Fan scepticism greet the show at first

W we first started the audience was very, very sceptical. They were very loyal to classic Kirk, Spock and Bones Trek, and very sceptical of who we were and why we were there. It had been a long time between the two - the two shows.

We actually had three different contracts. We had a contract for the pilot, a contract for the first half of the first season, then a contract if, in fact, it was to be extended. They dolled out the additional signings as the show went off the charts.

It was the first hour drama made here directly for syndication, so it had broken the ground in a lot of ways, so it was able to be sold individually to two hundred and seventeen separate television stations in the States. with fifty percent of the advertising attached. It became a really big financial gorilla for the studio, and when the numbers turned out to be better than they had projected we, of course, were picked up.

Somewhere near the end of the first season, I think. it was clear that we weren�t going to go away and we were different enough [from the original series]. I think the fear, from talking with fans about it, was that we were going to somehow try to recreate what they had on Star Trek - and we weren�t. We weren�t about that. Patrick couldn�t be more different than Bill, and I certainly couldn�t be more different than Leonard, and Brent couldn�t be more different than the good doctor or from Leonard. So, we weren�t interchangeable, even though there were times when fans kept asking me if I was in fact Captain Kirk�s grandson. They wanted somehow to make a connection between the classic Trek and The Next Generation.