Star Trek is Back with Abrams at the Helm

[steveo21]

J.J. Abrams is becoming the next Gene Roddenberry.

Paramount is breathing life into its "Star Trek" franchise by setting "Mission: Impossible III" helmer J.J. Abrams to produce and direct the 11th "Trek" feature, aiming for a 2008 release.

Damon LindelofDamon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, Abrams' producing team from "Lost," also will produce the yet-to-be-titled feature.

Project, to be penned by Abrams and "MI3" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto OrciRoberto Orci, will center on the early days of seminal "Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission.

Deal reflects ParPar's bullishness on "MI3," which launches worldwide next weekend, and underlines the goal of Paramount chief Brad Grey and prexyprexy Gail BermanGail Berman to re-energize the pipeline via high-profile tentpoles while revitalizing the Par brand with top-tier talent such as Abrams.

"MI3" is the first pic to be released that's been greenlit by Grey.

"Star Trek" has been Hollywood's most durable performer other than James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series.

Decision to relaunch "Star Trek" comes less than a year after UPNUPN pulled the plug on "Star Trek: Enterprise""Star Trek: Enterprise" amid dismal ratings following a four-season run and four years after "Star Trek: Nemesis""Star Trek: Nemesis" turned in the worst performance of the 10 films with $43 million domestic.

Original series created by Roddenberry launched in 1966 on NBC and ended in 1969.

During the following decade, the original 78 episodes of "Trek" became staples in syndication and helped mobilize the fan base along with conventions, books and merchandise. Paramount released "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979 and saw domestic grosses hit $82 million. The next three films grossed a combined $263 million domestically, so Paramount started the second TV series, "The Next Generation," in 1987, with Rick Berman and Roddenberry co-exec producing.

Under Sherry LansingSherry Lansing's tenure, Rick Berman had been teamed several years ago with Jordan KernerJordan Kerner and Kerry McCluggageKerry McCluggage to develop an 11th feature set in the early days of Starfleet Academy.

[@DCGoldPants]

dumb. This going retro thing is weak.

I'd think the smart thing to do would be going for some kind of Triology with new characters. Some huge war, Lord of the Rings style.

[Baculus]

I always thought a TV show based on the Starfleet Academy would have been a good show. Heck, call it Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and based the episodes on the many scenarios that could surround a group of students at the academy.

I was also hoping that the next ST move would have had more of Riker at the helm. I am happy that J.J. Abrams is working on the Trek film, but I am also weary of the attempt to go retro. since our current technology is far beyond the orginal ST serial. But, who knows, it may be very cool.

[RabidFan]

I love me some Shatner

[Sarge]

THis could range from mildly interesting to supremely stupid

[Larry]

I'm really skeptical of any attempt to do Kirk and Spock without the original actors.

To me, if you want to do a Star Trek series in the original series' day (a concept that I think could work), then pick another Constitution-class starship.

Do you really want to tell me that nothing interesting happened to the USS Constellation during their "five-year mission"?

Keep the retro sets, uniforms, props, sound effects, and so forth, but don't attempt to "redo" the characters.

-----

Or, I had another idea for a ST series.

When Rodenberry first did his concept for TNG, his vision was that the Federation had expanded by leaps and bounds, and had pretty much stopped expanding (because the Federation had pretty much encountered neighbors on all borders, now.) But supposedly, a great deal of the places inside "Federation Space" had never been visited. He wanted TNG to be less about planting a flag Where No Man has Gone Before, and more about "well, let's see what we've got".

IMO, when you're not conquering new territory, you're exploring existing ones, then you don't do it by building six Galaxy-class starships with a crew of 1,000 each. You build 200 five-man scouts.

I think there's a lot of room for a lot of good stories written around a Star Trek scout ship. They're not the Biggest Ship In Starfleet. If they meet the Greek God Apollo, they don't have an expert on Greek mythology who just happened to be working on deck 12. Someone will have to wing it. Every crew member will have to be the backup for one of the other positions. (Your assistant engineer is also your chief helmsman. He's also your #3 medic.)

And with a smaller cast, you'd have a smaller budget.

[Xameil]

I would have liked to have seen a movie about DS9. With the Defiant, and the war with Cardassia/Shape Shifters, and something like that.

The Defiant would have been great to center on. A Federation ship with cloaking ability, and the massive weapons it had.

Also, whatever happened at the end of Voyager. I missed it.

[Baculus]

Also, whatever happened at the end of Voyager. I missed it.

At the end of Voyager, at the season finale, they had a conflict with the Borg queen, and using the Borg's transwarp and slipstream drive, they were able to get back to Earth. You should watch the episode - it's pretty good.

[Xameil]

At the end of Voyager, at the season finale, they had a conflict with the Borg queen, and using the Borg's transwarp and slipstream drive, they were able to get back to Earth. You should watch the episode - it's pretty good.

but....but...but...the borg queen died....in First Contact. Thats when it was no longer the Borg Collective, it became the Borg Conscience...

[Larry]

Actually, on the Larry's wish list of things I'd like to see on Star Trek, there was one thing I wanted to see. It seemed logical (although it would've cost a boatload of money). But it's something that The Federation ought to have.

Whenever there's a fight scene on Star Trek, we have scenes from the bridge. The Intrepid Captain yelling for heading 161 mark 24. People falling out of chairs. Scotty I need more power. So forth.

I keep remembering an article I'd read in Air and Space magazine. Seems that the #1 skill that Maverick and folks need whenh they're in combat is something called "situational awareness": The ability to keep track of where the Bad Guy is and where he's going. The best way of keeping track of the Bad Guy is still "Eyeball, Mark 1". According to the article, the Air Force is spending a lot of money trying to figure out how to feed a fighter pilot all the information he needs, without overloading him with gauges and blinking LEDs.

Therefore, what I wanted to see, sometime when Sisko was taking the Defiant into another fight, would be for him to order Worf to "engage tactical viewer".

And the bridge disapears.

With Holodeck technology, there's no reason why Sisko can't sit in his own virtual world, where he can hear everybody on the bridge, but what he sees is every vessel in the fleet, in real time, and in 360 vision.

There can be computer symbology added to the visual. Maybe each ship would have a velocity vector, showing where it's headed. Maybe enemy shields (or your own) would be visable. Maybe ships would be color coded to show who's they are.

But I really like the idea of Our Intrepid Heroes fighting a battle, in an environment in which each person sees his own controll panel, and space, and that's all.

[@DCGoldPants]

a Riker storyline would be sort of cool. You could have some of the folks from the popular 80's and 90's series, but not be forced to keep the whole same group together.

[nelms]

I don't know, I'm pretty excited about a retro movie. There are lots of possibilities.

I know the retro show didn't really pull it off, but I think a lot of it had to do with weak actors. Scott Bakula was a horrible choice for a captain. No one really had a presence on that show. Although, Jolene Blalock was worth watching (the hottest Vulcan ever). Here she is without her Vulcan "uniform".

[Sarge]

Actually, on the Larry's wish list of things I'd like to see on Star Trek, there was one thing I wanted to see. It seemed logical (although it would've cost a boatload of money). But it's something that The Federation ought to have.

Whenever there's a fight scene on Star Trek, we have scenes from the bridge. The Intrepid Captain yelling for heading 161 mark 24. People falling out of chairs. Scotty I need more power. So forth.

I keep remembering an article I'd read in Air and Space magazine. Seems that the #1 skill that Maverick and folks need whenh they're in combat is something called "situational awareness": The ability to keep track of where the Bad Guy is and where he's going. The best way of keeping track of the Bad Guy is still "Eyeball, Mark 1". According to the article, the Air Force is spending a lot of money trying to figure out how to feed a fighter pilot all the information he needs, without overloading him with gauges and blinking LEDs.

Therefore, what I wanted to see, sometime when Sisko was taking the Defiant into another fight, would be for him to order Worf to "engage tactical viewer".

And the bridge disapears.

With Holodeck technology, there's no reason why Sisko can't sit in his own virtual world, where he can hear everybody on the bridge, but what he sees is every vessel in the fleet, in real time, and in 360 vision.

There can be computer symbology added to the visual. Maybe each ship would have a velocity vector, showing where it's headed. Maybe enemy shields (or your own) would be visable. Maybe ships would be color coded to show who's they are.

But I really like the idea of Our Intrepid Heroes fighting a battle, in an environment in which each person sees his own controll panel, and space, and that's all.

That's pretty damn cool!

There are a lot of stories left to be told in Star Trek, but the catch is to put together a cast/crew that people care about

Enterprise had potential, but they had too many continuity issues that pissed off a lot of the nerds.

[Thanos]

The franchise needed a break.Berman had run out of ideas.

Remember the Federation/Romulan War? That's the best idea for this thing.

[Sarge]

The franchise needed a break.Berman had run out of ideas.

Remember the Federation/Romulan War? That's the best idea for this thing.

That's what Enterprise should have done but....................

I always thought a well thought out, future "time ship" Enterprise would be cool

[PokerPacker]

maybe we can bring back christopher pike. no one remembers what HE's supposed to look like!

[Sarge]

Actually, these guys are doig a pretty good job of a remake without Paramount. They've even gotten some of the old cast to make appearances

http://newvoyages.com/

[PokerPacker]

according to your link, they DID bring back Christopher pike! hooray!

edit: is John Kelly by any chance related to DeForrest Kelly?

reedit: nevermind, last name is spelled "kelley"

[Sarge]

according to your link, they DID bring back Christopher pike! hooray!

Yeah, it was pretty cool. Downloading the last episode they put out is worth the time. Plus they are about to put out another one

[Sarge]

As for other Star Trek stuff, this dude has early pics of the new Master Replica NCC-1701

http://community-2.webtv.net/TrekOFile/StarTrek/index.html

[ChocolateCitySkin]

dumb. This going retro thing is weak.

I'd think the smart thing to do would be going for some kind of Triology with new characters. Some huge war, Lord of the Rings style.

This is all viacom. They want paramount to start earning it's keep.

[Ghost of]

Besides TNG which had an array of great episodes that involved drama and/or action and Deep Space Nine had some of the same, but the overall tone of Deep Space Nine greatly improved when they encountered the Dominion.

Star Trek needs that great threat, be it Klingons, Borg, Dominion or whatever. The mistake, I think, that Star Trek made was not ushering in the Borg into the theater EARLIER (like as the follow-up to the cliffhanger in "best of both worlds pt. I") I also think that they easily could have had a Dominion-centered feature during that run. Instead, we get the somewhat diffuse and irrelevant storylines in Insurrection and even Nemesis.

Star Trek's original motion pictures had the option of creating something from whole cloth (or carrying it forward from the old show, like Khan.) The newer ones did not and other than First Contact, seemed pretty lame to me. They also don't seem to have storyline of their own like the first crew did (IV hinged on III to an extent, which hinged on II. V was uh...ok, but VI hinged on the Klingon-Federation thing which had long been established in the mythology.)

I don't know, I think this idea is stupid. The only people I accept as Kirk and Spock are in their 70s now. Why the hell are they going backwards when they need to go FORWARD with the series and its ideas.

[PokerPacker]

i think we need a new startrek series with another memerable captain. and no, i don't consider "enterprise" as part of the star trek series.

or they can do as i suggested earlier and bring back pike

[Ghost of]

I would have liked to have seen a movie about DS9. With the Defiant, and the war with Cardassia/Shape Shifters, and something like that.

The Defiant would have been great to center on. A Federation ship with cloaking ability, and the massive weapons it had.

Also, whatever happened at the end of Voyager. I missed it.

Yeah, tell me about it. I had stopped watching DS9 then I rediscovered it on re-runs and after I bought the buggy but fun Dominion Wars game, I watched those episodes--they were GREAT!

It would have made a hell of a movie and instead of resolving that arc in the series, they could have done it on the big screen. Some amazing battles they could have done and justified on a movie budget (as it is, they still had some bad-ass scenes in the series.)

I think the mistake ST has made, besides all these silly departures (like Voyager and Enterprise) has been that they've shot their wad in the series and we are left with movies that feel like normal episodes. None of the casts have the big-screen charisma of the original crew (who knew that they'd even translate, but they did.) It also doesn't help that the computer effects advanced so much and they spent so much per episode that some of the later episodes seemed like movies.

[PokerPacker]

dammit! i'm getting so confused with the kell(e)ys!

the website said his last name was kelly, but the IMDB said it was "kelley" which still leaves it as a possibility he's related to the original "bones"