It’s not a subscriber-only story as far as I’m aware. I certainly don’t pay anything to Variety to receive their daily email, which this story came from. They used to require that non-subscribers click through an ad to view a story for free, but they seem to have scrapped that now. So I don’t know why it would be blocked to others.
Personally, I think this is great news for the Star Trek franchise. Maybe the news could be better, I don’t know, but I can’t see how this is bad with one exception.
I’m curious what Abrams and crew can do. MI3 will tell us what Abrams can do as a big budget director. I feel his creative instincts are pretty solid based on his past shows (although he did write Regarding Henry). And it’s good that the whole thing will be starting fresh primarily as a movie. Not tied to tv actors unable to jump to the big screen.
The one problem is the young Kirk and Spock. There’s no reason why they have to be the only stories old from that period. There had to be other people doing other things. Maybe the enterprise was the main ship, I don’t really know the details that well, but there had to be other exploratory crews doing cool stuff somewhere. I understand it probably seems like a safe approach to hook the fanbase, but it seems even more likely to alienate that same base.
Well, maybe we’ll find out what happened to Number 1.
I think it’s a smart move. Paramount knows that they have to make Star Trek movies that will appeal to mainstream audiences beyond the Trek fanbase, and to mainstream audiences Trek = Kirk and Spock. Shatner and Nimoy are now way too old to build a new franchise around, and their early years have never been documented on screen, so this is a great way for Paramount to get two bites of the apple - Kirk and Spock will bring them the mainstream audience, and by going younger with them they’ll hit the young audience they want, too.
Simply from the standpoint of “how do we make a Trek movie that people will actually go see in significant numbers?”, this is probably the best approach there is.
“You are, Number Six!”
That is what I’m saying. Instead of a prequel, make it along the lines of a Galatica reboot, stay true to the characters (ei make spock a woman and someone will die), and have a good story and everyone will love it.
Huh? That’s not what I’m saying at all. They’re not going to “reboot” anything. Whatever they do will no doubt stay within existing canon, it’s just that since Kirk and Spock’s early years have never been dealt with in TV or movies, they have a pretty wide remit to do whatever they want without contradicting canon.
There are four lights!
Honestly while this works for some things, I don’t think it’ll work for Star Trek. For one thing, Trek is a solidly established franchise with almost forty years of history. Going back to reinvent it would be… difficult to say the least.
Galactica IMO was in a different boat. You had a show that lasted a year, wasn’t really that great, and despite the cultish hardcore following never managed to do much other than get shown as reruns and a horrific sequel series.
— Alan
it’s like that dog at the old lady’s house that is missing an eye, two legs and a tail and looks at you with its one good eye longingly to tell you: “please, please, put me out of my misery”
It seems like there could be some reboot built into this prequel idea. Personally I hope so to make it a true movie franchise.
Reboot would be bad. They would piss off the entire hardcore Star Trek fanbase.
Screw Star Trek, I want a TJ Hooker movie.
“Starfleet Academy 90210” doesn’t do much for me. Then again neither did the last three movies. Or the last two series.
Honestly, the story’s played out. Time to move on. And this from a diehard Trekkie who tried like hell to enjoy everything Paramount shoved out the door.
I mean, “continuing the storyline” of TNG/DS9 would be of interest only to the hardest hardcore Trek fans… “OMG! It’s a series all about the Second Cardassian-Klingon War! Maybe they’ll include the Romulan Insurgency!” whereas skipping around the timeline involves risks the writers apparently seem unable to take.
I really enjoyed Enterprise’s first season where it was painfully obvious that Earth’s best and brightest starship, in comparison to the rest of the surrounding universe, really kind of sucked. In particular there was a great scene of drama where Enterprise confronted some pirate ship or something, dramatically loaded NEW TECH TORPEDOES, fired a volley away, to watch them serenely “plink” off the enemy’s shields. Whoops.
Apparently that didn’t attract enough viewers though, because they went straight to vampire space nazis from the future. Which is as a jumping-the-shark moment for the franchise as you’re likely to get.
Meh. Why not hang the new story on bringing Kirk (played by Shatner) back in the TNG era, bring Spock (Nimoy) along for the ride, and introduce a new, young cast to carry on from there? Maybe set something up maybe where Kirk could become an Admiral with Starfleet, maybe the head of Starfleet, and then have him in with guest appearances in the future. That way you’ve got a hook for older watchers and a younger cast to keep ST moving into the future. Starting all new like this just won’t work, because the characters are too linked with the actors, and ST just isn’t that popular anymore. It’s been declining for years, and the TNG cast doesn’t have anywhere near the lasting power of the TOS regulars.
I think this is actually how they should have gotten TNG off the ground in the first place. It would have ended the original show in a more fitting way, kind of evolved it into the new so the whole thing would’ve been one big happy franchise instead of all this disjointed crap with different captains and settings, etc.
Also, I don’t think this concept will work as a movie at all. Needs to be a TV series. Who’s gonna pay $12 to see some unknown play Young William Shatner? Hardcore geeks. Just hardcore geeks.
I think you’re mistaken. I’m a hardcore geek, and I wouldn’t pay to see that.
I’d watch it. :(
What I’d like them to do is have something set immediately after Voyager returned with all that stolen technology that Future Janeway brought back.
I want to see the ramifications of the devil-may-care forces in Starfleet who want to immediately incorporate the weapons and shields into the fleet, the cautious-minded old-school guys who think paradoxes are bad, and the secret cadre of black-ops dudes who wrest control of the stuff away and eventually form those Time Corps guys.
The key would be that all of this would be done in a series that doesn’t have time travel at all, I want to see them responsibly address the phenomenon.
See, now we’re back in hardcore geek territory again. The kind of people who care about this stuff don’t simply exist in enough numbers to sustain a network TV series, which is partly why Voyager and Enterprise both went down the toilet. If Trek is going to survive (and certainly there’s an argument to be had about whether or not it even should), Paramount have to pull it back into the mainstream, and that means Kirk and Spock. The TNG crew had their shot in the movie spotlight and their last two at-bats totally bombed. They’ve got to go back to what general audiences know and understand. The only part of Star Trek that has legitimately broken through into the popular consciousness on a broad level is Kirk and Spock. Everything else is geek-only fodder.
a) you guys are overestimating how much people care about continuity
b) you guys are overestimating how much people care about having the same actors play the roles