Is Star Trek Finished?

Star Trek ©Paramount Pictures

So a new Star Trek movie is on its way, despite having gone through some drama in production. Star Trek Into Darkness was commercially successful, although not as much critically. But the movie has taken a few hits. J. J. Abrams left to direct Star Wars, writer Alex Kurtzman left the picture, and the other writer Roberto Orci was going to direct but then wasn’t going to direct. Now the director is “officially” Justin Lin, the director behind most of the Fast & Furious movies. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, but I’ll get back to that.

The other two pieces of relatively recent news are that Simon Pegg will be co-writing the new movie and that Idris Elba might be cast as the villain. Both may be positive too, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The real question is: Even if the movie is made (which it will be), now that Leonard Nimoy no longer provides any connection to the original cast, will it (a) still be Star Trek and (b) be worth continuing? Fan films have popped up multiple times over the years, including as recently as 2014. Books and other related ephemera keep coming out steadily, and how many times have people talked about yet another television series? Naturally, with all the money spent on the films, there’s not much chance of a television show while the films remain profitable. Just saying.

I’m unsure on Justin Lin directing Star Trek. tweet

I’m unsure on Justin Lin. He’s pretty good at the crazy action of the Fast & Furious movies, even if some are not as good as others. Star Trek isn’t really about that kind of absurd, cartoonish action, so it may not be the best fit. But you can’t really be sure about that. After all, indie guy James Gunn did a great job with Guardians of the Galaxy, and I haven’t liked anything he did prior to that. So with Justin Lin, we have a big question mark, but that basically means the movie will probably be fun to look at but may not received so well. Now on to Simon Pegg. He’s written quite a few things over the years, and he seems to be talented at it. He’s certainly a talented comedic actor, that much isn’t in doubt. But what about his skills as a writer? He’s got credits on such big ticket movies as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, and Paul. Three out of four of those were great, and Paul was … okay, I guess. But here’s the thing: director Edgar Wright co-wrote those first three great movies, and he won’t be working on the new Star Trek movie. I like Simon Pegg, but those aren’t the best odds.

He’s said recently in interviews he intends to recapture the “spirit” of the show, specifically the “frontierism and adventure and optimism and fun.” A worthy notion I suppose, if kind of an impossible to verify thing. Certainly the last two movies were kind of loud and dark and the original series bright and often bullish on humanity. But even the original movies touched on complex moral issues without delving into caricature. So the truth is, what Pegg is really saying is that “hey, everyone will like this movie, superfans and regular folk alike.” Again, a nice sentiment but what if he’s right?

If he’s wrong, then either the Star Trek franchise will become a new Transformers style lowest common denominator movie series or it will keep trying until profits don’t let them make any more movies. Maybe they’ll try a TV show then. But if he’s right, who knows if the movie will even be successful commercially? In fairness to them, I think there a lot people who want to see it succeed because they love Star Trek, not just because they want to exploit the nostalgia. Although that’s part of it. Desperation drips from this franchise now. Look back at the second movie, with nerd icon Benedict Cumberbatch brought in to play seminal villain Khan. So terrified were they of trying something new, they tried to just repeat what most consider the best Star Trek movie by including a bunch of references but ignoring the, shall we say, point. Who will they jam into the third movie? I can’t possibly predict at this point. So let’s say then we get Idris Elba in as some supervillain, hey, maybe they’ll somehow include something from The Next Generation like Q or the Borg. I’m not discounting anything.

I don’t want Star Trek to be done. tweet

But I don’t really have a lot of confidence in the finished product, despite what the studio might want us to think. I don’t want Star Trek to be done; I’ve seen huge swathes of episodes of each iteration and most of the movies. I’ve read books and listened to podcasts. Whether it’s Galaxy Quest or the real thing, fans are crazy and intense. The fan community won’t go away, even if the movies and television franchises do.

After all, there’s always the possibility of another reboot.