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New TekWar Series / Game
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Deadline report that William Shatner's TekWar is being developed into a new adult animation and mixed-reality series. Audience members will be able to participate in the show and its story through mobiles, tablets or wearabe devices.

Intriguing.

Producers say the series is the first step in building a real-time multiverse around a property and Shatner, who has been involved in pioneering new frontiers his entire career.

Persistent, interactive fictional worlds have been around for decades in the form of online games - MMOs and before them, MUDs - but it's true that no-one has tried to build anything like it around Shatner. There's a Star Trek MMO but he had no involvement with it.

Interactive television is also not new. Our own Let the Blood Run Free was an early example which allowed viewers to vote by telephone to choose the direction of the story. But technology has advanced considerably since then and there's real potential here.

That said, what is TekWar?

What is TekWar?

One of the many TV shows which didn't reach our shores back in its day. If it did we couldn't find any record of that.

Let's start with Deadline's description:

The franchise began as a bestselling book series and became a hit live-action television series featuring Shatner, as well as a comic book series and a video game. The Emmy-nominated series, which ran from 1994-96, aired on USA Network and Sci Fi Channel in the U.S. and CTV in Canada.

After examining said research this is revealed to be some impressive spin. The books were panned by critics. Possibly one made a bestseller list somewhere in the world. Likewise the game was a flop.

What was the emmy nomination for? Outstanding individual achievement in graphic design and title sequences.

The TV series also eventually crashed and burned but was a genuine hit for some of its run. Its first series took the form of four movie length episodes. Those performed strongly and spawned a full second series of one hour episodes. Ratings for the first series two episode was record-breaking - which is indicative of enjoyment of series one - then they swiftly bled viewers until being cut short, leaving four episodes unaired.

What could be inferred from the success of those first four movie length episodes is that the property itself is probably solid and can be the subject of good entertainment in the right hands.

[ Main Image : TekWar. Credit: Atlantis Films Limited via Alchetron. ]

References

Alchetron. TekWar (TV series). (viewed September 30, 2021)

Emmys (1994). TekWar. Television Academy. https://www.emmys.com/shows/tekwar

Petski, Denise (September 28, 2021). William Shatner’s ‘TekWar’ In Works As Adult Animated Series With Pure Imagination Studios. Deadline.

Wikipedia. TekWar. (viewed September 30, 2021)

Wikipedia. TekWar (novel). (viewed September 30,2021)

Wikipedia. TekWar (TV series). (viewed September 30, 2021)

Wikipedia. William Shatner's TekWar. (viewed September 30, 2021)