I'm sure if you are a Trek Fan of any kind you've been reading about the new movie. A new Kirk, A new Spock.....
If this what we want?
Star Trek is a funny creature. When classic Trek was first on TV it was dropped because the ratings didn't warrent the cost of the show. ($100,000 an episode). Fans kept it alive for another part of the season after it was dropped after season 2. Even with the large fan base the network wasn't going to spend that type of money when they could replace it with two sitcoms costing about $10,000 each. The fans were given a Saturday morning cartoon of Star Trek with much of the original cast doing the voice. (The network had not at that time figured out that the fans were adults, not kids - and a saturday morning kids cartoon was not what was wanted) There was talk of a second series with the original cast - but about the same time a film called Star Wars came out, a film that stayed in some theatres for over a YEAR! The time was right for SF. The first Star Trek film came out, and it was bad, real bad....but the fans were so starved for a new Trek, they didn't care. Fans would write bad reviews and still go see it again.
The next few movies were done right. The fans rejoiced! Now new Trek TV shows came into being. We jumped a generation further into the future and got ST:TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Now these had both good and bad episodes, so things were good.
Then came Enterprise. We dropped back a few generations and were getting the story of the first Star Ship. We were told that this would give us the origins of a lot of the things that were common place in the latter series. It started out great. A hint here and a hint there of things to come. It was a Trek Fans Dream. Then someone most have though, we don't want to just make this series for the few milliion Trek fans we have, we need more, lets turn Star Trek: Enterprise into a soap opera about a War that's never been talked about in any other Trek movie or show, not even mentioned! And it destroys Florida. Now the few million Trek fans are wondering why are we not getting shows on the formation of the UFP. Meeting some of the other races that are in furture shows? More on some of the tools used in furture shows? And why can't we have an episode with a beginning and an END. The rating started dropping as the show now longer was a MUST SEE WHEN ON by the fans. (Note: taped show that are viewed latter are not considered when the rating are done - since the person can fast forward the commercials). So there were two things they could have done. 1) Go back to the original idea of the show, with weekly episodes that didn't need last weeks and next weeks to understand or 2) cancel the show.
We all know what they did. And to make things worse they came out with one of the worse Trek movies since the first. It wasn't good enought to get the fans to go see it more than once.
So we get punished for their bad writing and scripts. Instead of going back to what worked we just stop STAR TREK. Fans were not happy.
Now we are getting their fix for Star Trek. Back to the beginings. Kirk and Spock and gang. We get the idea that's its about the early years. But the early years would not have had the orginal crew. The classic Trek was Kirks first five year mission as Capt. of the Enterprise. This was said in the TV show, Movies and the many books that have been out. This was the first time they were all together. SO WHAT IS THE NEW MOIVE ABOUT? There are rumors, some say that its going to be another time line - a what would have happened...now that would suck, I'm sorry - I want to see the series go forward, not start over. Another is that its takes place where the series left off and before the movies. This I can handle - I mean it will be hard getting used to new actors, but look at the James Bond Movies - were on Bond number Six.
Will the new movie relaunch Star Trek and will it take it down so deep we will never get it back.
I feel that there is so much in the Trek universe that could have been done. Why mess with the classic Trek.
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Comments: 27
This new Abrams movie that is being produced, I believe, will either be just as bad as Insurrection and Nemesis, or it will be a really good "what if" movie, but will still annoy us fans (which is easy to do).
Eventually, years from now, Trek may be revived as a TV or movie franchise again, but not any time soon. Trek has passed from the visual medium. It's time now for Star Wars to dominate TV for a time.
I don't think they ever gave the writers creative license to write what they wanted, I think the producers changed the bible trying to bring non-trek fans to the show. We were told before the show started that we would see how something started. Sort of an origins show. A trek fans greatest dream and many of the episodes lived up to that, but then we get a season of crap - which got it canceled.
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Any Netflix users out there?
Trek has never been about getting "it" all right. The concepts are almost always excellent, but the writing and production values are spotty at best. Probably why I am good at cherry picking in bad situations.
I can't watch Enterprise any more, even in reruns, because it's basically all about whether Trip and T'Pol are or aren't going to have sex. I read a comment not long after the show was cancelled which was basically that they couldn't have a new Trek series because there was no alien species left that Rick Berman could treat as a sex object- and frankly I agree.
On the issue of the Time War and why it's never mentioned in any of the future histories, I suppose you could argue that (as the agent in the stupid costume told Captain Archer when they finally stopped everything) the timeline repaired itself. So maybe in a very literal sense the whole thing never happened - kind of like that whole second-to-last season of "Dallas" being a dream (and if you're too young to remember what I mean, you're not missing much).
I will probably go and see this new film, just because I am interested to see how they will retcon this version of "the beginning" into the future continuity. I won't be lining up for it at midnight or anything though.
I distinctly recall one recent episode written by a great person. In this episode one of the characters (forgot which one) said .."talk about the pump"
No if you really think about that, there's a mystery for you to keep some Trekies occupied for at least a good movie or a few episodes..
Maybe going back to what worked in the original Trek is a good move, though. You mentioned Bond. I think staying away from crazy gadgetry and surreal plots in the last Bond movie revived the franchise. The new, grittier Bond is the best Bond yet (and I say that with deference to Sean Connery).
I hope the relaunch will be true to Trek. If it is, the fans will accept the new crew, if not kiss it good bye.
Saw the new Star Trek and loved it.
I felt that Enterprise would have been a good show if they had done what they said they were going to do, and that was give us the beginning of the federation and this they did very little. As to how the male stars acted, I had no problem with - just look at some of the tapes taken on the International Space Station....
TV is a funny art form. You have a show and it gets viewers, then you get some really bad scripts and you cancel the show instead of firing the writers... At least with the movies they waited until they got a good story...
Now the question is will be see Trek on TV again? And in what form? Also how will the Klingons look now? Personally I would like to see both kinds - since they gave us the reason they looked different in the Original Star Trek on Enterprise.
My review of Star Trek (2009) is here
I liked the recounting of Star Trek history. I recall seeing the first episode or the first season and most of the others when they aired. I loved that show. I have never seen an episode of "Enterprise", and I'm wondering if I have anything to look forward to.
It just seems like these people just want to make money off pumping some adrenaline into the old corpse and trotting it out for everone's nostalgic impulses, not really home in on what the mission of Gene Roddenberry was - ie. to be subversive and criticize our own world and government.
The new movie did what I didn't think could be done...a complete reboot that fit into the Star Trek universe. It worked....Unlike the Enterprise after season1, except for the last episode of the series...which made it seem as if the power to be wanted to see how badly they could handle the show and get fans to watch, then after its been canceled do an episode that said "We knew how to do the show, we just didn't want to".