I’m excited about the prospect of a new Star Trek TV/web series but I fundamentally don’t trust producer Alex Kurtzman who’s in charge of the new series and seems to be in charge of the Star Trek franchise as a whole. Both of the Star Trek movies he was involved in were stinkers and the TV series he’s produced recently from Hawaii Five-0 to Sleepy Hollow to Scorpion to Limitless are middle of the road fare at best.
Has Kurtzman ever produced anything that great? Looking at his IMDB page is like a walk down mediocre lane. The Island (2005), Transformers (2007), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)… are all “blargh.” In fact, the closest he’s come to anything interesting was producing the Ender’s Game (2013) film. Which wasn’t entirely horrible but was still a flop at the box office.
(I remember listening to a podcast with Kurtzman and his writing partner at the time Roberto Orci who talked about their approach to writing scripts where they seemed to be more interested in how their pages were formatted rather than what was actually on them — which explains a lot.)
And now he’ll be in charge of producing and picking the people who’ll create the first Star Trek series since Enterprise went off the air a decade ago. To me there are a lot of people out there who could really do something cool with Star Trek. Just look at how Steven Moffat took old properties like Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes and updated them for a new generation but still kept the spark of what made the originals great intact.
But with Kurtzman at the helm I think that the new Star Trek will be more Hawaii Five-0 in tone than Sherlock.
Now I’d never say that this new Star Trek will stink before I’ve seen it, but let’s just say that as the Magic 8 Ball says, “Signs point to ‘yes’.”
A few months back the second trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens movie was released and, like most of my fellow geeks of the world, I was immediately enthralled by what I saw on the screen. From the downed Star Destroyer to new characters on exciting adventures and even familiar faces making a new appearance on a stage they left more than 30 years ago… all those old feelings I had as a kid when I saw the original Star Wars came flooding back.
John Boyega from Star Wars: Episode VII
Then I thought for a moment about how I’d felt the same way about another beloved sci-fi franchise rebooted for modern audiences that I couldn’t wait to watch after seeing its trailer; Star Trek (2009).
That movie took the characters from the original 1960s TV series, recast them with fresh faces and set the story in an alternate universe so this new Star Trek could have some unexpected twists all its own. Unfortunately, the story the creators of that film decided to tell was cliched and certain elements of seemed to exist only to get the characters from point “a” to point “b” and didn’t seem to flow in any logical manner.
I disliked the first Star Trek so much that I have yet to see the sequel Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) even though I’ve had many chances to do so. After the first movie watching the second seemed like a waste of time.
The cast of Star Trek
In fact I’d all but written off covering anything Star Trek movie related until I saw the trailer for The Force Awakens and started feeling all those feelings for the new Star Wars I’d felt for the Star Trek remake again. And the fact that both movies were/are directed by J.J. Abrams made me take pause for a moment.
Will The Force Awakens be yet another disappointment like Star Trek was? For the most part I think not, that the situations those movies were created under are so different that the two films really can’t be compared. Abrams didn’t write Star Trek but he is writing The Force Awakens, some of the people involved in the original Star Wars films are involved with this new one but weren’t with Star Trek…
But a small part of me is worried that The Force Awakens just might be another disappointment like Star Trek was.
Daisy Ridley from Star Wars: Episode VII
With Star Trek it seemed like Abrams and company were more interested in mining the “greatest hits” of the original Star Trek series as it were, remixing elements and telling a slightly different abet updated versions of them. Which they did. But instead of their creation turning out to be something new and interesting it was a bloated, confusing mess.
And though I’ve only seen the two trailers for the upcoming The Force Awakens adding up to just a few minutes of screen-time in total, I’m just the slightest but worried Abrams is making all the mistakes he made with Star Trek again with his new Star Wars movie.
Like with Star Trek, it looks like the story of The Force Awakens isn’t telling a completely new story and Abrams has again brought back most of the characters from the original set of movies and has remixed things a bit to tell a new, modern story.
Adam Driver from Star Wars: Episode VII
Still, it’s probably too early to start worrying about the quality of the finished The Force Awakens movie since we’re still months from its release. In this new movie the characters ARE back but they’re being played by the same actors from the original. And while the story might not be completely original it is telling a continuation of the story from the previous six films.
Right now I’m nothing but excited about the new Star Wars movie. However, I’ve wanted to be a fan of Abrams for a while now but it seems like everything he’s created from Lost to Alias to Mission Impossible 3 to Super 8 have been in one way or another ultimately disappointing to me. I’m just hoping that Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens will be the first Abrams project in a while to attain some sort of lasting greatness.
