George Takei explains the resurgence of interest in the original series, which he claims is due to Gene Roddenberry's philosophy of an optimistic future.

As reported at Total Sci Fi, George Takei visited London recently to promote the season one release of the remastered original series. He shared some of his thoughts regarding the redone episodes. "The remastered series is technically much improved," he said. "But we're not destroying the original. We now have the best of two possible worlds. We can take advantage of the advances made in technology to create that dazzling reality."

Takei also spoke about the reawakening of interest in Star Trek. When asked why people have returned to the original series, he said. "It's Gene Roddenberry's core philosophy I think. With each succeeding spin off series I think the producers got a little further and further away from Gene's philosophy: to look to the future as a bracing challenge. So much of science fiction looks to the future with doom and gloom. Gene said that if we have confidence in our creativity, our inventive capacity, our problem solving capacity, we can make positive progress."

This resurgent interest in Star Trek has resulted in fan productions, such as Star Trek: New Voyages. Takei has recently appeared as Sulu in the World Enough and Time episode produced by New Voyages. He explained that the episode was written back in the 1970s when NBC and Paramount were considering reviving the original series for television. "I was just delighted to be in it," says Takei of his participation in World Enough and Time. If that had gone in the 1970s, I would have played the young Sulu, as well as the older Sulu with make up. I regret that part – however I was able to provide my own make up for the Sulu that returns as a barbarian!"

Recently, there have been rumors that Takei would have a role in Star Trek XI, reprising his role of Sulu. As reported at Trekmovie, Takei's business manager and partner has debunked the rumor saying, "The Starburst Magazine article is erroneous. We will be as surprised as the fans if George is in Star Trek XI."

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