Star Trek XI - Not Lost but rather under an Alias
In late July at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego a teaser poster for the eleventh Star Trek film was released as well as the films producers. Interestingly enough Rick Berman a long time producer of Star Trek films and series will not be attached to the project.
J.J. Abrams, the creative mind behind successful shows Alias and Lost and director of this year’s Mission Impossible III has signed on to produce this next installment in the Star Trek film universe. Abrams will bring along with him the writing talents of Alexander Kurtzman and Roberto Orci as well as Damon Lindelof to co-produce.
It seems that Abrams is going to be the savior of the timeless franchise. A franchise that struggled to maintain a running show and to fill box office expectations of its last feature film. The franchise’s struggles can’t be pinpointed to just one thing but rather a conglomeration of things. One such issue is that the series last television syndicate Enterprise took much too long to gain a fanbase do its slow unappealing writing. However it seemed that by the fourth season it was picking up but much to its aveil the show was cancelled. Secondly fans were turned off by the film Insurrection that its successor Nemesis came too little to late. The fact that Nemesis bore a major similarity to the Wrath of Kahn (Star Trek II) was also a major deterrent for fans.
Star Trek fans want new, fresh stories and characters. This seems to be the era for that look at comic book movies like Batman and Superman, they have both recieved major makeovers as part of their reintroduction to the world of cinema. The Next Generation Crew who was by far the most box office friendly and popular of the franchise but with aging actors and the latest box-office woes something must be done. Abrams has been called to find a way to bring Star Trek back to its old generation of fans and even non-fans. He has been chosen to usher it into a new generation of fans as well. Although nothing has been revealed as to the plotline there are those that believe that this next film will take place between Enterprise and Star Trek OS. It has been rumored that Kirk and Spock will be in the film as Starfleet cadets but will play a major role in its plot line. The film will most likely take place with Kirk and Spock before they have command of the Enterprise. The man said to have control of the ship is named Tiberius Chase and he will command it through the Earth-Romulan War. However, this is all based on speculation Abrams has stated repeatedly that “it is infinitely too early to be talking about the plot” of Star Trek XI. (Posted Tue., Jul. 18, 2006, 10:00pm PT in Variety).
However, it is clear that Abrams has a particular vision of Star Trek, based on the same interview he gave to Variety. “Star Trek to me was always about infinite possibility and the incredible imagination that Gene Rodenberry brought to that core of characters,” he said. “It was a show about purpose, about faith vs. logic, about science vs. emotion, about us vs. them. It was its own world, and yet it was our world.” This statement should make fans happy with the fact that Abrams will honor the material laid out before him and will make sure that sci-fi fans, Trekkies, mediocre-fans, and even non-fans will want to see and enjoy this film. All I can say is that sometimes a changing of the guard is what it takes to make something better Berman and his crew (please excuse the pun) lived long and prospered but “the needs of many out way the needs of the few or the one.” Now a new generation of filmmakers led by Abrams controlling Enterprise’s next voyage will have the chance to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before or rather no Star Trek movie has gone before.
