Oh Boy

[kyburg]

J. Michael Straczynski proposes 'rebooting' the Trek franchise by going back to the original show - recasting, and redoing from scratch.

Revising the Prime Directive.

Refocusing the conflicts.

..

Guys.

I had over fifteen years of fan fiction before the first movie ever hit production. I've been around this franchise since I was ten years old - and guys? It's the big Four Six this November. That's thirty-six years of everything you can do with it.

I DO NOT NEED MORE KIRK SPOCK MCCOY. I don't. I don't.

You want to make a good show - get your own characters and go for it.

"Just like Coke, only better!"

Pepsi marketing, at its finest.

Enough already. These people are perfectly capable of doing Really Good Stuff all on their own. I don't need a film noir version (ala Battelstar Galactica) of Star Trek.

I don't. Really.

Give me something I haven't seen before. Please.

..


...*grumble* People wonder why I watch so much anime *grumble grumble grumble*....

Comments

I dunno...

[jenkitty.livejournal.com]

Joe's take on it:

http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17286

He argues that in that 36 years, they haven't done everything they can do with Trek. Political considerations, the need to keep things all nicey-nicey... they're getting in the way of what could be some really good stories. Maybe it's just the ultimate in fan fiction for him to do this reboot thing, but I'm just intrigued enough to give it a look.

Re: I dunno...

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

This just scares me.

"In the rebooted Star Trek Universe, there is a Prime Directive, but it is not about non-interference in the matter of other races...."

EX-CUUUUSE me?!

Hell, write your own, JMS. Please.

2 things to note

[coldjones.livejournal.com]

One, that proposal won't happen - it's been superseded by the new movie JJ Abrams is doing. (Which may rock or suck for its own reasons.)

Two, I respectfully submit that you are much, much mistaken about the new BSG being a "film noir" version of the original - its not dark for darnkess' sake, it's dark because the basic premise is inherently dark, even though Glen Larson didn't play up that aspect.

Re: 2 things to note

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Dude, you could have kept the basic premises and did just as well as was done with BSG, without retaining all of the names. That's about all that came over. Seriously. The rest is basic archetypal mythos, basic to any storytelling. You doubt me, go back and read your Joseph Campbell.

*pants* GHAD, I hate having to reiterate that every time I discuss that show. It's fabulous. But that little piece just irks me no end.

JJ Adams is doing or is developing? Development hell is a very real place, lemme tellya. If it makes it out of there, then you might have something.

Re: 2 things to note

[porpentine.livejournal.com]

One of the producers, writing screenplay, attached to direct the new Star Trek movie.

Oh come on...

[coldjones.livejournal.com]

The names aren't all that came over - the fundamental plot and some core characters are still intact, as are a lot of the ship designs. If you're gonna slam what the new BSG is doing as "basic archetypal mythos", then you have to slam the original for the same thing, since, if anything, the original was even more of a generic "we are a lost people looking for a home" plot.

[moropus.livejournal.com]

Would a bit of creativity be too much to ask for? And can we please stop having new excuses for Star Trek? Each show/movie/whatever is worst than the one before. I knew I was done when I fell asleep during a STNG movie and refused to be told what it was about.

I'm OK with some episodes of the original show, but I am sick to death of the rest of it. I've been buying up DVDs of old shows I liked and watching TVLand which is what they call the ancient rerun channel here.

And while we're ranting, would somebody please stop George Lucas from ever doing anymore projects, ever?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Or can we give some of the money to someone else to have their turn?

(You got my vote.)

[lefresne.livejournal.com]

I very rarely get riled about *anything* in the teevee universe, however THAT would be an exception.

Original Trek means a lot to me. It saved my life (really--by giving me a fantasy world to escape to as a 10-11-12 year old and throughout my teenage years) helped forge my identity (I've attended cons since the age of 11) and just gave me a well happy place.

It cannot EVER be remade. It doesn't make any sense at all--especially with the cult status it has and how identified with the parts the actors are. Oh this must not stand.

Aside--Next Gen is my favorite, but Original will always be my security blanket when the world gets confusing.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Next Gen worked because they recast and went for it; I can remember numerous proposals to recast the originals. I've been around this too long.

Enterprise flopped because it was a flop. Plain and simple.

[secanth.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Somehow I think he's missed the whole point of the thing. Trek was never supposed to be 'dark' and 'moody' and such like. The original Trek was a reflection of it's time (which just happens to be the time I grew up in). Going back and redoing it will piss off the original fans, and probably have very little interest for the fans it's gained since that time. Trek fans don't want 'retreads', or 'do overs'. They aren't interested in going back and covering old ground. You want to do a new Trek? Start again where you left off, give us a new vision of that future.

Would anyone seriously think of going back and recasting the original Star Wars Trilogy and redoing it? Of course not, because the fan base would have fits. So why does he think he can get away with it with Trek?

[foogod.livejournal.com]

To be honest, they have not done everything that could be done with Star Trek. There's a lot more that could be done, and I sorta wish would be done. That's not to say it hasn't gotten horribly derivative and repetetive over the years, to the point where I stopped watching two series ago, but that's more because the chimpanzees they've got for writing staff used up all their typewriters about 15 years ago and just fell back to cut-and-paste for all their ideas.

That having been said, "rebooting" the Star Trek universe just so some stupid ego-centric fanboy can go off and get his own screwed up wank fiction on the air under the billion-dollar banner name without being constrained by inconvenient aspects of the universe is stupid.

Yes, I'm calling JMS and ego-centric fanboy. I used to have a lot of respect for him, but if this is what he's proposing, then that's what he is. This is the idea of a thirteen-year-old. Deal with it.

This is a perfect example of the biggest problem I have had with the new BSG. Now, because of that piece of crap idea that somebody managed to get on the air and make popular, everybody's going to try to "reimagine" all of the old stuff into some gritty parody for no good reason, and it's just going to completely screw up what has made all the classics, well, classic in the process. And all because nobody has any imagination of their own these days..

Thank you so much for saying this. I was beginning to think I was the only one who felt this way about BSG and the trend towards "reimagining" old stuff. I do have to disagree with one other small point, though:

Pepsi marketing, at its finest.

No, this isn't Pepsi marketing:

"People seem to like this new sort of product better at the moment, so lets dump all the tried-and-true history behind our most beloved classic and make it taste just the same as the new stuff instead, but keep the same name to trick people into drinking it!"

This is New Coke all over again.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*winks* I worked for Coca-Cola during that debacle. Trust me. They were trying Pepsi tactics - with predicable results. Yerks.

Why...they never learn....*sighs*

[washuotaku.livejournal.com]

I guess it is because there are a rehash of restarting old franchises lately. Movies are doing it with Batman Begins, Superman Returns (following events after Movie 2, I have heard, ignoring movies 3&4), Jame's Bond Casino Royal, Texas Chainsaw Massicar, etc...

Face it, Hollywood is out of ideas!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Nah, too scared to have an independent thought! SHEESH.

Everything has to make SO much at the box office, you get people unable to consider something risky like a brand new concept!

Jeez. So tired of this. So tired.

[dudemungus.livejournal.com]

I think what they need to do to make the show good is to make a good show. I liked the first couple of the "Enterprise" stories--it had action, and fights and thrills, and was more like buck rogers than it was Star trek. Then the old hackneyed plot lines of lets all love one another and lets do no harm came in, and then they had to decide who was in love with who, and all that deep space nine nonsense, and then the long winded story lines that you had to see from the start to keep up with, and they lost me. It just became another lame star trek franchise. WHich was a shame, because they had some good potential and some good momentum in the first season.

If they were to try again, a good idea would be to give everybody involved in producing them the heave ho, and let a couple new faces take a shot at it. And yeah, I'd love to see the red shirts and the mini skirts come back!

The new doctor who isn't dark and gritty exactly, but it's better than the original and it moves and it's a lot of fun. There is hope for everything, they just need to let start trek be for a while.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Shoot, I'd be happier with a remake of "Emergency" right now.

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

I'd much rather see the "Enterprise" incarnation make the transition to the big screen than have anybody tamper with the original - as far as I'm concerned, Bones and Scotty died when DeForest Kelley and James Doohan did, and at this point, Shatner and Nimoy are just too old...but no one else can be Spock, or Kirk, or Sulu, either.

Maybe there needs to be a hiatus before the next Trek movie, just as there was between the original series and the first movie- only, not as long this time, or I'm afraid I may be seeing it with my grandkids (who haven't been born yet.)

[dawnmipb.livejournal.com]

What. You. Said.

My son is sixteen years old and HE'S disgusted with the remake madness. Half the time, he's yelling at the TV: "Make up your OWN damn stories! I am!"

And he is.

We both totally agree with you on the anime thing. We have withdrawals around here without it.

[joggingguy.livejournal.com]

More Robin - Witch Hunter please! :-D

[pseudicide.livejournal.com]

Except it is strazynski... But I have to agree.

[caitlin.livejournal.com]

*SIGH* JMS... thy ego is larger than the universe.

Get over yourself already.

Besides, considering this is the same man who FIRED some of his actors over the fact that they also went to play roles in Star Trek? This comes across as hypocritical and arrogant.

Which may explain why, beyond First Season B5, I have no use for him.

C.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Particularly interesting in light of how JMS treated one of the Trekkies in uniform coming to one of his B5 panels and asking him questions at one of the Comicons in San Diego. I saw that one myself. He referred to Trek as the "franchise down the road at the studio", in not so flattering terms, and maybe he thought he was being funny, but it came across as genuinely hostile. Other folks told me this was not uncommon at his panels at the time, that the fandom had learned not to show up in Trek uniforms even if they were fans of both shows.
Not being a very clued-in fan, I couldn't tell you all the background to any conflicts going on re: power struggles (of course there's folks who do keep up on this stuff) so it was a bit startling.

[secanth.livejournal.com]

To be honest, that's what actually makes me very wary of any 'reimaging' he might do of the series. He had nothing but contempt for Trek at the time he was doing B5, to the point (I've heard) of considering Trek fans as mentally inferior to B5 fans. (Among other things....) I'm not sure as a fan of both I want him anywhere near Trek. *wry smile*

What you say?

[dame-of-dames.livejournal.com]

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/800/home.php

Speaking of redoing it...