Kevin's Watch

Ok. On first glance I had very few positive feelings after reading about this. However I can't help being a Star Trek geek. I am a STOS guy for the most part and getting a feature film based on my favorite Star Trek era is very tempting. Getting said film from a director I've come to respect is also tempting. No being assaulted by a Star Fleet academy story is huge. (I have very little interest in following the exploits of heroes in training. I don't care if they stayed up late to cram for a test the next morning or if they had to beg for money from mom and dad because they blew though their cash or broke up with their girl friends or didn't get along with their professors etc. etc. etc. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
Where I have my biggest misgivings lie with the idea of actors other than Shatner and Nimoy portraying these characters. Can I deal with it? Will I be able to get over the initial shock and then enjoy the rest of the film? Not to mention the recent track record Paramount has had with Trek. Not very good in my opinion. I guess when we learn more about this I'll be able to share more of my point of view.

www2.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Movies&action=page&type_id=&cat_id=270338&obj_id=51061

This project should never get off the ground.

I believe it's already been greenlighted. I have mixed feelings, myself. I'm not a massive Trek fan, but I watched my fair share of DSN and TNG. The original TV series I watched only in re-runs, and though I've seen most episodes, I had a time getting past the low tech & production values.

Voyager tanked Trek TV for me, so I never even gave Enterprise a chance.

The movies were always hit and miss -- they always seemed like expensive vehicles for the same mediocre writing. At best, they seemed like dbl-length versions of their TV counterparts. At their worst (ST-V comes to mind), they were cringe-inducing ("Row, row, row your boat" ?? WTF?!).

However, this new project, especially one helmed with the assumedly fresh perspective of J.J. Abrams, could boldly go where no man has gone in many years - to see a Trek movie.

I'm less than enthusiastic about this.

Hmmm, I too am unsure...
I never like back stories like this. Their relationship has already been established. I prefer one final go with the old cast to this. BUT, they would HAVE to be portrayed AS OLD. There are great storylines there. They don't have to be bouncing around heros any more...!

This is totally uninteresting to me. I mean, we have the Kirk & Spock we all love; I don't want another set of them, and I resent having it pushed on me.....they should have taken a hint from how the Star Wars prequals were perceived.

dANdeLION wrote:This is totally uninteresting to me. I mean, we have the Kirk & Spock we all love; I don't want another set of them, and I resent having it pushed on me.....they should have taken a hint from how the Star Wars prequals were perceived.

Yeah, that's it in a nutshell. The story's been told, there's countles novels about them, and those guys are those guys.

I can't imagine anyone being happy with this.

dANdeLION wrote:This is totally uninteresting to me. I mean, we have the Kirk & Spock we all love; I don't want another set of them, and I resent having it pushed on me.....they should have taken a hint from how the Star Wars prequals were perceived.

Agreed.

I am against this movie.

Well if it is going to be the early days, it's too bad Chris Farley is dead. He could play SPock before he got his emotions in check:

Spock: "Jim, I find it illogical why you would risk your studies to chase attractive women, when--- OH MY GOD! LOok at the hooters on that ONE!"

Usuvius: your version is better than the one proposed. maybe Will Farrell could play Spock, Adam Sandler could play Kirk and Chris Rock could play McCoy?

*shakes head*

This reminds me of the extremely silly ST:TOS casting game I once played with some friends — recasting the series with other actors. We came up with Arnold Schwarzenegger (in 'Terminator' mode) for Spock:

'Keptain! Sensors indicate ve are being followed by unidentified alien vessels. Logic dictates dat ve open a hailing channel, initiate contact, and den . . . fire photon torpedoes und blow der ****ers avay!'

Knowing Hollywood, they'll probably cast this movie every bit as badly. But then, it doesn't much matter. The trouble with recent Trek series is not that they were so much worse than the earlier shows. It's that they now have a whole channel (and then some) of good television SF to compete against, and they can't cut that level of competition.

Let it die, already. Just let it die.

*sigh*

Let it die, already. Just let it die.

I agree.

Usivius wrote:Well if it is going to be the early days, it's too bad Chris Farley is dead. He could play SPock before he got his emotions in check:

Spock: "Jim, I find it illogical why you would risk your studies to chase attractive women, when--- OH MY GOD! LOok at the hooters on that ONE!"

Unless my memory is playing tricks with me, I'm sure I had seen a Trek skit on SNL with Chris Farley and David Spade. (Maybe that was the episode in which Shatner guest-hosted.)

I don't want to see this new Trek film. The idea of "Kirk and Spock: The Teen Years" or whatever just doesn't appeal to me. And like aTOMiC, I would have trouble accepting actors other than Shatner and Nimoy playing these characters.

Is Paramount trying to attract a younger fan base with this new movie? If that's the case, they should develop new characters instead of messing around with the established "legends" of Kirk and Spock. I really have nothing against a new Trek movie, but I think this premise is just the wrong approach. Also, it's just way too soon for another go at the big screen.

Playing devil's advocate, is it possible that we curmudgeonly fans are just not seeing the light, and that Paramount knows something we don't? Did the studio send spies to Trek Conventions, who reported back that there was a lot of interest in a prequel about Kirk and Spock?

Nah, they're just nuts.

I think VF really hit the nail on the head - the problem with ST now is that there's too much other good SF out there. In order for ST to be revived, it needs to be reinvented, and that will take someone thinking way out of the box at Paramount. What we need is a paradigm shift. I don't think that's what we'll get with "Kirk and Spock: The Teen Years."

Nail on the head.

I was a huge Trek fan until I started branching out and watching other sci-fi series. Trek never matured for me (no, not even DS:9). It seemed very static in that you could pretty much always count on the Trek universe being the same at the end of the hour as it was at the beginning. After watching a couple of episodes of B5, I never watched a Trek series again.

That said, ST:TOS is sacred ground to this old fart, and I'd rather not see anyone mess with it.

What next? A Star Wars Vs. Star Trek cross-over movie? Vulcans dueling Jedi? Klingons kissing Ewoks?

They've done Star Trek (TNG) and X-Men crossover. *shudders*

One thing going for this is that it's helmed by J.J. "LOST" Abrams.

Loremaster wrote:They've done Star Trek (TNG) and X-Men crossover. *shudders*

When was that?

You know, I would be open to a story set in the same time frame as the original series, but with different characters, perhaps on a different ship or some other different setting.

I would rather they leave the classic characters alone.