Star Trek XI Script Done
Whenever I hear someone say “I hope they come to this with an open mind,” I know it can’t be good.
Script Completed for ‘Star Trek XI’
Director J.J. Abrams has confirmed that the script for Star Trek XI has been completed, that it will concern Capt. Kirk and Spock as very young men, that shooting will begin this year, and that the movie is targeted for release in 2008. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Abrams said that the story will satisfy even non-Trekkers. “On the one hand, for people who love Star Trek, the fix that they will get will be really satisfying, ” he told the magazine. ”For people who’ve never seen it or know it vaguely, I think they will enjoy it equally, because the movie does not require you to know anything about Star Trek. I would actually prefer [that] people don’t know the series, because I feel like they will come to it with an open mind.”
OpenCritic
Thank you for posting!!! I dunno – I could go either way with this. Yes, it will suck to have new actors playing these classic characters. But then again, this franchise has been out of steam for some time and a total re-imagining might not be a bad idea. The original Trek creators have been coasting on fumes for so long, they could do with a little shaking up.
The franchise can’t be any more dead right now. (Well it could, it could be MATRIX). But still, if this movie flops we’re right back where we started. If it rocks, then we’ll be able to look forward to a resurgence in the trek universe.
JJ Abrams as a choice is entirely middle of the road to me. Could really go either way. I just hope the script is faithful to Trek lore, and that they only deviate from established backstory when absolutely necessary to tell a new and interesting tale. (Presumably the meeting of Kirk and Spock is already being re-imagined from what has been established. But largely I hope it falls in line with what we already know.)
After we see Trans-Formers we will have a better idea of how these writers balance modern updates with established fan franchises.
My problem isn’t so much that they’re breaking continuity or having new actors play Kirk and Spock (all horrifying to the nerd in me, but I get over it), my problem is that the theme of Star Trek has been lost. When launched in the 1960s, the underlying tone of the show was “in the future, we have all gotten past our BS and get along.” I loved the speech Kirk gave to those nuts on Eminiar VII (i think) where he said “we can admit we’re killers, but say to ourselves that we won’t kill TODAY.” We were destined to just be so self-aware and evolved in the 23rd century. The Next Generation keep that going with the Klingons being our friends and Picard giving speeches all over the place. I’m not sure exactly when it came out, but Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country seemed to be the last star trek product to carry that theme (though it made the crew out to be surprisingly racist). DS9 didn’t have it. Voyager didn’t have it. Enterprise might have had it by accident, I’m not sure. But the heart and soul of Star Trek is definately lost. I’d rather it lie in rest than to keep making more products, unless they “get it” once more. We’ll see.
I think Trek just needs to evolve with the times, and it’s had some trouble of late. It’s a peace-lovin’ ‘60s product that toyed with the darker side (civil war and global unrest in DS9 -though BSG does it better) or, horribly in my opinion, trying to re-capture the old Trek spirit in Voyager. I actually enjoyed Enterprise, for its stumbling Captain who didn’t always make the right decisions, but the biggest problem is that they let folks off the hook too easily. Trek shouldn’t be clean, the ideals can be lofty and beautiful, but the road to get there should never be easy and tied up with a bow. Not anymore.
I know I’m preaching something that may not necessarily be Star Trek, but I do think there’s a great place for a show about the stars that’s not Lucas campy, and not Eick depressing. Trek should do nicely, me thinks.