Star Trek 11 Announced

[DFF]

Star Trek film 'turns back time'

JJ Abrams

Abrams also created TV series Alias starring Jennifer Garner

JJ Abrams, creator of TV show Lost and director of Mission Impossible III, is to produce and direct the 11th Star Trek film, it has been reported.

According to industry newspaper Daily Variety, the film - set for release in 2008 - will focus on the early days of Captain James T Kirk and Mr Spock.

The as-yet-untitled feature will tell of their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission.

The most recent Trek film, Star Trek: Nemesis, was released in 2003.

Abrams will write the film with his Mission Impossible co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

The film will be co-produced by Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk.

STAR TREK FILMS

The Motion Picture (1979)

The Wrath of Khan (1982)

The Search for Spock (1984)

The Voyage Home (1986)

The Final Frontier (1989)

The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Generations (1994)

First Contact (1996)

Insurrection (1998)

Nemesis (2002)

The decision to revive the Trek franchise comes a year after the cancellation of spin-off TV series Enterprise, which was axed after four seasons due to poor ratings.

The film Star Trek: Nemesis - which starred the cast of the Next Generation series - also underperformed, making less money than any of its nine predecessors.

However, rumours that the film series would continue in a different form have been circulating since 2003.

Earlier this year, Next Generation star Patrick Stewart told ITV1's This Morning there was "interest in bringing the Next Generation cast together with actors from different Star Trek series".

Edited April 27, 2006 by Kid Britain

[Mick]

Bad. Idea. :thumbsdown:

[TMM]

Bad. Idea. :thumbsdown:

Yeah...specifically the "focusing on Kirk and Spock when they first met" thing...the idea sucks because it's obviously not going to be either Shatner or Nimoy, and nobody else should play them at all.

That said, I'll watch it for the sole reason that I love anything Trek, nobody how bad it can be (see: The Motion Picture).

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Sounds like studio panicking to me!

[stokeriño]

I'm still mildly annoyed that they never made any DS9 movies.

I'm also kind of confused as to why they insist on going retro (Enterprise, and then this), when they've got an amazingly rich universe waiting for them post-Voyager. The fallout of the Dominion War could go almost any way, and yet they still prefer to try and awkwardly fit new stuff into the gaps in their existing timeline.

I don't hold high hopes for this film. The inevitable enactment of Kirk beating the Kobayashi Maru test could be a little fun to watch, though of course we know what happens anyway.

Edited April 22, 2006 by stokeriño

[DFF]

DS9 was the weakest series of the lot (although I can't judge vs. Enterprise, never saw a full ep). But yeah, it was generally average.

A voyage film would have rocked, though.

[TMM]

DS9 was the weakest series of the lot (although I can't judge vs. Enterprise, never saw a full ep). But yeah, it was generally average.

A voyage film would have rocked, though.

To be fair, DS9 is the only one of the lot that "non-Trek fans" can watch. And also, DS9 was the only one that had a story-arch that lasted for more than (at most) three episodes. I love every series (I don't hate Enterprise like everyone else seems to) but DS9 and TNG are easily my favourites.

[stokeriño]

I don't see how a Voyager film would be possible, other than with some very contrived setup along the lines of "and the crew must reunite due to some time paradox that they are/were involved it", or similar.

While I'm perfectly happy with the classic Star Trek/TNG/Voyager dynamic of "flying around, meet a new species/phenomenon/problem every day", the DS9 series were just so much more deeper and interwoven - as demonstrated by the way that the last 10 episodes of the final season effectively became one continuous story (unlike normal episodes that are relatively self-contained) because there were simply so many threads and plotlines to tie up that it couldn't be done any other way.

I understand what seems to be the lobby in the franchise, that the starship Enterprise is the main focus and consequently the movies are all about the original or TNG brands. I just think that they're passing up a massive opportunity...and that after roughly half a dozen movies each, it's about time they moved on.

[The Hardcore Canuck]

I'm a huge Trekie, but I don't have high hopes for this movie. I would have pefered a movie set after the Voyager series. Although, I still have my fingers crossed for another series set after Voyager (or possibly after DS9, and half-way through the series have someone say "Hey, Voyager just got back").

[Godfatha]

Honestly I wasn't that big of a fan of Voyager. I watched it, but mainly because right before that was DS9. I preferred DS9 to Voyager because of the story and how well developed the characters were towards the end. I'm all for a DS9 movie, or even a new movie entirely with new characters. I definately don't want to see one with Spock and Kirk.

[K]

Deep Space Nine WAS Star Trek.

[DFF]

The whole point to Star Trek, though, was travel between planets "to seek out new worlds, etc". DS9 was a space station... I guess I didn't like it because it seemed to go against was ST was all about - exploration.

[hugobomb]

yes and they did that for TOS and TNG, DS9 was a change from that which I liked. DS9 was my favorate one of the lot, just beating Voyager. TNG had too many 'character building' episodes which I hate, and I'm too young to have seen much of the Orignal Seris.

But K your wrong DSP wasn't Star Trek. Q was Star Trek!

[Godfatha]

The whole point to Star Trek, though, was travel between planets "to seek out new worlds, etc". DS9 was a space station... I guess I didn't like it because it seemed to go against was ST was all about - exploration.

[Mick]

DS9 was the weakest series of the lot (although I can't judge vs. Enterprise, never saw a full ep). But yeah, it was generally average.

Fuck off, DS9 was the best one they had.

No other series continued the story arcs that Deep Space Nine did. On TNG, you had maybe a well-known actor appear in a role, then never to be mentioned again. Look at Deep Space Nine. You had your core characters, then you had guys like Dukat, Nog, Weyoun, Rom, Damar, the Female Changling, Martok, etc etc. No other series in the Star Trek universe had the depth of supporting characters that DS9 had.

TNG, TOS and VOY all were very episoding in format. ENT tried to recapture some of the Story-Arc mentality, but due to it's sheer shittyness as a show trying to tie in all the shit from TNG, TOS, etc, it failed in that area.

All in all, DS9 was the best of the series.

[Toe]

Deep Space Nine was probably the best of the series, after TOS and TNG. As everyone has said, the storylines made the show. I thought that, while some of the show's episodes were annoying ( I just don't like Odo ), DS9 captured the spirit of the previous series. Voyager seemed bland, with the same thing happening over and over - meet species A, something goes wrong, fight species A or protect A from species B. Enterprise had some moments, but too much of the series was just boring. When they ended the whole thing with the destruction of Earth by NOT concluding it and giving us a satisfying ending, and instead going into a two episode arc with Nazis and crap, I gave up. That was a big letdown.

I think they could make another series or movie about a ship fighting the Dominion War first hand, filling in all the gaps.

[Guest We Are Robots]

How about this. A powerful entity... let's say, the Phoenix entity... is designed by the remnants of a civilization that was nearly wiped out by the Borg (don't turn off, the Borg don't even make an appearance per se). This entity is designed to be able to convert itself from a biological virus to a digital one, thus attacking both of the Borg's components at once in a modulating pattern, as well as take on the appearance of anything it sees. It also has amazing strength, and can turn into 'dust' which can float through tight spaces and then reform. It has a whole bunch of neat abilities. The Phoenix entity does not however just destroy Borg ships or Borg drones... it goes from planet to planet killing any lifeform that has anything Borg in it. This would include reformed Borg drones and the entire crew of Voyager (whom were given Borg nanoprobes to fight a virus or something), especially Seven of Nine, and Jean-Luc Picard. Admiral Janeway is the first to find out that the Phoenix entity is heading towards Earth and finds Enterprise, the ship most capable of taking it on, commanding the ship to face the Phoenix entity head-on before it reaches Earth, ending many lives, including Janeway's and those of most everyone she cares about. The initial confrontation ends in Phoenix's computer virus infecting the ship, leaving the ship's resources few and unpredictable, and with Captain Picard and Admiral Janeway at odds over the command of the Enterprise and who's boss, and with many feeling the sacrifice of the people who've been touched by Borg is well worth removing the Borg menace, it'll take a lot to defeat this seemingly invulnerable foe.

Oh, and it's: TNG > Voyager > Enterprise > Original Series > DS9

Screw Deep Space Nine. Lame cast, too much Ferengi, too much soap opera crap. Bad television, Star Trek or not.

Edited April 23, 2006 by We Are Robots

[SeanDMan]

You should be shot.

Star Trek TNG will always be the benchmark by which Star Trek is measured. The problem with TNG is that too much time was spent on devloping how this planet looks and how these people behave when they will appear for twenty five minutes and then never again. As a series of self contained episodes, it was fine, but as a cohesive series it did not even exist. Development of characters was minimal and if you look at the cast from season one to the final episode, only Wesley Crusher and Data have truly ever changed. Everyone else got an episode here or there where they were explained, but never truly changed. For example, Beverley's ghost lover. While an interesting microrcosm of the show it did nothing to change anything whatsoever, and was merely there.

Deep Space Nine introduced something to Star Trek known as plot. You may have heard of it. It's where things happen in a show that have implications for future episodes. People change. They fall in love. They die. Things happen for a reason. When characters and species are introduced, they tend to stick around. (BTW: Jeffrey Combs for president) And one more thing, in this series, the good guys can lose. They destroy the Jelico. They chop off Nog's leg (great few episodes there, just awesome). Dukat kills Dax. The Defiant is destroyed. And the isues of morality are very strong, how far do we go? Using the mines as their own weapon in the AR- episode, or the killing of the Romulan senator in order to frame the Dominion and get the Romulans as an ally (another fantastic episode). It just has everything that TNG did not. It evolved, progressed, and was must watch, because if you missed an episode of the later seasons you came back to a funeral. TNG was just a trippy misadventure after another with no rhyme reason or consequence. It is just not as good as Deep Space Nine.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

I think the movie is a bad idea, they should just let it go, how often do these 'the early years' films work anyway?

As for the series, I will always love TNG. Its the show that got me into Trek in the first place, so it will always have that place in my heart. Plus for me it had the two best characters in Star Trek with Data and Picard. Generally, other characters were great too, like Geordi and Worf. Had some fucking awesome shows too. As an 'stand-alone episode' series it was fantastic.

I didn't watch the other Treks as much, but after a very slow start, DS9 did get good (although I managed to miss the last couple of series there its when I wasn't as big a trek fan for a few years before getting more back into it again). It did have something the others hadn't, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Like SDM said, only really Data developed at all in TNG, and whislt the Riker/Troi/Worf love story was crap, it meant only the Data/Picard and Data/Gerodi friendships ever grew too. Its back to the old thing that TNG was fantastic for stand-alone shows, but DS9 had the long-term plot that no other Trek had.

I've watched a fair bit of Voyaer, but just as a random selection of shows whenever I feel like watching. I've found it to be enjoyable, but not fantastic.

I saw the odd Enterprise. Wasn't bad, but had this 'more of the same feel'.

So, basically, I liked TNG more than the other treks. It had the best initial characters (Sorry, but I'd take Picard, Riker, Data, Geordi and Worf over Sisko, Kira, O'Brien, Odo and Dax anyday), even though these didn't develop much at all. Plus, it had Data, who can pretty much make anything great with his sheer presence. Though I missed what seems to be considered the best of DS9, TNG had some of the very best episodes of Trek ever, and as a stand-alone show series it was immense. So thats why TNG was my favourite, though I have no major arguments with anyone who'd but DS9 above it for its long term plot and developments.

[DFF]

I'm not saying I disliked DS9. I just enjoyed all the other series more. lol.

My order of preference is.

1st: Next Gen/Voyager tie

3rd: Original Series

4th: Deep Space Nine