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."

Comments

Show us more

[Y-Crate]

One thing I noticed about the Trek movies is that the ones that really made you feel as if there was this huge universe out there around the characters brought in the most money at the box office. The size of the canvas seemed to be proportional to the size of the returns.

The problem with movies like Insurrection and Nemesis - to name a few - was that in the end it was one ship vs one ship and the whole feeling of this bustling galaxy filled with all sorts of different characters was gone. Sure, the Enterprise alone verses the Scimitar was pretty cool, but the whole movie never developed that sense of grand adventure that The Wrath Of Kahn (which mixed the isolation of the Enterprise in latter parts with a much wider view of things early on), First Contact or The Undiscovered Country had. The scope of the universe seemed to be scaled-down to TNG-episode proportions. Insurrection was arguably the worst at this - the whole thing felt like a 2 part TNG from one of the latter seasons.

Re:Show us more

[Bongo]

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.

Amen.

I prefer and admire a sci-fi show where the universe is fantastic but consistent. For me that's what puts the "science" into the "fiction". Otherwise it becomes arbitrary and fairy-magic like; stuff just happens because it's in the script.

My main gripe about Space 1999 was the way the moon travelled, nay, drifted dozens of lightyears between episodes. But one of the things I loved most about it was the design of the Eagles; everything looked like it was there for a reason. It was so well done as a ship that you can actually spot the one mistake, which is that the command module's floor is higher when viewing the model from the outside, but appears level in interior shots. But again, the fact that you can build the model and spot the discrepancy is just great.

My favorite to date in terms of creating a consistent multi-layered universe is Babylon 5. Ok, ok, it has it's dire aspects--long meaningful speeches in lifts about generals who wanted to be painters--but the universe had rules and if you blew up a jump gate then that had specific tactical implications.

The same bits of alien tech kept coming back in different stories for different purposes. Just like in the real world, someone could discover an ancient artifact, start to exploit it causing curious ethical issues, and factions would later find out about it and try to weaponise it, which could happen in secret until it was discovered via another plot line by different characters. All that could happen over the period of months.

B5 even managed to include telepathic powers as a specific ability while keeping specific boundaries on what telepaths were able to do without it getting too magical and arbitrary. Rather, they added a social and political dimension to it so it actually became an important part of the B5 universe.

In contrast, one of the most annoying aspects of Trek is the abuse of so called "time travel stories". Putting aside that philosophically I don't see how time travel is possible--there's no timeline anyhow, it's just an ever-changing present--and putting aside the questions about, well, if you can travel in time, how come you appear to be so limited and dumb in what you accomplish Mr. 28th Century man?--putting aside those two issues--the stories just end up feeling really hollow and sickly.

Re:Show us more

[RubberDogBone]

That's because they got in a rut of inventing the "gadget of the week" for every episode and that, in my opinion, is one of the weakest parts of TNG.

When faced with some horrible challenge or new enemy, they would suddenly whip out -no, not a penis- but some new gadget that they suddenly invented just that second, which happened to be EXACTLY the gadget they needed! Wouldn't you know it had been sitting here all along!?

Once, OK. Twice, eh. But over and over and over? Suuure.

The A-Team did similar things but sort of got by because at least they attempted to show the team MAKING the device. TNG just opened a damn box as if they ordered it via UPS.

Worse, having come up with supergadget of the week, they use it and throw it away never to be seen again. It's a sign of weak writers stuck for a fancy, flashy gimmick, and weak producers who allow or promote this sort of thing.

As for the super-enemies who could wipe out the Federation just as soon as sneeze, well, yeah, there are too many of them too and funny how they don't seem to fight with each other much less even know about each other. With as many super-powerful races running around (considering how many they find), you'd think these superraces would eventually go to war against each other.

Might make for an interesting story -perhaps they have done this, I'm not as big on ST lore as some- and reduce the superrace overpopulation a bit.

Not that I want to give Berman ANY ideas. Firing his butt should be step one, IMO.

Re:3 years sounds good.

[ciroknight]

Worked for Star Wars.

Tell a great story, but leave it wholy unfinished, sit back on it for a good 20 years, and then decide the technology is there to finish it. Make billions.

For Star Trek, I believe it will help to give it some time, but it's more risky. The public expects so much already, and a pause in the franchise may bring people into thinking it was a sellout.

Besides, they have great grounds for more movies. Star Trek has much more unexplored space than Star Wars in my opinion (Star Wars tends to be a linear story, whereas Star Trek is a story following small subsets of the universe at a time; you could have a Star Trek completely without humans if you'd like), and I think they should be exploiting that advantage.

Re:Didn't DeForrest Kelly die about 10 years ago?

[ciroknight]

I think you're one of the few traditionalists left, but I think the time for the traditionalists in Star Trek has left. With Enterprise, we went back to the very beginning of warp travel of us humans, making a story line fully incomplete from that point, to the point of the first Enterprise's mission into deep space.

Personally, I want to know more about where it all began; they have so much technology in the future that, while we have basis for it, it's so far beyond tracing back to something we have now, that we just have to accept it as fact, and move on. Things like the transport system, the Enterprise's energy systems, etc. etc. All we need is a movie in that time period to answer some of those questions, in my opinion.

Re:Bring back Kirk!!!

[John Seminal]

Yeah, because Kirk has so great experience with the Borg.

Most people who had experiance with the Borg are all Borg. ;)

Kirk is quick thinking on his feet. That is far more valuable to the defense.

Plus, you know there will be an order from Kirk that is not standard, there will be a clash. Someone will challenge Kirks ideas or orders. And Kirk will show why he is a stud. :)

Second star to the right, and straight on til dawn.

Whoppie Goldberg

[John Seminal]

One character that is Star Trek, in any time line would be Whoppie. She was on earth at the time of Samuel Clemens, and in the future with Picard. Whatever timeline they pick, I bet they could get her involved. Her species lives for how many years? Over 500??

Re:The best Star Trek movies were even numbered.

[John Seminal]

Of course, the fact that they've been allies with the Federation for so long hasn't helped their image either. They've grown more and more tolerant with letting the Federation dictate their policy, when Klingon common sense would've advocated no less than mass invasion of anyone that dared to mess with them.

I can't help but think, if the producers made a series before TNG, but after TOS, it would be perfect. The Klingons would be the major power and threat to the federation. There could be some very good episodes. Back when a Bird of Prey was a monsterous power, and the Federation was scared to death of cloaking.

Re:without Data its gonna suck

[roseblood]

Wasn't there an episode of Star Trek where Picards ship gets caught in a time rift, and they see an older version of their own ship. Tasha goes off to fight and die with that crew.

That'd be YESTERDAY'S ENTERPRISE. The NCC1701-C shows up through the tme rift. Because it wasn't getting blown up defending a Klingon instilation the Federation and Klingons end up at war in the altered present. Tasha Yar never died in this timeline, so she's still security officer, and Worf never joined starfleet. Guinan being the odd creature she is can feel things are screwy, and prompts Piccard to get things back to where they belong.

Long story short, Yar realizes she's not meant to live, jumps onto the ENT-C, and fights on the doomed ship to try and saved a doomed Klingon outpost.

The ENT-C is destroyed, of course, Tasha is taken as a POW. She gives birth to a half-human half-romulan, and gives the ENT-D crew one hell of a suprize when her daughter shows up commanding a Romulan fleet that's trying to start a Klingon civil war. Guinan again feels something fishy, and tells Picard about it. The episode ends with Data violating a direct order and saving the day.

You know...the NCC-1701C could make for a good movie or two.

new series concept

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's my thoughts for the future of star trek:

Needs a bigger budget than TV can provide, so move it to cable, specifically to HBO. Add some adult oriented content, since its now on cable. Sorry 13 year olds, Star Trek is now for adults only. This will allow a wider demographic to like the show (some women will watch it with their men, hopefully).

Make it a fleet of ships, possibly half of them Federation, the other half Klingon. We've had series with single ships, and a series with a space station, but never a series with a fleet of ships on a long multi-year journey thru an uncharted area of space.

Involve the Klingon religion. Kahless (spelling?) and others are given visions in the beginning episodes, but we are not told exactly what they are. The Federation and the Klingons get together and discuss the visions that so many of their people are reporting. They decide to follow the instructions, and gather a fleet and set off on the journey.

The overall plot needs to be kept secret until the last season.

One of the ships should be a civilian fast luxury cruiser, built with a Federation loan in return for Federation use of the ship during times of war. The series should begin at the end of the Dominion war. This ship has better holodecks, and lots of drama episodes can occur on this ship.

The Admiral that was arrested by Picard for developing the Phased cloak is a part of the crew, along with some of his scientists. They are all given visions.

A few drug addicts, and other convicts are also a part of the series since its now on cable and we can have some more adult content, including sex and nudity and graphic violence. In the 24th century poverty and hunger are wiped out, but the war on drugs continues.

Lots of teraforming equipment, anti-matter, and industrial replicators are to be included (per the visions). Along with orbital defences, and some other expenisive stuff. Before the fleet launches, lots of political arguments occur because of the cost. ("were spending all this money after a devastating war, because of visions!?!?")

When they finally arrive at the destination, only half the fleet should be left, since they fought so many battles, etc. We can stretch out the series for years before they arrive.

The destination should be a far corner of the galaxy, accessible by wormhole only. The destination should be a set of (possibly) artificial solar systems, closely tied together, with many habitable planets without intelligent life. Because of the arrangement of the stars (a 3D pentagon? perhaps) it's obvious these sets of solar systems did not form naturally. This is a mystery that is never fully explained. There is lots of ore and natural resources in these systems.

The Federation and Klingons colonize the planets and have lots of kids. They are given new visions, they are to pursue weapons and ship development, and train their children to be warriors. Kahless is to be placed into suspended animation, along with a few others.

In the future, (perhaps the next series) the Klingon empire is overran by a hostile enemy, but the Federation stays neutral, until plans of genocide are learned by the Federation. The enemy starts wiping out the Klingons, the Federation invades. The Federation gets their ass kicked, and is on the brink of loosing.

Then the descendents of the Klingons and Federation folks at the far end of the galaxy (from out first series) appear from a wormhole near Borath, with Kahless as an old man who returns per the predictions of the Klingon religion. The fleet of ships are advanced and include phased cloak technology. They destroy the enemy shipyards which are in Klingon space, and since the enemy fleets are mostly in Federation space kicking the Federation's ass, this fleet inflicts a lot of damage causing the enemy to pull back from the Federation. The Federation regroups, and is supplied with technology from the advanced fleet (new weapons, phased cloak?, whatever).

Enemy reinforcements ar

Re:Band of Brothers

[schizm]

Hrm, I'd be interested to see them do a young Picard...we saw that he was a bit of a hellion when he was young, ie getting his heart stabbed through in a bar fight, and didn't he have a move named after him for doing something brilliant in battle?

Explore his younger, more reckless days, when he was more of the Kirk type.

and my DS9 fandom...

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Cries out in pain.

DS9 has a great bunch of characters. Bring back Sisko dammit!

A couple of posts from a 1984 BBS

[Faust7]

Back when The Search for Spock was just coming out, if you can imagine that.

Numb: 6
Subj: SEARCH FOR SPOCK
From: St. Paul c64 & IBM
Date: 06-04-84 at 11:38 AM

trekkies, don't waste your money - the search for spock is boring, not really
believable, and by far the worst of the three. the only high point is seeing
christopher lloyd ('jim' from taxi) dressed up in monster makeup and costume,
still talking like a spaced druggie. score now: 1 for 3 on trek dreck -- only
the wrath of kahn was any good!

He doesn't mention Christopher Lloyd's "Back to the Future" role because that movie hadn't even been made yet. It boggles the mind!

Numb: 7
Subj: Pound a tribble in your ass.
From: APPLE AVENGER
Date: 06-04-84 at 06:34 PM

To the above ruggie:

I found that Star Trek /// was far the best* of all of them. Star Trek / was to
much special effects and no story. Star Trek // was great, but the ending was
stupied (play 'amazing grace' at spocks funeraul was stupied!). I found star
trek /// at times boring, but the actors got to play the roles as they wanted.
The other 2 movies the directors ran the characters. Star trek /// was more for
the characters and the people that play them.

The movie gave us a new way to think about star trek. Is it totally over for
the entire crew? Will they get a new enterprise? Will spock fully return to us?
This we will never know or maybe we will soon know because paramount studios is
talking about star trek ////.

-Avenger

Loyal trekkie for life

Long before Berman and Braga got their grubby little hands all over it, Star Trek involved eager anticipation. Anyone remember that? *sigh*