Watch This Awesome Documentary About the Lost STAR TREK: PHASE II Project

If you're a Star Trek fan who loves diving into the deep lore of the franchise’s evolution, there’s a new 30-minute documentary that you absolutely need to check out titled Lost Voyages. This new project explores the behind-the-scenes saga of Star Trek: Phase II, the abandoned continuation series from the 1970s that almost reshaped the Star Trek universe.

This documentary is produced by the Roddenberry Archive and OTOY, the same teams responsible for those stunning Star Trek short films and other archival deep dives. With Lost Voyages, they’re sharing details on what might have been if Phase II had actually made it to television screens instead of morphing into Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The story begins in the mid-70s, when Paramount realized just how massive Star Trek had become in syndication. That realization led to a flood of ideas, including early film concepts and eventually a full-blown sequel series.

Lost Voyages digs into the creation of Phase II with commentary from Jon Povill, who served as the show’s producer, and writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. You'll also hear from Trek legends George Takei and Walter Koenig, adding firsthand insight into this fascinating alternate path the franchise nearly took.

One of the most captivating aspects of the documentary is how it visually reconstructs what the show would’ve looked like. Thanks to OTOY’s signature 3D work, fans get to see recreated concept art and set designs like the revamped Enterprise bridge.

These designs were eventually refined and used in The Motion Picture, but here they’re imagined as they might have originally appeared for the small screen.

The documentary also recounts how the whole project unraveled when Paramount decided to convert the pilot episode, “In Thy Image,” into a theatrical film, a decision that changed the course of Star Trek history.

Sure, much of this ground has been covered before in various books and retrospectives, but Lost Voyages presents it all in a way that feels fresh and cinematic.

This is a genuinely cool look at a piece of Star Trek history that almost happened, but didn’t. And it might make you wonder what Star Trek would look like today if it had.

If you're curious about how close we came to getting a very different version of Star Trek, this is absolutely worth 30 minutes of your time.