It’s been 43 years, 10 movies and more than 700 episodes of six TV series of Star Trek, and after the fanbase has essentially died out the studio has decided that Star Trek shall rise from the ashes and really hit it out of the park without any of the baggage of what has come before.
No easy task, and Yahoo has a great article laying out what was, and how they got to the point of starting over.
The films based on Gene Roddenberry’s 1966 space Western serial have not been mega-hits, and, more importantly, they have failed to draw big audiences in increasingly crucial overseas markets. The top-grossing “Trek” feature was 1996’s “Star Trek: First Contact,” which grossed $146 million worldwide, with only $54 million coming from international (1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” actually has sold the most tickets in the series).
So rather than continue to milk a languishing franchise, Paramount essentially has started over, holding on to core elements of the “Trek” universe while courting a new audience as wide as the galaxy.
I hadn’t realized that the Trek films were so luke warm with results. Knowing how rabid the fanbase was, how could it fail? Yet it never managed to achieve the financial success its dedicated fans seemed to think it deserved.
Let’s face it. Film fans are pessimists. We love to find anything to bitch about and complain about. So with such a die hard group of fans like Trekkies, we already knew they were going to complain.
Trek90210 and other nonsense trendy catch phrases were thrust about griping about how this is destined to ruin Star Trek, while they wait in line to see the latest revamping of Batman’s franchise praising it and vibrating with anticipation.
The article lays out some of the obsticles and efforts made in this reboot/sequel that will offer up a staple in Trek films and timetravel from the very end right back to the beginning to start anew.
Great efforts were made to not alienate the existing husk of a fanbase and remind you that this is not the geeky Trek you were afraid to give a chance after seeing that awkwardly twitching pimple faced nerd offer you a “Live Long and Prosper” instead of a handshake.
The overall encouragement is that they are aware that the Trekkies are not their target audience, but they do not want to alienate them either. I have faith that they are making every effort to make this epic.
