Star Trek 90210 the movie is a great idea! And done right it would turn into a successful TV series. The Academy (and the whole galaxy to explore) gives plenty of room for 5 years of watching young stars grow brighter.
Think of all the young men and women joining the service, and serving in Iraq BEFORE their 21st birthday! Get writers to go to west point and see how hard it is for the young people building a future in the service. (It isn't easy...)
It could focus on relationships, values, morals, ethical dilemmas, and have that hard hitting social commentary edge, all in the young Starfleet Academy days for Teen Kirk.
*(school, girls, parties, hard work, etc.)
A great 12 ~ 20s focus - tweens to twenty somethings, that kids, college students, and young adults in the military can all relate too. (think of all the 'Base Brats' growing up with parents in the service).
It might be something the old fogies find hard to relate to, and THAT IS THE POINT. It should be fresh for a whole new generation of Star Trek fans. All the main characters should be under 21, professors and others can be the 'old adults'.
Get some women writers to ad spice and vigor, have young teen guest stars, singers, music... it really would work. Oh, and get some REAL teenager writing and input - old people think they remember what it's like to be a kid. They don't!
Deep Space Nine focused on Character development and relationships and it was very good. Computer special effects are getting better and cheaper every day, so that should go great too!
This has a lot of promise and would tie in nicely with ST:TOS and ST:TNG. and give me another multi-boxed set of DVDs to buy! :*)
Shatner could scribble an idea on the back of a beer mat with a burnt match and it would be ten times better than the last two spin-offs and the last two movies.
I think people are taking what's reported in the article too seriously. Shatner already pitched the idea and failed.
They didn't make anything from his bestselling novels, so there's no reason to suspect these books will be any different, despite his first two trilogies being some of the best Star Trek stories ever written for years.
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"Men don't use sex to get what they want. Sex IS what they want" - Frasier
Shatners idea is an interesting one, but I pesonally don't want to see another prequel. The Star Trek universe was fine with the starting point being with Kirk and Spock (or Pike and Spock for that matter.) But his idea would make for an awesome book series, which he seems fond of writing.
I think after the occuring break, its time to move into the Post-Picard/TNG era. Even if its not aboard an Enterprise, lets get on to the 25th century Trek.
Much as I like Kirk and Spock, I don't think this is the right direction for the franchise.
The franchise should go 1000 years into the future. The Federation becomes so self absorbed, egotistical and corrupt that it slaughters innocent people in the name of noble ideals.
This could be set after a bitter civil war in which Section 32 basically takes over the Federation. The original chronicles of the Federation are lost in this calamity.
A nice tidbit and evolution for the series could be a rediscovery of the original voyages of Sisko, Kirk, Picard and Janeway and a slow realization that the Federation has gone astray.
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psp1
It would be interesting to see if Bill learned his lesson from Star Trek V.
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"Life's tough. It's tougher if you're stupid."
-- John Wayne
"Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence."
--Dr. Leonard McCoy
"I'm a politician, which means I am a cheat and a liar, and when I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollipops."
-- Jeffrey Pelt, The Hunt for Red October
"Liberals, Intellectuals, Peacemongers, IDIOTS!!!!"
- General Decker, Mars Attacks
"It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
- Q from Q Who
I think it's great Mr Shatner wants back into ST. The last ten years have proven (and in fact killed the franchise) that the public wants Kirk and Spock. The general public doesn't care about the new (as Roger Ebert calls them copies,of copies of copies) versions of ST.
The public wants the real thing to return. Only at that point will ST be a viable commerical franchise again.
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How do you know what the public wants? I hope you're not going to answer with, "all my friends and I want Kirk and Spock to return, and look at all the comments on the fansites." That's not anything like a representative sample, if you know anything about polling techniques. I think a lot of Trek fans are probably the people with the least idea of what it is the general public would like to see.
If they ever do a young Kirk and Spock TV series developed from Bill Shatner books, I hope thet adapt Diane Carey's beloved FINAL FRONTIER and BEST DESTINY novels, which features Captain Robert April under the command of the Enterprise NCC 1701, with Kirk's father, Commander George Samuel Kirk, as first officer.That would be awesome. BEST DESTINY (see cover) also features a pre-Academy James T. Kirk in his first adventure in space.
Gustavo, Editor -TrekWeb
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TrekWeb.com Supervising Editor
gl2000@uol.com.br
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That would be awsome! I really loved reading Final Frontier. I liked the way they explained why the Romulan's would eventually developed the cloaking device after April/Kirk tricked them into thinking they had a whole cloaked fleet. A much better explaination than what Enterprise series had to offer. Excellent book and I agree a screen adaptation would make for an excellent time for all. Maybe.... perhaps a series might work as a follow-on to a movie (TV/Cinema).......
There was a great TNG novel that I believe would work as a movie. I do not remember the title but it was a story that evolved around the Doomsday machine and a woman who found another one who used it to fight the Borg. Anyone remember the title? It was pretty good and it would be cool to see a planet killer on the big screen.
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"Life's tough. It's tougher if you're stupid."
-- John Wayne
"Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence."
--Dr. Leonard McCoy
"I'm a politician, which means I am a cheat and a liar, and when I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollipops."
-- Jeffrey Pelt, The Hunt for Red October
"Liberals, Intellectuals, Peacemongers, IDIOTS!!!!"
- General Decker, Mars Attacks
"It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
- Q from Q Who
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THE TNG novel is titled VENDETTA and was written by Peter David (STAR TREK NEW FRONTIER).The Enterprise answers a distress call from a planet that is under attack by the Borg. Rushing in, they discover a lone survivor named Delcara. Delcara is thoroughly outraged by the atrocity she bore witness to and sets herself on the path of revenge. Seeking to completely destroy the Borg for their crime against her people and others, she sets out to find a Doomsday Machine. When Captain Picard and crew learn of her intentions they must find a way to stop her because they "know" that the Doomsday Machine will not stop with the Borg...
Gustavo
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TrekWeb.com Supervising Editor
gl2000@uol.com.br
Great heroes suddenly turn into children. Its kind of humiliating.
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There is something we can agree upon.
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"Oh, I'll wake up
To any sound of engines,
Ev'ry gull a seeking craft..."
Kate Bush, And Dream of Sheep
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Great heroes suddenly turn into children. Its kind of humiliating.
I immediately thought of the Flintstones Kids when I heard this. And you think ENT got a terrible reaction.
Trekkies do not like prequels. Repeat after me: Trekkies do not like prequels. Shatner with his prequel and Berman with his Trek 11 prequel should bear this in mind. I've heard more than enough people saying that they were against ENT on the basis of it being a prequel alone, quality be damned.
Regardless who is behind the idea, the odds of CBS producing this are so slim you need a microscope. And Shatner better be careful about talking about pitching ideas to CBS ... he's the star of an ABC show, remember.
Al
This could put the series back on the map. The only cool thing about Star Trek these days is Shatner. I also hope he saves Kirk from the nexus somehow in the series and gives him the end he deserves.
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This could put the series back on the map...
Or it could bury the franchise forever. Bad enough we've had two shitty movies in a row and a horrid television series. But to include a weak idea like this? I wouldn't watch it.
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"Oh, I'll wake up
To any sound of engines,
Ev'ry gull a seeking craft..."
Kate Bush, And Dream of Sheep
From a commercial point of view William Shatner's return to Star Trek in any form would really be a huge shot in the arm for our favorite series. This could really put Star Trek back on the map.
How long would it be before Captain Kirk was saved from the nexus if Shatner gets his own series? What better way to get the series off to a fast ratings start than to have Shatner as Kirk saved from the nexus in the pilot episode?
I love the idea of Shatner returning to Star Trek in any form and I think the general public (not us) would love Kirk's return. Like it or not Shatner is Star Trek to most people.
I feel Kirk is bigger than Star Trek and his return could only be a good thing. Kirk and Spock will return in some form or another (for no other reason than it's good business) why not now (while Shatner is alive and well) than later?
A TV Series based on THE ACADEMY, the upcoming novels by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens, sounds like a good idea, very similar to the STARFLEET ACADEMY project developed by Harve Bennett in 1989. And yes, it is...argh... a prequel and a reboot, but...
Gustavo
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TrekWeb.com Supervising Editor
gl2000@uol.com.br
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Well........let's think about this for a minute.
First of all, the biggest problem to be overcome is continuity...in the minds of the fans. What I mean is, people have developed this intricate timeline for each character of the show, every event, even the construction schedule for many of the ships. If something like Shatner's idea is done, it would fly in the face of that "fantinuity" and word of mouth would kill it before the premiere. Not to mention the the inevitable comparisons to "Smallville."
However, casting is another big issue. As another poster indicated, not only would unknowns have to be cast, but they'd have to be good unknowns. Someone who could pull off a young Kirk or a young Spock would have to be incredibly talented, yet have at least a working knowledge of the characters as they were in the original series.
Another problem is stories. As I indicated in a previous post, Star Trek stories have become formulaic, relying more on technobabble than true character interaction and drama. Setting the new series at the Academy on Earth might alleviate this problem a bit, but there's still the issue of cadets serving on starships, thus the temptation to pull another retchnobabble-rabbit out of a hat. Whoever writes this (or any new) Star Trek show had better be a student of Drama 101.
The only thing that a Star Trek: Academy series might have going for it is the popularity of shows like Smallville, The O. C., Everwood, One Tree Hill, etc. However, that trend will run dry soon, and the new show might be the tail end of a dead dog.
Here's my suggestion: Write the novels first. If anybody can pull it off successfully, it would be the Reeves-Stevenses (and I still have my doubts). Having Shatner's name attached to a couple more successful novels wouldn't hurt when he made his pitch to Paramount executives in a couple of years (let's face it, the man is getting older, and waiting 10 years for a new series might not fit his schedule). Then, let's see what Paramount wants to do, and how it fits into the television landscape of the day.
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A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. -- Robert Heinlein
PCLinuxOS
falcon
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First of all, judging by the sound of it, there's still no chance of this happening. If I'm not mistaken, he proposed this awhile ago, I think even before the Enterprise talks began.
But any Star Trek project that has William Shatner involved has legitimacy. The only way a true reboot can happen is if Shatner somehow is involved, and it leaves open the possibility of a post-Generations Kirk appearing.
Casting would be big here. They'd need unknowns, and they'd need GOOD unknowns. They would also need on camera appearances by Shatner on occasion. Kind of a reflection back.
Maybe instead of a pure prequel, an idea could be to follow a similar path that Lost did. Somehow Kirk is involved in a story that reminds him of things in the academy, so you have a mix of both older and younger Kirk.
If Berman and Braga are not involved in any fashion, or if Shatner himself appears as an returned James T. Kirk, I'd be open to this.
Smallville incidentally, is a good show. Prequels can work. Enterprise is an example of a prequel that failed. But that doesn't mean all prequels are doomed.
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The thing is, if it's "Shatner's" prequel reboot, the die-hard nerdboys would have a hard time successfully arguing against it. Wouldn't it be ironic if The Great Shatner of all people would the slayer of Star Trek.
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GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show!.... You've turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME! -- William Shatner on Saturday Night Live (1986)
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The thing is, if it's "Shatner's" prequel reboot, the die-hard nerdboys would have a hard time successfully arguing against it. Wouldn't it be ironic if The Great Shatner of all people would the slayer of Star Trek.
Star Trek is already slain. You can't kill something that is already dead. You can't make Star Trek worse than it is now. It's already gone. Even if this was horrific, it would only keep Trek buried. There's no way to go but up.
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