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Crazy Star Trek Rumor

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Matt:
There's so many Trek rumors. I don't believe any of them.

RottingCorpse:
So, making rounds on the net this morning is that J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Mission Impossible III) will be working on a movie about young Kirk and Spock. It came from the Daily Variety, not known to print random fanboy rumors.

I think Nacho's riffed on the subject before, but I think it bears discussing again . . . Has the era of Star Trek passed us by? In a world of suicide bombers, dying republics, red/blue state warfare, and reality TV, does the idea of man "boldly going where no man has gone before" lose all meaning? The whole show was a product of cold war mentality and seems to be Roddensberry not so subtly telling the Russkies, "This is what space exploration will be like if WE win the space race." (In the sixties, having the Asian dude and the hot black chick as part of your ensemble was still raw and edgy.)

Oh, and let's not forget that Star Trek bombed in it's regular run. It became popular in syndication through fan love.

Anyway, Star Trek: Can it be resurrected or is this another shameful case of Hollywood grave robbing?

nacho:
We aren't past the era of Star Trek.  Deep Space 9 upgraded the franchise for 90's-style Iraqi/terrorist conflict.  Voyager removed us from the regular formula all together.  Enterprise would have been good if it hadn't of been manhandled.  You can, really, do whatever you want with the franchise.  Which is why it's constantly revisited by Hollywood.

And, yes, the original series tanked --but not for long.  It was back in action, and big enough to inspire serious remake activity, just a few years later.  And TNG was hugely popular -- hell, UPN's backbone is built on TNG.  DS9 also has a strong following.  Voyager was the beginning of the end, ratings wise, but still strong enough to keep the boat afloat.  Enterprise's hideous demise was the fault of bad writing and no thought, not the audience getting tired of the series.  Enterprise should have been an edgy political thriller with aliens, but that takes talent that Team Star Trek lacked.

All that said -- grave robbing is exactly what this is.  As usual -- and Star Trek is the poster child, also, for this problem -- the men behind the curtain don't know what we want.  They want to cash in on the franchise, and good for them, but they're so far removed from the fans it's impossible for them to think of a working concept beyond throw every element and character together and write a script in a weekend.  Star Trek's always been simple, often mind-numbing, but we've started to see it try to copy itself.  Nemesis, for example, was a desperate attempt to recapture Wrath of Kahn.  If it's not doing that, it's biting off more than it can chew.  Enterprise could have followed the rise of the humans/Starfleet/the Federation and nothing else and been wonderful.  Instead we got feel-good scripts, ridiculous love triangles, the "Temporal Cold War," and the most misguided need I've ever seen to feature all the villians from the other shows...even though that meant completely rewriting the Star Trek bible, which, when fans complained loud enough, resulted in equally misguided attempts to try and explain away what they had done. 

fajwat:
without Gene, star trek as a franchise isn't really an entity anymore.  I agree with all of what Nacho just said, but I don't think we can count on anything other than repetition of Enterprise-class mistakes, except where existing teams (DS9) are in place and not being interfered with.

Matt:
Nacho hit it on the head. There was such fucking potential for Enterprise... I felt it could have been DS9 2, with the Romulan Wars being an excellent variation on the Dominion Wars that made DS9 so tight.

Also, the leader of televised science fiction has passed to Battlestar Galactica. It doesn't have the cult history that Star Trek does, but it's garnered much, much more critical acclaim. Star Trek took risks when it first came out, but now those risks are being taken by BSG.

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