After the last two abominations from Yahoo!News, I am loathe to trust them, but this comes from Reuters, which means it’s probably true.
They are reporting that a new Star Trek movie is in the works. Can this really be? I figured Nemesis would be the last one, after it tanked in the theaters (it wasn’t very good, but it wasn’t truly awful). But who knows– even if it doesn’t do well, it’ll still make a ton of cash. They’re reporting that J. J. Abrams will direct it– he did Mission Impossible III, a movie you couldn’t pay me to see. Tom Cruise, as I have been known to say, is a freakin’ nutbag. But Abrams also did Lost which is kind of cool.
Still and all, I’d rather see Firefly back on the air, but this’ll do for now.
April 21st, 2006 at 8:51 pm
It’s going to be about Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy. Eh…
They really should produce a DS9 movie, after all, Sisko said he would be back.
April 21st, 2006 at 9:14 pm
I’d prefer a Star Trek movie over a new season of Firefly, since with Star Trek I might have a snowball’s chance in hell at getting more work done. (I.e. Firefly rocks.) Maybe we should get Phil a role in the new flick…say the academy astronomer?
April 21st, 2006 at 9:23 pm
*ugh* I’m sorry, but I have no interest in seeing the “early days” of Kirk and Spock. And at the Academy, no less! I know it’s anathema to some, but I’d really rather go back to the “present” of the Trek universe (2380s) than keep going back into the past.
April 21st, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Yahoo another Star Trek Movie!
If you are a Classic Trek fan you just have to see what these guys are doing!:
http://www.newvoyages.com/
April 22nd, 2006 at 12:37 am
I want Hollywood to remake “This Island Earth”.
April 22nd, 2006 at 12:39 am
I suppose some of the script might go like this:
(Kirk) Spock, I can’t wait to go around the universe and teach alien babes about ‘love’.
(Spock) Why yes that’s logical, very logical indeed.
April 22nd, 2006 at 1:03 am
Bourgeois Nerd – agreed. This just seems like a fast-track to preserving the rule that all the odd-numbered Star Trek movies suck.
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:27 am
Personally, I want them to make a third season of Starhunter, but to each his/her own.
I mean, where else are you going to get episodes in which things like Roche limits and LaGrange points become critical plot elements in a show about bounty hunters in space?
(Although they got Roche limits wrong, saying that an object orbiting within it would be “pulled in” to the body it orbits instead of being torn apart by tidal forces. Still, in a time when the “science” in science fiction seems limited to finding ever more cumbersome ways of reversing the polarity of the neutron flow, the simple fact that they made the effort is noteworthy.)
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:38 am
Phil et al., J.J. Abrams also did Alias, which I thought was rather cool.
I think they ought to turn one of Larry Niven’s books into a movie (something like “Protector” or “The Mote in God’s Eye”), because he pays attention to a lot of details from physics (I think he has a physics degree or two).
For instance, in Protector, there is a space battle that takes weeks to play out, because the ships are so far apart. In The Mote in God’s Eye, military ships have shields. When the shield is up, the ship cannot be seen because the shield is a black-body radiator (i.e. it is ttally black). A battle simply consists of one ship trying to overload the shields of the other ship (as the target ship takes in more energy, the shield glows red, then orange, then white, ’til it finally gives up, at which point the ship can be hit and gets destroyed).
April 22nd, 2006 at 4:41 am
So they pulled the dusty old Star Trek “Academy Years” idea out of the cupboard once again, eh.
Not to worry, they always put it back again when the new director they bring aboard bends over and pulls out something much better.
Anything by Larry Niven would be nice, especially now when special effects can truly bring his aliens to life.
A Firefly resurrection would be great too.
*pling pling plong* (guitar)
Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
*eeiioooeeeii* (fiddle)
etc…..
April 22nd, 2006 at 5:11 am
To: P. Edward Murray.
Great link you provided, I’ve downloaded one episode and watched it. The word: “Cheese” comes to mind, but not as often as when watching the original series
April 22nd, 2006 at 5:21 am
Frankly, I’ll take any “Trek” I can get, and I’ll probably enjoy it, too, but if you want to be truly useful to the cause, go here and see what we’re up to. http://www.trekfansunited.com/forum/
Warning: I’m going to try using the href code and see if I can make it work. If it doesn’t, well, as we say on Earth “C’est la vie”… Supposedly it will download our short film (.avi) about how to get “Enterprise” back in production.
April 22nd, 2006 at 5:22 am
Nope, didn’t work. Okay try this link then…
http://fandemic.com/Enterprise_Direct_To_DVD_DIVX.avi
April 22nd, 2006 at 6:19 am
I would’ve thought with the preformance of ‘Nemisis’ (which I can’t understand why it bombed; I thought is was pretty good) that no more ‘Trek’ movies were coming out.
Not so sure on the tenitive plot, though; Kirk and Spock’s Academy years?
It’s sure to create some inconsistenticies with the established time lines (I hate temperol mechanics!).
Still, it may have a chance. Well all see in ‘08. Or not.
April 22nd, 2006 at 6:39 am
Quote:
“The TV side is now technically in control of the franchise’s future, and Les Moonves hates all things Sci–Fi. However, I think this is actually for the best – the public needs to want to see Star Trek again. The best way to achieve this is to take it away for a few years and then bring it back and do it right. The franchise needs a totally new creative team, some time off, and a cool new approach.” – Doug Mirabello
I am in complete agreeance with this – I think the best thing for Star Trek right now is to give it a rest for at least 5 or 6 years before producing anything new. Making a new movie this soon is just suicide. Nobody is going to want to see it, nobody is going to like it, and it will do worse in the box office than Nemesis did. Especially if they let either Rick Berman or Brannon Braga within a mile of it. Star Trek needs to be put on the shelf for a while until some new, creative writers and producers come along in 5 or 10 years who are capable of revitalizing it, when the public wants it. This movie is just going to create more resentment among the public toward the franchise.
April 22nd, 2006 at 6:48 am
To Grand_Lunar: Are you serious? I thought that Nemisis sucked rear-end big time.
April 22nd, 2006 at 7:37 am
When I saw Nemesis, it had just hit theaters, and I hadn’t paid attention to any fan commentary circulating the Net, so I really had no expectations. I kept waiting for the good part to start. . . and waiting. . . and waiting. . . and the good part just never happened.
I saw it again last summer, on a friend’s enormously oversized TV. He had a movie rental card, we had nothing productive to do with our lives, and hey, sometimes you just feel like a Mystery Science Theater experience. After a second viewing, I got the feeling that the same basic story with the same amount of money behind it could have been a pretty good movie, if somebody else had been in charge. Nemesis looked like what would happen if somebody tried to “update” Star Trek by mixing it with cyberpunk. Opposites cancel, the story falls flat, and pallidity ensues.
April 22nd, 2006 at 7:45 am
I, too, will take any Trek I can get, but I hope they can do better than Nemesis.
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:17 am
While we seem to agree that Star Trek should be rested for a few years, the industry needs to keep on producing Sci-fi shows, preferably new ones, not just a 2006 version of something that was done a few years ago. If we have to have familiar stories, and don’t mind that originality is scarce, then I would like to see someone get hold of that 1950’s BBC classic RADIO serial, “Journey into Space’, suitably re-worked for video presentation.
Preferably, it should be kept in the time period in which it was written. Also their idea of the ‘future’ should be preserved, though I realise that story was in their future – and that it has actually passed our present time! A sort of ‘true to the book’ treatment of a classic would be great.
Referring to Charles Chilton’s ” Journey into Space “. It concerned the first manned journey to Mars, or so it seemed. As a school boy it was the most entertaining serial all week, eagerly discussed on Monday morning at school. Then we only had our imagination to visualise the action, but I would be surprised if not a few future Space enthusiasts and subsequent workers in Astronautics, Astronomy and other related activities, were initially interested and encouraged by the Science Fiction writings after the Second World War.
I would even accept a modernisiation of the story within limits as a second choice. Does any body else have another favorite? Oh, and I liked ‘Alias’ as a series. It was one of the few that was not overtly ‘over the top’, with gratuitous sex, violence and general mayhem. So I have some respect for Mr. J.J. Abrams.
Ivan.
April 22nd, 2006 at 10:09 am
I suppose anyone can say they have no interest in seeing a new concept … until it turns out to be a good movie. It’s too early to tell at this point, but I’m at least intrigued enough to give consideration to a fresh perspective on the franchise.
However, I’d rather see Firefly brought back too.
April 22nd, 2006 at 11:38 am
Funny thing about Star Trek is that for many folks, it’s like Dr. Who, it doesn’t die.
As to sci-fi and movies in general, it strikes me really odd that with the number of novels already writen and new ones out all the time, that we have the same baloney on TV every year. Re makes to the hilt etc. And while I did not think the adaptation of Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” was good there are some great Heinlein novels out there that should be made into movies like “The Rolling Stones” or “Red Planet” or even “Have Spacesuit will Travel” the later I’ve heard is in production.
There are endless stories out there already written but the creativity to see what’s under our collective noses just inside the bookstore is sadly lacking.
April 22nd, 2006 at 12:21 pm
When someone gets an idea evryone ses to jump on the bandwagon and do the same, or similar story. Its like we have to have a theme for the year of movies and everyone follows suit. Someties they get spread out, batman begins, superman begins, star trek begins. While soe are good I like original stuff, or maybe it just seems original to me because I’m not old enough to remember the original. I liked the island for that reason, minority report without cruise maybe?
April 22nd, 2006 at 1:11 pm
To Thomas Siefert;
Yep, I’m serious. Granted, I didn’t think it was great, but at least it was better than ST:5.
April 22nd, 2006 at 1:52 pm
To Grand_Lunar: You are right on ST:5.
They shouldn’t be allowed to sell the DVD, they should give it away for free with an apology as a punishment for shoplifting.
April 22nd, 2006 at 7:22 pm
ok st5 was bad but it had one god line
“jim, you don’t ask the almight for id”
there have been worse movies made and worse ones are just a vague thaought in some producers head.
April 22nd, 2006 at 7:29 pm
it should a vague thought in some producers head.
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:01 pm
While I have no interest in “Kirk and Spock – The early years”, I can see them getting Shatner to play Kirk’s father: “Space? We’ve got 2400 acres of good Iowa farm land. How much space do you think you need?”
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:03 am
User Friendly has an idea about a new Trek movie…
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:03 pm
I agree with P. Edward Murray: there’s tons of good stories out there waiting to be made for either TV or movies. I’d like to see a TV series made with the short fiction of “Fantasy and Science Fiction” of a few years ago (most of the currently published works are mostly fantasy, at least in my opinion). Yeah, a series in the mode of “Outer Limits” or the “Twilight Zone” would be interesting…
April 23rd, 2006 at 5:21 pm
While in “word-nerd” mode, I am amused by the use of pallidity, a rarely used inflection of pallid. It’s almost, but not quite as good, as Phil’s use of passel, which he referred to when he blogged about some conference in D.C. and said that he went with a “passel of friends” to a bar or something. Who uses passel anymore!?
Webster’s only has two citations: one from Shelby Foote and Time. I thought, perhaps, that Phil had suddenly walked out of a late 19th Century British novel. (Yes, I remember people’s unusual choices of words as I remember what I ate in particular restaurants 20 or 30 years ago.)
[word-nerd mode now turned off]
April 24th, 2006 at 9:54 am
I hope this isn’t redundant… has anyone seen this?
http://homepage.mac.com/starshipexeter/
It’s TOS-era, but on the starship Exeter instead of the Enterprise.
April 24th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Grand_Lunar says: “I would’ve thought with the performance of ‘Nemesis’ (which I can’t understand why it bombed; I thought is was pretty good) that no more ‘Trek’ movies were coming out.”
The reason “Nemesis” tanked was because they brought it out the same week in December as the third “Harry Potter” movie. I know one of the ST producers (Peter Lauritson) and he had no explanation as to why they (Paramount) didn’t bring it out in November to catch the early holiday crowd like they had with the previous three or four movies. Instead, they put it up against the hottest new SF/Fantasy franchise in decades and it showed ST to be what it was, really tired.
That said, I don’t think Nemesis was as bad as some others here have mentioned. It was certainly much better than its predecessor, the piece of ecotopia trash called “Insurrection.” I almost gagged at the blatant message being hammered into us. “We understand technology, we just choose not to use it.” Bleh.
- Jack
April 26th, 2006 at 7:14 am
I am not a fan of prequels and although I hold hope they will do something good I feel they are moving in the wrong direction. Although at the time of the series Wil Wheaton’s character Wesley Crusher was less than popular with most fans- both Wil and his Star Trek Character have become better known to fans through Wil’s books and his sketch comedy troupe. (check them out BTW very fun) Wesley was cut out of the last Trek movie which is a pity because I might have seen it in theaters rather than waiting for rentals. Think about it. The only teen actor to join Trek, his character growing up with the constant wisdom of Picard and the Next Generation crew, his adventures with the Traveller. Wil can hold himself high with a star studded cast, I don’t understand why they don’t make something fresh and new with a character people have come to appreciate and remind everyone what Trek was always about. Thank you for listening to my rant- check out Wil’s blog at WilWheaton.net
April 26th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Re the link in CR’s comment for the Exeter Starship presentation, I waited for ever for it to download, I know it was not small, but I couldn’t get it to run with the video. Just a blank screen, the music was good and the dialogue was there but no pix.
Did anyone else have that problem or is my QuickTime missing something? I am running a newish Mac Mini, so that should be ok with QT. And even a Broadband connection.
Ivan.
April 27th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Many fans thought Wesley was “too bright”. “Oh no, Wesley saves the day, AGAIN.” Essentially you have a space ship full of trained, intelligent officers and crew and whenever they get into a jam, the one to have the good idea is the 15 year old kid.
I liked Wesley Crusher, but I don’t think he’s worth his own series. The “Traveller” bit was a too thinly veiled gimmick to get him out of the way.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:20 am
I agree with Eric Ingram, they should have a movie about DS9. The plot would be after 10 years Sisko returns from the worm hole as a liaison between the prophets and the Federation because the “spirits in the fire caves†are released. They are working through Gul Dukut and all of the leadership of Cardassia is possessed by the spirits of the fire cave. Using the Cardassian Empire they attack the Federation and are unstoppable because they possess supernatural powers. Sisko would be an omnipotent being like Q (except he will be rational and good) who returns and saves Bajor and leads the Federation to victory.
July 24th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Ok DS9 movie people… if you saw the last episode, then you know it was purposefully made that way to show that there would be no movie. I mean, with a DS9 movie, you not only once again have to find some cheesy way to get Worf in it, but you have to find a cheesy way to get Chief O’Brien and Odo in it as well. It’s unfortunate that DS9 was ended the way it was. It could have been a very good movie franchise. To think: the movies could’ve answered the questions of the past between Garak and Dukat. I’d still pay $10 to find that out, even 7 years after the series ended… and to see Garak in a movie.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Can someone please explain to me why everyone dislikes Nemesis ?? People can say what they want, but Nemesis is the greatest star trek movie ever made!!
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I just watched Star Trek in theaters.
Looks like all you haters were wrong.