Saturday, April 22, 2006

Star Trek Returns!

Okay. Have y'all seen this news from Daily Variety and writer Dave McNary?

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 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 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.

I know there are reasons to fear, but I'm extremely bullish on this idea. I believe that of all the Star Trek generations, this first is still the best. The characters of Kirk, Spock, Scotty, McCoy, Uhura and Sulu are still, in my opinion, the finest. What would absolutely seal the deal for me right now is if I heard news that Shatner and Nimoy were cast to provide book-end appearances for the film, thus bringing it into established continuity and not making this another BSG-style re-imagination (Spock's a lady! Uhura's a white alcoholic! Sulu's gay..erh, oops...)

What do you think? Honestly, I'd rather see the return of characters that I enjoy so much, rather than be introduced to a fifth starship crew. Enterprise proved, I think, that the "other crew" well was running pretty dry. At least for a while. It's just a shame Paramount couldn't get its act together sooner and be providing this movie in September, Star Trek's fortieth anniversary...

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