I agree with what you are saying. Paramont would be getting their $’s worth.

Talk of Shatner and Nimoy’s return in their iconic roles has brought a level of passion to the fanbase that has been missing for years.

The artist does owe it to himself to be honest, and, the best-case scenario is that the artist’s honesty yields a good product for the fans. But, I don’t think that anyone would argue that 3 out of the 4 TNG films were bad due to uncompromising artistic vision. Rather, the opposite would seem the case – a pathetic lack of artistic vision.

So, I’m not suggesting any pandering – quite the opposite, in fact. I’d love to see a real visionary writer and/or director follow through on an uncompromising artistic vision, and put it out there for people to either love or hate. But, that’s not realistic, given the ultimate control of Paramount/CBS, that they would be unlikely to relinquish, unless they were dealing with a proven success, like a Steven Spielberg (in the 80’s), Jim Cameron or Ridley Scott. Then, they might give the director total artistic control.

But, if the screenplay is good enough; if the casting and pre-production are good enough, then the money might see fit to not try an fix something that doesn’t seem broke.

I appreciate your point, but two things come to mind.

First, the moment an artist starts pandering to his fans, he is compromising his artistic vision. The artist owes it to himself to be true to his vision… not his fans. Having said that, the artist should be respectful of his fans out of simple courtesy.

Second, Paramount and CBS really aren’t the artists here. They are the money and the means behind the artist for good or bad.

d

Every artist owes his fans. They’re the ones to whom he owes his livlihood, and his most honest and wholehearted effort.

1) Spock retrieves Kirk from the Nexus as a major plot element of Trek XI. Let’s not revisit a bad idea to start this new movie…

2) Post TOS era Trek is some kind of commericial and critical failure. That’s 25 seasons of post TOS trek that made a ton of money, and at least half of which was pretty damn good. Networks don’t make 25 seasons of anything based on it being a failure.

3) That no other actors could possibly replace Kirk & Spock. Give it time, its all about the formula, right actors, right script, right director…

4) That Trek XI would surely fail if Shatner & Nimoy are not in the movie. Generations sucked pretty much with the Shat in it…

5) That Paramount and/or CBS “owe” the fans something… they don’t owe us anything… (i’ll make an exception to individuals who actually wrote paramount in 1969 to protest the cancellation of TOS)

Doug

I can see how they could make a pre-Where No Man Has Gone Before film starring the new Kirk and Spock, with Lost/Citizen Kane flashbacks to their first meeting and so on.

Rather more difficult would be to have Shatner and Nimoy looking back to the new Kirk also looking back.

Fascinating to see what happens! :)