Picardo Says Abrams Has ‘Golden Touch’, Questions Prequel

Robert Picardo, Star Trek Voyager’s lovable Holodoctor, seems to have a nuanced view of Star Trek under the command of JJ Abrams. According to an interview from Trek Magazine (via SciFi Pulse) the actor seems to be supportive of Abrams helming the franchise, but isn’t too sure he likes that rumored prequel idea. 

Look they’ve re-launched the Batman franchise and that worked out. I’ve heard that they may re – launch the franchise with a story about Kirk and Spock as younger guys, back in the day, but I don’t know whether that’s the way to go because it seems to remove some of the jeopardy to know what happens in the future. On the other hand, they did kill off Spock four times and bring him back to life. I lost count!

I think Abrams is a great guy to re-launch the franchise,…and I’m sure whatever they choose to do will be good. Mission: Impossible III, I felt, was a very well – crafted movie. He’s a great writer and had a golden touch. I think that anything that keeps the franchise alive and that revitalizes it is a good thing. It’s good for the future of the franchise and it’s good for the earlier incarnations as well. It’s good for everybody.

These views seem a bit more moderate than those of some his TNG colleagues like Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn. Many dismiss their views as sour grapes, but Picardo (except for a brief Cameo in ‘Star Trek First Contact’) wasn’t really part of the TNG film series. More excepts, including his views on Voyager and Enterprise at SciFi Pulse

NOTE: SciFi Pulse attributes these quotes to Star Trek Magazine, however they do not appear in our copy of Issue 2 of Star Trek Magazine which arrived yesterday. It is possible they are in the UK edition.

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The holographic Doctor was modeled after McCoy as far as the irascible disposition and temperament.

I like Bob Picardo as an actor and he has portrayed many worthy genere characters over the years,

However, I believe that is where his creative influence should end.
The actors putting on the mantle and hat of creative input in Trek over the years has been a mixed bag.
Of course, an orchestrator is only as good as those they orchestrate.
Nimoy did it, he had Bennet and Myer supporting him.
Shatner did it. Had Paramount given Shatner the bankroll, and had Myer not Loughery wrote the script, Trek V would have been fine. Damn those inferior special effects.
Frakes did it, he salvaged tripe and made it at minimum presentable.
Had Frakes directed a Myer or Bennet penned script some magic would have occured.

^^^ Levar Burton demonstrated some directorial profficiency.

Can anyone recall if Stewart ever directed an episode of Next Gen?

My memory fails me, it’s been entirely too long since Next Gen was relevant enough to recall hmmmm.

Steward directed on TNG as well, I think it was the episode where Picard plays piano in a Jeffries tube with some random chick from stellar cartography. ‘Twas ame.

Opps, I meant to say “‘Twas LAME!”

I seem to remember that Stewart directed a few TNG eps. and a couple of pornos in the late 70’s……..

Darth “steamer” Ballz

I was wrong about the piano episode.

He directed “Preemptive Strike” (Ro Laren goes AWOL), “Phantasms” (Data has nightmares, Troi senses trouble), “A Fistful of Datas” (A holodeck episode with Data, Worf and kid!), “Hero Worship” (A small boy wants to be like Data), “In Theory” (A petite woman wants to be like Data’s girlfriend!). Yay Data episodes!

I agree.

If you apply that logic, there was no jeopardy in ANY Star Trek film.

Oh granted, Spock and Data died, but very few people DIDN’T know it beforehand walking into the theater.

Just because we know Kirk goes on to be the best Captain in the history of the United Federation of Planets, and Spock goes on to become an Ambassador working for reunification, does not decrease any jeoprady potential.
We go see these movies to experience the exploits and adventures of the characters, not to wage bets on who doesn’t walk away at the end.

Personally, I could give a rats ass about whether or not they die. We already know they’re not going too. The old ‘death card’ isn’t what gets me stoked in a Star Trek movie, and the people behind Star Trek seem to have forgotten what it’s about. I want to see an adventure on the screen…the type of adventure that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck…the type of adventure that makes me feel like a kid again, on the verge of a great discovery. That was Star Trek for me…seeking out new life…exploration…not flying around, politicing, and blowing shit up all the time.

As I wrote in an earlier thread, it would have been cool if Peter Weir directed, Peter Jackson would’ve been too much to hope for. Hell, if Alfonso CuarĂ³n directed, that would’ve been cool too.

So, we’ll see what Abrams does. Again, as I wrote in the past, I’m more concerned about the writers. Anthony cites Batman Begins — I liked the script for the most part; the ending could have been a little more restrained.

Hell, Nick Meyer wrote literate, powerful scripts.

Parmount chose the “Zorro” & “Transformers” writing duo.

“Angels and ministers of grace defend us!”

StarTrek.com’s “New digital Original Series Enterprise” doesn’t look like the Enterprises I have seen. Is this a new image?

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/25055.html

Yes Ralph the Enterprise was remastered with CGI i believe.

I think this new Trek movie should be based with the crew of Voyager or to DS9 and have the original crew cast for both show for this movie

What I mean is the recent CGI is plain looking. This one looks stressed and has more detail.

Sybok, to be honest, the last Zorro was a mess at a conceptual level before the writers even got involved. I don’t know too much about the Transformers film except for the fact that I’m looking forward to it!

I know from having done some bits and pieces of writing for short films that, a lot of the time, you are writing in a producer’s straitjacket. They make the decisions and you write more or less what you are told!

The intriguing thing with Trek XI is that Abrams has final cut. That’s really unusual for major films in Hollywood.

Personally, I’d like Trek move into DTV movie territory as well as the cinema. There’s a big cast of characters from across a couple of hundred years of history that could be exploited.

I remain fully behind the new TOS film and feel that TOS is the way to go for theatrical Trek movies. But DTV would offer the opportunity to tell tales about everyone from Jonathan Archer to Robert April to Christoper Pike to Captain Sulu through to all the TNG era characters.

I mean, you could even, theoretically, make films about Picard in his early years, starring Tom Hardy! ;)

Whats the point in doing prequels to trek if you absolutely know that the main characters can’t die. If they try to kill them off again for some silly reason. It just goes against the grain. Prequels don’t work.

Oh one more thing. Inner light and Lessons was some of the good episodes. I also liked the flute music.

jcvmf214… read the remarks above. It isn’t really all about “killing them off”.

I didn’t like Patrick Stewart’s directing. Frakes has a clean style, I think- but the really underrated director is, in my view, Gates Mcfadden. (Dr. Crusher). The episode was called “Genesis” and was creepy as heck.