You’re looking at the cast of J.J. Abrams re-imagining/prequel of Star Trek.
It’s kind of weird seeing the whole crew up there next to their original counterparts. For a long time Trek fan like myself, who has been around long enough to see the franchise go through it’s entire evolution the image above generates mixed feelings for me. It’s not just seeing new actors stepping into the shoes of beloved actors whose roles have become iconic… it’s also the fact that a couple of the actors above are no longer with us. James Doohan passed away not too long ago due to Alzheimers and DeForest Kelley was the first of the venerable crew to die, way back in 1999 if you can believe it.
Call me cheesy, but seeing the old with the new up there gives me a sense of the cycle of death and rebirth, not only for the actors – but hopefully, for Star Trek as well.
Although the casting of Simon Pegg as Scotty seems more than a bit odd to me, and Karl Urban seems too intense and rugged to play Dr. McCoy, overall at least visually J.J. Abrams and crew seem to have hit the mark at least as far as appearance is concerned. Normally I might be quite cynical towards a project like this, but like many Star Trek fans, after years and years of really bad movies and TV episodes I’m seriously craving a great Star Trek story on the screen.
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John over at The Movie Blog wrote that the new movie must ignore existing fans, but not being a fan of the franchise I’m afraid he’s missing the point. He equates the ever decreasing box office take of recent films with the fact that there just aren’t that many fans out there supporting Trek. I don’t think that’s the case at all – in fact I think it’s because the majority of Trek fans have high standards when it comes to their favorite franchise.
Rick Berman took over the franchise once Gene Roddenberry died, soon to be joined by Brannon Braga. I suppose things went along ok for a while with Star Trek: The Next Generation, and even Star Trek: Deep Space Nine… but when they were put in charge of feature films as well things went downhill pretty fast. Generations was an awful, terrible way to bridge the gap between the original crew and TNG, with the most ignoble death you could imagine for the legendary James T. Kirk.
Sure, First Contact wasn’t bad unless you count that hideously huge new version of the Enterprise and the fact that the character that had the heroic moment at the crucial point in the film was Data instead of Captain Picard. But then we were treated to the likes of Star Trek: Insurrection, so awful I don’t even rember much about it and the abysmal Star Trek: Nemesis with the ridiculous Picard’s son/clone/whatever story and Data being destroyed just to be “reborn” as a virtual infant.
And don’t get me started on Star Trek: Voyager, with the ship that managed to stay showroom new after half a dozen years spent half a galaxy from a starbase, and a crew that thought they wouldn’t get home in their lifetimes yet made no plans as to what would happen as they started to eventually die during the journey.
Then there was Enterprise. A concept that they wanted to be so different that not only didn’t they even put Star Trek in the title, but that they opened with a completetly different format including a song with bloody awful lyrics. I wasn’t opposed to the concept – hell, I was excited about it! But it took only about half a season for them to have phasers and transporter technology that matched that of Kirk and Co. 100 years hence. Oh, and since the “Lost in Space” concept worked so well for Voyager, they decided to send the crew to a far corner of the galaxy in this show as well, instead of showing us the formation of the Federation and other items that formed the foundation of The Original Series. The show started to come around in it’s final season when they handed the reins to Manny Coto as Producer, but by then fans had already left in droves and it was too late to bring them back.
For all intents and purposes it seemed that Trek was finally dead, or at least about to go on at least a 10 year hiatus… ah, but Paramount knew that even if it had been beaten into the ground there was still money to be squeezed from a franchise that had already brought them over a billion dollars in profit.
Thanks to us fans who are constantly and consistently disrespected and the world wide web, Paramount had access to our thoughts, likes and dislikes regarding the franchise. So they finally decided it was time for as close to a clean slate as you can get with the series: Bring in a brand new (and currently hot) team to helm a movie that will go back to the beginning. We’re talking J.J. Abrams, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
Contrary to the article over at The Movie Blog, everything that has been said by those involved in the production indicates that while they most certainly want to bring non-fans into theaters, they most certainly are interested in pleasing long time fans of Star Trek as well. They are going as far as working Leonard Nimoy into the story in what they say is a pivotal role.
Ah, but what about Bill Shatner? There’s been an amazing amount of discussion online with a “he said. she said” flavor to it. He has stated more than once that he is not in the film, that he wasn’t approached to be in the film and that he would like to be in the film. The producers continually state that of course they want him to be in the movie, but that they want to write a part for him worthy of the character.
It sounds like the writers are just blowing sunshine, but AICN contributor “Hercules” states that all the publicity about Shatner not being in the film is a lie. This is strictly unofficial of course, but I’m betting he’s right. I’ll go further and say that this may all even by orchestrated to drum up press and emotions surrounding the film.
Then there’s the report from IESB that the Enterprise will be significantly different in the upcoming film. They stated that:
“We have been told that the Enterprise has been redesigned. I have not been able to get specific details of how the old and new ship will differ but I have been told by multiple sources including people working on the film that the ship will indeed be different.”
No doubt the ship will look somewhat different in details, but “redesigned” so that it looks “different?” Rubbish.
So before you go off half-cocked slamming Trekkies, Trekkers or whatever you’d like to call us, keep in mind that if Abrams and crew deliver a kick-ass Trek movie you have our disdain for the crap Paramount has been putting out for years to thank.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to this and at least at this point am not approaching it with negative expectations at all. For the first time in a long time I’m hopeful when it comes to Star Trek.
Live Long and Prosper. Word.
[UPDATE: Come discuss what you think of the new Star Trek movie here.]
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59 Comments
????What are you saying? Voyager is great, reading your blog it seems to me that really you don’t like Star Trek at all (exept the original series, which off-course are the best, but Voyager is also very very good). Do think though that the Star Trek idea of a captain with ship going through space encountering aliens has run it’s mile. And what i think is needed is a so-called “spin-off” for example a movie about the Vulcans, for example how all the Prophets on earth were in reality Vulcans who have observed earth’s development and feared their technical development having a lack of morals, so the Vulcans started sending down tutors (what we humans call Prophets), and the problems that that caused on earth again etc. etc,
I remember sitting aged 7 on the floor in front of the TV when an advert for a new show came on. “A new crew… a new ship… a new mission…” That was ST:TNG. I watched “Encounter At Farpoint” and watched every episode of that series. DS9 – amazing but a slow burner. Voyager – I hated it. Enterprise – T’pol was nice to look at but that was about it.
The films have always been hit and miss, more miss than hit of late.
I hope the new film is good. I hope that it is a success so that Star Trek can continue in some form. I hope that it carries on the true spirit of Star Trek. But more than anything, I hope that it can capture and hold the imagination of some kid who might have never even heard of Star Trek.
From what I have seen so far from the trailer and from what I have seen from the director, I am not at all confident.
I just hope to be proved wrong.
The problem is they are not moving the Franchise forward, they are constantly warping back to try and re imagine the entire series which is why the fans
turned on Enterprise .. we don’t want the
continuity changed and we wont have it.
They need to quit doing a few things, ..
1. stop trying to turn star wars into a DARK universe.. wtf this is not star wars.
2. Stop being PC ok we have had white, black and female vulcans all in positions of power.. we have had enough now… and no more lesbian captains.
3. We want Klingons.. hell a Klingon show would rock.
4. No more Q, space time continuity,
and Diplomat captains.. we want captains to kick ass again.
5. GET NEW WRITERS, the ones you have now are TRYING to destroy the continuity
because they hate it.. and thus hate star trek, they think what they want is more important than Trek and need to GTFO.
My 5 penny worth….
Very much looking forward to the new film.
last 2 where not the best but as a Fan i still liked them.
I think it is good, that they are using J.J. for the movie.
He is a current heavy weight in Hollywood, so HOPEFULLY the studio’s keep there noses out and let him do the movie.
Every time the big heads get involved the movies gone downhill.
This great classic movie of the 60’s is irreplaceable! The cast of 60’s Star Trek was and it’s the awesome!
Responding to the last few comments.
Enterprise-the writers were really getting it together the last seasons. They explained why they had the “cheap looking Klingons” from the 60’s and the Dark Universe- The communication officer became Empress! Excellent Writing! Another mistake to cancel that series after all the write-ins.
Voyager-Good writing started when Seven of Nine came aboard- Sorry Kes! Lesbian captain? Where? Janeway? She can’t be like Kirk!
What’s PC? How about real life! Not all alien humans have to be white males. That’s what I believe Gene was trying to do in the 60’s and now were in the 2K and it is time to show females and males of all races, in all roles .
I agree with the another meeting with Klingons or in the “early years” with Kirk and crew.
Remember no ridges on the Klingons-continuity.
The Orion Pirates also!
Yes they are using JJ to push the movie. as long as they don’t screw up the continuity and common sense to make a buck. God at the center of the galaxy? Spock should have slapped his brother!
With good writing and 4 series, the Star Trek Universe could have lasted as long as Dr. Who.
Also my condolences to the First Family of Trek with the passing of Majel.
I just happened to stumble upon your site while looking for pictures on google image.
I’d define myself as a quasi-trekkie. I love the franchise but I don’t dress up and go to conventions and do the typical trekkie thing
Anywho just thought I’d chime in. First of all about the new movie. it has bomb written all over it I’m afraid. As much as the idea is interesting, and after seeing the preview, it was clear to me that they weren’t targeting fans of the franchise in making this movie.
I’m not even sure if I’ll go see it.
As for the series, I’ve seen all except all of DS9 and I’m afraid I abandoned Enterprise as well during it’s downhill spiral. I won’t rant on Enterprise, it would be too long. However, I’ve never understood the hatred towards Voyager. Granted there was plenty to hate, but I watched the entire 7 seasons in the span of a few weeks regularly (I have it) and it wasn’t that bad really. Also I don’t see how it could have ended any different really. It was obvious from episode 1 that they were going to get home on the last episode. You can’t maroon a crew and then end it with them NOT returning home. I also think that given the opportunity and good writing, the Voyager crew could do well in a movie. At least in Voyager a Vulcan acted like a Vulcan and it followed the Trek formula (for the most part). Personally I liked the heavy Borg presence. Yea they depended on the Borg too much for plot, but still, it worked for me.
Anyways, I just don’t get why the hate on Voyager. Oh and First Contact was one of the best newer trek films. Who cares that Data was the hero, Picard was the hero a million times during the series. He can share the spotlight a little.
Well rant over I guess. I’ll still go see the movie. Hopefully it will be ok, but I’m not raising my expectations in the least.
Hi!
I’m with TEA most of the way.
I’m a trekkie as one can be without going to conventions.
I’m very disappointed with the writers of this socalled prequel.
How can it be that Kirk, Captain with 35, Spock, already second officer under Cpt. Pike, Scott, Second Engineer under Pike, McCoy, an accomblished Surgeon befor Kirk gets his own ship, are all cadets on a ship well advanced to the later Enterprise, together with Chekov (Ensign newly graduated from the academy in Kirks second year as Captain), Sulu (making Lieutenant under Cpt. Kirk) and Uhura (also making Lt. under Cpt. Kirk)?
My six year old son knows more about the History of Enterprise than the writers of this film.
I w2ill definitely not storm any cinema for this one.
Regards
W.
Change is difficult, just one more seat open for a NEW FAN. You just have to see the positive side or you can just keep re-watching the utter crap that has been produced in the past, original series not included of course. I’ll give it a try, can’t hurt as must as some of the other attempts in the last little while!
A excellent writer would have use the fact that a very young captain had to prove himself to a crew that still had some loyality to Captain Pike. Spock demonstated that when he stole the Enterprise and faced a “court martial” while they were transporting Captain Pike back to the planet that the Federation declared off limits under the penalty of death.
There were several series that they attempted to remake into movies that bombed. “Starsky and Hutch”, “Charlie Angels”, “Miami Vice” some of these movies made some $$$ but when the new fans compared them to the series they noticed the painful and obvious differences. I agree with DW, I’ll give it a try
I’m a rather young (in my teens still) female Star Trek fan and regarding the movie, I’m not really sure what I think of it yet. At first I was against it because I generally don’t like it when old shows are re-done with new actors etc. But I’m becoming less hostile towards it now – I actually really want to see it. Granted, I’ve only seen two of the movies (III and IV), but I loved them and plan on having a Star Trek movie marathon in the near future.
As for the TV series’ Enterprise is one of my favourites. Of course The Original Series will always be the best, but I really like Enterprise, I have all four seasons. Personally I think that Enterprise should have lasted more than 4 seasons and Voyager should’ve been scrapped, I couldn’t stand it. All the characters in Voyager annoy the hell out of me and on the rare occassion that I watch an episode, I either get bored half way through or just frustrated by the characters. Back to Enterprise, I really liked the whole save the Earth thing and how we found out the background of a few less important characters. Only thing I didn’t like about Enterprise was Captain Archer and the last episode. They should’ve finished with the 2nd last episode – Trip was too awesome to die.
As for DS9, I love it, I have a lot of episodes on video and I think they’re great how it’s like a community and there’s so many opportunities for different stories. I can’t complain about it.
TNG was okay… some of the characters were irritating but it was generally pretty good.
Of course, The Original Series will always be corny with the space ships held up with visable lines and we’ll always love it, not despite, but because of those things.
I’m expecting to be dissapointed by the movie, but let’s hope I won’t be.
STAR TREK IS BAD ASS!!!
ALL OF THEM ARE SWEET(MOVIES AND TV)EXCEPT ALOT OF DS9 AND ALL THAT CRAP WITH THE RAT PACK!!
ENTERPRISE WAS TOTALLY THE BEST TV SERIES WITH A GREAT CAST!!! GO ENTERPRISE!!
A possible Star Trek Rogue script goes thus.
The Borg Collective has just succeeded in assimilating the Hierogen Empire, thus Borg drones are fast and unstoppable.
The United Federation of Planets are facing the reality of a Borg Galaxy, when one of their brightest sparks goes through Enterprise logs (circa Captain Kirk) and realise that they have access to an alternative universe. One where the Federation is more Piratical.
Think of The Vicious Federation from The Enemy Within.
The Captain of this ‘alternative’ federation is a complete buccaneer and a product of the same eugenics programme that created Khan (Space Seed)
This Captain is convinced to aid the Federation in its climactic space battle. A new Enterprise (souped up war machine) and they face the new Borg Queen (A reassimilated and vengeful Seven of Nine) over a colony world that hold’s the key to the whole strategy (The Former’s Homeworld?)
Sounds good?
I guess im one of the fans that loved ST, then lost alot of interest halfway through Voyager and never touched ENT.
I hate prequals as a rule. Always have. And even worse is when they “remake” a classic to be bigger, bolder, and in their minds, better.
Its kinda sad really. No more fresh ideas, so lets keep dragging out the same charactors time and again.
Unlike most in here, never cared for TOS…found it a bit cartoonish. But the TOS movies for me is where I found my love for ST. THAT is the Kirk and company that I like.
But my first love is definatly TNG.
Next Gen was probably the most well rounded, thought out and written of the shows. It had is bad spots, but overall was good.
!!!Now here we are in 2009, and what are we doing?…thats right…Kirk and company are back, and sexy, and young…and they are gonna kick ass and be as cool as all those other action movies!
YAWN!!!
What set Trek apart is that it had it kick ass moments, but it was also thoughtful, cerebral, and showed an advanced humanity that was bettering itself.
But, i suppose to “soup up” the series for todays level of education (chuckle)…we have to cowtow to the masses and produce just another predictable action movie.
I basically think all the good reviews stem from people going to see it expecting “Lame Star Trek” in their minds…and then getting “Indiana Jones and Final Frontier”…and thei all but shit themselves in delight.
It will do well, make millions of dollars, sell tons of merchandise…and spawn 10 more sequals. Great…Paramount is happy, Abrams is happy…new Trek fans are happy cuz its “cool” now to like Star Trek. (sighs)
Why do i get the mental picture of this being like Britney Spears doing a cover of “Dark Side of the Moon” as a pop dance song?
I’ll stick to my DVDs…thank you.
Just saw the movie last night, kind of surprised this site doesn’t get flooded with ‘post viewing’ traffic, but it really doesn’t.
So first off, I’m nearly 30, which means that knowing of Star Trek the original series for me puts most of the crew in their late thirties/early forties about the time of Wrath of Kahn, when Shatner is (going towards being) more the venerable diplomatic admiral than the swashbuckling athletic love crazed (like seriously, he falls in love nearly every third episode) captain that he was in the original series.
That being said, I feel I’m just old enough to have had a smattering of each culture in the Star Trek saga as it has come and gone, without being of the audience of the original series who might be past the point of being able to fully enjoy some of the newer titles. For me Enterprise took more of what they were lacking by the end of tNG that they had from the original series; bringing back the swashbuckling young(er) captain that doesn’t have a rule book and directive to follow step by step every time he meets a new alien species, who might make mistakes, but whom his crew trusts to the very end. It fixed exactly my problem with tNG towards the end, and for that it was one of my favorite series. I love all of the firsts in that series that are just given elements of the Star Trek universe; red alert, teleporting and their lack of diplomatic niceties with races that will later carry a stable alliance with the federation.
Next I choose to talk specifically about tNG, for me r
Hit post by accident…
So tNG, they fixed the role of interpreter with Diana Troy, a person who can read people’s thoughts, which gave the series an edge over the original in that every new species that was encountered who had never seen a human before did not automatically speak English. Picard gave the role of captian/commander and later admiral a feel that gave him a feel of true autonomy to command a star ship and ‘boldly go,’ truly. Riker and Beverly and Wesley and Gana and Warf and their interpersonal relationshiops brought a feeling of family and an iconicism to their characters that has only ever been matched by the original series.
Deep Space Nine and Voyager for me are the black sheep, but the concept for DS9 was one of the coolest ideas ever, it just didn’t have characters I could care about, and I stopped watching it consistently after season 2. Voyager had the same problem as the end of tNG, it got too clean and too regulated and too rosy, and I’ve never watched more than 20 episodes of that series, smattered all throughout the series, but I’d like to catch more episodes of that before I really comment on that series.
So now the movie… It was… amazing. Sorry, but while all the misgivings about the potential flop it could have been were valid and while I agree with most all of them, the potential for a bomb of a movie never turned kinetic. It’s an alternate reality, an alternate universe where the crew comes together in a whole new way, and the original seven are thrown together in whole new way that no one would ever expect because reality itself has shifted. Time shifts always have the potential to bomb, I’m a proponent of that more than anyone, but again, JJ Abrams took models that have worked and bombed in the past and they all worked in this film. The cinimetography throughout and the use of sound and the use of no sound while in the vacuum of space gives the impression exactly that these people are thriving with only their own technology walling them off from a cold death in space. The conveyed reality of the dangers of space combined with the very real feeling of a ‘Nato esque’ future air and space military organization gives this movie a grit that puts it solidly in the sci fi genre as a movie that makes you feel like you know what it would be like to be in the federation academy in 200 years.
This movie couldn’t cater better to older audiences, nor to newer. It delivers exactly what the people want, it wont please every fan but nothing ever will. I don’t think they could have done better.
@Bagordy
Actually we have quite a discussion going on here:
http://screenrant.com/star-trek-spoilers-vic-7732/
If you poked around the site a bit you would have found it.
Vic
wow u ppl are nerd… haha … me too.. :]]
I rarely go to the theater to see a movie twice.
This one was worth it. Great entertainment. Fresh crew.
I haven’t seen the new movie yet. But I hope to God there isn’t any politically correct, new age feminist crap in it, like all other remakes seem to have.
@Dawn
No, I wouldn’t say there’s anything like that in there – they just portrayed Uhura as a strong woman.
Vic
@ Dawn
It uses “where no ONE has been before” instead of “where no man has been before” which annoys the crap outta me. But I think that’s the only thing.
My opinion differs regarding Voyager. I think they had some good writing and well-played episodes. You do, however, make a good point about the condition of the ship throughout various battles and skirmishes in a wilderness where they had no back-up or supplies. There were many inconsistencies throughout the series. But, unfortunately, no Star Trek writer has paid enough attention to the franchise to maintain absolute continuity as they should have.
Enterprise, however, could have done well if they had gone all out and just removed it from the franchise altogether. Give them a different ship, and a different captain (or, at least, a different lead actor) and it might have done well as a stand-alone series rather than a Star Trek spin-off. It was too dark for a federation star ship and it had nothing to do with the federation anyway.
I think if they re-think the beginnings, and pay attention to continuity, they could come up with with a Star Trek: Federation or Star Trek: Beginnings that could be set both on terra firma as well as in a cold vacuum. In fact, I personally think that if they really wanted to do things right, they could have a series set in pre-federation months (or years of development) as well as a post Voyager (which appears to be the latest chronological installment) series running simultaneously. I think this would draw back long time loyal fans and non-fans alike.
If they really wanted to, I think they could make Star Trek come back to life; and, if it were possible, I (as an actor) would love to be a part of it. In fact, I would consider it an honor to count myself in the company of the myriad of faces that have had such a privilege.
@ Peter
Enterprise was set before the Federation was formed and in several of the episodes where they talk about the future/are in the future, it says that the Federation is going to be formed and Archer plays a big part in forming it.
I agree that they could maybe do a series set in between Enterprise and well the new movie.
The spelling in the first paragraph should be WEIRD and not what you have written.
@Anthony
Took two years for someone to notice that! Thanks, I’ve corrected it.
Vic
lol
Just stumbled across this site…good article and really enjoyed reading everyones thoughts and opinions…didn’t realize I was as big as fan as I am until I realized I can follow every comment and actually understand most of it…interesting site…thanks.
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