The Future of Star Trek

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't think a magazine has to always use the union title any more than they always have to say "Director of Photography" instead of "cinematographer".

[Mark Sperry]

I'll defend the new films a bit...

 

Trek had been dead for a while. Next Gen was the last wide success that reached beyond the core fan base. They made two great Next Gen Trek movies, Generations, and First Contact, and then the next two were really fan-only features. The problem was that they both ran like an average Trek episode would run but with slightly higher stakes. However, I'll argue that the best Trek films deal with the existential threats to the entire Federation or Trek universe. A film where they arrive at a planet, beam down and solve some moral problem just doesn't play well on the big screen, but is perfect for the TV format. Consider that the best Trek movies in general are 2, VI, Generations and First Contact. The rest you can probably take or leave. The successes are pretty action oriented generally, though they do a good job of including some form of ethical questions in some cases. Probably most notably in VI, which mirrored the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

Abrams had to re-launch the series from scratch. There is no way that they could just try a new ship in the same world, only die hard fans would care. He also had to get the maximum amount of people to remember that Star Trek can be pretty great fun. I think he's done a fantastic job of this, and we FINALLY have word that a new series is coming to the small screen. That's really the endgame for Trek. It works best as a series because it needs to play with different moral and ethical themes through different lenses of character and story. A 2 hour movie just isn't a great format for something that might meander around that much. Star Trek is also different for everyone who watches it. Some people love the simpler sci-fi fun of a ship and an adventure, and some people like the headier stuff that they have done so well on the small screen. I am hopeful that Abrams and co's adrenaline shot to the heart is strong enough to keep the franchise alive. However people from the last generation, or even before that need to realize that going forward Star Trek is as much or more, for the NEW generation of fans. It's gonna change, and we might not love all of those changes. I am attached to the characters though, and so I'm sure I'll keep coming back.

 

For those of you who don't like the new Trek, I can recommend a series of books that might give you the fix you're looking for. I believe it was also some level of inspiration for Star Trek too. I'm talking about the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian, starting with Master and Commander (yes, the Russel Crow one). The books are much better than the film. Plus all the seafaring is as much fun as the spacefaring. 21 novels should be enough to get you through half a decade and may keep you out of the theater for when Beyond comes out.

[KH Martin]

I've never heard the O'Brien books being described as an inspiration for TREK (Roddenberry and Nick Meyer both cite the Hornblower novels, which is odd given how each man had a vastly different take on trek by the time their paths crossed), but I have heard M&C called the best non-TREK trek movie outside of GALAXY QUEST.

 

As for the argument that you can't put across everything trek in a 2hr film, that is true, however it doesn't mean you can't deliver enough goods to make it worthwhile. SERENITY, which is probably the most engaging TREK-style space feature I can recall, delivered everything we got from FIREFLY in spades while also upping the ante for the bigscreen. (the science was for crap, but that was my main/only bitch with the series too.) I'd argue that DEEP SPACE NINE and FIREFLY/SERENITY give a lot more of the original TREK feel of ethical dilemma and frontiers than anything we've gotten in any visual format since the 80s (TREK VI did a nasty character assassination number on the principals to serve its plot ends.)

 

I'm troubled by the notion the new series will likely inhabit the Abramsverse, but shoot, there's going to probably be new GALAXY QUEST and LOST IN SPACE series, maybe they'll put across more of the Trek values and storylines that appeal to me. TREK09 is one of the biggest messes ever, and there sure is a ton of suffering in it for a 'fun' movie.