Star Trek is a dead franchise. There’s no way around that. It’s been dead for years now. There are those out there who vehemently argue that with me, and I appreciate their passion (after all, I’m in the same boat as them defending Revenge of the Sith!) as fans, but the facts are the facts. Star Trek has been loosing its existing fan base steadily for years. By it’s own admission they’ve failed to gain any new fans for the franchise… and most importantly the films bomb and the TV shows rating go quickly into the toilet.
Some people will claim that all those facts are just because Paramount and the creative teams have tanked. That may be 100% true. But it doesn’t matter if a guy dies from a gun shot, a sting ray attack or heart failure…. he’s still dead. Maybe the good ship Star Trek capsized because of the writers and the studio…. but it’s still dead, no matter whose fault it is.
HOWEVER… this is the movie world. That means any dead character can suddenly reappear at any time. Star Trek is no different. I’ve been saying for over a year now that the only hope Star Trek has of being revived is the finally stop with the existing Star Trek Universe as it is. Reinvent itself, restart… reboot if you will. Bring in new blood with a new vision for the Star Trek universe. Throw out all the “rules” and start fresh.
The hiring of JJ Abrams (Mission Impossible 3, Alias, Lost) to take the helm was a great step in that direction. In recent months the new creative team for Star Trek 11 has made statements that they are going to focus more of their attention on NEW fans for the franchise and not hold so dearly to the canon of the original. That is also good news.
Now, official word from Abrams himself is indicating that a younger James Tiberius Kirk is going to be in the new film. I think we all knew that already, but it’s official now. The good folks over at Filmwad give us this:
JJ Abrams says, “James T Kirk appears in the movie.” And quite honestly, without him, the movie would have tanked anyway. As for where he’s at with production on the film, Abrams tells us:
“The respect we all have for Star Trek canon – and for a brand-new audience – is massive. The script is done. We’re now starting pre-prep, and we can’t wait to start shooting! Many more details to follow! “
The new Star Trek would bomb without Kirk???? Newsflash… the star trek movies have been bombing anyway! But I digress. The issue here is that Kirk will be there… but don’t count on him being the exact same Kirk we’re all already familiar with.
Notice how Abrams is using every once of diplomacy here. Saying he has “respect” for the canon. That really doesn’t mean anything since you can respect something and still go off in a different direction. They’ve already claimed that they’re not going to hold to canon, and that’s a GOOD thing. Breath some fresh life into this corpse, change some things. Revive tired characters. Introduce new ones. Get rid of some dead weight ones. Re-imagine the Star Trek universe in a way that works better in a 2007 context than a 1960’s context.
I am a Star Trek fan believe it or not. I’m a fan of most Sci-Fi (I know there are some closed minded purists out there who will say that if I don’t have the same opinion as they do then I’m NOT a Star Trek fan… but they’re wrong). But it’s time to stop worrying about keeping the purist fans happy… because these same purist fans haven’t saved Star Trek from dying in the first place. Just my two cents worth. Let the discussion begin!
