Here are FOUR reasons why the newly proposed Star Trek movie, to be co-written and directed by Alias and Lost creator/writer J.J. Abrams, should be strangled in its craddle:
(1) It’s the two-decades old Starfleet Academy/young Kirk-meets-young Spock idea. Going into full geek mode for a moment, this story idea is completely bogus! Spock is older than Kirk, was at the Academy much earlier, and had already served on the Enterprise with its previous Captain, Christopher Pike, for over 11 years. Both official and non-official canon has established the time line of these events, and the idea that it’s all going to be thrown out the window, just because the latest Hollywood hot-shot wants a crack at it, is sheer vandalism! To say nothing of beating the deadest of dead horses…
(2) Following on from that, the very idea of RECASTING roles as iconic as Kirk and Spock — especially when both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy continue to live long and prosper — is completely INSANE! Were the Original Series and the first six landmark movies not enough of a showcase for these incredible individuals? They’ve become part of the bloody zeitgeist! It’s insulting.
(3) The prequel idea is boring at best, and unworkable & unrewarding at worst. Enterprise mined pretty much everything there was to the early pre-Original Series days…and failed to fire the imagination in any way! Why are people determined to dip into this crap-retro well? Star Trek succeeds when it blasts open new doors, when it reaches into the future and does something new and exciting…it’s why The Next Generation (and NOT copycat/wannabe Voyager) was such a ratings success, and why Deep Space Nine was such a critical & artistic success.
(4) Speaking of DS9, it is THAT glorious series that deserves to return (preferably as a mini-series), if Trek is to be resurrected with any sense of style or grandeur. If not DS9 itself, then the rich vein of Alpha Quadrant society which it so beautifully opened up to the world. DS9 portrayed the Star Trek universe as a complex, shocking, even mythic universe, that wasn’t close to being cliched, Hollywood-style black and white. War, struggle, faith, hope, joy…it was the the living incarnation of all Star Trek. If Trek is to return, it should be to the future established by DS9; it should go forward, expand on what has already been built, and create something fresh and exciting.
On the very eve of the 40th anniversary, we must ask ourselves: whatever happened to boldly going where none have gone before? This proposed Trek movie is a rehash: reheated, tired elements and ideas that are anathema to everything Star Trek, at its best, should symbolize. Star Trek died for me the day Deep Space Nine concluded its final, brilliant season. This proposed Star Trek XI will do nothing to resurrect it.
In fact, it could only harm a franchise that needs not only a solid rest, but a creative renaissance that will make it WORTHY of returning. It doesn’t deserve to be brought back simply because a Paramount Pictures executive has a cunning plan to re-brand the company, using one of its most venerable franchises as a strategic pawn. Perhaps when Ronald D. Moore (ex-TNG and DS9 writer-producer, and now showrunner of Battlestar Galactica) finishes with the journey of his rag-tag fleet, he will return to take Star Trek properly into its fourth or fifth decade…?
We can but pray.
