Looks like we're getting a Star Trek 4

Originally published at: Looks like we're getting a Star Trek 4 | Boing Boing

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“Star Trek 4: It’s Time To Save The Whales Again”

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“Star Trek IV - The Lens Flare Strikes Back”

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Well, it’ll make a change from Tatooine anyway…

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The newer Trek films were ok, sometimes fun but generally were just ok. If they do make another one I can’t say that I’d be too excited about it, just mostly indifferent

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ST4: A franchise impatiently waiting for engineers to fix that whole uncanny valley thing so it can stop throwing away profits on replacement actors

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A. They need to reboot the reboot. JJ Abrams’ assassination of the entire planet of Vulcan must be remedied.

B. How does the actor Anton Yelchin’s death mean Chekov is never seen again. Do they understand that he was an actor playing Chekov and not the actual Chekov? It’s much more odd, both on- and off-screen, that Chekov is absent than if they recast the character.

Except thats asking the wrong question.
Rather: Whats the least bit odd about having a Scotty not portrayed by Anton Yelchin?

Again, there’s so many reasons to include the character, and one (or zero) reasons to exclude it. Literally, no one would mind (or notice) if another actor takes the role. (The actor could tweet “I am upholding Anton’s legacy” and we’d all be happy.) And no one would have thought to “retire” the character until JJ Abrams, for reasons of self-indulgence and/or reverse fan service, did so.

I’m amazed that the creator of “Waitress” was violently murdered in her own apartment and yet they went on and made a Broadway comedy-musical based on her movie. That, to me, seemed like an intellectual property to (sadly) retire. But this factoid doesnt even appear in the top google searches.

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What’s the least bit odd about an individual crew member no longer being present? In the Navy folks get promoted or transferred all the time and the odd thing would be to find the same exact group of individuals serving together on a ship in the same roles for decades, even when their damn ship got destroyed. This current reboot franchise started in 2009.

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Characters also get recast all the time. I can recall half a dozen sitcoms where the mom was swapped out after season one for various reasons, for example. It’s weird for the first few minutes, then you get used to it and forget the change happened.

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Maybe at the end of this one, William Shatner will wake up and look into the camera and say “It was all a dream!”

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Like Bewitched replacing Dick York with Dick Sargent, one of the lead characters

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One of the things that never sat right for me in the reboot series was the villains’ motivations.

In the original movie series Ricardo Montalbán really sold the idea that Khan had been seething with resentment against Kirk for years as he was forced to watch his wife and crew die terrible deaths on the inhospitable planet where Kirk marooned them. Christopher Lloyd’s Klingon captain in Search for Spock wasn’t quite as memorable but he was understandably pissed off after Kirk killed his crew (ETA: and his dog!!) and likewise Kirk had a real vendetta after the Klingons killed his son.

Let’s contrast those with the villains of the reboot trilogy:

  • In the 2009 movie Nero is angry because Spock tried and failed to save Romulus. But when fate hands him the opportunity to get a galactic do-over he doesn’t make any effort to save his own planet, he just decides to destroy Vulcan and Earth out of vengeance for something that wasn’t their fault and hasn’t even happened yet.
  • In “Into Darkness” Khan doesn’t even have a legitimate grudge against Kirk, let alone a reason for wrath.
  • In “Beyond” I never even understood why Idris Elba’s character was supposed to be angry at anyone, let alone angry enough to destroy the Federation.
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All I ask is for something more believable than the motorcycle-stunt-cage set from the last movie.

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One must now choose their preferred alternate timeline and stick with it. Until the next alternate alternate timeline surfaces…

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I see the Kelvin universe movies as a bunch of well-cast actors saddled with terrible scripts. And it got worse over time.

As mentioned above - plot, motivation, character arc all took a back seat to whizzbang action set pieces.

I believe these actors can pull off an amazing movie but they need something to work with - to provide the emotional response Trek films absolutely need.

Take this example - which really has all the ingredients - before the rest of the plot kicks in. Fabulous opening scene.

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I thought that the opening scene for the Into Darkness was kinda funny, at least the part where the natives toss away their holy scroll and start worshiping an image of the Enterprise thanks to Kirk’s reckless violation of the prime directive. That’s classic Kirk behavior. Didn’t care for the rest of the movie at all though.

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Wait – those two aren’t the same guy?

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It’s more basic than that. Its just that the reboot scripts were bad. The reboot scripts were Fast-and-Furious-level junk scripts (although, to Abrams credit, not quite as bad as Star-Wars-Episode-I-level junk scripts!)

*Also: How do they cast epicly non-Latinx/non-Asian Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan Noonien Singh, after Montalban Latinx’ed the hell out of the character whose name Roddenberry had Asian’ed the hell out of. They should have either cast a Latinx or Asian for the role. And not the guy who is literally the most white actor you could have cast, according to imdb.

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Dodged a disruptor pulse there.

SPOCK
You’ll dig it the most. But you know what the funniest thing about Romulus is?

MCCOY
What?

SPOCK
It’s the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there, we got here, but it’s just there’s a little difference.

MCCOY
Examples?

SPOCK
Alright, well you can walk into a holodeck on Romulus and buy Romulan ale. And I don’t mean in a paper cup. I’m talkin’ 'bout a bottle of Romulan ale. And on Remus, you can buy a Romulan ale at MacDonald’s. You know what they call a Quarter Pok Tar with Cheese on Remus?

MCCOY
They don’t call it a Quarter Pok Tar with Cheese?

SPOCK
No, man, they got the metric system there, they wouldn’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pok Tar is.

MCCOY
What’d they call it?

SPOCK
They call it Praetor with Cheese.

MCCOY (repeating)
Praetor with Cheese. What’d they call Gagh?

SPOCK
Gagh? Fuck man, nobody eats Gagh on Romulus. Even Klingons hate that shit.

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Well, Chekov wasn’t even in the first season of TOS. I always thought that Anton Yelchin was too good for such a bit part.

A side note: I cry every time I think of Yelchin. I saw an old ER episode with him as a child, which made me super sad. It’s such a shame we lost him. :sob:

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