Network: CTV Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1994 to 1995
Broadcast Medium: Television
Star Trek made William Shatner an international star, but his talents were not confined to acting. Indeed, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was quoted as saying of Shatner’s writing that “it was so damned poetic that I caught myself wishing that I could write that well”.
Shatner wrote a series of nine Tekwar novels, set in the year 2045 and beyond. “Tek” was a virtual-reality narcotic, and the novels told the stories of Jake Cardigan, a cop disgraced on trumped-up drug charges, who fought his own war against the Teklords of the narcotic underworld, in an exceptionally high-tech (pun intended) futuristic environment. The novels formed the basis for four 2-hour made-for television movies and eighteen one-hour series episodes, which played on CTV, and on the U.S. Network on cable. The series starred Greg Evigan as Jake Cardigan, and Eugene Clark, Natalie Radford and Maria Del Mar were his costars. William Shatner appeared in the movies, and guested in the first three series episodes and the eighteenth (and last). Other guests included Torri Higginson, Jennifer Dale, Cynthia Belliveau, David Cubitt and Billy Newton-Davis.
The movies played on CTV in the spring of 1994. The series was launched the following September, on Thursdays at 9:00pm (where it replaced the sadly-cancelled E.N.G.), but despite the strong potential marquee value of the participants, viewers were markedly indifferent to Tekwar – the Series, and it folded at the end of the 1994-95 season.
Written by Pip Wedge – March, 2003