Save the Star Trek movie franchise!

Or not.

The last Star Trek film, Star Trek: Nemesis, achieved a feat many didn’t expect - it made less money than Star Trek V, the one real “bomb” up to that point. With the dismal performance of Nemesis and the cancellation of Enterprise after only four seasons, a lot of people would agree that the best Star Trek right now would be no Star Trek.

Still, at some point, someone at Paramount is bound to feel the time is right to restart the movie franchise. Is it possible to make a new Star Trek film people would want to see? And by people, I don’t mean guys who wear Spock ears to conventions and send their kids to Klingon summer camp, just the average Joe looking for a decent SF romp.

Would they use the Next Gen cast? DS9? Voyager? (Okay, just kidding on the last one.) Would they assemble a new cast? Would it take place in the current timeline, the distant past or the future? Would they be better off doing an intimate character-driven film or an all-out special effects-laden opus?

Let the dorky speculation begin! (please)

DS9. Bring back the black Captain and kick some ass. For a time, it was fashionable to like Picard over Kirk. I think that after First Contact, people realized how terrible Picard was as an action hero which is really what is at the heart of the Star Trek movie franchise: adventure. They need to have a Captain that can bring adventure back to the franchise, Enterprise wasn’t it, they did pulled the wool over our eyes on that one. I thought we’d get a Kirk type Captain who was interested in going out there and kicking ass, instead, after the first few episodes, we got another Picard. That’s why I think it failed. Cisco can bring adventure back to the franchise.

Enterprise failed because it was a bunch of mediocre to just plain bad actors playing bland characters in idiotic storylines. Scott Bakula not being a good action hero was just one thing on a very long list of problems with that show.

Picard was great, but I’d have to agree that he maybe wasn’t the best “action hero” captain. But you put him on that bridge and he’s an ass-kicker. Stewart is an actor more suited to playing generals than he is a soldier on the line, but he’s extremely good at it.

I’ve said this elsewhere, and I’ll say it again here: if Enterprise was just Avery Brooks, Patrick Stewart and William Shatner wearing pimp suits and slapping around Scott Bakula in drag, it would’ve been an awesome show.

What do I want in a Star Trek movie? I think I’d like a Star Trek war movie, with a mix of cast from both TNG and DS9. Get the Defiant with Sisco and Worf going behind enemy lines to kick some Cardassian ass or something. Make Picard an Admiral commanding the front lines. Hell, I don’t know, I just want DS9 back. I don’t think anything short of a return of DS9 will make me like Star Trek again.

Can we not save it?

What brings these franchises back to life are a generation of fans fulminating over ideas and concepts.

That’s what brought ST back the first time. But the franchise was too deeply mined, and it’s dilithium veins were tapped out. Thus Battlestar Galactica was born.

No doubt Paramount will attempt to bring it back to early and kill it over again.

But you really want to bring it back? Reset. Start over.
Not a sequel, but a re-imagining. New Kirk, new Spock, new McCoy.

And oh, how the fans will howl, right up until the moment it appears on the silver screen (or DVD holo-disc or whatever). And then they’ll line up in droves, especially if it’s good.

I fully believe there is a 10 year old somewhere on this planet who has what it takes to make this work. I can hardly wait to see him do it… in 20 years.

Back when I worked at OMNI, one of the editors told me a very interesting tidbit… Paramount apparently optioned the rights to the original TOS actors’ voices and likenesses, with the thought of being able to do an original series remake once computer technology reached the level of being able to do convincing CGI humans.

As for the franchise, the stupidity of it all is Paramount saying that the last Trek movie failed because people were tiring of Star Trek. No, it was more likely because it was an absolutely abysmal script.

I think they were also tired of the cast. For the most part, the audience had been watching the cast for over 20 years. With the original (and best) cast, there was a 10 year time difference. As much as I would have loved to see the original cast in another movie after The Undiscovered Country, I think another one would have really pushed the envelope and probably wouldn’t have done well.

Either reset and do the original show with all-new actors (which is inevitable, really), or FINALLY use the movies with the original cast as a launching pad for a new series. If the latter, they should try and get Kirk back. Shatner was saying a month ago that he’d be interested, that his upcoming Kirk novel gives the franchise a possible direction (anyone ever looked at any of Shatner’s Kirk books? man, they’re awful). Bringing Kirk back would be the only thing that would revive ST on TV or at the theater, IMO.

Now that the franchise has been completely run into the ground, maybe the powers that be at Paramount will finally realize that they made a huge mistake never really acknowledging TOS in the TNG era. The original show is still the only one that people have any real emotional attachment to. Say what you want about TNG and Stewart’s acting chops, but that show was cold and impersonal, as were its successors.

Fuck Star Trek, Star Wars and Star Search. Thank you very much.

I think all things Star Trek need a 5 year break. Then a reset of the original series.

When they had 3 series going at once, plus movies coming out, only a hard core ST geek could keep up, and the audience dwindled to just that fringe.

Stop making new series, put it in the vault for 5+ years, then bring it out fresh.

PLEASE no “re-imaginings” of the original series. That was the problem with the last two spin-offs; they were trying to clone the x-factors that made the previous series successful.

Do something NEW. TNG succeeded because it took the original concepts of TOS and made a logical progression as to how the galaxy might have developed. DS9 took the squeaky clean sheen of the Star Trek universe, making it a more gray and more dangerous place (that is, until the utterly abysmal seventh season). Both Voyager and Enterprise tried to combine all of the above into “sure fire” hits. They failed miserably because it all felt like warmed-over episodes from a decade earlier (though I didn’t watch Enterprise’s latter seasons which, reportedly, improved).

Yes, I don’t want to see a “new” Kirk, Spock, and Bones because I’m attached to the originals. But I also don’t want another retread misfire, where we’re more interested in the updated set dressing than fresh storytelling (“Oooh, this is the episode where the re-imagined Klingons meet the re-imagined Borg! AWEsome!”)

I think a break will recharge the creative direction of Star Trek. It might also make Paramount be a bit more careful as to the quality of the next production, instead of just churning out any old thing to keep the franchise alive.

all the people wanting re-imaginings forget that battlestar galactica was popular with like, what, 1-3% of the population? tos is freaking ingrained into the collective consciousness. shatner, nimoy, etc all of them are pop icons.{/pretensiousness}

what we need are guys in charge who can tell a good story with interesting characters. that why ds9 and battlestar galactica are considered good, while enterprise and voyager were not.

Okay, I’m convinced. No re-imaginings.

How about a 10 year break, then push the series 100 more years into the future?

Kirk is a good action… no.

I’m not even going to get into this discussion with a bunch of rabid fanboys who look back at the original series, compare to TNG or DS9 and say “see omg that’s so much better”.

it’s less important to look at the “spock’s brain” episode than to look at the effect the characters had. a person could go his whole life without seeing a single tos ep, hate all things sci-fi, and still know spock is logical and emotionless, kirk is a charismatic ladies man born to lead, etc. how big of an effect will most of the new crop have outside of the fans?

Data was an android that was, uh, fully functional.

It’s just like your typical hollywood M.T. Suit to think that Nemesis failed because the fans are tired of Trek.

It failed because it was utter crap, and I’m sure everyone but them knows that. How bad can a ST movie get? Well, Nemesis raised the bar.

As for what can save it… Do we want it saved? I think I’m not too excited about more TNG movies, and someone, please - execute everyone involved with Enterprise. Except the Vulcan chick, send her to Hef, or my house, whichever is closer.

Anyway, I agree a break is in order, and they need a new Trek series without the same damn formula. Hell, even DS9 became “seek out new life and new blah de blah” after the first season or two.

I said this awhile back in the HOLY SHIT A GOOD ENTERPRISE EPISODE thread:

Here’s my pitch for a new Trek series: The maiden launch of Enterprise with Captain Pike. Slowly introduce characters (played by different, young actors) from the old series as they get assigned to the Enterprise. Do what the hell ever; the whole time you know what eventually happens to Pike. Maybe he falls in love only once in the series, vowing to return to this wonderful woman when his tour is through. Ha ha, oops. I want to see Spock (played by Elijah Wood) clumsily learn to be a Science Officer and get the bird frequently behind his back for being a Vulcan. I want to see Uhura (played by Brandy) and the others slink about in those sexist, stupid uniforms. Whose the guy from Harold and Kumar? Sulu. Too bad Tim Olyphant is on Deadwood already (actually, no it isn’t too bad at all) - there’s your fucking Pike, gang. HAHA WOOPS WRONG STARSHIP NEVER MIND as alien races cower from them steely blue eyes. Why did we never hear from them again? Because Captain Pike looked the alien leader square in the eyes and said “Get the Hell out of Federation Space, now” through clenched teeth.

Pretty easy to save it. Give the franchise to Joss Whedon or J Michael Straczynski.

Here here, Rimbo!

Best thing for ST would be to give it a B5/BSG treatment - i.e., continuous, non-syndication-driven storyline. In any ST episode (except the last two seasons of DS9) you could watch them in any order, hell reverse order, wouldn’t matter. Try doing that with B5 or BSG and you’ll be confused as hell. Continuous, changing plotlines make the best T.V., not recycled one-hour plots.

Oh, and put Claudia Christian and/or Mira Furlan in it, too.

Actually, that was kind of the approach Enterprise took with the Season 3 Xindi arc.