was finally canceled for a second time at the end of the fifth season, with an unresolved cliffhanger.