J.J. Abrams To Direct New 'Star Trek' Film

Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday reports that Paramount has asked 'Lost' creator J.J. Abrams to direct a new 'Star Trek' film. The movie will be set at Starfleet Academy and will feature younger versions of James T. Kirk and Spock, chronicling their first meeting at the Academy and their first outer space mission. The movie is set for a 2008 release and will apparently be one of Paramount's biggest projects for the year."

Comments

Kirk and Spock, the steamy years....

[beheaderaswp]

Milk it.... Miiiiilk it.... Miiiiiiiiiiiilk it....

Yeesh, talk about taking a good idea and turning it into a dogmatic commercial eggroll. Egads.

What's next? "Is that a phaser, or are you just happy to see me"? I'll pass.

Re:Kirk and Spock, the steamy years....

[Ucklak]

Because Enterprise sucks?

OK, that's _my_ opinion.

I grew up during the original TOS reruns and I loved it. The shows really sucked, most of them. What was cool was what it represented and the surounding environment. Phasers, transporters, warp speed, travel to other planets, aliens in cool makeup (at the time), hotties in William Ware Theiss outfits, Kirk was ruler of the universe and Mr. Spock was cool. Kirk was so cool that we forgave the Catspaw, Spocks Brain, Spectre of the Gun, Platos Stepchildren (hell- most of the 3rd season), the Abraham Lincoln episode, and the evil twin episode which really wasn't that bad of all the evil twin episodes that exist on television.

We got the movies and we thought that that's it. No more tv episodes then TNG happened.
OK, different, cool, different, not as cool as TOS because no Vulcan. The straight guy Data was alright, Number One (bozo) was annoying but Picard rocked. We forgave Whoopi Goldberg and the tar creature episode because we had the holodeck and some real baddies, the Borg and Q.
TNG wasn't as engaging to me but I wasn't a kid anymore.

Then we got DS9. WTF?!? Same universe, different point of view.
Very well written and a surprise all around. The tribble episode was neat and we got the Ferengi.

Voyager, no one really cared about it, at least people who liked the older series. Only die hards seemed to like it as they would like anything with "Star Trek" slapped on it. Mostly all female, doctor didn't exist in real space and they brought back a vulcan, as a black guy. Nothing wrong with that but it just seemed like they wanted a 'black' alien that wasn't a klingon.

Then we get Enterprise. OK, I'll bite. Pre TOS so they can't really screw up now or else the space time continuum will get messed up and the fans of Voyager will turn rabid and scream that Enterprise ruined Star Trek.
Don't really get anything new because anything new already existed. This time we get a female Vulcan that follows the Voyager steps of hotties in spandex. Hotties look better in William Ware Theiss outfits, not spandex.

Most of the crew is likable except I don't get the doctor character. Why make him an alien when aliens are new?
Enterprise sucks because it isn't bold and doesn't break new ground. All it is is Voyager with different people with limitations of what they can't or can do. It's like all of the tech in Enterprise "doesn't work well or isn't tested yet".
Voyager was TNG with different characters but without the drive.
TNG was TOS with different characters but it continued the "where no man has gone before" dream. Voyager just placed them farther out.

It seems like they're trying to return to the roots which made TOS good which was Kirk but William Shatner is responsible for us liking Kirk, not the writers.

I say let it rest for another 5 years at least and if they're going to do a series, do another starship becaue Enterprise will always be about Kirk, no matter who is in the captains chair.

Most of the movies suck, they even had an evil twin movie.
How is it that in TOS, we can see on the view screen people on a planet surface in detail but in Generations there are annoying reportes with huge cameras mounted on their eyes?

Give it a rest. Fire Berman and Braga and remove them at least 1000 miles from any star trek property, they're only in it for a paycheck.

Sooooo....

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's Harry Potter in space then?

Desperation

[Gryle]

I was going to post a joke about Star Trek: The Beginning of the End, but then I realized that happened a long time ago. Paramount has gone beyond running Star Trek into the ground, at this point they're trying to get blood from a stone. Then again, with Spock's intellect, perhaps we can finally figure out all of the secrets on that darned island.

Re:Desperation

[kemichail]

I preferred DS9. The sterile atmosphere of the Enterprise with it's limited cast and crew and the expendable ensigns doesn't work as well for me. Also, the richer possibilities introduced with say the Defiant were fun, and the station used as a defensive outpost... That said, I think both Captain Picard and Commander Sisko wereoutstanding actors.

Re:Desperation

[elrous0]

DS9 was defintely the most well-written, sophisticated series of the bunch. It's not surprising, considering it was the baby of Ronald Moore (who would go on to create what I consider the best damn scifi series ever, the new Battlestar Galactica).

-Eric

I like this idea

[WCMI92]

I like the idea of reviving the original characters in some way. That was what was really lacking from the later iterations of Star Trek, was the strength of characters. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were the perfect balance of differing personalities, one of the best sets of characters ever in TV or film.

Re:I like this idea

[Lumpy]

but this is going to go bad fast.

next year we will have "startrek kids" and then Startrek babies"

Spock,Kirk and Kaahn ride their hover-tricycles around the neighborhood going where "no 4 year old has gone before"

It will be "rugrats" set in the Star Trek universe.

I can hear sci-fi fans puking all across the country at that thought.

Not enough time has passed

[WebHostingGuy]

Not enough time has passed since the last movie. They need a bigger break because they will still have the same people who have been dragging down the movies for a while. Unless the screenplay is truly orginal and very creatively written this is not going to be that good. The problem with the last couple of movies is that rather than create a fantastic movie around a fantastic story being told they are creating a movie to create a movie and using the template of Star Trek to do it. If you think of the very successful movies in the franchise they are the ones in which the writing of the story was original and out of the box.

Starfleet Academy?

[Dr_LHA]

In my mind this could go one of two ways.

1. The Star Trek equivalent of Animal House. Crazy co-eds, the antics of Star Fleet Academy's most crazy frat house

2. Cadets save the world.

I know which one is more likely, and it pains me to say it, I don't want to watch movie #2, but #1 would be awesome. ;)

Seriously, who actually thinks a movie based in Starfleet academy is a good idea? Obviously the unimaginative producers think its an "angle" of Starfleet that hasn't been covered, and an excuse to "sex up" the franchise by having a bunch of 20-somethings in the roles.

I especially cringe at the thought of "young Kirk" and "young Spock". Face it, Muppet Babies was terrible, Star Trek babies will be too.

Re:Starfleet Academy?

[Vinnie_333]

1. The Star Trek equivalent of Animal House. Crazy co-eds, the antics of Star Fleet Academy's most crazy frat house

Sounds more like a series of videos. Star Fleet Academy Girls Gone Wild.

Yousa sayin wesa gonna die?

[TK2216UKG]

Past experience would suggest that we should be wary of franchise prequels where principal characters have sidekicks with funny ears.

Bones! Tell ME about the NEW _Star_ _Trek__ movie!

[Anonymous Coward]

Bones: The horse... Its DEAD Jim!

Spock: I concur with the doctor. There is a 97% probability that this movie will suck.

Scotty: If ah tol' ya one I tol' ya a shoushand times, I'm not a miracle worker. Jus' let 'er rest in peace!

ugh

[Blob Pet]

I don't have a problem with a new trek movie... I have a problem with Berman not being fired, and is it so hard to bring back Nicholas Meyer?

As a former Trekkie, PLEASE JUST LET IT DIE!!

[elrous0]

For God's sake, let it rest for a while. Generate some fresh ideas. In this age of real war, and more gritty realistic fare like Battlestar Galactica and Firefly, Star Trek has become hokey and stale. Let it rest until its time comes around again.

-Eric

Re:I'd rather have...

[hal2814]

I wouldn't rank it 3rd. It was a decent movie but I thought the early earth characters and setting was by far the weakest part of the movie. As much as I dislike the Borg, I thought the Enterprise vs. Borg situation really saved the movie. Just for kicks, here's my rankings:

1. Wrath of Kahn
2. Voyage Home
3. Undiscovered Country
4. Generations
5. Search for Spock
6. First Contact
7. Motion Picture
8. Nemesis
9. Final Frontier
10. Insurrection

Old Star Trek Tech vs. New Gagdetry

[digitaldc]

So what I want to know is, are the controls and panels going to look like they are made from Lego sets?
Or will it be super sophisticated and electronically dazzling, or will it look like it does in the TV series era, cheap sets with cardboard controls and hand-painted view screens?

Fascinating.

what about a DS9 movie?

[Squeezer]

I loved Deep Spance 9 because unlike TOS and TNG where it was a space ship flying around causing trouble, with DS9 the trouble came to the station. It was neat to have something different, and I really liked that.

Star Trek meets Revenge of the Nerds

[Anonymous Coward]

Leaked preliminary script:

Cadet Kirk: Cadet Scott, how long until you tap into the visual sensors in the women's shower?
Cadet Scott: It'll be at least an hour. I can nay change the laws of physics.
Cadet Kirk: That hot freshman, Janice Rand is due in the showers in 5 minutes.
Cadet Scott: Janice Rand!!! I'll have it done with 2 seconds to spare or I'm not a half-sloshed stereotype.
Cadet Kirk: Good man! Do it and you can have any job you want when I'm captain of the fleet flagship.
Cadet Spock: Normally I would point out that the risks do not justify these actions... but that Janice Rand would bring on Ponn Farr in an Andorian. Perhaps you should try cross circuiting to B, Cadet Scott.
Cadet McCoy: Can you tie in my medical tricorder so I have a record for future... umm, anatomy study?
Cadet Scott: Do it yourself, pervert.
Cadet McCoy: I'm a medical student not a pornographer!!!
Cadet Scott: All right, all right.

You know ....

[gstoddart]

The Star Trek Universe has become so damned muddled over the last years, I'm not even sure it would be canonical for Kirk and Spock to have been at the academy together. (Then again, I've never been clear if some of the stuff in Enterprise was strictly canonical either.)

Spock had served with Christopher Pike before Kirk, and I don't recall much in the way of explaination of how they met each other. Given the relative life-spans of Vulcans and Humans, I had assumed Spock had served in Star Fleet for quite a while.

Add this in with it being a prequel of a bunch of well known characters, I have fears this will turn into a Star-Trek Troopers meets Wesley Crusher Episode. They'll either have some fantastic adventure thrown in the middle, or it won't have any action and it'll be about Kirk reprogramming the Kobiashi Maru (or, well get an alternate explaination for it as opposed to it being a planned exam).

But the actors will either have to completely re-interpret the characters, and piss people off -- or they'll act as charicatures, and really piss people off.

Nothing good can come of this; and I'm not sure I'd watch this. It scares me. :-P

I've got the title

[goombah99]

Trek and Trekker: When Kirk met Spock.

Re:I've got the title

[tillerman35]

How about:

1. Dude, Where's my Starship?
2. JT and Spock go to White Castle IV in the Delta Quadrant
3. Starfleet Police Academy MMDCCCXIII
4. Extraterrestrial House
5. Phillips Insists You Watch This Long Commercial From Our Sponsors Without Skipping To The Part Where You Get To See The Title Of This Movie Don't Touch That Remote It Won't Work Anyway Stay Seated Do Not Go Get A Soda Or Unit Will Pause Playback Until Your Uniq Embedded RFID-Chip and Infrared Signatures Are Detected By Sensors Trek - The DCMA Mandatory Voyage

*tap* "Is this thing on?"

[UberOogie]

"You, there. Get off the corpse. We've warned you about this already."

Jim Abrahams and David Zucker?

[Hoi Polloi]

When I first glanced at the article I thought it said "Abrahams", as in Jim Abrahams and David Zucker of "Airplane!" fame. I think they should be the ones doing this movie and rename it "Starship!".

I'd trade it all for Serenity II / Firefly seasons

[jpellino]

Please. Pretty please? Characters that have somewhere to go - rather than simply fulfilling our expectations of personalities long since drained of any originality. We know exactly how TOS characters will act, and we know that 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 minutes into this film there'll be an excruciatingly obvious bone mercilessly tossed to us in the form of a promordial "Dammit Jim", "Highly illogical", "Must... not... give... in... to...", or "She kenna' take much more, Cap'n!" that'll just tickle those clever writers. Every character in Serenity did something previously unseen but that moved their character forward and thus the story too.