Jump to content

Do We Really Need Another Star Trek Movie?


Anderton

Recommended Posts

  • Members

 

The real problem with Star Trek is that there hasn't been much in the way of new ideas since TNG

 

 

That was about halfway through season 2 when the gears started moving in that direction. Wil Wheaton has a very emotional account of how he felt he wasn't very good for the show and he wanted out, while Gene lay dying in the hospital, and Rick Berman beg and pleaded with him into renewing his (Wil's contract) and once he did, he wrote Wil out of the show for the rest of the season. (you can read it a wilwheaton.com)

 

I think if anything, that was definately the point where Star Trek (and maybe Sci fi as a genre) stopped being about storytelling and became mearly a themed setting for either drama or action.

 

The main problem, I feel, with Star Trek is that it stopped being about storytelling, and each successive series was more and more about the interplay between the characters, and the characters themselves were't new, but mearly rearranged.

 

I think that the interplay is important, but it should back up the mainplot and give us an insight into why the characters think and feel they way they do about the main conflict.

 

Too much of that is also a bad thing, as in the case of Janeway on Voyager.

 

 

The second problem, is the technology. It should serve only to provide a suspension of disbelief so that the story can take place. And, this is what Doctor Who does, the conflict to the resoloution must be tied to a relevation or insight the main character has in the story, and the tchnology can't be the means which the main characters overcome the conflict.

 

Star trek had graudally shifted from whipping out these last minute fixes (if you remember Wesley's "science projects") to there not even being a conflict anymore. The main conflict was relegated to being a sub plot that was glimpsed through various strings of interpersonal and "day in the life of" moments.

 

Soooo to wrap this up, if star trek can be brought back to being about something more, and less about sitting around talking about personal issues, I think it'd have the potential to do really well again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 54
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

I think if anything, that was definately the point where Star Trek (and maybe Sci fi as a genre) stopped being about storytelling and became mearly a themed setting for either drama or action.

 

 

that's one of the lines people use to separate Sci-Fi from Space Opera

A huge ammount of what we get (esp in motionpicture) is space opera

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

For me... Star Trek is about Spock and Kirk.

 

I've never been able to get past that, as those characters were it. Bones, Scotty, Sulu... that's it. If they could make a very good movie about those characters then I say YES PLEASE!

 

Picard and the rest are fine but I never really paid any attention of it because it just didn't do it for me.

 

I love the way Spock and Kirk would allude to earlier times, the academy, some incident that cemented their freindship, etc. It sounds like a great idea.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think that they should make a "Father Knows Best" style series about the zany, light-hearted adventures of a suburban Klingon family.

 

"Leave It To Chzhangorrff"

 

:D

 

Episode 1 - Egged on by his mischievous friends, Chzhangorrff cuts the head off of the Deleevian Swamp Monster that he finds in Mr. Kklaargnor's back yard. But when it turns out that the Swamp Monster was really an anniversary gift for Mom...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by Lee Knight

For me... Star Trek is about Spock and Kirk.


I've never been able to get past that, as those characters were it. Bones, Scotty, Sulu... that's it. If they could make a very good movie about those characters then I say YES PLEASE!


 

:thu:

 

First Trek is Best Trek

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

C'mon, you simply can't have enough Trek movies :thu:

 

Tho I'd rather not see another prequel, a DS9 movie would be the best idea, but it has more continuity than any of the other shows and they'd never sell it to a mass audience, so I'm hoping for a film with completely new characters!!!

 

And it might just happen as the Kirk / Spock prequel rumour has now been confirmed as not happening!!!! But JJ Abrams is still involved....! :thu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by techristian

Let's suggest that they write a movie about a dying planet.


Apparently some 300 years ago the inhabitants freed themselves from the drudgery of manual labor with new technology. The generations following all became artists and musicians. Somewhere approximately 20 years ago all of the technology started to break down. The inhabitants know nothing of planting food , farming, or manufacturing etc. The machines did that for them. THEY ONLY KNOW HOW TO MAKE MUSIC AND PAINT PICTURES !


WHAT WILL THEY DO ??


Dan


http://musicinit.com/pvideos.html

 

Pretty good... How about this one?

 

100 years ago they found out they need not perform actual labor because they could combust a weird sticky liquid that sometimes bubbled up out of the ground. Over the years the richest got extremely dependent on this stuff, using it for everything they do. The population bloomed and prospered until one day the liquid ran out.

 

In the resulting wars and starvation that followed, the civilization collapsed back into slavery and autocratic dictatorships.

 

The Star Trek folk have to show them how to prosper without enslaving each other and without consuming excessive amounts of the suddenly-precious and scarce energy.

 

Nah... It'd never fly... Too unlikely a scenario, the audience would never buy it. :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Here's one:

 

Dr. Who takes Rose to a planet near Atlantis where they get stunned by Wraith guns. They escape from the hive ship and take the Tardis 400 years into a future in which the Borg have assimilated the Wraith.

 

They manage to escape through time and space, arriving on a living ship named Moya. There, they help astronaut John Crichton fight in the Peacekeeper war before Rose and the doctor resume their journey to Babylon 5.

 

;):D:p

 

Best,

 

Geoff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I didn't need the first one.

 

I thought the show had its moments -- better appreciated in retrospect -- but when I tried to watch reruns while stuck in the hospital for two months a couple decades ago, I found it a bit, um, what's the nice word for peurile? [uPDATE: OK, "peurile" is kind of harsh. Let's just say it didn't quite have the right tone to grab me as a cynical, self-ordained hipster of 17 or 18... that's tuff turf for any TV to get over on, I think. UPDATE to UPDATE: Maybe it should be kept in mind that I am, as I write this, having a good chuckle over Abbot & Costello in the Foreign Legion... ;) ]

 

I think I saw the first movie... it was... bearable. Barely.

 

 

But that's just me.

 

Obviously, a lot of folks really liked the show, a lot of people liked the movies.

 

If they think they can make a buck with re-treads they will.

 

 

 

I WAS watching Lost for... I dunno.. a while. Until about the time they blasted into the bunker...

 

I thought the production values were great, the characters initially intriguiging, the mystica/metaphysical/uber-conspiracy threads initially intriguing but quickly tiresome...

 

Not bad for a first series (if it was)... and, frankly, look at the rest of the hour long dramas... they're crap. Between Dick Wolfe, Bruckheimer, and [shudder] Dave E. Kelly, they've filled the airwaves with superficially slick and DEEPLY stupid shows that are an ongoing insult to the viewer.

 

(Yes... I HATE myself for still watching L&O: Wednesday and CrimIn. EVERY episode is a new insult. I've taken to watching old Perry Mason one hour reruns because they're so much more realistic. Think about THAT. EVERY Perry Mason client compulsively picks up EVERY bloodied blunt object or smoking gun next to EVERY dead body... but at least Della Street wasn't paraded around in low-cut tanktops like the uniformly pretty ADAs on L&O shows.)

 

Anyway... back to Star Trek the latest movie...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I WAS watching Lost for... I dunno.. a while. Until about the time they blasted into the bunker...

 

I thought the production values were great, the characters initially intriguiging, the mystica/metaphysical/uber-conspiracy threads initially intriguing but quickly tiresome

 

 

I think they ran into the problem of having "American TV series-itis" where the francise is to keep running so the story arc isn't finite

The writers have oft been cited as being T zone junkies...but in those, there is closure

 

So, there is the attempt to make finite subplot aftet finite subplot while keeping the main narrative stable...

But it quickly becomes apparent that these are just rhythmic peaks and you eventually just ride those with no real payoff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Need we even say... like Twin Peaks?

 

 

I was a pretty big David Lynch fan* up 'til the end of season two... I actually watched the thoroughly insulting Fire Walk with Me...

 

As a friend and I walked out of the theatre I found myself saying... "Well, that does it. That may be the last David Lynch movie I ever go see."

 

And, so far, it has been...

 

 

*... I never watched Dune, either. I've seen enough of it to feel like it's not my kind of movie. But stuff like Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Blue Velvet... now that stuff talked to me. Or, in the case of Eraserhead, whispered terrifying nothings into my ear as I dreamt for months or years thereafter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Originally posted by amplayer

Does anyone know who the composer will be for it?

 

 

No idea. Goldsmith is dead, so there is an opportunity for some new music.

 

John Williams would be an interesting choice. James Horner did a nice job on Star Treks II and III.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I saw the first three installments and enjoyed them. I missed everything between the last of the first three and the most recent installment.

 

I went with an open mind looking forward to an enjoyable experience and when I left the theature, I was not please with the film for a lot of reasons.

 

the reviews hailed the last one as a return to quality... based on my experience I would not pay to see the next one.

 

however think about all of the people that are employed during the production of the films and the benefit it provides beyond my desire to be entertained.

 

would I rather see another star wars film or the devils rejects part two the untold story ?

 

the devils rejects part 2 gets my vote.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Originally posted by blue2blue


*... I never watched Dune, either. I've seen enough of it to feel like it's not my kind of movie. But stuff like Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Blue Velvet... now that stuff talked to me. Or, in the case of Eraserhead, whispered terrifying nothings into my ear as I dreamt for months or years thereafter.

 

 

Twin Peaks == good

 

Blue Velvet == awesome

 

Eraserhead == intolerable

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Well, now, I didn't say Eraserhead was for everybody. If one isn't disturbed by it, that may be a danger sign right there.

 

But, of course, your choice of words implies an acknowledgement of subjectivity... tolerability being in the gut of the beholder.

 

It's clearly an impressionistic, surrealistic film and, in that context, I didn't find it as disturbing as, say, the Marilyn Monroe psycho-drama, Don't Bother to Knock, which totally creeps me out. (I'll admit it, it always weirds me out seeing an evil Marilyn.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I felt the same way abt Twin Peaks

 

I thought the first season was nifty (though a little bit like "I wish I could be Blue Velvet when I grow up") but it just got stretched into a goofy 'franchise'

 

I sorta liked Dune --I'm not sure I did on the first watching, but it grew on me. I think ithad major adaptation/editing/structural issues...I don't think it did a very good job at telling the story as a stand-alone, but as an adjunct (and let's face facts...The dune-verse is all adjunct now ;) ) I tink it did a real good job in style/atmosphere

 

One of those where, objectively, I don't think it is very good - but subjectively, I like it anyway

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
  • Members

I was probably one of the ones who voted to start a new franchise.

 

Even as recently as a few months ago, I did not see the point in recreating the original series, which had very iconic characters.

 

Now that I've seen the new Star Trek, however, I'm okay with that. It's so much fun, and really well done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...