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Star Trek XI In Two To Three Years.
Tycoon Guy writes "It seems rumors of the franchise's demise were greatly exaggerated. TrekToday reports that according to Trek head honcho Rick Berman, a new film might come sooner than you think: 'If it gets done in two years or three years I think that timeframe for a new, fresh feature with a whole different outlook would be fine.' He's previously said that the film will feature a whole new cast and ship; it's being written by Band of Brothers screenwriter Erik Jendresen."
That has the potential to be very good. The writers would have the freedom to kill off or transform any crew members they wish, not just the ones wearing red shirts. With everyone and everything (including the ship) potentially expendable, it could be a wild ride with lots of plot reversals.
It also has the potential to be very bad. Many viewers don't realise how much the regular Trek actors influence the show by keeping an independent reality check on their characters. Multi-season arcs in TNG were actually actor driven (like Troi quietly disliking Worf for most of the show).
So while it might be a great movie, it might be Trek only in name. We'll have to wait and see. Too bad it will be an odd number movie.
So if they change all the actors, the writers and the style of the show, is it still Star Trek?
Sure, it'll have some of the same races and politics, but these are only ever used as plot devices.
Personally, I'm happy as long as it's well written. If labelling a new show "Star Trek" is what it takes to get it on the TV, then go right ahead. Just make sure it's good enough to stay there.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
or worse yet they bring him back and make it suck more.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
The best Star Trek movies were even numbered.
Star Trek II, was there a better villan than KHANN!!!!
Star Trek III, the search for spock kinda sucked.
Star Trek IV, was okay
The best one was the Undiscovered Country. I liked the interaction of the Klingons. It was one of the best movies, I loved the shakespear quotes. Once again dear friends, into the breach!
And is it just me, or have the Klingons gone from glorious warriors to whimps?? They used to be super strong, with ships designed for WAR. Yet they seem so weak. They are weaker than the Borg by a ton, they are weaker than most Enertrpise ships which are made to explore.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Is this the inevitable link that will cause the Star Wars Universe to meet the Star Trek Universe? Should prove to be some interesting fight scenes...
Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
All we need is a movie in that time period to answer some of those questions, in my opinion.
Umm, why? It's a historical fact that movies which attempt to explain anything to the fanboys just result in sucking. It's a little narrative device called "suspesion of disbelief"--a convincing universe doesn't keep bringing up self-referential explanations about how it all works. That's a warning sign of poor writing when you need to narrate everything to drive the story along. Keep the technical explanations in the after market reference books, as far as I'm concerned.
Incidentally, sometimes I think the tech in Star Trek is a little too conventional, actually. You have space vehicles--that go really fast. Shields--for really tough armor. You have a transportation system--that's instantaneous. You have a kitchen--that's also instantaneous. You've got guns that shoot out lasers (oh, my bad, "phasers"). You've got clip-on cell phone badges, PDAs, computers, and fancy sensors. And you've got really high definition TV.
While some of these technologies may violate the laws of physics, and so be magical and unexplainable, their uses aren't all that mysterious. You aim a gun, pull the trigger, stuff at the other end dies/gets stunned/whatever. You step into a booth and get sent to the next scene, supposedly a zillion miles away. The extent of the mystery is the invention of a zillion particles an episode, which is rather sad.
Ultimately, I find the human elements of Star Trek to be more interesting than the gadgetry, which is just a means to an end, when you get right down to it. When it's used well, it's unobtrusive and we simply accept it as part of the universe. But human beings... well, we've still got some ways to go before we ever figure those suckers out.
Actually insurrection just was awful because the plot was more or less lousy to the extrem (although the main acress was a cutie and also quite good at acting) Nemesis just was plain awful. I fell from my chair when the main villain suddenly appeared as a Dr. Evil ripoff, the acting was awful (Stewards being the exception), the plot basically dumped the entire non interference directive into the garbage bin the first five minutes and overall it was just a lousy copy of Wrath of Khan, which is a shame in itself. Khan replaced by Dr. Evil and beings an evil race copycatted by Nosferatu and a plot copycatted by Wrath of Khan. The whole movie basically sounded like, we dont can think of anything new, but wanna milk the cash cow and it also feeled like it.
Maybe during this break, Berman and crew can actually spend time watching other GOOD sci-fi shows like Firefly, Farscape, and Battlestar Galactica. That way there, they'll know what to shoot for.
I *still* think that the only reliable way to get solid (and consistant) sci-fi is to have a dedicated pay channel. Personally, I'd love to see an end to this network exec BS: "Ah! Farscape/Enterprise/Firefly costs WAY more than Fear Factor! No more of THAT!"
Reality T.V. sucks but the reality is that it's cheap eats for the networks. If Berman's going to make something work, he's going to have to find a way to do it cheaper (new characters I hear?), and faster. Not sure what that means, but then again, Star Trek II was done for half of what ST:I was and look how it turned out!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
This franchise must be the most godforsaken around.
Its become a laughing stock for non-Trekkies.
Its become an embarrassment for sci-fi fans.
It has been killed off by the weight of its own past, with its mixture paradoxes, incongruities and plain old shit.
There isn't even a way to do a Battlestar Galactica remake on it as there is simply too much legacy which cannot be ignored without massive suicide (or murder) by the Trekkies (see the "I love Kirk" comments above or the godawful time travel "I love Picardy & Kirk" ideas above).
Stargate 1, Farscape, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Lexx and Babylon 5 - all brought epic scope, interesting characters and a fresh approach to sci-fi.
Star Trek needs to be taken off its self-support, its a cancer on sci-fi.
(I ACKNOWLEDGE ITS PREVIOUS IMPORTANCE, WITHOUT THE ORIGINAL SERIES AND TNG, THE SERIES I HAVE MENTIONED WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN CREATED)
I haven't been terribly enthused with the franchise under Berman's stewardship and I keep scratching my head wondering "how the heck did this person gain so much influence over things?"
Anyone know?
I was somewhat annoyed that Enterprise was canceled since this season was covering a lot of ground mentioned in TOS. Beside the idiots that schedule it's airplay at the same time as Sci-Fi channel's top rated shows, I think one of the major issues with Star Trek is that they have jumped so much in the past and had so many stories that told about the future of Star Fleet. They writers have backed themselves into corners so to speak with the plots. To few mysteries remain. At this point it's just filling in the gaps.
I'd like to see them come up with a time travel paradox story line that messes things up so bad it can't be undone, effectively rebooting the whole thing. Or a story line that creates a patchwork universe out of different universes. Bring in new unknowns and minimize some of the known elements. One where the Vulcans never took the path of logic or the Romulans never split off from them. The Klingons never freed themselves from their oppression. There are lots of things that could be done but they need to make a major change.
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
I'm delighted to learn that the crew of the Enterprise has put together a cricket team.
Now he's planning to give us a *new* crew for the next movie tells me exactly two very important things:
1. Rick Berman does not have a clue about *why* Star Trek is so popular - if he did he would understand that the characters are as important to fans as the storylines and that those characters need to develop within the context of entire TV show seasons, not within a 2-hour movie.
2. Paramount is trying to short-change fans by doing a film using the Star Trek name but using unknown, lower-salaried actors because they're not prepared to pay the salaries Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, etc. would demand.
Star Trek suffered a slow, lingering 7-year death during Voyager (yes, Deep Space 9 was a pretty good series overall although TOS and TNG were much better), Enterprise was IMHO *not* a Star Trek series and so it's time to let the franchise Rest In Peace...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
And that's not all. Whatever happened to TNG's metaphasic shielding, which swould let you safely fly right into the sun? What happened to the finding that warp drive destroyed the fabric of space and would make subsequent space travel hazardous? What happened to that soliton wave technology that was supposed to replace warp drive but would have made a dandy weapon? On two or three occasions we've seen technology that could destabilize stars! I've lost count of the number of near omnipotent races the Federation has run into--- lessee, the Metroids, the Organians, Trellane's parents, Charlie X's guardians, the spinning ball of that loved anguish, V'ger, Q's people, the Doud, the Traveler, the Cythereans... what about them?
Who could write sensible stories with all these technologies and gods and societies interacting? It's a mess and it all just needs to be put to rest.
"The overall plot needs to be kept secret until the last season."
This is SUCH A WICKED AWESOME IDEA.
I mean, the plot of all of the best movies and TV shows I have EVAR watched the plot is a total mystery until the last five minutes!
P.S. unless you are David Lynch, please shut the fuck up. You are misusing the word "plot."
To confirm you're not a script, please piss in my ear.
"These technologies don't have any practical limits as defined by the shows and movies"
Isn't that the case with every television show and movie, sci-fi, fantasy, drama, action, or even documentary. Isn't that the case with REAL LIFE? I never stop to ask my friends why I can't pick of the phone and call up the Mars Rover. I never question why my car can't top 200mph. I never question these things because there's so blindingly obvious to me that there's no point questioning them. The same would doubtless be true for futurepeople and their futuretech.
Additionally, in the TV show, there certainly is an implied limit to the range of transporters. Pick any ten episodes of TOS or TNG (can'tcouch for VOY of DS9) and in at least half of them they'll need to transport somewhere, but can't because they're out of range.
In-depth explainations of futuretech's limitiations is pretty readily available in various books (like the Star Trek Technical Manual--I'm sure ever nerd's gotten at least one for Christmas). That's the kind of stuff that absolutely shouldn't be explained on screen. Weren't Voy and Enterprise cumbersome enough without even more useless exposition?
Let it die already FFS.
The stories have become more and more dull with each passing show/film, a sure sign that the series is at its end. It happens, quit hanging on to it, let it die with some dignity like Seinfeld.
Its time for new worlds to be created that'll bring in the next generation of science fiction fans. Star Trek XI will not bring in new people into the genre. Science fiction will disappear like westerns if the same old shit is repackaged over and over.
Truly 'ugly death' on-screen is made palatable by the weight of history ...as with, say, a graphic portrayal of D-Day. Employing it for the sake of light fiction is a move towards only the gore crowd ...and a miscalculation.
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
The reason that the latest Star Trek franchises have been unappealing to me is that the episodes have become too much like the other crappy social-dramas on TV, e.g., 90210, Dawson's Creek, OC.
:)
Star Trek was good because it was different. Saying it was "intellectual" might go too far. But it scratched a different itch.
Even if US TV watchers *like* shows like 90210, I'm tempted to think that they must like some variety as well. Even those people who fully enjoy reality TV and American Idol must eventually want to watch something different.
By making Star Trek the same as all the other shows, they eliminate the appeal that would have brought a "cross-over" audience while simultaneously alienating the fans who liked it for what it was in the first place!
If Star Trek comes back, ditch the gratuitous action scenes. Ditch the scantily clad women (7, T'pol). Ditch the cliche of ugly and screeching bad guys who spit venom and have acid for blood (ok, that was Aliens, but the Borg queen was close). Ditch the sexed-up alternative universes. If I want these things, I'll watch Die Hard again or buy the Girls Gone Wild movies. Be different! Or just be sci-fi
First, FTA: A lot of those shows are shot with budgets not much more than half of what ou(r) budgets are
Besides the obvious typo, I highly doubt that ST:E's budget is all that much bigger than any of SciFi's original programming. Example? SG-1. If SG-1 has an operating budget of even half of ST:E's, yet still produces high-quality programming, then the whole budget issue isn't a problem, and pretty much amounts to Berman blowing smoke up our asses.
SG-1 has quite a number of CGI sequences, like ST:E. Beyond the relatively simple animation of the gate itself and a few weapons, there are quite a number of ships (including the complex Goa'uld ships, Asgard cruisers, etc.), the Replicators (simple at first, then growing more complex), and the usual space scenes such as planets, stars, nebulae and more, not to mention the minor alterations to the Canadian landscape for location shots. Now, either Gekko/Double Secret/SciFi have found a way to render these scenes (which look pretty damn good) on the cheap, or Berman is using it as an excuse, one of many.
Second: I think the decline of Star Trek can be directly attributed to Berman himself, who started taking the franchise downhill not long after the death of Gene Roddenberry. Creative control, honestly, should have been given to Majel Barret-Roddenberry. After all, she was married to Gene, and it'd be impossible to think that some of his genius wouldn't have rubbed off on her during thier marriage. Berman was responsible for the lesser series DS9 and VGR, and obviously, those didn't do as well as TOS and TNG did, both in the ratings and creatively.
Third, according to quite a number of folks, Berman's not an easy guy to deal with. Slashdot's own Wil Wheaton can attest to that personally, and does so in his books. Granted, working with someone (relatively) new will bring about changes, but from most accounts, Berman was almost the direct antithesis to Roddenberry.
And no, I'm not trying to kiss Wheaton's ass.
My point is, Berman is giving us every excuse under the sun (some work slightly, others don't hold water) as to why Star Trek is in its waning years, instead of owning up to the fact that he took Roddenberry's vision and drove it into the ground himself. The slow demise of Trek can be traced back to when he took the helm (no pun intended).
I agree that Trek does need a rest. Oversaturation does play a part, but not as great a part as Berman would like us to believe...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
It's gotten so bad that even Scott Bakula looks embarrassed to be a part of it. Think about that. SCOTT BAKULA is ashamed of it!!
Please, God, just end it. Put it out of its misery before it gets even worse! End the series, the movies, the books, the conventions. Just let it go!
Geez, it's almost as sad a decline as "The Simpsons."
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I think you just described Battlestar Galactica...
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