William Shatner’s Answer to Blade Runner Was TekWar. Critics Called It “Dullbladerunner”

William Shatner is the very definition of a larger-than-life character. It’s hard to believe he’s now 95, but his resume proves it. As Captain James Kirk, Shatner helped revitalize space operas as we know them. When you become the face of a franchise like Star Trek, you have certainly reached the final frontier of sci-fi royalty. With Star Trek turning 60 this year, it’s the perfect time to revisit the sci-fi universe Shatner tried to build on his own.

And yet, Shatner wanted more than just the Enterprise. By the late ‘80s, he had an epiphany: a series of novels that could become the next multimedia empire. Drawing on the cyberpunk influences of Blade Runner and elements of hardboiled detective dramas like Shatner’s own T.J. Hooker, he eventually developed the basis for TekWar.

After four made-for-TV movies, nine novels, a series of comic books, one video game, and a one-season show, TekWar was largely forgotten. How could a franchise with Captain Kirk himself fail so hard? Well, it was all a matter of poor timing and tight budgets, a very common trend in ‘90s entertainment.

TekWar Origins: How William Shatner Built a Cyberpunk Franchise

TekWar became Shatner’s passion project. In 1989, he published the franchise’s first novel. Despite using ghostwriter Ron Goulart (something most celebrities do), Shatner’s name appeared front and center on the book’s cover. This was his baby now that Star Trek was moving on to a new cast. The next step was to take TekWar from the pages to the small screen – and Shatner would also oversee that process.

Shatner produced and directed TekWar, the first movie in the series. The made-for-TV film establishes the world of TekWar: set in the year 2044, a segment of society has become addicted to “Tek” – a microchip neural drug that blurs the line between reality and cyberspace.

At the center of the action is Jake Cardigan, a former police detective framed for dealing Tek and murdering his fellow officers, who spent four years frozen in a cryogenic prison, Demolition Man style. Cardigan is granted early release by Walter Bascom (played by, you guessed it, William Shatner), CEO of Cosmos, a powerful private security agency. In exchange for his freedom, Cardigan works as a private investigator hunting down TekLords, which are this universe’s drug lords.

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TekWar TV Series: Why Shatner’s Cyberpunk Show Failed

After working on three more TekWar movies, Shatner briefly returned to the Enterprise in 1994’s Star Trek Generations. After that, it was time to turn TekWar into a proper series. All the made-for-TV films were considered “Season 1”, while the new, hour-long episodes would become the series’ second season.

As it turns out, the transition to a smaller format didn’t work out for such an ambitious cyberpunk project. Critics noted how cheap everything looked: even the synth-heavy music caught some flak. Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker famously called the show “Dullbladerunner” in his 1994 review, reviewing it alongside Babylon 5. (The original TekWar movie holds a 36% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on two critic reviews.)

In the end, the show became the only thing a cyberpunk serial should never be: predictable. TekWar was just another detective show, with the only difference being that everyone used toy guns. As we mentioned before, the weekly show only lasted one season, airing over two years. It did start strong, though: the premiere pulled a 3.4 rating, the highest for a basic cable premiere at the time. But viewership slid, and USA Network canceled the series in 1995 with four episodes still unaired, which finally aired in early 1996.

As ill-fated as the series was, the TekWar franchise didn’t end there. Shatner published another novel to tie things off, along with an extra batch of comic books. In 2021, Shatner announced that work had started on a TekWar animated series. That was the first, and so far the last, we heard of the project. Is the franchise dead? Nobody really knows, but at least we can still watch the original series in all of its glorious cheesiness.

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Where to Watch TekWar

TekWar: The Original Movie can be found digitally through Movies Anywhere and Google Play, while the full 18-episode series is sold on DVD through Amazon. The TekWar sci-fi television series is available to stream for free on the TekWar YouTube Playlist.