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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.
Well, maybe the film will do well if it takes 3 years to get it up on the screen.
The best thing that could happen for the StarTrek franchise, is to starv the world of ST stuff for a while.
Pretty Pictures!
I'm already scraping up $20 for the effort to save this movie.
In Soviet Russia, Dead Horse beats you!!
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.
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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
I don't want new characters and a new ship for a MOVIE. That would be okay for a tv show, where we have years to get to know the crew.
Bring back Kirk. Find some way to incorporate him in the story.
Here is a free story to use for the movie. The Borg are attacking, in the most massive invasion ever. Kirk is retired, but is called back to help set a defesne gird. Hey, Kirk will be old enough for the timeline to work. Maybe while kirk was retired he was a police officer, so they can have him in his T.J. Hooker uniform and work Heather Locklear into the storyline. How cool would that be, to have Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise dressed as TJ Hooker, with Locklear next to him.
Janeway races back from the future, where the Borg came from. Along with Janeway is the defiant, commanded by Picard and Dr. Crusher. This could provide good romance between two very sexy actors. I have had the hots for Dr. Crusher for years.
The excitement would not come from the Borg attack, but watching the crews work together to form a defense.
And I would not mind seeing a couple of birds of prey get in the storyline.
Or, I GOT IT!!! What was the species in A Year of Hell that destroyed the voyager? Maybe they find their way to earth??
The possibilities are endless, but Kirk must be involved. Kirk IS Star Trek. Nobody can take his place.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
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.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
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??
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
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.
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
It seems rumors of the franchise's demise were greatly exaggerated!
Honestly, I think it's high time that someone made that demise come about, whether by natural causes or not...
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
I should be cast in the new movie as a vulcan. But not just a regular, boring vulcan. I'd be the illogical vulcan. Just a crazy, kooky guy who goes against the grain. I'd even question authority, answering to orders like, "Fire when they drop their cloak? Why don't you wake me up when that happens, Gov." For fun, I'd record the embarrassing things officers do in the holodeck and then play them for everyone in the cafeteria. I'm telling you, I could put some life back into "Star Trek". I'd even be willing to learn acting.
First, the standard sure winners:
-Resurrect Kirk
-Time/space distortions caused by {going too close to the sun,alien weapon,wormhole}
-The Borg
-Hot semi-naked alien chicks
-Lots of talking
-Guys in rubber monster suits
Then, my recipe for success:
-A wormhole to the Star Wars universe
-Picard vs. Vader!
-A Terminator is loose on the Enterprise. "I need your boots, your clothes und your spaceship".
-Alien vs. Predator vs. The Borg!
-The three-boobied chick from Total Recall ("Captain, I can't reach the fire button")
-Admiral Scotty
-The Borg team up with the Zerg
It can't fail.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
I'm still wondering how they'll fit time travel, the holodeck, AND mind control into 140 minutes, and still have time to introduce the characters.
This franchise is running way ahead of schedule. According to the Simpsons episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", it'll be at least 2025 before the release of Star Trek XII: So Very Tired.
Sample dialogue: "Captain's Log, Stardate 6051: Had trouble sleeping last night; my hiatal hernia is acting up. The ship is drafty and damp. I complain, but nobody listens."
"after hearing that James Spader slept with William Shatner, I don't think I can look at Capt. Kirk in quite the same way again"
Actually, that'd be one more reason to put him back in the chair. After all, a man who'd do that, would do anything, right?
I think, therefore I am...I think.
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...
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