I think it’s fair to say that the Star Trek fanbase has been dealt a severe blow with the cancellation of the very good Enterprise series. So what’s in store with the show they promise to revitalise the franchise? Coming Soon has some news on it from the writer Erik Jendresen no less.
He says he has turned in the first draft of the script to Paramount Pictures.
“This would take place just a couple of years after the end of the events in ‘Enterprise’ but well before the original series, and it would look at the inciting incident that started everything,” he said. “The story is big and epic, and it isn’t as antiseptic as the television stories had to be.”
Jendresen adds that “The Beginning” would also not be centered around the traditional “Star Trek” model of a captain, crew, and starship.
“We’re looking at a very small group of men and women, particularly focusing on one character,” he explains. “There are a couple of ships, including a principal ship, but this is not a traditional captain and crew of a starship story in the least.”
What inciting incident that started everything is that? I thought that with Enterprise we were getting to see everything evolve towards the Federation? Is there something I missed? Oh, and what’s with calling the stories “antiseptic”? I’m not a huge Star Trek fan, I mean I do like the films but until Enterprise, and the latter stories of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, I wasn’t really interested. I was a Babylon 5 man. Yet calling the shows “antisceptic”, isn’t that rather harsh? Would you agree with him, and what of the idea that this is not about a Captain and crew?
Why not just make the movie about Chris Pike?
I don;t know. TOS was great, of course. TNG was damn good. DS9 had its moments for me, but I never got totaly into it. Maybe I didn’t stick around for the last few seasons. I don’t remember. My girlfriend used to hate it because that chick with the scrunchy nose was always whining “the federation… blah, blah, blah” like some broken record. Voyager was good. A few lame stories, but for the most part, pretty good. Enterprise, I thought was going to bridge the gap. I expected it to extrapolate on events in the later shows. I tried it a few times and didn’t see that at all. Then there was the whole “transfer power to hull plating” because they didn’t have shields. C’mon, guys, TRY to fool me. I want to be fooled into thinking this is real for an hour, but you have to make an effort. Anyway, I couldn’t get past it.
Lastly, though I am very much a big fan of the whole franchise, yes, it really was antiseptic. There was rarely gore, the sets looked like disneyland rides and gameshow stages and every story had a boyscout lesson-to-be-learned feel to it. It might be refreshing to see an alien bight someone’s heart out of their chest, or see some serious ethical dilemas be resolved in a not so upstanding way, or even show a dark side to the Federation (like going to war over dilithium crystals or showing them to be like the ruling govt in Firefly or something).
Wow Jason, you’ve done a lot of reading. I totally agree with you that Voyager and Enterprise were crap. I tried to watch Voyager, but after the first season I was so bored and uninterested I gave up. Enterprise I also gave a shot and again didn’t find anything of substance to keep me tuning in each week.
I loved the original series – watching reruns with my dad as a kid. TNG was a lot of fun and I’m still entertained by the stories. DS9 was a series of it’s own, but I didn’t really get into until the last 2 seasons and then went back to watch the others episodes. There was definitely a difference in the story telling – you seem to have pointed out a good reason why.
It seems as if Paramount and friends have lost all concept of what it means to be a ‘Star Trek’ movie, instead opting for something that sounds as if it will bear not even a passing resemblance to Trek. It’s really sad.
Just read an interview with Ira Steven Behr, the producer and person behind the Great years of DS9. He said some interesting things. Firstly, in case you didn’t know, the reason DS9 got really good the season they started making Voyager is because Rick Berman and company washed their hands of DS9 because they hated it as being different. DS9 producers were told they had complete creative freedom only because Voyager was Berman’s baby and him and the company figured DS9 would just die off and Voyager would take off. Oh were they wrong!!! According to rumor, Berman has been pissed off for years that DS9 got critical acclaim only after his input was gone and also that Voyager, his baby was trashed by critics.
Anyway, a couple of years ago the producers of DS9 contacted the priciple actors to see if they were still interested in continuing DS9. Everyone involved said yes and Behr approached Berman about doing it, if not as a series at least as a mini-series or TV movie. Berman apparently told Behr in some anger that they could forget about DS9, it will never be done again.
The newest revelation by ira Behr is even worse. When they were making First Contact, Berman and Braga were going to destroy the Defiant and kill the last DS9 connection we ever saw. When he heard about it Behr called them in righteous anger to bitch them out and convinced them to change it.
What a bastard Berman(and braga) are and it shows why Trek has fallen to where it is. They can blame the actors and fans all they want but the fact is the Producers make the creative decisions and tell the writers what stories to write. It is their fault and also the paramount studio executives fault(after all, who gives berman his orders?)
Actually, I agree with herby, except you got it backwards. J michael Strazynski and partner Bruce Zybel(Dark Skies) were approached by Paramount to do a new Trek series. JMS wanted complete creative freedom as sole Producer and not have to answer to a Berman or Braga. Paramount(the bastards) wasn’t willing to relinquish control and said no! Now I don’t blame JMS since he was Exec producer and had complete control of Babylon 5. Why should he have to take orders from a corporate whipping boy like Berman now? He says he is still willing to do it, but Paramount won’t make him Exec producer. He would bring new life to Trek and I think it would be a great move. I don’t know why Paramount is so scared of change!!!
BTW, Berman was officially removed from the motion picture division of paramount. He has nothing to do with next Trek picture. They hired a new Exec producer. The guy who make Mighty Ducks. That’s all i know about him, other than that he knows absolutely nothing about Trek!!!
Haven’t the money grubbing weasels at Paramount learned yet…Prequels suck!!! I hated Enterprise(the whole premise not just show itself) and I hated the Star Wars prequels as a concept. There is no originality in prequels. There is too much continuity that has to be followed and we all know how good paramounts record with continuity is! Bad!!! Complete creative freedom is very important in Sci-fi. As much as I loved First Contact as a movie, it completely ignored all previous Trek continuity.
p.s. I can’t understand all of the fans that rallied to try and save Enterprise. More astounding to me are the fans who didn’t like Next Generation or DS9 and only watched Voyager and enterprise. Obviously there are two camps of Trek fans out there(three if you add in Original series fans). I hated Voyager and Enterprise, which was Voyager with a different ship and crew since it had all same writers and producers. Trek has been destroyed by Rick Berman and the Paramount execs. Middle-of-the-road, commercial laziness has plagued Trek for years. If you want to know the history of Paramounts evil: first read Star Trek:Movie memories by William Shatner. Don’t judge by title:it is an excellent book. Shatner covers each Trek movie from conception to release from all points of view. He interviews cast, writers, and directors for their point of views of films. You will get a good picture of what Trek films were supposed to be like when they were first conceived and how much of bad stuff in crappier films was actually Paramounts fault and not cast and crew.
Next, track down interviews with Robert Beltran(Chakotay) from Voyager from right after Voyager ended. This is the best indictment of Trek’s fall. Beltran dished all kinds of dirt on producers. He accused producers of coming up with stories and writers only doing dialogue. He claims actors had no input on show and basically hated the whole experience. He is not only one.
Lastly, go to Wil Wheaton’s website and look up archives for all his experiences with Rick Berman. Once you see the things Berman personally did to Wheaton you will see how things really are. Hell, In between Insuurection and Nemesis, before Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart were bought off, there were rumors that one of their original conditions for doing the film was that Berman was kicked off Trek!!!
They need more exploring of alien planets, more weird aliens, more spaceship fights, hand phaser fights, and more hot babes or hot aliens from other planets. Enough of this politically correct, dramatic crap. Star Trek became too much of a drama and not enough of an action/adventure, thats been the problem imo. They need to recapture the spirit of the original series and of Kirk.
It’s possible that Paramount merely commissioned this script in order to run out the remaining time on Berman and Braga’s contract with the Trek franchise. The studio executives might never have had any plans to make this movie ever.
” but this is not a traditional captain and crew of a starship story in the least.”
note-
already done-
see:
firefly
A fellow Whovian!!! Isn’t the new series great. Looking forward to the David Tennant episodes.
As for ST. Paramount missed out on a golden opportunity. J. Michael Stazynski approched them to create a new series, I don’t know what it would have been like but if anyone could have breathed life back into the franchise it would have been JMS.
This new film idea sounds just awful. Star Trek with none of the principal characters from any of the shows. This one could be worse then Nemisis.
The “incident” has been kicking around within the Braga/Moore party for some time; it deals with the Romulan War. While it is possible some characters from “Enterprise” could turn up, or even Dr. Soong, there is a slight advantage in having a Star Trek series of films which deals with new characters altogether.
That advantage is that there could be suspense for an audience: who lives, who dies, etc.
The downside is the ‘epic subject matter’ is, well, been there, done that. It would be better if the new film were set a few years after the events in ‘Nemesis’ but with a new crew.
Please, just let. It. Die. And in 20 years somebody can reboot it with a few sex changes here and there and it’ll be the best thing ever. Until then I have BSG and Dr Who for my SF fix.
Sounds to me like they (Star Trek franchise) are desperate for any loose pocket change. They need to give it a rest…fade away with dignity, and grace, and remembrance.