Many would argue the reason for Star Trek’s poor performance is because Shatner and Nimoy as the iconic roles (Kirk/Spock) were not in the films or tv series.

You just can’t take these legendary characters out of the franchise and expect it to not miss a beat. These guys are worldwide icons that are not easily disposed of.

ST was always character driven. And if you take your most beloved characters (Kirk/Spock) out of the franchise (In Kirk’s case simply throw him off a cliff) and replace them with bland interchangeable characters the franchise will suffer. And it did.

ST needs Kirk and Spock to survive. And the best way to give the new film credibility is to bring back Shatner and Nimoy (even if in cameo’s) as Kirk and Spock.

I think Paramont is finally getting it.

I guess I’m just a little cynical. I think, as huge as the Trek fanbase is, after years of poor performance on both the big and small screen, Paramount isn’t going to think twice about taking certain “forward” (and I stress the quotations) moving steps to broaden the audience.

And no, ha, I don’t think Shatner and Nimoy are being signed on as key grips. I do think they’ll be in the film, but the “bookend” appearance seems a lot more likely to me… that or *shudder* a lame cameo at the end like in the Starsky and Hutch remake.

I don’t that Shatner and Nimoy would be the stars of the new film. But, I do believe that they will be in it as Kirk and Spock.

Surely, it can’t be from before the Generations era. They look so much older. While I’m sure this guy has no idea what he is talking about. His theory (or inside info) does seem to make sense.

I think that pretty much everyone who is going to go see a Star Trek film is very familiar with the characters history.

Besides this whole story was about Paramont going to Nimoy and Shatner and asking for their involvement in the film. I’m sure they weren’t asking them to be the key grip on the movie. I’m sure they were asking them to appear in the film.

Who knows, maybe this guy is right on the money? It kind of makes sense to me.

As beloved and respected and recognizable as Shanter and Nimoy are, they’re 75 year old men and there’s no way Paramount is going to have one of their major motion pictures star 75 year old men. Not in the age of the iPod. Not in the age of Paris Hilton: The Album.

Additionally, any attempt to resurrect post-Nexus Kirk (either through Shatner’s storyline or something new) would be so dependent on a familiarity with Trek history, that it seems out of line with the what we know of the philosophy behind this whole production (ie staying true to the series BUT attracting a broader audience). Then again, the Star Wars prequels did well enough and I’ll be damned if half of the people watching them had any idea what was going on.

Well, in fact you can make everything in Star Trek, because it stands for the IDIC-principle (Infinite diversity in infinite combinations) . I guess thats the reason why it has so much incarnations (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT). But it’s quite difficult to explain the feeling when you watch those old episodes. TOS, TNG and even DS9 had this special drive – this high morality. And the characters always thought about the correctness of their decisions, so that it seemed believable/ true to the audience and kept in mind. Star Trek TOS and especially TNG and DS9 (-> DS9 is the best trek if you like to combine a mainstream-compatible mix of Roddenberry’s utopical/ moralic stories and action-orientated realism/ political stuff) are made for a grown-up audience. And it seemed that VOY, ENT and the TNG movies were trying to catch much younger TV-watchers. The consequence was, that the quality of the former drama-stories(!), the dialogues(!) and the discussion(!) on morality decreased to a very low and kid-compatible level compared to the other (almost philosophocal + successful) productions. Thats the only reason why Rick Berman finally was fired, and it’s an irony that he really didn’t need to change the style of production into a kiddy-franchise in 1994, because at that time Star Trek was on the hightest point of popularity. Picard & Co. were icons at that time. And no one could just imagine that they would lost their status with the last 4 movies. So it’s my hope that STXI makes it right and leans on the quality/ style/ magic(! – thats the right word to describe the feeling!) of the novels or the first three series/ 6 movies. Only with the magic of those “old” productions Star Trek XI could continue the continiously growing success that Star Trek had from 1966 to 1994 (no matter the crew that might be involved – or ok, the original is better than any copies in new uniform). It’s not a coincidence or even the fault of the audience/ fans that the last 11 years (1994 to 2005) went wrong!!