Zachary Quinto: Star Trek 4 Script Being Written, Probably Not Interested In ‘Discovery’ Cameo

We are coming up on the one year anniversary of Star Trek Beyond and it looks like there may be a little bit of news on the status of the next film in the franchise. Today Zachary Quinto (Spock) participated in a Facebook Live chat with Entertainment Tonight to promote his involvement with the World Wildlife Fund and Tiger Beer and their project to protect endangered tigers. The subject of the next Star Trek movie also came up, and here is the exchange:

E.T.: I have to get a Star Trek update from you

Quinto: If I had one I would give it.

E.T: So J.J. [Abrams] announced last summer that a fourth movie was a go. So is there anything?

Quinto: I’m expecting that to be true, but it’s a process. It’s always this way. It’s like, “Yes, we’re going to do it!” But then there are many steps in that process – writing a script being primary among them – and I know that’s what they’re working on now. I think we’re all really excited to go back and we’ll do that whenever the phone rings and it’s J.J. on the other end. But yeah, it is a process. There is years between the first few movies – I think four years between the first two and three between the second and the third. So we are kind of on track. It was two years ago we shot the last one and it came out last year so I feel we are still in the strike zone.

In April Quinto also said that a script was being worked on but made news mostly for commenting that there were “no guarantees” another Star Trek film would be made. His comments today seemed to be more optimistic.

Karl Urban (McCoy) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) in Star Trek Beyond

Karl Urban (McCoy) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) in Star Trek Beyond

Probably not interested in Discovery cameo

The subject of the new CBS All Access show Star Trek: Discovery came up as well. Quinto noted he wasn’t following the “inner machinations” of news on the show but he was aware that Bryan Fuller was formerly involved. The ET host then asked if Quinto would be interested appearing on the show:

E.T.: If they were to reach out to you to do a cameo would you do it?

Quinto: I don’t know, probably not. I don’t think so. It is such a unique experience and such a unique character and I feel like I wouldn’t know how to…I don’t know. Who knows? But I am excited to see it. I am happy that they are doing it and it is an incredible universe. There is an endless combination of possibilities of stories and characters. I don’t feel like they will need me. They will be able to create an opulent world of much drama on their own.

The nuance of a cameo from Kelvin timeline Spock in Prime timeline Discovery wasn’t discussed.

You can watch the full Quinto ET Facebook Live event below.

New Paramount CEO (briefly) mentions Star Trek

Paramount’s new CEO Jim Gianopulos recently gave his first major interview to The Hollywood Reporter and the subject of franchises came up. Here is the exchange:

THR: Film has become a business of haves and have-nots. Some studios have reliable franchises, some don’t. How do you turn this studio into a “have” with what you’ve got?

Gianopulos: We have people, money, resources, global distribution and the reach of almost four billion people that Viacom touches around the world. If you can’t make that work, something’s not right. There is a great executive team here and a lot of very talented and dedicated people who want to win and who, despite disappointments at the box office, have a great sense of purpose, direction and talent. You harness that and look at areas where it can be improved or augmented or expanded. I don’t make any prejudgments. I’m just getting to know everybody.

THR: But you don’t have many franchises.

Gianopulos: Yes and no. There’s Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and Transformers. The last Mission was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed of all the films. And we’re now making the next one, which has every appearance of being even bigger. There are plenty of opportunities to mine the library and to mine the relationship with our ongoing partner Hasbro. There’s a lot of IP here.

Gianopulos also talked up the studio’s relationship with [Star Trek] producer J.J. Abrams, whose Bad Robot Productions also handles the Mission: Impossible films, and said that he had personally sorted out the studio’s Chinese financing problems that we reported in our last Paramount business update.

While it was only the briefest of mentions of Star Trek, this is the first time that the new CEO has ever talked about the franchise. Gianopulos’ lumping Trek in with Mission: Impossible and Transformers as the three major franchises for the studio echoes a similar sentiment from the CEO of Viacom (Paramount’s parent company) back in March. So even with Star Trek Beyond coming in below expectations in 2016, the corporate brass still consider Trek to be one of their key tentpoles. It’s especially significant that Gianopulos has Star Trek on his list because when he was brought in to turn Paramount around, he was reportedly given significant leeway and greenlight authority.

For the past five years, Paramount has released one film from each big franchise (Trek, Transformers and Mission) every summer. The big tentpole this summer is the fifth Transformers film, which has brought in $ 1/2 billion in three weeks (but may actually end up under-performing compared to the last Transformers film). Next summer will bring the sixth Mission: Impossible film along with a Bumblebee spin-off of Transformers, and Paramount has already said they plan to release another Transformers film in 2019. While a new Star Trek film was announced in 2016, it wasn’t given a date or even a year.

If Paramount decides to move forward with a new Star Trek feature and continue the pattern, then the next Trek film could fall in the summer of 2020. This four year gap between films would (as noted by Quinto above) be on track to match the gap between Abrams’ first and second Trek features. If Paramount decided they didn’t want to do three summers in a row with a Transformers film, then a Star Trek film in 2019 is theoretically possible, but a lot of things would have to get locked down around the end of the year – notably a script, a director, a budget, and the actors’ schedules.

Paramount summer tentpoles from 2013-2107

Stay glued to TrekMovie.com for all news, whispers and more about the future or Star Trek movies. You can keep tabs on all updates on the next movie via our Star Trek XIV category.

 

 

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This won’t be popular, but I’d absolutely like to see another Abrams-directed Trek film (ideally with a non-K/O script).

Same here! Really enjoyed beyond. While I enjoyed 09 and STID, STB felt the most “Trek-like.” They need to continue that. The actors really feel like they’ve finally become these characters. It would be a shame to end it now.

Eh. No offensive to people that like them but I really don’t see them as the same characters at all. Kirk is basically Zapp Brannigan; dumb, incompetant and inexplicably in charge. Quinto plays Spock like a retarded robot who has never interacted with anyone before ( I honestly will never understand how anyone likes his performance). Bones is a parody of himself, grumbling out generic grumbly lines, and also an action hero who flies alien fighter craft when the plot requires it. I mean, sure the supporting cast is fine, and yeah it’s just a really, really stupid movie that exists to string action set peices together, but I still think trek fans are too eager to embrace new “product”, regardless of quality. It’s really not that good. Most made for TV sci fi movies will have a more compelling, coherent and though provoking plot.

Ding ding ding… we have a winner. Also throw in the random unattractive and constant costume changes that destroy the concept of a “uniform”. Just for what? To sell more toys? So you can tell the publicity photos apart?

There’s very little merch from the new movies though. I would like some,but I doubt it’ll happen.

Urban plays McCoy just right, he’s basically the best thing that happened to Abramsverse films. It’s not his fault he’s not given enough room for character development (since the producers basically decided to sideline McCoy on the basis of being “too white, too male”).

Oh yeah Paul is that it, he’s too white and too male? Give me a break man. As if Kirk and Spock aren’t. You’re the biggest bigot on this site, you know that? You can shove your prejudices up your …

He’s kinda right. They replaced bones with uhura in the power three in these movies. I bet it was to cater to a bigger audience. A bigot has religious conitations also so you are way wrong my freind.

Urban was good in 09 and was awful in STID. More accurately his dialogue and directing were awful. I imagine he nailed exactly what was intended. But the goofy one liners, scenery chewing one dimensional BS was sad to watch.

“I once performed an emergency C-section on a pregnant Gorn. Octuplets. And let me tell you, those little bastards bite.”

Yes, the white, male producers obviously have it in for white, male actors and their characters. Did Mommy drop you on your head, or did you just not get enough hugs?

Michael . . . . You nailed it with a nail gun! Great observations.

@Michaal

They aren’t the same characters for me…at all. But then I look at it like they are another Next Generation. A different crew aboard a different Enterprise. It is helpful that in the first movie there is that line about them not ultimately being the people they may once have been in the original timeline. That in of itself tells me that are entirely different people from the prime crew, and that works for me. My biggest complaint has been the stories, and up until Beyond I was not impressed. Trek 09 I gave a pass as a set up movie. But Into Darkness was a travesty. A assault on celluloid. If I could burn every copy I would. At least Beyond repairs some of the damage.

Precisely. They’re ok as popcorn movies, but as Trek they sort of suck.

Well even saying they “suck as Trek” is subjective. I think they’ve got just enough to qualify, and in my humble opinion, are not unlike a lot of previous Trek films, just with a better budget.

Search for Spock, Final Frontier, Generations, First Contact, Nemesis– these were all movies attempting to up the action and spectacle, but due to lack of budget either failed completely, or could only achieve a half measure.

I think most of the criticism of the films from Trek fans begins with the fact that they’re reboots; that their favorite characters have been recast, and that colors every further opinion. Had it been the original cast in 1986 in these movies, I think they’d be much better received.

Eh, no offense, but your comment is simple, uninformed and biased. Sounds like you only watched the first film of NuTrek, and never grew beyond that. Sad.

Torch- yeah, STB finally let the characters reach the maturity level they needed. No more Star Wars space cowboy Kirk (cept the moto), a great Bones and some really neat Deep space locales.

But I really think Lin made the difference. His love of ST (as opposed to Obi Wan Abrams) finally gave the movie series a real ST feel that it needed.

Ding ding ding… we have a winner.

You must not have seen much Star Trek in your life or you grossly misinterpreted it because Beyond wasn’t anywhere close to being “Trek-like”. The first one maybe, but that’s a stretch, but Into Darkness and Beyond were Star Trek In Name Only. Kind of like Discovery.

So how is Discovery? I ask cause it sounds like you have seen a lot of it.

That new Trek series has NOTHING in common with the REAL Star Trek! It’s Star Trek in NAME ONLY and it’s a TRAVESTY it’s got “Star Trek” in the title! DISGUSTING! I predict a huge failure. Fans will NEVER embrace it, it will be cancelled after one season!!!!!

And I urge ALL fans to BOYCOTT the new series– tell the producers and the studio big wigs that this is NOT what you want! JUST SAY NO to Star Trek the Next Generation!

So you’ve seen it then? Interesting.

Well I for on will not be boycotting it, and I kind of doubt you will either.

Let’s be realistic, what is it that people like you hate about the new Star Treks. Is it just that they have too much action? Stories are more character driven and less story driven? Not enough like TMP?

As a reminder, TMP was a copy of TOS’s “The Changling,” which was only an episode, not a two parter, and it was a far more interesting story. The script for TMP was terrible, and it had no character driven moments whatsoever…it was just a big “trip” more or less.

Now I’m not saying that is the Star Trek film that you base all other Star Trek films on, but I am saying that it was the worst of the franchise easily. The Wrath of Khan was the first REAL Star Trek movie, a film that actually dealt with characters as they should be, and yes, it even had action in it.

Over the years the action got even heavier. No, The Voyage Home was one deviation from this, but that was okay, as it was a great script. Also, before JJ the most action packed Star Trek film was no doubt Nemesis, the one right before Trek-’09.

The fact that action has been getting heavier in Star Trek films isn’t a sign that it’s any “less-Trek” of a movie, it’s a sign that we’re living in an era where we have a new standard for action films. The Matrix, Fast and the Furious…these are films that push the boundaries of the genre, and so Star Trek does the same…why not? Does that make it more like Star Wars?

No, Star Trek as always been pretty action oriented. TOS always had Kirk in a fight just about, getting his shirt ripped and all that, and then the Enterprise was always about to get blown up. Sure there were a handful of what some might call “more cerebral” episodes but they usually at least had a bit of a thrill in them, like “The Cage” or “The Corbomite Manuever.”

It wasn’t until The Motion Picture when we really started to see less action. And TNG was more diplomatic with Picard in nature, rather than Kirk’s soldier persona. Since the new films are based on the original series it makes sense why there’d be more action to me.

Also there’s the fact that Star Trek is a shared universe. Think of this, originally “Assignment: Earth” was going to spinoff into a TV series, but there wasn’t enough interest in the network. Had that have happened, that show wouldn’t have remotely resembled any version of Star Trek we had ever seen. In fact…it’s doubtful that Star Trek would have even been in the title. Certain, not just doubtful. But it would have still been canon, it would have still been a part of the universe, just like Superman and Batman are part of the same universe, yet there solo stories are generally much different.

I’m assuming also, that since you’re username is “Torchwood,” that you realize that spinoffs are not always the same as the paternal property. Doctor Who and Torchwood are very different shows, but they do take place in the same universe.

As for Star Trek: Discovery, I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you look at the trailer, the only real Abrams vibe I get is from the Kelvinish ship and uniforms, and the (rarely used throughout) lens flares.

The show seems to be low on action, in fact the closest the trailer gets to showing any is when Commander Burnham faces off against a Klingon, but that cuts off at the end. It seems to be conservative on it’s use of effects…I’m not saying it doesn’t look good but I mean there’s not a lot of CGI going on. Which is good mostly. The characters look like they might be interesting too. I’m especially interested in Saru or whatever his name is. I can’t wait to see more of him.

@Marc

My entire post was (I thought clearly) sarcasm, equating the hatred of Discovery to the early hatred of TNG.

Not remotely comparable.

@Trekboi

Denial, sweet denial… it’s a wonderful thing!

Whoops…I only caught that later from another comment.

I’m a moron.

The argument in favour of more action, I understand to a degree.

But I just watched The Passengers and I know some people hated it. But I liked it. And it had some great CGI scenes and suspense but hardly any action. it was still sci fi, it was still a pretty big budget and it was still pretty good.

My whole point is, the JJ films seem like the writers has set pieces written and then tried to connect them loosely with a story rather then writing a really good dramatic story first.

If you submit the most action-lite story in history, but its a really really good dramatic story, it can ALWAYS be punched up with more action.

Fans of The West Wing know that the series was super reliant on heavy dialogue and exposition so the show runner used the “talking & walking” trick to make it seem like those heavy talking scenes had more action.

Thats a different example of action but you get my point.

So you didn’t like Lin’s effort? Just curious. I’ve liked all three of the last movies,but also agree with some of the stuff people are saying. I really do hope they’ll make another one though.

JJ’s direction & lens flare were never a problem. Justin Lin also did really well considering the limited timeframe he had to work with. The issue has always been the stories but even then only STID had major issues the other 2 films were solid to excellent.

Same. It isn’t unpopular outside this site to believe that the reboot lost a lot when we lost JJ. I prefer JJ as a director over Lin who didn’t even seem to care about these characters that much, and who seems to have sacrificed a lot of character development moments in favor of action scenes. His heart wasn’t into it. JJ is the better storyteller and has more charisma. I wish they could go back to the first movie and how great it was, all its potential, and finally let this trek BE. I just can’t for the life of me understand how those behind this trek thought that catering to haters more, mostly through backwards nostalgia, and alienate the people who loved the first movies for the new stuff could be a good idea and make Beyond successful.

After the bashing Abrams got over STID I wouldn’t hold my breath of him directing another Trek movie again. And like MI and SW he probably just wants to produce them. Less pressure and can make more money.

Assuming they make a profit.

The bashing had nothing to do with his leaving, nor do i think he cares. He left very specifically to direct Force Awakens.

Abrams actually agreed that the story for STID was flawed, after the fact.

I didn’t say it was the ONLY reason and in fact a big part of leaving Trek for SW was that he couldn’t get the kind of merchandise and production deals he wanted for Trek that he had no issue getting for SW.

But yes I think the bashing over STID was a factor. Maybe not the biggest but certainly there.

Either way I don’t see him doing another Trek film again. He could certainly direct the next one and yet there seems to be zero talk of him wanting to do it. Or maybe Paramount doesn’t pay his asking fee. Sure its gone up after TFA.

I doubt JJ cares about the vocal minority of fanboys online who hated a movie that is still more critically acclaimed, and more successful, than Beyond, and most of previous trek iterations. If he didn’t direct the third movie, and probably wouldn’t direct more movies unless he gets a story that he really really loves and no one is available, it has nothing to do with some fans hating him.

I think that really was a factor though but you’re right no one truly knows.

Jemini, I think JJ is good at character moments, as long as they don’t take more than two minutes from the action! sequences.

Beyond had great character moments, but I would have liked something more between Spock and Uhura at the end. Lin was probably worried that fanboys would scream OMIGOD SPOCK TOUCHED UHURA

And Uhura had some darn good action scenes in Beyond, defending the Enterprise against Krall’s group.

Marja, the new creative team unfortunately did the predictable thing by being the new people coming in to ignore what the original team did, and not really make a sequel of the thing they are making a sequel of. It was a safe, fanboy reassuring, tos fanfiction movie that would have been fine as a standalone thing if the first one hadn’t already promised us something different. They honestly didn’t seem to care that much about those who liked the first movies but, on the flip side, it seems they still expected those fans would make Beyond at least as successful as the first two, if not more.

I wish just Lin respected the integrity of this version of the characters and the dynamics of THIS trek more. JJ&co including Uhura in the trio worked brilliantly for many of us, so ignoring that and sidelining her dynamics to restore the “3 white dudes” status quo, and give Mccoy, and the nostalgic dudebro bromance stuff, more screentime is lame (doesn’t need to be mutually exclusive tbh), and disappointing. It made this trek go backwards and, frankly, it came across as just pandering to the haters who were whining about her “replacing” Mccoy (in spite Scotty still being the secondary male character who gets a more active role in the story than the doctor) . It was transparent.

Marja, out of the new dynamics that are the face of this trek, the spock/uhura one still got a tiny bit respected, however very little it was done with them(*)
Even the bond between kirk and bones, that was among the highlights of the first movies and existed on its own merits separated from k/s ( just like the romance) got the short end of the stick in the last movie, tbh.
One can almost draw a parallel between Uhura not being allowed to express her feelings regarding Spock leaving, AND Bones’ feelings about Kirk leaving being completely ignored. At least you have an implication that Spock talked with Uhura about his conflict, but it seems like Mccoy didnt even know Kirk wanted to leave. So much about what Kirk would do without Spock when Mccoy heard about the latter wanted to leave, and yet the narrative makes no mention of the fact that Kirk and Mccoy are best friends too and the doctor wouldn’t be exactly happy if his own friend left. We are talking about a dude who sneaked his friend aboard the ship with him because he couldn’t bear to leave him behind. Beyond basically reduced Mccoy to a guy who is only there to listen to Kirk or Spock’s problems, and emphasize their in dynamic, instead of his own dynamics and conflicts or personal life arcs.

*(it’s disappointing they hadn’t done much with spock/uhura after 3 movies. It’s a waste for the ones who like the dynamic and expected to see more of them as a couple, and see it evolve more by now. Spock’s conflict in this movie also was “too late to the party” because it would’ve made more sense for him to experience survivor guilt right after the vulcan diaspora, not 3 years later and after what happened in stid. Bones reducing it all to him wanting to make vulcan kids also hit the jackpot of lame because it’s like they were erasing Spock’s half human heritage and how this makes the whole point..moot. Assuming the vulcans can’t use clonation abd they suddenly consider him the sperm donor to save their species, that would mean they don’t care about his offspring being part human anyway. I don’t think it would be so “trek” to insert the narrative that his kids with Uhura would be useless as vulcans, especially when a big part of Spock’s arc as a character is the struggles he facedid himself to get accepted as a vulcan in spite of his human side making him, essentially, mixed)

JJ is style over substance, he wanted to make Star Trek into his Star Wars

Why I think Abrams is so loved is because he’s style AND substance. Maybe a bit more style, sure, but his movies have heart, they have engaging characters, and he is good at getting strong performances out of his cast. His movies flow at a brisk pace, never getting bogged down, yet explore character dynamics well.

Star Trek is not a natural fit for him because it just doesn’t fit his directorial style, but he’s done well with it, if you ask me.

JJ is a guy who understands character first and foremost, and understands action and spectacle second. Story has been his weak point.

JJ best film is still star trek 2009. I was disappointed with the force awakens.

Also, the fact JJ is NOT a trek fanboy with nostalgia just makes him a winner in my book. He loves this version of the characters on their own and made his own trek when no one would give trek a chance. He never gave a damn about placating tos elitists who want trek to stay the same 50 years later, and don’t even get what’s the purpose of a modern reboot set in an alternate reality (and who, 8 years later, are still wasting their time and energy talking about these movies they supposedly hate..)

JJ “gets” Trek about as well as you do, which is to say not very well.

The “modern reboot” as you called was actually really clever. Too bad they didnt actually embrace their own idea.

And as much as some of us complain about the films years later, you’re still talking about them too.

Tup, if JJ doesn’t get YOUR “trek” it is a BLESSING ;) Worked well enough for him, and the majority of the fans (including the person who made the site where you are posting on right now) who enjoyed his movies.
But then, what would your comments be without their usual childish (however cliché) fanboy entitlement? (cuz, of course, your only argument can be that people don’t get “trek” just because they don’t share your opinions).

I guess in your reality someone wasting so much time and energy over something that they dislike (and waste their money too, unless you only watched a bootleg version of the TWO sequels of the thing you already disliked..) is the same thing as fans of these movies posting about something they like, and looking for news about it and its future.
However, I don’t “live” in this site like some of you do (in the past, now, 8 years), so you shouldn’t give me equal credit for keeping the comments section as “active” as you guys do. Your level of “dedication” surpasses my best attempts to be a “fan”, for sure.

blah blah blah, here comes the paragraphs of insults because people dont agree with you. lol Such transparent sensitivity. Relax.

I mean, you DO realize A LOT of people did not like the JJ films right? Or are we to believe they were so universally loved and successful that we’re filling up a thread about Quinto saying ‘gee i dont even know about a 4th but I think someone some where is writing a story’?

I also dont care if the site owner loved the film. Are you suggesting you tailor your comments to impress the site owner? This site has always encouraged different opinions, so thats weird.

Oh well, you can go back to the nonsense narrative of those that disliked the awful JJ films are just “fanboys” if that makes you feel better. It’s really a simpleton approach but if thats all you got, so be it. :-)

“you DO realize A LOT of people did not like the JJ films right? ”

No more than any other successful movie out there.

Few films are universally loved, and the majority of critics of the JJ films are within the hardcore Trek fandom. That is to say, Paramount doesn’t (and shouldn’t) pay them much mind.

Because the longtime Trek fanbase alone cannot keep the franchise alive, particularly as Trekkies continues to age out of the biggest and most important demographics (even fans of TNG & 90s Trek are over the age of 35).

Torchwood, I have ZERO issue with people loving the films.

In fact, it used to be that people here who liked the films would get a lot more upset about criticism than those that didnt like them. We’d be discussing reasonable criticisms and people would come along to insult as “fanboys” or “elitists” or whatever.

If people liked them, great! I think there is a lot of issue with the films and to like them isnt to say those issues dont exist, its to say those issues didnt bother you. And that’s entirely fair.

But I dont think people that did dislike them are being unreasonable.

However, the people crapping on Discovery before its aired a single second of episode ARE being unreasonable.

I dont love Discovery. Ive never seen it. Ill come here and give my uncensored review after the first episode airs.

No arguments to your point, just trying to say that your statement that seemed to imply those films had loads of critics was a misinterpretation at best. The critics of the JJ films are largely a vocal minority within the niche Trekkie audience (Ie: those that frequent Trek sites like this one). So of course it looks like tons of people hated them, which skews the impression of audience response.

It’s like when Axanar supporters acted as if the world at large supported them simply because of a few hundred loud voices, when in reality only a tiny group of people even knew about the film.

I don’t know if Id say the critics are a niche. There was a large downturn in viewership after STID, to Beyond. And clearly Paramount got cold feet going with the creative people behind STD.

I think a lot of the people that enjoyed 2009 were not hardcore fans, there was a lot of general public audience that went, enjoyed it and went back for STID, didn’t enjoy it and that was that.

One thing is certain, no matter how bad or good Trek is, the hardcore fans will see it. So the swing in success or failure is not due to fans.

On a site like this, it probably attracts more critical voices because hardcore fans will be the most strictly judgmental. And want to discuss the details of what was good and bad.

TUP,
“blah blah blah, here comes the paragraphs of insults because people dont agree with you. lol Such transparent sensitivity. Relax.”

which is EXACTLY what you just did, and always do. However, I think that it’s too late for you to ‘relax’, let alone grow up.

your delusion clearly goes far beyond trek if you don’t realize how ridiculous you are in your pot calling the kettle black, and accusing others of doing what YOU are doing here on daily basis with other commenters. Your only purpose here is basically complain about the reboot and hopelessly try to convert other people to your ‘creed’ through childish passive aggressive attacks about their ability to get ‘trek’ when they disagree with you. Everytime I read the comments section of this site or others, I never read your nickname has a decent, mature, discussion with anyone. I’m sure that if I replaced the text of your repetitive arguments with ‘blah blah blah’ on repeat, I wouldn’t see that much of a difference…

Jemini, knock of the petty insults and the “you always” BS. If you cant discuss like a mature adult, then please refrain from posting.

Ive ALWAYS maintained the opinion that different perspectives are great. If you cant offer anything relevant and reasonable though, thats not my fault.

btw,

“I also dont care if the site owner loved the film. Are you suggesting you tailor your comments to impress the site owner? This site has always encouraged different opinions, so thats weird.”

Lol, No. I was just noticing the irony in your delusion that no real trek fan who “gets trek” can like the reboot: your passive aggressive insults against trek fans who do like JJ’s “trek” are essentially directed at the owner of the TREK site where you keep posting on daily basis, too.
Of course, you don’t have to “care” about the site owner liking the movies, but the decent thing you can do when you are using their site to “express yourself”, in ways you couldn’t if this site (or the ones owned by the other trek fans who like the reboot) didn’t exist or you had to pay to make your own fansite, is to at least respect the fact that just because someone likes something you dislike, it doesn’t mean they get trek less than you or they are stupid…especially when, unlike you, these people dedicate a good amount of their time supporting trek, for trek fans, in a positive and healthy way.

I’m not sure your behavior qualifies as sharing “different” opinions when it’s obvious that for you, only yours is valid and everyone who disagrees and you can’t “convert” is an idiot who doesn’t get trek, basically.

TOS elitists who have a problem with a midshipman becoming captain in a couple of days? Those TOS elitists?

If Abrams could do what he did with Star Trek (2009) but better and a smarter (Smarter being the writing and choices for Kirk) I’d be so exciting. There are large parts of that movie I love. The parts that I think could be better might have just been about the writers strike IDK. As for Into Darkness they simply should have never touched Wrath of Khan. You can’t improve on perfection. Beyond was lovely and had the feel and heart of TOS and TNG but it could have benefited for some of Abrams visual choices, it seem a little mute visually at times (York Town Base was amazing though). I’d like to see Abrams back but I’d love to see James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) in the Director’s chair.

If it is like Beyond I am fine with another. If it is a vile criminal mess like Into Darkness I have no desire for more.

I agree with you. On the whole I think the new films have been quite good. I hope J.J. Abrams returns to direct (I know it’s a long shot) as Beyond was my least favorite of the new films.

Agreed! Beyond was an extremely enjoyable film — I love all the Enterprise references and wonderfully touching nodes to the Original Series.

Anything could happen, but there’s a lot of assuming going on here. If Abrams relationship is continued with Paramount I’ll be shocked, if they don’t get around to another Trek until 2020, they might as well not in terms of relying on it to be a tent-pole franchise. Meanwhile Disney is cranking out a new Star Wars film per year — with Abrams producing — ouch. I’ve not read anything here that sounds like it’s business as usual. It sounds like a lot of deflection, and water treading until Gianopulous gets his ducks in a row and announces a real plan. In the meantime, don’t rock the boat.

What Mr. Quinto means is that “Our Star Trek Discovery” would in all likelihood offer him far below his current market value to appear on the VOD show, and he isn’t especially interested in doing Star Trek charity work. He’s busy with the tigers, you know.

Yep. He’s playing hard to get. He knows his appearance would be a gimmick at worst, a big draw for casual viewers at best, and he’s not going to do it for standard guest-star money.

No problem with that here. Nothing against Quinto, who seems like a fine actor and human being. But for my money alt-Spock has no business being anywhere near DSC, whether it turns out to be a credible extension of the “prime” continuity or not.

Hopefully he won’t pop up on STD just as a ratings grabber. But who knows.

Unless the story takes us far away from established space, I dont see how they avoid the allure of seeing the Enterprise or Pike, Kirk, Spock etc at some point.

The fact they are using Sarek and Mudd shows they have a desire to explore TOS characters. Why wouldnt you use THE biggest ones?

I’m not sure why you have that opinion. He may not be Nimoy, but he’s made Spock a decent enough incarnation of him. I would not mind him guesting as Spock at all.

If he was on Discovery he would not be playing Alt Spock. He’d be playing young Prime Spock. I dont mind it for continuity sake since they would look identical in canon. But Quinto wasn’t a superstar as Spock anyway so if they cast someone more suited to the role, that would be fine by me.

Yeah, I’d be fine either way. No actor would ever be able to recreate Nimoy anyway, but it doesn’t mean we have to write-off the character forever. Many iconic roles were recast successfully, even if the character was differently portrayed.

Quite honestly, if I was on the show, I’d love casting young Spock and I’d suspect, if you cast the net wide, you’ll find an actor that isnt just similar in appearance but also in cadence, tone and the ability to act like a Vulcan deliberately suppressing emotion without appearing to be confused or constipated or confused about his constipation in every scene.

Agreed– I just hope they don’t just try to cast someone who can mimic Nimoy, even if they can do it well. Superman Returns showed us why that’s not a great idea.

Weeeeellllll I liked Superman Returns. A lot better than Man of Steel. And I thought Brandon Routh was good. Since the film was a direct sequel to Superman II they sort of needed someone to act like Reeve.

Pine occasionally injects some Shatnerism’s but not all the time. Whereas Urban’s efforts to mimic Kelley were sometimes distracting. So I see what you’re saying.

Honestly no, I can’t agree, Brandon Routh was a great Superman, the film just wasn’t that great.

It wasn’t his fault though, I though he was fantastic and I felt he was natural, not just an immitator of Christopher Reeve.

@Marc – I agree. I thought it was better than Man of Steel though. But it did have its issues. But Routh was really good. I dont think Routh was a particularly “great” actor in general, though its not like you need to be in that role.

I didnt think he mimicked Reeve outside of a few moments, like his smile, but I mean, its not like he can make himself smile the same way, he just had an uncanny resemblance to Reeve.

I always had a better idea for Superman. They should have started the film already in mid-fight between Superman and Doomsday, using live news reporting. Use CGI of the fight to make it appear to be the Christopher Reeve Superman we all know and love.

The fight ends and Superman is crippled. Then you have THE Christopher Reeve (when he was alive) playing the role in hospital. Tearful fearful and death scene. It would be off the charts emotional.

And ofcourse, Superman returns and as part of his resurrection, he is younger, stronger, etc, explaining why he looks a bit different.

Oh, I see that you don’t hate the JJ films then…okay…ignor some of that post from above then…or all of it if I just totally misunderstood you.

What I was trying to say was what TUP pointed out more clearly, that mimicry is not a good idea. Hiring an actor based on their ability to replicate the original actor’s performance, or due to some coincidental resemblance to the actor is not a great move, and often backfires.

It’s fine for a bit part or single flashback scene (such as Anthony Ingruber as a young Harrison Ford in “Age of Adeline”). But when casting the role that will fill and entire film, it’s a bad idea, and why they didn’t cast Ingruber as Han Solo.

Hopefully, Alden Einreich was cast because he could play the *character* of Han Solo well, not because he would look and perform exactly like the original actor.

I think it depends on the quality of the actor and director.

The Sopranos made use of flashbacks and used younger actors that physically resembled their older counter-parts AND were good actors too, not necessarily mimicking, but playing the same character at a different life state.

Boardwalk Empire did the same thing. In that case, when the final season began and it became clear we’d get liberal use of flashbacks, I was really disappointed, but the actor they got to play a young Steve Buscemi was REALLY good (and looked remarkably like him too, if you can believe it).

@MH — the Kelvin U cast won’t go anywhere near discovery. At least one won’t if they all don’t. If we see Kirk, Spock. et al in this prime universe, it will be with recast actors, and that’s the way it should be — just like Superman is not played by the same actor in Features and Supergirl on TV. Doesn’t seem to impact that franchise one bit …

Spock could be had without anyone else, because at the time of Discovery, Spock would be the only TOS cast member aboard the Enterprise, should they bump into it out their in the final frontier. Plus Sarek is a recurring cast member, it makes sense to include the character alone, away from the classic crew.

Yes, Spock is easily the easiest entry point for a TOS character. If you bump into Prime Kirk, you cant really use Pine either as Kirk would be around 24 years old. Spock could be played older as long as the actor looks fairly young and the excuse he’s a Vulcan would make it less distracting.

However, I’d be ALL for Bruce Greenwood as Pike.

Bruce Greenwood as Pike in a “prime universe” setting from the same period as The Cage makes even less sense than Pine as Kirk. Greenwood is 60 years old right now. Jeffery Hunter was in his 30s when he shot “The Cage”. They cast an older actor as Pike in the 2009 reboot so he could be a “father figure” to Kirk instead of an “older brother” type. Greenwood worked in 2009, but its now nearly a decade LATER and Greenwood is way too old to be playing a 30-something Pike during “The Cage” era. Unless they can CGI Greenwood to how he looked 20 years ago, forget it. Quinto as a 20-something Spock is a stretch too, but he looks young enough to pull it off (like Crispin Glover playing a 20 something in Willard) and Nimoy was way older than “The Cage” Spock was when they shot the original episode anyway.

I wouldn’t mind, as long as they convincingly CGI his face, making him look like Leonard Nimoy did during “The Cage,” with the bushy eyebrows and stuff.

But yeah, I don’t know if they could pull such a thing off, and if he wasn’t going to look like Quinto, why not just have another actor that actually has a convincing voice for the character as well.

I wouldnt care so much about details like extra busy eyebrows. The fact is Quinto and Nimoy are not identical and yet we accept that because they are two different people.

But I think if its me, I’d probably look to cast someone new. From a business perspective I’d have to decide if Quinto appearing means more for viewership numbers (versus his cost) than hiring a new actor (for less money).

Because I think if you have a wide casting net, you can get someone a lot better for the role than Quinto.

As an aside, when I saw Sarek in 2009, I was really disappointed. He was so NOT like Lenard in appearance. But he was VERY good as Sarek. And a really good Vulcan. And an actor who wasnt selfish enough to insist on playing an emotional Vulcan. He was really good. and him being good made me forget that he looked nothing like Mark Lenard.

I think creatively, you cast a new actor. Quinto fits best in those films, but may not mesh with what they’re doing on Discovery.

That said, from a business perspective, if they think he could help bring in viewers, perhaps if it involves an appearance from the Enterprise, Quinto may be worth it. If they time it to hit around the same period as a feature film, and feel they can boost both, perhaps they even get Paramount to subsidize Quinto’s paycheck.

Playing hard to get eh? It looks like he’s taking a page out of the late Mr. Nimoy’s book. Actually a lot of his comments remind me of the way Mr. Nimoy would talk about other iterations of the franchise and whether or not he would appear or come back for a film. It made me smile.

PEB,
Me too.

I LOVE THIS NEWS!!! EVERYONE KNOW STAR TREK IS BEST AT FOUR!

Don’t Litter!

There’s so much debate back and forth between the Bad Robot Star Trek films when it really is quite simple: as explodey summer action-adventure movies, they are fine and probably above average (even the derided Into Darkness scores some points by inserting daffy 9/11 conspiracy fodder into a summer blockbuster) but the thing is, it’s just depressing to see Star Trek reduced to that, because “I love Star Trek for all the pulse-pounding action” said no one ever. I wished the bean counters realized that if they came up with a truly compelling story in the best Trekkian vein, and reduced the production budget by 50 mill by cutting out several goofus CGI action sequences, they could stand to equal or out-gross a Star Trek Beyond, given the increasing appetite for smart sci-fi/fantasy. Hold on to something.

I have no issue with Trek being “reduced” to that; it’s just another flavor, and as long as they’re fun and engaging, well-produced and well-written– and especially as long as we continue to get other flavors (such as Discovery)– I would love to see more JJ-Trek.

These Trek movies should be on the level of deep scifi that some of the recent Planet of the Apes movies have been: smart, but well-made. If they can do that with a Trek film, with some actual big Trek ideas, then it would be a home run. Until then, JJ trek is just a vapid sequence of action scenes.

I wouldn’t agree totally vapid, there’s messages in those films, engaging characters, and decent drama that you’re willfully ignoring because you prefer your Trek NOT to have whiz-bang FX-driven action.

I get it, and your opinion is totally valid.

Same time, I don’t mind that stuff. If Discovery can deliver the thoughtfulness I want out of my Trek, I’ll be even happier to watch an action-driven Trek film on the big screen.

Additionally, some of the most well-received Trek films were also devoid of social messaging, or “actual big Trek ideas.”

TWOK was far more a typical 80s action thriller (with lower budget action admittedly) than true TOS-inspired sci-fi. Star Trek III, while not among the most beloved, was also much more an action movie. First Contact had no message, no “true Trek” feel to it– it was an action vehicle starring a 60 year old man– but it was well written and engaging. Insurrection was the closest to “True Trek” but it was awful. Nemesis was Insurrection without the “True Trek.”

So acting as if Trek doesn’t have a long history of crappy action movies, and JJ somehow “soiled Star Trek” is incredibly disingenuous.

Well, Wrath of Khan had some other messages. Science vs Military, the power to create being used to destroy, father and son, and of course, aging and ones place in an advancing world.

STID had a great foundation to build upon and I really thought the War on Terror was a solid, if somewhat late slip, story to go with. My issue has always been that Orci let his personal opinion cloud his story telling.

The idea was a great one. But you really needed to let Marcus be partially correct and sympathetic. Even if him as the Dick Chaney of the story is offensive, building his ideas up logically make it all the better to defeat those ideas in the end.

I thought Beyond was weaker than STID in this regard actually.

I’m not saying they had no messages or larger topics of discussion, but they weren’t the kinds of Star Trek-y topics that albatrosity is talking about. Because STID had a similar message of military over-reach, Beyond had a similar aging/finding one’s place commentary.

I’m not sure which is stronger vs. weaker, I just think it’s a mistake to dismiss the JJ films as vapid– yes, they were overshadowed by the sugary sweet and fluffy huge action scenes, but the nutritious fruit and vegetables are still there.

I agree. I think they all made an effort at story-telling but the weakness was the talent of the writers.

@ TUP, STID could have been a great movie if they’d left out Khan and stuck to the military overreach story. I wasn’t so worried about Orci’s political opinions [such opinions can be a basis for great storytelling].

@Marja – I dont disagree with you about Orci’s opinion. He’s entitled to it. The issue was, he refused to see both sides of the issue. So he presented a rather anti-American story that came across one note.

And it didnt even serve the intended purpose. Because if you want to create a reasonable commentary on how bad Dick Cheney was, you have to give him the platform to make sense of his perspective before you defeat it.

Thats where STID failed. Marcus should have been the main villain and he should have been “right” from his perspective to an extent that Kirk agreed, not just because he’s mad at Khan, but because he really believes Marcus makes good points.

So the internal struggle of Kirk is between the shoot first perspective of Marcus and the more thoughtful approach of Pike. Let Kirk come to the conclusion that both are right and both are wrong. But the real twist is, in a a shades of grey world, who can we trust to make the right decisions? Thats what separates real leaders from the rest. Thats what makes James Kirk the man he is.

Of course another plot hole was the stupid idea that Marcus needed Khan to help him design advanced military weapons. That was so stupid I cant believe it made it out of draft 1.

If they wanted Khan, they could have had a better idea of using Khan and his people as soldiers or experimenting with them to create new soldiers. Thats so much more logical then what they did.

But the cutesy idea of Khan and Kirk cooperating was too much for the writers to ignore.

Exactly. At minimum Admiral Marcus needed to be morally ambiguous, not a mustache-twirling villain.

Torchwood, “actual big trek ideas’ are about the human condition set in a future universe.

TWOK was about aging and coming to terms with your place in the world. Experience, regret, family, and loss.

Fist Contact was about Picard continuing to deal with his violation from Best of Both Worlds. What happens to good people when terrible things happen to them?

Insurrection is the closest to the TNG tv show that had some big ideas, but a flawed execution. The build up to the third act was great, but the final act was enough to shadow the rest of the movie.

Nemesis was…..terrible.

@Jerry

your excuses are laughable at worst, your own personal interpretations at best. Because hat’s not what I think of when I think of “Big Trek Ideas”– typically when I think of what Trek is about, I think about social messaging, parallels to today’s world to teach a lesson using sci-fi as a vehicle.

Most good movies explore the human condition, explore issues of internal conflict, character development, and personal discovery.

That’s not a “big Trek idea” to me.

I like the commitment to big budgets. They just hired the wrong writers. They just werent good enough.

Would have been a lot easier to hire a really good dramatic writer and then “punch up” the action sequences then to have these guys write it and try to make their stuff better.

Look at what Paramount did with Transformers – as much money as the franchise made, they recognize they were going to lose the golden goose if they didnt make better films so they assembled a writers room of pretty respected guys and look what they ended up producing. Garbage.

Dont over-think it. Hire good writers. Hire people that like Star Trek and understand Star Trek. I think they need a producer who gets it who has the power to say no.

Whether it was Gene or Berman or Bennett, Star Trek always had someone who took seriously their role in keeping the heart and voice of Trek and the characters (to varying degrees of success and it might have been they were all very good at it but time eroded their skills).

I really hope they make another JJ-verse film. They’ve been a mixed bag, no question, but it’s been very exciting to have the franchise get a proper big-budget, action-packed outing, positioning itself as a blockbuster rather than a mid-November “please someone come watch this geek shit” release.

I would hope they bring back the alien chick from the last film in lieu of Chekov as that would provide much needed continuity in the face of the death of such an important character and much loved actor.

Even if this ends up being the last one – likely, given that by the time it was released it would be the 10th anniversary of the first reboot film (good god that’s a frightening prospect)

They have to do at least another kelvin film because they have no genuine other options. Or no film at all.

That’s not true. Its Star Trek, they can always come up with something new. The question is what?

Either way the KT films seem to be on burrowed time. I see maybe doing one more but long term they have to be thinking of something else.

Before ST09 there were at least two other films in development, one being a Romulan War movie (with an entirely new cast/crew) from Eric Jendresen that had a full script. So yeah, other ideas are out there.

By the way in looking this up to get Eric’s last name, I discovered that in 1968, Gene Roddenberry stated he wanted to produce a prequel film.

So much for the big bird’s vision being about “going forward.”
.

Yup. “Going forward” has always been about the story. Only stubborn simpletons assume it is to be taken literally.

They could decide to remake ST:TNG.
I honestly believe that it is only a question of when, not if.

I’m not sure, Thorny. Picard & Co never had the same popularity as Kirk & Spock, at least not in the general mass audience. Contemporarily yes, they were as popular, perhaps more popular, than TOS. But do they have the long-lasting appeal and recognition?

To that I attribute the failure of the TNG films. After TOS you had 6 classic films seen around the world, some of which became downright iconic. TNG never had a film that really hit the way those did.

Though there are quite a few iconic, lastingly memorable elements like Picard, Data, Geordi, and the Borg. I’d love to see a reboot.

Would it be 70 years later in the Kelvin Timeline?

To be fair, Generations did TNG no favours. Shatner made mince meat out of Stewart in every scene they shared (which is not to say he’s a better actor of course, but it is to say the writing and directing afforded Shatner the opportunity to come across as the bigger star).

Plus, Picard looked weak and emotional. Riker looked rather incompetent. People had to wonder why this malfunctioning robot was allowed on the bridge to curse and make jokes. Geordi was manipulated into giving the Klingons the opportunity to literally kill everyone.

The biggest baddest ship was taken out by an old rust bucket.

In retrospect its hilarious that Berman wanted to ditch TOS to pave the way for TNG when his TNG characters came across like losers.

So they had their work cut out for them in First Contact where they managed to rehabilitate everyone and create a new age action star in Stewart, only to piss it all away with the awful Insurrection.

@TUP

wait wait wait… did you just say Shatner our-acted Stewart in Generations?

I agree with every other point you make, but Shatner was TERRIBLE in Generations.

No, please re-read what I wrote.

Torchwood… “But do they have the long-lasting appeal and recognition?”

Nope. But neither did “CHIPS” or “Baywatch”. Hollywood remade both this year.
As I said, I think TNG remake on the big screen is inevitable.

Yeah its certainly possible someone is mulling a TNG remake.

I really hope they don’t do it though. They will probably mess it up more than get it right. The KT films prove you will never satisfy the hardcore trying to give them what they want so why keep trying?

I really hope if the KT films are dead they go a different direction like Discovery is mostly doing.

But move it away from TOS orTNG and be creative again. One thing I love about TV Trek, it takes chances. Films sadly don’t.

There’s a pretty simple reason why that is, T2. Money. TV relies (traditionally) on ad-revenue, and advertisers don’t really care about the quality of the programming, just the ratings. Even if ratings are mediocre, there will be advertisers to pay up.

Movies rely strictly on how many people buy tickets. So there’s a certain security in using brands, IP’s, and recognizable names that people know and love.

(advertisers don’t really care about the quality of the programming– OR whether it’s a reboot or originals)

Obviously I get that especially in todays overly franchise/brand world.

And that’s the thing most of us Trek fans will watch anything Star Trek as long as its good but the fear seems to be casual fans will only watch something if they at least heard of the characters. It would be nice if the film division took a chance and went somewhere new with it but looking around most studios seem afraid to try it with known brands.

But also why Trek on TV will reign supreme. They can tell stories without dumbing them down and take chances with new characters.

I’m actually happy the TOS reboot is just films and not a weekly series. And now they got that out of their system newer Trek like Discovery can be more original at least.

@DataMat, you have no idea what they have and what they don’t. They could do anything at this point, they don’t need to keep making the same mistakes because they’ve run out of ideas.

Bring back Marcus and Jaylah. I think the former makes more long-term narrative sense but Jaylah was a really refreshing character, too. I’m not optimistic about how Chekov will be handled though.

Add me to the chorus that wants the Kelvin timeline to continue. STID was highly flawed, and STB was a solid film with interesting themes but felt a little episodic. It still feels like we’ve only scratched the surface of this universe, and I actually think that’s a key part of its problem – it doesn’t truly feel like a bigger *universe* yet.

Would be incredible to see a secondary starship in the mix, like in DSC. That would truly make the universe feel big. I actually really appreciated the 4th season ENT episodes where Enterprise and Columbia are working together on various problems. That was real great stuff and would work well on the big screen.

I kind of like that idea. Imagine that ST4’s lead cast is the crew of, say, the USS Endeavor, with the Enterprise & Co. showing up in a supporting role.

Perhaps because the Enterprise-A isn’t ready for launch.

Maybe in this timeline, the Excelsior is built sooner, complete with a transwarp drive which gets them all into some trouble. Perhaps some time-altering trouble.

Captain John Cho?

Whee, Torchwood, neat idea!

And to the person worried about Chekov, I think it should be mentioned that Chekov is now the youngest professor at Starfleet Academy. Maybe Jaylah could mention he was one of her professors.

Jaylah [Sofia Boutella] is definitely a popular character. And Boutella is gaining box office presence, despite the failure of “Mummy” … her face was in every ad.

As for Marcus I assume you mean Carol Marcus, and yes, it would be great to see more women in the cast. I hope Zoe Saldana is not too busy with Avatar. It would be fun to see Uhura, Marcus and Jaylah interacting and kicking villain @ss.

Um, no. Nichelle Nichols’ Uhura was a skilled fighter, but she wasn’t primarily about “kicking ass.” Nor was Carol Marcus. Jaylah, yes, I can accept.

I think we all know why Carol Marcus was there. And I bet that one reason coincided with a lot of the writers popping by the set that day to watch filming.

Jaylah [Sofia Boutella] is definitely a popular character. And Boutella is gaining box office presence, despite the failure of “Mummy” … her face was in every ad.

As for Marcus I assume you mean Carol Marcus, and yes, it would be great to see more women in the cast. I hope Zoe Saldana is not too busy with Avatar. It would be fun to see Uhura, Marcus and Jaylah interacting and fighting villains.

@ Rendered, I just hope that, or the next KT ST movie, they publicize it at least as well as they did “Transformers[barf]”

Disney has been plugging the hell out of SWars which hardly needs publicity … but they do a great job of it. Last month I saw a trailer for the December release of the next SWars movie.

SIX MONTHS AHEAD OF RELEASE, PARAMOUNT. Get that through your head.

Four years is a long time but it may be worth it if the story is worth the wait. Unfortunately, there was no grand plan as far as something along a trilogy or an arc or some thread to maintain sustained interest in the Trek films.

While the first film was a good starting off point, the second film was disappointing borrowing too much from TWOK. The third starts off a long ways after what appeared to be the start of new adventures part of the ‘5 year mission.’ The crew are veterans with Kirk even being considered for an Admiral position where he looks like he’s barely 30. On top of that, he still gets beaten up by yet another bad guy. As an audience, we don’t have the adventures, from a few movies, to grow and age with the crew.

I miss a good science fiction story in the Trek movies. Thats just me. I enjoyed TMP. Aside from that, I’d like to see a movie with some contemporary reference to the world today. The tv series dealt with racism, war and other issues. Today, we’ve got the great political divide, terrorism from extremists. These could be worked into a decent Trek story and how our Enterprise crew deals with it.

On a technical note, what would really be exciting is make this movie in HFR format such as the one Doug Trumbull is trying to get going. Perhaps, Avatar 2 will bring us closer to that but the Trek world would be more exciting.

“Contemporary reference to the world today” is tricky to deal with. It’s something that I think is fantastic when it is committed to and handled well, but when done poorly or half-heartedly, I think it can immediately ‘date’ the work. “Errand of Mercy” is a very powerful statement on the Cold War, and the entire episode manages to serve it while still being an entertaining science fiction story, but “A Private Little War”‘s solid point on Vietnam is exceedingly defanged by some awkward story details, for example.

“terrorism from extremists” is how STID was marketed, and was also, I think, where STB was aiming with Krall as well. I think the way STID attempted this, as part of it’s attempted to not be the remake of WoK it ended up being, is part of what made it such a weak film – because it wanted to be modernized but didn’t seem interested in committing to that. I’d like them to veer a little away from commenting on terrorism, if only because I feel those two films both gave such a half-hearted approach to the issue that I simply can’t imagine that another film would let them do it justice.

The Great Partisan Divide though? That’s something I think television and film have been very slow to acknowledge and I think it’s something “Star Trek” could be a great way of commenting on. I would love to see that.

John, the great partisan divide would be a great story. Not sure Paramount’s money people would go along, but heck, they went along with STID.

They might even use the Adm Marcus-founded military overreachers, but would have to carefully avoid being repetitious.

Certainly TUC’s plot of Federation and the Klingon Empire working together (or COLLUDING) in an effort to prevent an alliance certainly could be something to revisit…

The real weakness in STID was the cookie cutter aspect to Marcus which was a real shame since Weller absolutely commanded every scene he was in.

Orci had an agenda which was the big bad US military making terrorists out of the poor misunderstood super human dictator who just wanted to be left alone with his family.

Had they written the film with more depth and balance (plus cleaned up the poor directing and dialogue and either changed the Khan character or cast someone more appropriate) then it could have been really really good.

Transformers as a viable franchise is pretty much over now due to the newest movie making about 60% less than the last due to franchise fatigue! So that’s good news for Trek it elevates it to one of only 2 major franchises Paramount have left. I think this will force Paramount to fast track another Kelvin universe Trek movie with the same cast to start within a year from now (I hope!!!). They need slightly less budget breaking FX & slightly more drama & quality scenes like Spock-McCoy in Beyond.

@Paul — specious reasoning much?

I disagree, CC. While I may not entirely agree with Paul, his reasoning is sound.

Transformers has already made half a billion bucks!off a lower budget than Beyond. There will be more Transformers movies. This one will likely top out at £750 million.

It’s sort of why I disagree, James, but Paramount has to be concerned about fatigue and potential decline. Domestic numbers have been steadily dropping on TF for the past few movies.

I’d just like some solid news, its been 12 months since STB was released and we have had no official confirmation!

I’d say that Quinto telling us that they’re working on the script is pretty solid.

Hope the next film Closes the gap between the end of the TOS and the Motion picture

I too would like Jaylah back

They were working on a script for Trek 3 too before it got scrapped in favor of Beyond. So working on a script…JJ announced last year, before Beyond even came out, that Trek 4 had a great script. A year on and it’s still being worked on? Like ugh.

Ugh what? What’s the problem here? That it’s taking time? Sorry that they don’t work on your schedule of when you want to see movies…

Second, the only reference I can find to the script being written is here:

http://1701news.com/node/1303/paramount-resurrects-rejected-script-star-trek-4.html

Which basically says that the script for ST4 was actually the rejected script to Beyond when Orci was on the project, written by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.

After Beyond failed to do STID numbers, I’m sure they want to take another look, or even start over. I think if it was your millions of dollars on the line, you’d do the same.

Its good that someone, somewhere is writing a script. It means the studio is spending a little money. I think they have soured on Trek but are willing to see a script and cost analysis before deciding.

I don’t think I’d say they’ve soured so much as they are… getting leary. It’s still one of the few recognizable names they have in their arsenal, hence why execs still keep name dropping it. It’s valuable IP.

They just can’t afford to be dumping 250M on production and marketing to only be pulling in 300M. Hence… a bit leary. They’re not sure what to do with it. But they still had two very financially successful films (09 and STID) so there’s recent history to suggest there’s growth potential.

But I agree, they’re waiting to see the script to decide how to proceed.

True. and I think the studio has a sense the scrips were the issue but they might not know why.

As much money as STID made, somewhere along the line they got cold feet with Orci. I think they saw the money and thought Orci was the man and then started seeing some of the critical reception and realised that perhaps Orci was not the man afterall.

His two submitted stories were rejected and he was dumped. They went with a cheaper writer but still spent a lot of money on the film.

I assume the actors have escalators in their contracts so the studio is looking at a large budget regardless and probably want a story that is as well received as Beyond with the bigger set pieces and over-all grander story of STID before committing, especially if they can budget it more appropriately than STID.

It’s not just contract escalators, they negotiate with the actors each time. With Zoe Saldana a star after Avatar, and now Guardians, Pine hitting it big (finally) with Wonder Woman, and Hemsworth as Thor, bringing all three back for that time travel story is easier said than done. Just google their salaries on the last three movies: Pine, Saldana, and Quinto went from 300K on the first, to 1.5M on the second, to 3.5M on the the third. I expect they’ll be asking 6M+ for a fourth. Hemsworth made 5.5M on Avengers 2 in 2015, so he’ll probably command north of 6M as well.

so those 4 actors will cost you 30M, and that doesn’t include the rest of the cast whatever star they want as a villain. All told, the cast alone could potentially cost upwards of 60-75M.

Torchwood, I think 6M for Pine and Quinto might be a bit much, more like 5M, but Saldana might command a greater salary. Hope she gets as much screentime and action sequences as she did in Beyond.

Actually Pine DID get $6 million for Beyond. Yes he was supposed to get $3 million but his lawyer contended he should get more because that was based on the original contract which had expired with the delay of the third film. They actually went to court over it. So Paramount agreed to his deal but only if he signed up for the fourth film with the same salary. And yes Qinto probably got the same deal but only speculation on my part.

But basically Pine was paid 10 times more than the first film although that film easily made more than Beyond.

And now the rest of them can demand more for a film that has zero guarantee of doing better than Beyond.

And we wonder why its taking so long to announce another one. ;)

And BTW another reason to take Quinto words with a grain of salt. Until we know all the actors actually signed on (we know he and Pine is at least) then who knows if and when it will get made. All of this is nothing but talk until everyone is signed, they have a budget and starting date.

But yes its hopeful they are working toward something at least.

Perhaps Im in the minority but if Pine and Quinto are signed thats really the key. We can reasonably conclude Urban would gladly sign on as he’s always been the most positive about making these movies.

If the other actors play hardball or decline, simply make the story about Kirk, Spock, Bones.

@Tiger2. There’s no word from Quinto to be taken “with a grain of salt.” All he said is “I know they’re working on a script.” He said vaguely that there is still every intention of making a 4th film.

He didn’t guarantee it being made, he didn’t promise a year of release, let alone a specific date. He just basically saying “it’s not dead, things are in motion, but nothing concrete to be announced.”

Not sure what everyone’s problem is with that.

I’m saying ‘writing’ a script for characters you’re not even sure will be in it (unless they replace them) is much farther behind than suggesting that’s all.

The first three films everyone was already signed so not a big deal. Now its different and we heard zero word on who is signed to come back.

What I’m saying is I think Beyond really took the winds out of the sails. If it was a hit as thought all of this would’ve been done long ago. Now everything seems in a holding pattern.

But as I also said it’s nice to hear something is being done.

Cast salaries could be a reason for a delay this time. Thats one reason why Nemesis did not get a sequel.

Torchwood, I don’t think they dumped very much into marketing. At least not in my part of the country.

Ugh. I hope not. I think the Payne-McKay script was a timeline do-over thing where Kirk has to choose between the original timeline and the KT. Now that dear ol’ dad’s in the picture [Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk] I’m ummm, not so enthused.

If they can write a suitable epic that “fixes” the timeline, Im all for it. There is always consternation when time travel enters into it, but let’s be fair, time travel episodes are among the most popular. It would not surprise me whatsoever if the studio prefers a time travel idea.

Id love to read Orci’s script. I would suspect it came across overly convoluted.

STID was, in my opinion, suitably epic in scope but just poorly written. It was certainly a bigger story than Beyond.

I didnt like the rumours of Shatner and Nimoy playing aged versions of the KT characters though. I thought that was a cop out.

If they do a time-bending epic where Kelvin Kirk restores the original timeline, I’d do a post credit scene or simply the ending scene where we return to the “future” where Prime Kirk has no avoided death as a result of being told in the past. Perhaps he’s living the quiet life with a woman…awaiting a visit from Spock who is now restored to his time as well.

Use archival footage or CGI to show them riding off into the sunset.

That gets you the originals without making them key to the story.

@albatrosity — yep. They work on scripts all the time. Using the fact they are working on a script as proof things are moving along toward the next is laughable. My guess is, Paramount is just keeping Abrams busy while they develop a new concept behind his back, unti, his deal expires, and then bring in somebody new. Besides, if they had a strong enough concept to announce bringing Chris Hemsworth back as Kirkr’s father, they really should have much more to discuss than Quinto being pressed in an interview to offer his assumptions about what they’re doing. He has no idea. Ridiculous presumptions being made by people here who have no idea how Hollywood works.

I have to agree with this. They probably are working on a script but its like they gone backwards where it feels like a blackhole. There is no talk from any high ups about it. It takes 5 mins to write a press release to confirm the movie is happening.

It obviously could happen but I will believe it when someone actually says they are making the film. This is Star Trek, basically every film was green lit before they even had a script like Discovery was approved before anyone knew what it was about.

So to now go the script route first before even deciding there will be another film says its not a guarantee. But hopefully it will work out.

Yes, they work on scripts all the time. And they are working on one for a new Trek film. Proof that it will happen? No. But important confirmation that it’s not dead, and they are still planning on one.

How likely is it this is the other Trek project Nicholas Meyer said he was working on?

Hadn’t considered that. Could very well be, now that you mention it. Good call!

To be fair, I could be working on a script for Debbie Does Dallas Part 3 but it doesnt mean anyone is going to produce it.

It should probably be “Debbie Does North Texas”. Wider audience.

Wider something else, too.

Someone is always working on a script. Recall Orci was always going on about the STID script ‘being done’ even when it was pretty obvious it wasn’t. His treatment for Trek 3 also met with a resounding thumbs down, and he and his script were shown the door. Means nothing. Studios are booking release dates three, four, five years out now, so when Paramount pencils in ST4 somewhere, then we’re pretty solid. Until then, enjoy ST:DIS.

No news is solid news. Paramount has projects lined up for two out of their three franchises. Asides from acknowledging the existence of Trek, there’s nothing. Paramount has slapped the franchise label on the Top Gun sequel, so it looks like they’ll be hanging their hat on giant fighting robots and Tom Cruise into the near future. Trek isn’t so much a franchise as it is a boutique now – they’ll make one from time to time, but that’s it. The future is streaming, not the big screen.

I gotta say, and I’m just gonna throw this out there as my own personal opinion, but I think Quinto is an awful Spock. In TOS, Spock was always the coolest character. Brilliant, likable, even funny at times. Quinto’s Spock is nothing like this. He plays him like an adolescent, which is partly the writing, but he just comes across as socially inept and nervous. In Beyond there were some line reads where his voice quaked, and it all just felt way off. Nimoy never played Spock like that. I like my Spock deep-voiced and socially competent, not some whiny weirdo with a bad haircut. That’s kinda how I feel about Quinto’s Spock. And yes, I’m glad you disagree with me.

Spock lost his home planet… that is bound to affect his logic in the new timeline.

Agreed. The best thing you can say about Quinto as Spock is he sort of resembled Nimoy. They should have kept looking. But part of it was terrible dialogue and direction.

albatrosity, It was the WRITING. And Spock lost his home planet. This Spock is younger than Nimoy Spock. [Nimoy Spock had been serving on Enterprise for 13 years before Kirk got commannd.] In Beyond, his voice quaked because he was in pain, physical or emotional.

Quinto is a good Spock. Not so deep voiced as Nimoy, no.

As for “socially incompetent” Spock, I invite you to re-visit some of the comic moments of TOS.

I seen em, and Nimoy was way better. I just like his performance a thousand times more.

Im not sure what nuance there would be since “Kelvin Spock” would still be the same looking as Prime Spock.

If they wanted a prime spock cameo, I’d be okay with Quinto because it would maintain continuity and likely appeal to a wider audience. But I’d also be okay with them casting a better Spock.

Agreed 10000%

I’d strongly suspect Paramount is waiting on the script to decide if its worth it based on story and required budget.

Ding ding, we have a winner!

According to the other site, there is a rumor from a supposed “good source” that…well, is there a way to add spoiler coverage here?

Hmmm, well, spoiler alert

Alert

There be Spoilers here

Supposedly the pilot cameo for Discovery will be Archer.

I think that’s perfect. McCoy on TNG, Picard on DS9, Quark on Voyager– using a cast member of the last series is the best idea to pass the torch. I liked the Cochrane cameo, but it was weak when it came to the tradition; given the time frame it was the best they could do.

This though, would be great.

I agree. T’Pol makes more sense from an age scenario. But given how important Enterprise portrayed Archer, especially his future, it would be good to start cementing him in canon.

If I recall, the semi canon was he lived to see Enterprise launched. A simple and acceptable ret-con is he also lived to see Discovery launched. If he was as important to history as Enterprise made it seem and was still alive and active, it would make sense that he’d appear at important ship launches.

It also connects to the JJ films due to Scotty referencing Admiral Archer although one would expect a former President to be styled in that manner (maybe a pseudo military organization member would always use the highest rank rather then a political title?)

I like it.

“maybe a pseudo military organization member would always use the highest rank rather then a political title”

Nope, we always refer to them as President Grant and President Eisenhower.

Yes, but that is reality, this is fiction. I was trying to come with a reasonable excuse for why Scotty would refer to Archer as Admiral rather then President.

But I guess that could have been the result of a personal relationship between the two where Sctty was used to referring him as such.

YAAAAAAAY!!!

Please please please let this be true. It will keep tradition and Enterprise will be the only show in canon like they were for the KT films.

Still pretty funny that the show people say ended Trek has become the backbone of it canon wise with all the prequels.

@TUP,

“Supposedly the pilot cameo for Discovery will be Archer.”

If true that would be an excellent choice.

Oh we agree on something, Ahmed! Maybe i’ll let you take me to dinner. If it goes well, a goodnight kiss might be OK, but NO TONGUE.

So it “LOOKS like there MAY be a little bit of news” on the status of Star Trek 4, and that’s because Quinto told ET, “I know that’s [a script] what they’re working on now.”

But Quinto’s first response was, “I’m expecting that [making a fourth movie] to be true …,” so really, he does NOT know for sure.

Nothing has changed since April.

Look, I’m interested in seeing Star Trek 4, too, but nothing in this interview clearly indicates that things are moving forward at this time.

And Quinto would be foolish NOT to reprise his role as Spock on DSC if he was asked to. Quinto IS Spock now, regardless of the timeline. He’s just hedging, like any coy actor.

See ya soon on the small screen, Zach. Probably sooner than on the silver screen.

Or perhaps, at around the same time. Spock’s appearance on TNG was partly to promote the release of TUC (there was even a line about the story in the episode), and I could see a situation where in a second or third season, Spock appears in Discovery as a way to remind audiences of an impending movie release.

@LordEdzo — EXACTLY! Quinto has no idea what’s happening. He’s assuming, and we all know what happens when people assume. On the other hand, I disagree — Quinto and the rest need to stay far away from DSC, and not taint it with their alt depictions.

@Curious Cadet,

Yeah, as my friends from the other side love to say, this is a nothing-burger!

LordEdzo, I read it that way too, although it’s fun to think they are actually working on one, and are looking to schedule actors.

As for Quinto reprising Spock in DSC I think they might have to pay him well, and they would probably then seek out a different, younger Spock. Who knows. What’s young Jacob [kidSpock in the first movie] up to these days, I wonder.

If a reprise came at the same time as a fourth movie release, as Torchwood says, it would be good marketing to get Quinto to promote the film [wouldn’t there be CBS/Paramount problems?], assuming DSC has a big audience.

But [sigh] good marketing of Trek movies is not Paramount’s strong suit. So far.

Look I’m sure if someone actually offered him a role and story line he’ll at least consider it. I think he’s just saying its not something he is begging to do or have to do.

We know Michael Dorn was asked and he turned it down as well. Sounded like the role and money was too small which is fine. People get on my case every time I mentioned Shatner has turned down possible roles back on Trek but I always say I don’t blame him if he feels the money or role is not big enough.

But with Dorn and Shatner their time with Trek is over. Cameos might be all there is at this point. At least for Quinto his Spock is relevant to the franchise today and Discovery is during a time his Spock actually exists so it makes sense.

But they already replaced Sarek for the show and if he’s not interested they can replace him, being separate universes and all.

Dorn probably wanted “Worf” money and they were offering “generic Klingon” money. Thats the thing with Shatner, he works a lot so the idea he has outrageous demands or is difficult to work with are clearly not true.

Didnt he win two awards during Boston Legal? They didnt seem to have problems keeping him or working with him.

I think what happens is, they go to Shatner with an offer that is akin to a regular actor playing a regular role and he rightfully says “wait, if Im reprising Captain Kirk in Star Trek, I should be compensated in a way that recognizes how big a deal that is for the film/TV show”.

Nothing about the last JJ film garnered anywhere near as much publicity as the “leak” about Shatner being in Orci’s story submission. So Shatner is correct.

Shatner is a man who needs his balls washed regularly by everyone around him. As the star of Boston Legal, that was not hard to do. Coming in to cameo or guest star, he wants superstar treatment. He wants top billing, he wants it to be all about him. He wants to be paid top dollar, and he wants to be the center of every scene he’s in.

That was never going to work on Enterprise, because they didn’t want to do a huge sprawling story centered on Old Man Kirk. They offered him the role of “Chef” but that wasn’t big enough for him.

It’s why the got Nimoy instead. Screw the fact that Kirk was dead, they were using time travel, easy enough to figure something out. But Nimoy was willing to play whatever role they asked of him, be it a few small but key scenes, or even just a brief cameo like in STID.

The studio wanted this to be about the new cast. If it had been Shatner he’d have demanded top billing, and wanted to be included as the star of the press tour, and he’d have overshadowed the whole thing.

There’s a reason he played “The Great Giant Head” in 3rd Rock From the Son.

There is nothing to indicate any of that is true.

Shatner himself, after being told of the holoemitter cameo, said he would have done it had it been pitched to him.

He was on Boston Legal, surrounded by a lot of very talented actors so it doesnt hold water that he needs his ego stroked.

It makes far more sense that he understands business and wants to be compensated for what he brings to the table. He’s not just a guest star, he’s THE star whether he has 1 scene or 100 scenes.

He did Generations where he wasnt even in most of the film. And certainly, the script was lousy.

Its much more likely he simply wants to be PAID. This is the same guy that reportedly took stock in lieu of cash for Priceline and made a massive fortune off it.

He never has to work again. The fact he, at his age, loves working speaks to his desire to simply work.

Id rather he do it out of the spirit of making fans happy. But I cant blame the guy for wanting a big pay day.

You can convince yourself that all you like, but it’s long been established the kind of person he is. The kind of guy who interviews a subject and somehow does all the talking. The fact that he insisted on directing STV simply because he couldn’t stand that Nimoy was director of III and IV. That he insisted on getting more screen time in Generations, and wanted a big dramatic death scene so he could steal the headlines. Not to mention 50 years of fellow cast members on multiple shows, coworkers from various projects, former friends and colleagues who all described him that way.

Yup, he’s such a jerk that he allowed all those supporting bit players to keep making money on his films. He clearly didn’t care and clearly had affection. You don’t think Shatner could have had any of the supporting cast removed if he really wanted to?

Many people who have worked with him love him So you cant cherry pick the comments from those that don’t.

“He was on Boston Legal, surrounded by a lot of very talented actors so it doesnt hold water that he needs his ego stroked.”

It holds all the water in the world. Shatner was playing himself. This is a man who publicly stated ST09 made a bad business decision for not hiring him, because he would be a huge box office draw. Now, even if you agree with him, a humble man makes no comment, or simply says “I’m disappointed, but glad to see Star Trek is going to continue.”

His ego is bigger than that living planet. It’s well documented.

I know you personally dislike the man but you letting that cloud your judgement. Shatner is always making fun of himself. Id strongly suspect his tongue was planted in cheek if he claimed to be a huge box office draw.

Ofcourse, the fact the largest press for any of the JJ films was when it was leaked that Shatner was in Orci’s Trek 3 story would support his position though.

Either way the franchise is not about Shatner anymore. Hasn’t been for decades. He can demand whatever he want but if they don’t feel he’s worth that money its nothing to be done.

Also why its best to just move on. I would love to see Picard again but like Shatner Stewart probably has a certain price point and no one is looking to match it. If they felt they REALLY want need him back, they would.

To be honest, as much as I *loved* TNG, I have no desire to see the TNG cast again. Maybe 10 years ago, but I’m past wanting to see them return.

Now, if they told me there was a “lost episode” in the vault, I’d be ecstatic– unless it was from Season 1.

I don’t need to see any of them again. Of course if someone makes an appearance somewhere like Bakula is rumored in Discovery that’s great but I don’t need to see any former characters. They all had their time and TNG has been on the air the longest and four films. They had the most screen time out of all of them. And like TOS we got to see the characters pop up on various Trek shows even after the show left through Enterprise.

That said though now that Frakes will be involved with Discovery I wouldn’t mind a Riker cameo to keep the trend going lol. Probably won’t happen but wouldn’t mind it for tradition sake.

The thing is, when fans say “time to move on”, what does that mean? Why is any idea involving Shatner an example of not moving on? Just because his character originated in the 60’s doesn’t mean it cant be used in a great way now.

Was 2009 not better for the inclusion of Nimoy?

Its not like people are arguing in favour of using Shatner as Kirk in a BAD story…

Of course, we only want it if it makes sense and is done right.

I said this many times but they killed Kirk over 20 years ago with the intention of staying dead…and so far it’s working lol.

So yes in that regard best to move on. There are no unresolved story lines and bringing him back now would feel more like a gimmick and not a real reason why he would even be brought back.

That said sure if there was a good reason fine but I haven’t heard one yet.

I say move on from Kirk because I rarely found him to be a compelling character. He has a few bright spots, but generally, there’s not much to him, and everything that can be done, has been done, generally.

Nimoy’s Spock has always been a FAR more fascinating character to me, and embodied the essence of Trek more than Kirk. There’s still a lot more that could be done with him, and his inclusion in ST09 explored a new side of the character, the one that was truly proud and humbled by his Vulcan ancestry, and explored how he dealt with the loss of his people, and dealing with the prospect of being truly alone.

I enjoyed the JJ-Verse movies, and felt that Beyond was the best of the bunch. That being said, Abrams movies just have too many plot holes. The Force Awakens was the absolute worst – basically a cheap copy of A New Hope. Same plot, but with gaping holes. Empire back to full force in ~30 years, a giant ray gun built into a planet (good luck aiming that), a Millennial Darth Vader that’s full of rage over….. what? Being the son of two hero’s?

ST09 and STID had the same kinds of plot issues. Cadet to Captain. Bad guy mad at the Federation as though they created the shockwave that destroyed Romulus, KAHHHHN, and on and on it goes. Even Beyond doesn’t make a ton of sense from the bad guys POV. And Earth’s first Warp 4 ship? Really? Sorta looks like an NX-Class, but no – it’s some other NX-Class that was Earth’s first Warp “4” ship. It all just smacks of super lazy writing.

NX Class, I agree with you on the flaws and plot-holes. I thought Beyond was better, plot-wise, although Elba, a hugely popular actor here and overseas, should have been more visible, not hidden behind makeup.

I completely agree on TFA. I liked the cast, but the plot left much to be desired.

Both STID and Beyond suffered the same issues of writers getting too cute.

If you read stories about other films where you can see the detailed notes producers/studios provide, you can see how stories change in large ways from pitch to screen. STID and Beyond both needed that to happen.

In Beyond, as Marja said, casting Elba and then hiding him was rather pointless. I sure hope he came cheap. Especially at a time when there was a lot of speculation about him as the next James Bond. But it seems to me the whole stupid plot of the soul sucking machine was designed as an excuse to hide the bad guys’ true identity.

That whole plot should have been cut.

If these guys had written WoK, they’d have kept Khan behind a mask for most of the film.

I think you missed the point of the force awakens.

In other revelations Paramount Pictures is making movies!

Yeah! Top Gun is now a franchise!!

I cannot see Paramount ever putting Star Trek in moth balls. Not if it’s still a money maker for them. As long as the bucks are there, Star Trek will survive any CEO.

An appearance in Discovery would not only be weird for Quinto to show up in, but it would also throw off any timelines that Discovery is in.

reboot, PLEASE! (nu-trek sux, IMHO) =(

Not a very humble opinion.

…no, really! (most people just ignore my opinion) =P

good

Can anyone get an interview with Abrams, Pegg, Jung, Payne, Mckay??? Would like to hear their take on where they are at in the process

It’ll be their typical boiler plate response – everyone is working hard, it’ll be great, can’t say anymore then that….reality check is that I’m sure someone, somewhere may be working on it, but none of the actors have heard squat about it, and it’s MIA in Paramount’s schedule at least through the next three years.

I don’t necessarily believe that they meant a cameo as Spock. That wouldn’t work anyway.

Why not?

And Quinto thinks the SPOCK haircut is unflattering? :-)

Frankly, I don’t understand why all Vulcans and Romulans have the exact same identical haircut. It’s kinda dumb really. I’m surprised they didn’t put Tuvok in one of those Beatles wigs …

T’Pring and T’Pau had very different hairstyles in “Amok Time,” but later Trek creators seem to have lost sight of that.

Yeah it is odd. Some have been different though but they are pretty common through most shows and films. Even Discovery it looks like Sarek will have a similar cut.

Winter arrived in last season’s finale.

To the comments above about the plot holes in J.J. Abrams’ stuff – it’s more that he sacrifices a unified and balanced whole in a misguided attempt to “delight” the viewer in the immediate moment – so his movies are processions of unearned emotional climaxes, non sequitur action sequences, and nonsensical plot twists.

Great summation.

Terrible summation. While I’d agree to a point that he is a director focused more on “heart”, and is willing to sacrifice plot for character, I don’t think the emotional climaxes are unearned, nor are the action sequences “non sequiturs.”

To be honest, I don’t really care if they make another film with this cast. I didn’t like the idea of creating an alternate timeline back in 2009 and my feelings about that have only gotten stronger with each sequel.

As for Discovery, I have not been wowed by anything that I’ve seen thus far. Visually, it looks more like the reboots than a natural progression from ENT towards TOS. I’m not making any final judgments until I see the finished product, but if it exists in the KT, I’m not going to have much long-term interest.

Part of Trek’s appeal to me has been the rich history of the timeline. Outside of some occasional deviations from that, I think that future shows and films should only exist in the Prime Timeline.

My guess is if the KT films are dead future movies will go back to prime timeline.

I really don’t mind the Kelvin verse but I think most fans have a hard time accepting it because it’s not in the ‘true” universe. And with 5 shows (sixth on the way) and 10 films it’s just hard to compete. Especially with just three films that are mostly considered just so so.

Most fans? You mean a percentage of the small percentage of the massive audience who watched the JJ movies?

lol it’s funny how you can leave out a word and the meaning completely changes. I forgot to include the word ‘that’ as in most fans that DO have an issue with the films and not all fans in general.

But yes I still think that’s a big number with the old base, especially many TOS fans.

Language is a funny thing…

The principle problem with the new films is the restrictive nature of time we spend watching the characters. The audience only get around 2 and a half hours with these characters. Star Trek is traditionally about the characters, more than the action and SFX. We have only spent about 7 hours with these characters, not even a season’s worth of time. Both TOS and TNG had much richer backstory going into the movies. It shows.

That’s true as well. Not to mention the long gaps in time as well. Put it this way the time between the 09 movie and STID all the other shows had film around 100- episodes in those 4 years. Pretty crazy.

Perhaps no gay Star Trek fan has said it yet, but I think Zachary Quinto is very very hot. Should be my husband!

I hope that Bad Robot continues to make more ‘Trek films, just so that I can laugh at the Kelvin Timeline’s critics. Keep it up.

i like ‘beyond’ more than ITD but i really think the series has lost its way again.
its in a rut, still cleaving to the ‘khan’ template.

Star Trek beguine is the best movie.