New Trek?

[baldguy]

"Star Trek" franchise set for 2008 revival: report

The as-yet-untitled "Star Trek" feature, the 11th since 1979, is aiming for a fall 2008 release through Paramount Pictures, the Viacom Inc. unit looking to restore its box-office luster under new management, the trade paper said.

The project will be directed by J.J. Abrams, whose Tom Cruise vehicle "Mission: Impossible III" will be released by Paramount on May 5. Abrams, famed for producing the TV shows "Alias" and "Lost," will also help write and produce.

Daily Variety said the action would center on the early days of "Star Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission.

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20060421/114561441400.html

[xmas74]

1. Did they finally get rid of Rick and Brannon?

JJ might be an interesting choice-lots of character development.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

2. Braga: I'm Done With Trek (Hell yeah!)

Here's a link to the Sci Fi Group post I did a while back:
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=265x2757

At least Braga's gone. Don't know about Berman

[xmas74]

4. Please let Berman be gone!

He ruined Trek in the first place.

[AllegroRondo]

3. They should do a TV series about Starfleet Academy

that would be entertaining.

[tigereye]

16. cool idea

my son is watching a lot of the various old Trek series with us and that would be fun to see.

[AllegroRondo]

19. and great opportunities for guest appearances

that would bring back fans. I could see Picard or Riker giving a guest lecture to new students.

[Bucky]

5. The only man who could play a young Jim Kirk is Jack Black.

Of course instead they'll cast some pretty blond boy who played a supporting role from Dawson's Creek or Smallville. He'll be respectful to women, he'll expose the hypocricy of some proto-fascist professor played by the only actor in the whole move I recognize, and he'll be utterly unKirklike. I hate it already.

[philosophie_en_rose]

6. Trek is dead.

The "pre-quel" might work, but I don't know that it would be worth $10 to see. It took 7 years of TNG to trick me into watching the last horrific movie.

[Love Bug]

7. That "Starfleet Academy" story has been around for years

Paramount just wants a series with young and unknown (read: cheap) model/actor types. Sounds like a drag.

The well has dried up on Trek. They should give it a rest.

[Orsino]

11. I keep hearing this meme...

...and don't quite understand it. I'm not sure what function a "rest" would have, or why the current break doesn't qualify.

What's needed, if anything can actually said to be needed, is a good story backed with good writing, directing and acting. A competent production team that cares could make this happen--whether or not there's a "rest" first.

What the franchise doesn't need is a suit demanding a Trek movie on a schedule established before there's even a script. That's how you end up with messes like Nemesis.

If only Joss Whedon would write it.

[Swede]

13. Joss Whedon sounds like a great idea.

He'd get it right.

[Orsino]

20. He'd certainly bring *something* interesting to Trek.

Possibly something that would have purists screaming, but at least it would have a pulse.

[Book Lover]

21. Everything you said and more

Now, if only someone would start rumours of something happening with The Secret of Vulcan Fury...

[Bridget Burke]

8. They wonder why movie attendance is dropping...

And more of us prefer our DVD collections.




(I'll be in my bunk.)

[Ramsey]

9. Hmmmmmm

Mal's toting quite a package there. :evilgrin:

[xchrom]

12. nice gun?

i always thought that boy was very cute.

[SaveElmer]

10. Depends on the exectution...

Could be good...I'm ready for a new Trek after a much needed break, and this will still be two years away.

I'm glad they are doing it...I look forward to it

[Frank Cannon]

14. This is great news

If anyone can pull this off, Mr. Abrams can.

And I'm glad they're going back to the roots of Trek. Three things that absolutely killed the "Star Trek" franchise were:

1) The relentless technobabble BS that substituted for story and dialogue.

2) The fact that things had become "too easy" and completely lacking in suspense. Everything could be solved with an adjustment to the ion time-space converter reflex assembly. "Enterprise" tried to get away from this problem at first, but it ultimately ended up mired in the same old nonsense.

3) Ludicrous interplanetary political garbage that NO ONE could possibly care about. As if anyone really gave a crap whether the people with the small latex knobs on their foreheads could get along with the people with the big latex crests on the backs of their necks.

The two things that made the original Star Trek series great were:

1) Great stories.

2) Great characters.

If Abrams can concentrate on these two simple things, he'll be fine, and this will be a great project.

[LeftyMom]

15. I kinda agree and disagree on the last one

When interplanetary politics were fleshed out and made realistic, those plotlines were fascinating. DS9 was definitely the series that handled this type of thing best, the mobile nature of the other series' made this problematic. With the ship-based series there was a temptation to introduce some people we'd never heard of before and solve thier problem in 42 minutes, then warp away. That sort of plotline has stunk it up since the original series (gluttons for punishment should watch The Omega Glory for reference) although it was somewhat more sucessful when it involved established species and could go into greater depth, as with Spock's dealings with the Romulans (NextGen) or the Klingon Civil War (primarily NextGen with a little bleedover into early DS9.) The only really good single-episode diplomacy story I can think of is Darmok, and it's so unlike the rest that I'm reluctant to lump it into the sub-genre at all.

[Frank Cannon]

17. Darmok was great, a real classic

It's how it ought to be done.

I know a lot of people probably liked the "latex knob vs. latex crest" ongoing political intrigue of latter-day Trek, but I think you really had to be a hardcore fan to really get into that. That whole Cardassian vs. Bajoran thing left me absolutely stone cold. It's the major reason I stopped watching Trek entirely, and I was a Trek fan since babyhood.

And recently, I'm finding that shows like "Firefly" and "Battlestar Galactica", which do not feature "aliens" in latex makeup speaking the Queen's English, are making it harder and harder to accept that kind of silliness. These shows still feature(d) political storylines in some form or another; they're just easier to get into.

[LeftyMom]

18. Ah, it's probably just a difference of perspective

I am (the previous post probably gave this away) something of a hardcore fan.