If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
The rumor mills are ablaze with the idea that the next Star Trek movie (being directed by J.J. Abrams) will feature Khan as the primary villain. Benicio Del Toro was originally planned to portray the villain, but contract negotiations broke down, and Del Toro bailed from the project. Maybe Toro realized that reviving Khan is a creatively bankrupt concept and didn't want to be a part of such an uninspired and contrived movie. If so, good for him.
The idea of bringing back Khan for the next Star Trek sequel is offensive to me on many levels. First and foremost, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an exceptional movie, and there is absolutely no need to revisit that film's premise or the Khan character. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. There are plenty of examples of broken Star Trek villains that could use a reboot: Sybok (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier), Garth of Izar (TOS: Whom Gods Destroy), or even the Gorn (TOS: Arena) were all handled poorly in their original incarnations and would have been much better material for improvement and refinement.
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155ce9c8-b9f0-441f-8e13-c8448e1d034e|1|5.0
Tags:Star Trek, Star Trek 12, Khan Noonien Singh, Garth of Izar, J.J. Abrams, Peter Weller, Alice Eve, Benicio Del Toro, Edgar Ramirez, Star Trek: Enterprise, reboot
When Star Trek was rebooted by J.J. Abrams in 2009 and brought the franchise into mainstream popularity, it was a bitter-sweet moment for many long-time fans. On the one hand, Abrams had made Star Trek "cool" for the first time in the franchise's history and ensured that Star Trek would continue to live on since it's future following the cancelation of Star Trek: Enterprise and the bombing of Star Trek: Nemesis was uncertain. On the other hand, the movie was a reset that took place in a new Star Trek continuity that essentially erased the more than 40 years of Star Trek history. Long-time fans suddenly had to deal with the possibility that the timeline (as it originally existed) was over. There would likely never be any further development of the original Star Trek continuity, since all future projects would probably be based on Abrams' reboot.
Star Trek, as it originally existed, seemed dead.
This meant that the only likely outlets for extension of the original continuity would come from novels, comic books, and the craptacular Star Trek Online MMORPG computer game. And since Star Trek canon generally only includes official, on-screen material, none of those sources would be considered truly canonical.
This would mean that many Trek fans might have some very serious questions about the future of their beloved series go unanswered...
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3d3cb6db-cd87-4813-848a-b8e66b4901f6|2|4.5
Tags:Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, science fiction, CBS, Paramount, David Foster, 1947 Entertainment, Bryan Singer, J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Star Trek Online, Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica
When I saw the movie on opening night, I loved it. It was fun. It was fast. The opening scene was gripping and intense. The visuals were flashy. It had plenty of humor. And Karl Urban as Leonard McCoy ROCKED!
Over time, though, my nitpicky cynicism started to kick in, and started to seem more and more like a Hollywood bastardization. It started with the observation (on opening night) that the crew of the Kelvin had the Enterprise "delta shield" flight patches on their tunics, instead of the ship-specific flight patches that were in use during the original series and before.
Really, who are these people?
Eventually, I started to be bothered by the insistence that all the characters have to turn out exactly like their original series counterparts, despite having their origins and life histories significantly changed. Apparently, in the J.J. Abrams' Star Trek universe, a person's "destiny" is a complete matter of "nature" rather than "nurture".
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1104fbbc-b27e-405f-9cf7-ef4dc738cd62|3|4.0
Tags:Star Trek, Star Trek 11, J.J. Abrams, James Kirk, Spock, TOS, Enterprise, Hikaru Sulu, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Uhura, Montgomery Scott, Pavel Checkov, reboot, movie