I’m sure we were all just talking about where the new Star Trek movie could go, and what cast would be taken on board. With the totally insane cancellation of the really good Enterprise, it seems there’s nowhere left for Star Trek to go, and indeed no one seems to want to resurrect it except for the fans.
Then there’s the movies, what could be next, and with whom? Which cast could possibly come to the fore and bring us a new series? Some say Generations, some say Voyager…I say Enterprise…but that’s just me, I love the longer reaching stories rather than the episodical formula.
So it was that this very day I caught the story on SyFy Portal through Coming Soon. Star Trek 11 is commissioned and a writer is assigned. Who is it and what is it about I hear your communicators babble? (Oh dear Richard…too much coffee this early)
Erik Jendresen was producer and three episode writer for Band of Brothers, a wonderful series for so many reasons. However apparently he wasn’t keen to visit the franchise, and frankly who can blame him. With series being dropped like hot potatoes during their story build up, and no one but the fans willing to fight for them, what luck does a movie have of making it through development. Must be a bigger guaranteed cash cow than a series anyway. Well, he said no originally, but when he was pitched the concept he was in.
“I was not a diehard Star Trek fan,” he said. “When they first approached me, I wasn’t really interested. But they said, ‘What if we could approach this as a blank slate, and here’s a notion.’ When I heard the notion, I realized that the people I was talking to were serious, and genuinely dedicated. I started to really think about it, and, ultimately to develop a story. And it’s a pretty good one.”
Jendresen confirmed that the movie would take place more than a century before Kirk, but acknowledged that it would not be an “Enterprise” spinoff.
Mmm…well actually since it’s in the Star Trek universe they are all “spin-off’s”, but let’s not quibble. He goes on.
“‘Star Trek,’ the original series, borrowed in an often elegant way from classic mythology and great ancient storytelling,” he said. “There’s something kind of epic – almost mythic about the prequel (movie).”…
…”Death doesn’t hurt, it’s not really ugly. You can get killed by a phaser and just √¢‚Ǩ¬¶ disintegrate.
“We’re going 160-odd years before Kirk is born. It’s an earlier time, and I think it would be really refreshing to feel something in the course of telling this tale, instead of being wowed by special effects, or presenting another crew in jeopardy where, in the end, the captain does something brilliant, and all√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s right with the world.”…
…”By the end of this story, everyone isn’t fine,”
I think that a lot of the great Star Trek movies have been made with that feeling, the feeling of realism. Wrath of Khan or The Undiscovered Country, where things truly can go wrong and the world, indeed the universe, is not a nice place.
With the cancellation of “Enterprise,” and reports of what actress Jolene Blalock (Cmdr. T’Pol) described as an “appalling” finale, Jendresen said he’s well aware that there’s a lot of anger out there.
That does not bode well for those of us still watching a series that was cut in its prime. It really didn’t deserve that, and if the fight can be fought for such series as Babylon 5, repeatedly, why not a very worthy series such as Enterprise? Oh, and on a more serious note, isn’t Blalock the most stunningly gorgeous woman you have ever seen?
No director and no cast has been brought in, but it is clear that characters from other Star Trek properties will not be included.
There’s so much to talk about in here. Should they have abandoned the Enterprise series? Should they make another movie, especially in another “return before Kirk” attempt? Should they be going totally fresh and avoiding all series, films and characters to date? Start your comments!
i was so angry when i saw the final episode to star trek enterprise the way they killed of tucker was so lame how could you kill of one of the strongest actors that really did do the seris so proud enterprise was perhaps the best of all the seris with the exception of the original star trek the borg episode was fantastic so was the xindi storyline and for those who frowned about scot bulka as archer i think he portrayed the captian really well especially when he stole the warp core from anyother alien ship in the exspanse, for enterprise to be treated in such away was well out of order.as for star trek 11 well where can it go the dominion war ended in ds9 i would like to see another borg movie the qestion of the borg is still unaswered where in the delta quadrate do the come from how did they become borg in the first place so this would make a good story line which would also invole specises 8472 and the q inlisting the help of the federation to destroy the borg a story that would show the q not all that powerful and would tie up the first contact episode of the fedration and spices 8472 becoming allies to destroy the borg back in time who should be in it well i would like to see 7 brought back and riker with maybe picard to i have always wanted to see a movie of star trek that would give the federation a chance to stop the borg and violate the tempral prim directive would they take it to save the q
How about a new crew who are apart of section 31 who handle covert operations and sometimes deal with things outside the prime directive they could also handle future time travel irregularities. It would definitely be different anyway. Darker characters.
Or
Starfleet academy with an elite crew of cadets which i think should be done in the same vain as roswell high, dawson’s creek or the o.c. you know a load of young people who look good having problems, relationships and adventures while in the trek universe. I know some may find this an awful idea but if star trek is to survive it needs to reconnect with the youth of today and last time i looked thats the kind of programme that sells. Anyway what do you lot think??
Maybe, someone should come up with a good concept, or script, before deciding to make a movie.
You know, if like, someone had a really good idea for a story, and said, “hey that would workd with these old characters”, or “maybe we need new ones”.
The TNG movies were all forced out of the mill… All of them need apologies. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them, but they were not movies, nor were they essential, just pretty and welcome.
Maybe a good story first…
Ahhhh. Movies have gone to sh*t. It’s not just star trek.
I too have been a fan of the franchise for a long time. Enteprise was a refreshing series, one that I enjoyed very much. There was nothing wrong with the series. The problem was UPN. They are sports channel wannabe’s, and prefer sports watchers to sci-fi watchers. The outstanding efforts of all who brought forth Enterprise were wasted by UPN. More often than not, they would pre-empt the scheduled episodes for sports games without promoting the newly scheduled times. Sometimes they would show the episode after the game, sometimes not. UPN is just not consistent in what they do in informing people of what they’re doing. They often would schedule it at different times, days, so that you really didn’t know when it would be on. If some other channel, one as dedicated to sci-fi viewers as sci-fi viewers are to these shows, picked up this series, they would see that it would continue to be a hugh success.
I don’t know about the prequel ideas for another ST movie. I’m a big fan of ST myself, so I’d be very happy to go to the theatre for ST11. But as it has been said before on this forum : last 2 movies were just episodes, they didn’t feel like movies. I too think First Contact needed all elements to pass as a real movie. Just as I thought Star Trek VI – The Undiscovered Country felt like a big movie. Perhaps – in stead of hiring new writers, they should go back to the original production crew and check out their ideas for new stories. That doesn’t have mean we’ll be seeing Captain Kirk-in-a-wheelchair-kind of adventure – the story they come up with might be totally new but then perhaps we can have that “star trek feel” back ?
Nicholas Meyer did excellent work on ST (II & VI) and even Leonard Nimoy made that real “ST-feel” come true…
Perhaps “the old crew” might have some realy good “new ideas” ?
Pagen
I know many of you are bagging the idea of a prequal movie because Enterprise was cancelled etc. but what about THIS idea?
–Star Trek: Ashes of Eden–
“Ashes of Eden” is a star trek book written by William Shatner. It’s set just shortly after the events on Veridian III in ST:Generations. While Spock is watching silently over Kirk’s body under his rock grave, a cloaked Romulan warbird orbiting the planet beams up the body.
They re-animate Kirk’s body via a huge ancient alien machine. He has no memory of his previous life as Captain Kirk. Little do we realize, the Romulans have partnered up the Borg. Their plan? To strike at the Federation (while the Enterprise crew is not around) with the only man that can get close enough to the high brass; Kirk.
“But Kirk is a good guy? Why would he be against the Federation and helping Romulans?” I hear you ask. Simple. The Romulans convince Kirk with holodeck technology that the Enterprise crew, and in particular Picard himself killed Kirks “family” – of course, Kirk has no wife or children, but he doesn’t know this.
Ok, cut to the end. Picard and Kirk use a Borg transwarp conduit to go to the heart of the Borg hive mind and destroy it. Remember how Kirk said he always knew he’d die alone? Well he died on Veridian III with picard right infront of him… so guess what happens? Kirk dies, alone, in the borg central plexus while destroying it…
Sad ending. Thats what Star Trek needs right now. Something to really shock people. Data’s death was marred by the fact B4 was there. Kirk’s death would be final, slow and make people leave the movie cinema really thinking about it. There could even be some flashbacks to the mountain where spock, mccoy and kirk were when he said he always knew he would die alone.
Well? Good start to a story? or is it another flop? Yes yes, Patrick Stewart and the rest have told us they arn’t going to be in anymore movies. That’s this stories only downfall…
-John
no no no not another b4 kirk movie god let the past b the past for gods sake , even b4 the start of enterprise i knew it wouldnt work no one likes b4 shows it drives us mad for gods sake. here we all were waiting for the voyager crew to have a movie then this new idea !!!! again b4 kirk give it a rest kick berman out he has single handed killed the show. wake up for god sake
There are a real mix of comments here, but something strikes me as odd.
Babylon 5 started with a real small audience and a real small budget, I’m guessing way less than Star Trek and even the current incarnation Enterprise. How did that make it through all those series when it was up for renewal after every one?
JMS – The team behind it were passionate and believed in the work. That’s the difference here, it can’t be blamed on the story, I mean even DS9 and Voyager took on B5 writers and began using their longer term approach to storylines, and they worked…okay it didn’t solve their eventual end, but it did pick them out of the cancellation bin for some time.
So I wouldn’t say it was the story that was the issue.
Star Trek has always been about little things, using the Universe as the setting. Moral tales. There never has been a war that went between movies. And only the Borg was there ever a war that was seen. With all the conflict, an ongoing war was not the basis for Roddenbury’s (sp?) concept… again, the moral tale. ie. it was never like Star Wars in that way…. it always has ended at the end of the movie and each movie started with a fresh start except Search for Spock. Science Fiction is tough, versus drama, as there are few really good stories and very few writers that give you a twist or valuable plot that grabs you. I like the earlier movie idea as it is the only way to get away from all the aging characters. A fresh start with a story that both is a grabber itself and sets the stage for an ongoing series. Maybe this time a movie will start some TV series in stead of the other way around….
Hi All:
Long time Trek fan here. What I have been waiting for since I was 7 is a sequal to the TNG 1st season episode, Conspiracy. I thought that was a clever story line that needed to be developed more. The show ends ominously with a distress signal being sent out before the Queen Alien dies. I want to see what happens years later after that signal finally reaches its intended destination. Will there be a conspiracy II on the big screen. I think you could have a sci-fi horror a la Aliens with that story line.
Let me know what you all think. Has any one else ever thought of that idea before?
A lot of interesting comments – Enterprise indeed was getting good towrds the end, however I think the producers shot them selves in the foot from the start – they didn’t show enough of the development of the federation, when did they develop all their technology, when did the war with the klingons really start? bla bla bla – they missed out on really building story around things that mattered in the other series’.
I loved Voyager with a passion, especially seasons 6 and 7 – they really kicked ass!! But I wanna see more of what happens to the federation, where do they progress to? I wanna see some more of the Federations new ship designs etc. I can see a new movie with this storyline: Borg – now before you cringe i know they played that story in another movie and a lot in the voyager series – but why dont they build a little bit about where they came from and exactly how they became Borg.
For a new series: What about setting it after TNG DS9 and Voyager, a little bit further into the future when the Federation discvoers time travel? when they develop their ‘Federation Time Ships’ now thats a storyline I would follow!!!
Now there’s an idea, one that would either have us rooting for the bad guys, or make the guys we usually root for the bad guys. It’s new and different, I like it.
I as well, have also given a lot of thought to a non-human Star Trek, about the Klingon’s or the Romulans. I’m voting Romulans, they’re a lot more dynamic and interesting, I think the Klingons would get old. On top of that, I think it would be cool to have the non human Star Trek, running up against a human Star Trek at the same time. We’d see the two ships locked in battle, one story from the human perspective, and the same story from the Klingon or Romulan perspective. It’d give a lot more depth to Star Trek, it’d be a lot more creative and interesting too I think.
Another star-trek movie that i hope would be is a sequel to that mirror-mirror episode.I would love to see an evil Jean Luc Picard……Seriously folks!
The biggist problem that I had with the last Star Trek movie was not that the story was bad or the acting was poor. The movie, as did the one before that lacked one huge thing that Star trek 8 (borg) had. The film concerining the borg felt and looked huge. Big ships, big battles, big sets. I’m affraid the budget on the last movies was spent on the actors instead of the sets and graphics. The senate in one of the first scenes is so small it did not give the impression of somethig real.
I like star Trek but not considered a Trekie. Please not another human crew.I think the Human element of the Star Trek universe have been done to death. They should create a whole TV series or film bases on a the Klingons perspective of the Federation. I think a different persepective would re-energize the star trek franchise. That’s my 2 cents.
I have been a star trek fan since I was seven and would like to say that the new movie premise might be a good thing. But the fact that it takes place before both Kirk and Archer? Nowadays it seems that prequels are the only things Berman and Bragga are willing to produce. I would very much like to see an ENT casted movie. I’ve really wanted to see what happens during the Romulan War. To just dump ENT out of the sky when it’s just getting to the more interesting parts is beyond me. But then again Berman and Bragga are beyond me too.
Plus….As much as I hate to say it, Star Trek is clearly on its last leg, and without Star Trek, Berman is out of the job. I think we can be expecting some quality stories/work from him here pretty soon. Something his leadership has lacked in the past. And I’m fairly confident at this juncture that Star Trek will live another day, and many more to come.
I think the idea for a Star Trek movie with no familiar faces is pure genius. Doing it in a pre-Kirk era, however, is debateable. There was a gross loss of interest in Star Trek when Enterprise kicked off, probably because it was a step back. It stopped looking forward and just dramatized what we already knew was true of Trek. I think this film will recapture fans. It’s a lot easier to follow a series of movies than a TV show. These films, will require no prior knowledge of anything Star Trek, and will be good to bring in new fans. Though it would still be much smarter to do this film in a post Dominion war setting (i.e. after Next Generation, Voyager, and DS9.) If you’re a Star Trek fan, casual watcher, or Trekky, and whether or not you liked Enterprise or hated it, I’m sure we’ll all be there to see this upcoming film, I am however curious to know, why Berman is so intent on these prequel ideas.
Ever since Lucas rereleased the classic trilogy, I often wondered what would happen if they took the original Star Trek series and redid all the special effects. Its not like it’s never been done, they did that DS9 episode where they went back in time to the Trouble with Tribbles episode and made a new Enterprise from the original design. It would surely show if there is enough of a fan base to make a prequel movie, plus they wouldn’t have to pay actors again, just royalties. Heck it should be cheaper then Enterprise’s budget!!!
I’ve been a fan of the franchise for a long time as well and feel I have a pretty good handle on what people want to see and I do know what I want to see. Sure Enterprise was an improvement this season but it still wasnt great and what they did to improve it was too little too late. A movie with a whole new crew taking place before Kirk and the show Enterprise? Bad idea. I can tell you from message boards I post on and from opinions for friends, we dont want to see another prequel and we dont want to see a story with a whole new set of characters. You might as well not do it or if it is done you can guarantee it will be a bomb.
The real problem with Trek of late is that they people in charge dont seem to care about the fan base and what happens with Trek. They care about the money. But how can you get the money if you are screwing up the franchise and pissing off the fanbase????!!!! I think most people that have been fans in the past and have tuned out of Enterprise would come back for a new series and new movie if Rick Berman and Brannon Braga were no longer involved. There names on antyhing having to do with any incarnation is what is ruining Trek.
Anything would be better than what they are planning. People go to see there favorite characters on the screen. They dont want to see total strangers with no emotional attachment. They also need a really good script and the last two movies havent had one.
Give us good Trek and people will come back but as of now people are tired of the same ol’ tripe they are getting.
I think this idea for a new Star Trek movie is probably the best thing they could do right now. The problem with a lot of the recent Star Trek movies is that they just feel like episodes of the TV show. They need to get a real movie director at the helm, not just a member of the cast (although they did that for Nemesis and the result wasn’t much better). Still, having all new characters would ensure that it isn’t tied to any of the TV series… only problem is, would it still feel like Star Trek?
Erm, that’s Richard Chadt, check the name under the article. However I will pass on your good thoughts to John and I know he appreciates them.
Advertising for Enterprise over in the UK has been rubbish too. I missed the start of the second series which tied up the cliffhanger from the first because of no advertising it’s return.
I disagree though, Enterprise hasn’t really suffered from an episodic formula that much. It’s had a long reaching story from the middle of the first series, although it took a while to really ingrain itself.
Sad to say, but true: Only the fans really care about the “death” of Trek. But to be fair, IMO, Paramount really screwed up with the handling of the franchise. Mainly, UPN is the biggest blunder that contributed to Trek’s demise. Many markets, including my own local stations, were not serviced adequately in regards to access to UPN. There were a lot of markets in the U.S. that NEVER got UPN. How can anyone watch Trek if you don’t get it? Also, Enterprise advertising was a joke – you can’t expect to draw in viewers if you don’t push it with marketing.
I think the writing in the beginning of Enterprise was mediocre, and with the “episodic” format “resetting” the crew at the end of each episode, in some ways also lost many viewers. Lately, with the “story arc” format, Enterprise has indeed gotten much better – on par with the excellent new “Battlestar Galactica.” It is a shame it is being dropped just when it is hitting it’s stride.
So, in the end, what does it mean? Perhaps now Paramount can finally take real stock of the situation, kick Rick Berman and Brannon Braga out on their asses and give current Enterprise Producer Manny Coto the reins to any new Trek movie. The break from television might be a good thing – letting demand build up again. A new movie with none of the franchise cast may work – though going back in time before Kirk might not be the best idea. Why is everyone set against picking things up AFTER (and I mean WAY after) the Next Gen? But the fact that they are talking ANY new Trek is a good thing.
Sorry for the very long post. I truly love Trek, I think this website is the cat’s pajamas, and thanks for letting me rant, John.
Oh, and real sorry about you getting dumped. But you’re a cool web guy – you’ll land someone else, surely. Maybe some cool website girl out there will ring you up and you can code some hot HTML together!
– chadt
I am not a huge Trek fan, more of a casual watcher. Although I have been watching Enterprise more this season because the writing has gotten better. My thought is that Paramount has all this material from the multiple series, why not make a TV movie or two a year with various characters. One could be Sulu on the Excelsior, another Wil Crusher as a Starfleet instructor, another with Riker and Troi as a crime solving couple in space (a la “Hart to Hart” meets “Star Trek”). It’s be cheaper than a feature film and allow for a variety of stories to be told. And then of course sell them on DVD.
Huge Star Trek fan here!
Cancelling Enterprise has been a terrible decision. Voyager was far worse until a certain point. Enterprise was being really interesting when they closed it.
The best idea to reengage Star Trek is an old one, Starfleet Academy. The adventures of Kirk and co. when they were cadets. When I say Kirk I can say Picard. It could work, it could be real nice.