That may be true, but I think that Paramount recognizes that Star Trek was never as popular as it was during the heyday of the TOS-era film series, and they are smart to utilize its most iconic characters. No characters created in a spinoff Trek series have been able to achieve the cultural icon status of Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty, and it doesn’t take a genius over at Paramount to realize that investing $168 million in a Star Trek film that isn’t bringing the first string to the game is awfully risky.

Well, the advantage of setting a series further ahead in the timeline (I’m talking a lot further ahead) is that you can make it what you want.

Speaking of TOS being a more ‘romantic’ era, I don’t get that vibe from this movie. At least going by the trailer and the posters and the spy photos, it looks all dark and gritty like nBSG (and pretty much most sci-fi nowadays). I’d have preferred a more retro, pulpy ‘Amazing Stories’ look. But that’s just me :)

I don’t want to see any more Trek set further in the future simply because I never liked any of the 24th Century Trek (at least as Trek. I was able to appreciate DS9 to some degree on its own) enough to pay to see its films. The only Star Trek I ever found to be feature film worthy was that set in the TOS-era, and the last Star Trek movie I paid any money to see was TUC.
If this were another TNG-era film, or worse—something set even further away from the romantic TOS-era, I would not be here discussing it or looking for news about it. I certainly would not be excited about paying good money to bring my entire family to see it on opening night. But that’s just me.

Well, yes, if the film gives a reason as to the re-imagined look of TOS (I do actually believe that Orci and…the other guy have produced a script that will fit into canon: Bob is the only one on the team who I think is actually a Trekkie, but I’m not convinced that Abrams and the others are as concerned about continuity…we will see…) then, of course, there are possibilities of exploring the rest of the timeline. But I do think that it is more likely any future films or series’ will be based upon this new vision of Trek. Personally I would love to see a new series set further in the future. It would make it soooo much easier on the production team because they need not be concerned so much with canon (there wouldn’t need to be references and connections to the past 40 years of history — the team could do what they wanted with the Trekverse and not worry about stepping on the toes of any fans, and hopefully bring in many new ones who don’t want to know about all the other shows). If they ever did stuff in gaps between, as you say, TMP and TWoK or TFF and TUC, they have to stick closely to what we already know. They would have to use the old 1970s/80s costumes and sets, and be careful about what they do with the universe (that is assuming they don’t just re-imagine it all, which would seem rather pointless if they were deliberately setting it in a pre-established timeframe of the fictional universe).

#106. Jamie – August 14, 2008

I have to agree that, regardless of what annoying canon purists like me say, this movie is not likely to flop and, continuity aside, I can’t see it being awful. I think the worst that could happen is that it turns out to be Trek In Name Only, and we get some kind of Star Wars-come-Battlestar Galactica wannabe (and I don’t mean in visuals: we already know that this isn’t going to feel like TOS that way).

It is too early to say how close we are getting to the original costumes, though. Although we know they have the same basic layout, we’ve been told that there are differences with the rank insignia and the lack of any assignment patch (no ship patches in Abrams TOS!). The differences could be totally minor, or they could be as different as ‘The Cage’ uniforms were to the regular TOS ones.

It certainly could have been a lot worse. It could easily have been that the first Star Trek reboot film was just a money-making exercise by people who don’t give a toss about Trek history and just wanted to reinvent everything and make a “cool” “sexy” movie about massive ships getting blown up in space.

We should be really thankful that everyone involved in this movie has been so committed to getting it right and re-capture the appeal of the original (even if they don’t succeed). The creators have actually read studies on what made TOS so popular. They’re paying serious respect to the original. It could have been so much worse than this!

We’re actually getting the original costumes (more or less). I mean, who thought we’d ever see those costumes on the big screen? And it will feature a reworking of the original theme tune.

It really doesn’t get much better than this for fans of a TV show made 40 years ago.