Is there a Star Trek blueprint which has just been remodelled? Do they just repeat the same set things over and over again?

The original Star Trek created a blueprint that�s been followed not only by the subsequent Star Treks but by a lot of other shows, as well. Babylon 5, I think, owes a great deal to the original Star Trek. It goes off on a terrific tangent of its own, but you can see original Star Trek in it.

On Farscape, we worked hard not to do what Star Trek was doing, not to be as technical as they are, to be a little bit more hot and emotional and all that. It was a direct reaction to what Star Trek was. If Star Trek wasn�t there we wouldn�t know what to play off of to try to make it different than the original Star Trek.

The original Star Trek, which started in 1966, predated all kinds of science fiction film entertainment, that we�ve come to take as classic, since then. It was before 2001, certainly before Star Wars and Close Encounters or any of those things, it was before man had landed on the moon, so it really lit the fuse for a science fiction film.

So if you watch Star Wars, for example, you�ll see that there are elements of the Star Trek lexicon in Star Wars, things like tractor beams and all that. What that tells me is that George Lucas said �I don�t know what else to call it but a tractor beam.� It�s a perfect name for it.