Abrams: Star Trek Not Traditional Prequel

When JJ Abrams comes to TrekMovie.com for a live chat or speaks at some tech conference, he shows off his geek cred. But, of course his plan for the new Star Trek is to appeal to everyone so he has to shed that when he talks to the ‘norms.’ Which is exactly what you can see with some quotes buried in one of those ‘Movies to look forward to in 2008’ previews over at USA Today where Abrams is quoted saying…

I was not an avid Star Trek fan, I want this to appeal to people who never saw Star Trek or think its days are over.

POTENTIAL

SPOILER

BELOW

The director also explained to the USA TODAY how his new Star Trek will not be like other recent prequels:

It won’t suffer from the problem that traditional prequels suffer from: that you know all the characters will live.

TREKMOVIE SNEAK PEEK
could this be what Abrams is referring to?

More at USA Today

Thanks to Etha for the link

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This is PROOF that this movie is not loyal to canon!

He’s dead already!!!!

The no-win scenario just got a little more complicated.

Either someone dies in ther alternate timeline or they are killing off old Spock, which I would find really bad.

Scotty will be replaced with Welshy (Futurama episode)

#4 Yeah, I agree.

It seems that old Spock will die. Kirk had to die in Generations to pass on the torch. Now it seems that old Spock will die to pass on the legacy to the new crew.

Yeah, we won’t know all the characters will live. Anyone could die… Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Checkov or even Ensign Ricky! I guess we will have to wait and see which of these survive and which don’t. ;-)

Now I am going to go to bed and set my alarm for 11:00, Dec 24…. thats sure to work.

Let’s wait and see. He won’t kill off any regular character without bringing him/her back.

#5. WEEEEEELSHEEEEEeeeeeeee!!!!

This movie already butchered set design canon and now it seems that canon history will be violated!

Im trying very hard not to read the spoilers !!!

I strongly urge all Trek fans to stop reading Spoilers!

This movie is going to Rock,, I cant wait to see this!

Excellent. This movie will break new ground afterall.

This film will be fatal.

This is great to hear. with an alternate timeline and a liberal reading of canon this is gonna be fantastic !

Kirk dead at the end of the movie? Sulu lost the cold vacuum of space? Scotty dead from overconsumption of french fries? this could be a 3 part series just like II, III, IV.

awesome.

Note that Abrams said the problem with prequels was that everybody KNOWS nobody can die, NOT that nobody does die.

Nothing in his comment suggests he’s killing anybody off. Just that he’s introduced a scenario knows he *could* kill somebody off. The very fact that the movie has time travel from the future establishes that.

@#10

Enterprise already butchered set design canon. Also, for people who freak out about that stuff, have you noticed that there’s no one cosistent look for the 1701-A across three movies? You can say “it was a refit” all you want, but that’s not canonical either.

Just let the man make his movie and we’ll judge it on Christmas.

perhaps he’s just talking about some well known red-shirted ensigns. would be canon.

10. Section 31

breath, man.

He is not killing anyone alive in TOS.

Sometimes it seems as if you actually wanted the movie to break canon so you could attack it.

Captain April, don your red tunic and take this other noname ship to go after that Klingon/Romulan attacker thingy. Make sure Pike doesn’t get hurt or anything also. Take a few of Pike’s guys from the Talos run, they’d be good to help.

No, no one will die, just get so mamed that they can only beep…. ;-)

He actually called it a _prequel_… is there still hope it won’t *really* be a reimagining, but a “hi-fidelity” prequel? Of course for it to be a prequel, it can’t violate what comes after or else it is no longer a prequel.

So what does he mean with this looming axe over our intrepid heroes?

It’s going to change everything isn’t it?

Abrams isn’t a trekkie or a trekker, so simple as this will just be Star Trek’s dumbing down and mainstreaming, which probably means just a few less Trek-esq pieces of dialogue and a hell of a lot more blowing stuff up and actual human relations bits.

This is an attempt to make Trek cool, and for the main part it’s working, people are getting interested in the hype, the trailer isn’t what you would expect from Star Trek and the Enterprise has been changed to make it look more realistic.

Thing is, if you were a fan of Trek before, it’s probably not going to appeal as much. I mean the purists were always going to be mad about this, but they do have a slight point.

Ok, it would be unfair to claim that JJ Abrams is taking this franchise (a horrible word for Star Trek that is) just to make money and try and claim status as ‘the guy who saved trek’, but at the same time you must realise he was never going to leave alot the same no matter what he promised.

End of the day if your pitching Trek to a mainstream, hard to occupy audience, then you have to loose things which are essentially what Trek is about. The ethic of humans working toward something greater and better is still there, but the feeling of Trek, that buzz of it will not be there in the film if it looses some of the lingo and the general Trek themes.

The film could be epic, I know I will go and see it, as I am a self confessed Trek lover. But I know at the end of the day this isn’t going to be a ‘real’ Star Trek. It’s a shiny version. One to try and rebirth something which many seem to think has become old and tired.

But maybe older trek just isn’t getting a chance? I don’t know.

I don’t know whether I’m happy or sad about this movie. I know Nemesis sucked gigantic arse, but if what Abrams is making gets any more complicated, or is a total retcon, there will be that vain of sadness in watching the film.

Although the canon thing was ALWAYS going to be difficult. I don’t reckon there is a director out there who can cope with trek canon lol.

And in response to Section 31’s anger, I’m not thrilled about some of the stuff I’ve heard mate, but it’s quite obvious they won’t kill anyone who’s in the main cast, because that would just plain not make sense. Chillax. Stop being overly hostile and wait till it comes out. I’m voicing concerns, but not totally poo pooing it!

Although, New Voyages episode ‘To Serve All My Days’ end is worth mentioning….does anyone want to explain how that fits in lol because it threw me!

*Not mentioning how it ends so I don’t ruin it for any potential New Voyages viewers*

#1 “This is PROOF that this movie is not loyal to canon!”

Yes, of course it is.

How did you reach that conclusion with two one-line quotes?

I don’t care if this movie breaks canon. As long as it’s good, and fun, I’ll love it. Transformers rocked my world, and I’m hoping for that feeling again with Star Trek.

What if someone important is killed? Chechov, Uhura, Scotty?? We’ve never seen animportant death in “the Past” before because it would effect the future from existing shows and movies piont of view.

It couls so easily have happenned in “Yesterdays Enterprise”. If for what ever reason Guinan hadn’t convinced Picard to act, there would have been an entire life experience and altered universe to contend with. If Picard ahd not sent the Enterprise B back there would suddenly have been an entire series of stories to tell about the Klingon war.

What if some one is killed at the end on the new movie by someone from the future? Then time as we know it will have been altered. Hence new existance, new series but not the same mission. Yet at some time down the track, all could be reset if a Guinan type character says “This is not the way it was meant to be”

We’ve never seen a time paradox from the pasts view point before. There could be several movies of “lets go thatta way” instead of the way it was in the original series only to be reset at some piont in the future when “story telling” decides it’s necessary. In the mean time we enjoy what could have been and what could become the “Search for the Real time line”. Canon is wiped but alive at the same time.

I really love Trek.com. It’s the only place I would ever dream and speculate like this.

Sorry Anthony..I meant TrekMovie.com at the end and sorry for spelling mistakes..didn’t run the spell checker this time

Spock!!! My first thought was that they’re killing off old Spock too, which would make me very sad. :( I could sort of see it though, since we’ve seen Kirk die and don’t know how Spock dies. Still, it would be too sad!

#1
#10

Section 31 – take your canon and shove it up your arse.

Even if I cared about canon, which I don’t, there are several ways that major characters could be killed which don’t violate “my preciousssss…” – uh, I mean canon.

a. Old Spock could be killed.
b. It could show the death of one of the major characters in the lives of young Kirk or Spock; someone who never appeared in TOS.
c. Some or all of the film could occur in the mirror universe or some other alternate universe. If you know how to read, take out your canon bible and read about: Yesterday’s Enterprise, Parallels, Mirror Mirror, etc, etc. All canon, all involving deaths and ressurections that DID NOT happen in the TOS universe.

Get a life.

#22
-.. but it’s quite obvious they won’t kill anyone who’s in the main cast, because that would just plain not make sense. –

You’re obviously right as regards young Spock; killing him would make no sense as we already know that old Spock is still alive in the TNG timeline, but why would killing old Spock at the end of the movie make no sense?

And if Abrams was only referring to old Kirk remaining dead, he already suggested that with his most recent comments and his current comment would not have been an interesting tidbit, a statement as to his perception of the film’s approach, but a redundancy. As I understand it, *that* would just plain not make sense.

#25: C, it was the C.

#25

Excellent points. A mirror-universe seen from the past would be good. One of the few good eps from Enterprise was there mirror universe 2-parter. The new movie could be a similar idea – show a “what if” scenario of an alternate universe that would happen if Kirk were killed, and then have future Spock somehow set it right.

Section 31 – the official films (like this one) ESTABLISH canon, dummy. They can do whatever they want and then it becomes canon.

I know what he’s talking about. I mean, in a parallel universe different things can happen and nobody is safe.

If it is alternate time lines interacting with other alternate timelines then you can kill Kirk and co. lots of times… just as long as he survies in “our” timeline,. We already have the mirror universe, so why not others too.

Thinking about it, the new series of Doctor Who has done a similar thing in some cases, not being a reboot it did go down the route with some classic enemies of re-telling a slightly different origins story in a mirror universe. That way you preserve the official canon and get to reboot things at the same time.

JJ Abrams raped my childhood!! Hang on, I’m 32 and that was Star wars. Ooops, sorry.

“I was not an avid Star Trek fan, I want this to appeal to people who never saw Star Trek or think its days are over.”

For this to be true the plot doesn’t have to be too complicated. IMO, time travel and alternate timelines are matter for Trek geeks. Casual people would have a lot of trouble understanding such intricate events, deeply tied to Trek lore. For this reason I think that we cannot say for sure that timeline messing is involved.

“It won’t suffer from the problem that traditional prequels suffer from: that you know all the characters will live.”

Just so long as they don’t go killing off Spock again. >:(

Old Spock will not die but who knows maybe young Spock….

;-)

The adventure continues…

#30madcynic
I stand corrected. Most definately C

Abrams is pretty much giving CPR to Star Trek and the purists are whinging because if it lives it won’t be wearing the same clothes.

Im glad Abrams is going in this direction with a liberal reading of canon. IMO by the end of the film it will be a Star Trek alternate timeline. For goodness sake its only television and just because its an alternate timeline it doesn’t mean all the stuff in the ‘ordinary’ timeline didn’t happen, im betting their writing the film on the assumption that the many worlds interpretation of physics is true, in which case as soon as the timeline changes it will have branched off into an alternate universe.

all this speculation is making me very nervous…………..

so someone dies he also spoke of different time lines so i assume kirk dies and we see the universe without kirks influence !!

Okay, it finally all makes sense. I’ve always predicted something like that but I guess this means PROOF now:

1. As CBS TV and Paramount Pictures have split the Trek copyright, they desperately need TWO Trek timelines! CBS will explore the future of the old timeline with DTV releases and TV productions, while Paramount is going to present us all new blockbuster movies in this new, undetermined timeline.

2. Nero and Old Spock are just means to an end, i.e. establishing the new timeline. That’s why Nero’s role is little more than a cameo. Nero is not your average villain planing to alter the timeline by timetravel. Everything is just an accident! An experiment went wrong, setting developments in motion that DO change significant aspects of THIS NEW Trek universe, e.g. technology (ship design!), politics (destriction of Vulcan) and even characters (young Spock mind melding etc)…

3. While old viewers will be able to relate the new timeline with the original chronology trough Old Spock, new viewers won’t have to bother with any of that. They can enjoy the new Trek as a completely independent incarnation, like Raimi’s Spider-Man movies being independent from the comic books…You don’t need to read the comics to understand those movies but you may enjoy certain details a little more if you know your comic books…

4. In case of success, this new timeline will recombine things in a completely different way. We may see Kirk fighting the Borg or even discovering the Bajoran wormhole and the Dominion and none of this will hurt continuity since it already is a completely different reality! And that is absolutely brilliant…

As long as the original timeline won’t cease to exist (and how could it, given IDIC), I’m fine with all of this…it makes a lot of sense…

Spock has to live … please.

I won’t survive another dead Spock – please NO!!!!!!!!

35. RE: Star Wars

At least JJ didn’t destroy what he himself created and was rightly proud of. :-P

Paramount handed the reigns to JJ for a reason. If he wants to kill characters, by golly, he has a right to. Just like some fans ignore “Enterprise”, just ignore the movie if you’re going to be upset about it. People are way too quick to judge.

If the movie is good, I’m going to enjoy it. If it creates a new continuity, that’s fine with me. I’ve made my peace.

How about….

Kirk does die at the end of this –

Old Spock fails, lost in interminable timelines and he can’t get back home

…..and his younger Sylar self is now… Captain of the Enterprise!!!

There must be an evil laugh somewhere…

The 11 months wait is excruciating. I don’t know if I can hold on for much longer… ;) I might literally explode from anticipation around summer… I’ll let you guys know if I survive. :)

I don’t think I’ve been as hyped about a movie like this in my entire life. JJ better deliver after lifting my expectations so much, I don’t know what I will do if I don’t like the movie!!!

My conclusion: old Spock will die and Shatner will not appear in Star Trek ever. Live long and prosper to new cast.

-So we will never see an old KIRK again..we know that thing already.. : )

Time will tell. There are always possibilities.

I wonder how long it will be before old Stanky gets over the shock of THIS announcement! Can’t imagine that he won’t weigh in soon!