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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Redeeming Star Trek

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STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:23 / 10.09.05

GGM- nah, get Lady to write it. The vision is there! The vision is clear!

(But chuck in some midgets, just for me, eh?)

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:26 / 10.09.05

Okay, Kirk gets hit on the head and it's an excuse to do a Wizard of Oz episode, with Candace Bergen as the Wicked Witch of the West and Big Ron as all the munchkins...

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:31 / 10.09.05

Interesting point - RTD was identified as a gigantic Who fan pretty early on, and so as his star rose he was identified as a potential champion for the franchise. Is there anyone comparable in the US? JJ Abrams?

14:51 / 10.09.05

I *wish* J.J. Abrams was into Trek and brought it back to a higher level of quality. I've never heard of Abrams being interested in Trek, but who knows, it's always a possibility given his love for episodic adventure fiction with some sci-fi/fantasy-ish leanings. It would be great if there was a 'name' who was well-repsected, a solid writer and also a fan, to breathe new life into the franchise again.

agent darkbootie

01:53 / 11.09.05

I'd say that, by introducing a single bisexual character who is not camp at all, Doctor Who has clearly wrench science fiction horribly into the land of the gayers. Did you know that one of the writers was a GAY as well?
It's not the bisexual character that I was flagging. I thought that was a fantastic turn.

It's things like playing "Tainted Love" on a space station five billion years in the future. Or having the Daleks take over humanity with "What Not to Wear."

People can -- and should -- shameless shag who and whatever they want in science fiction. But really... "Tainted Love?"

How can even camp-lovers feel good about that?

agent darkbootie

01:57 / 11.09.05

BJ and The Bear in space. Awesome.

Your sarcasm is duly noted, but I respectfully suggest it's got more potential than the many variations of: "How 'bout a really big war with the Borg!!! AWESOME!!"

When was Batman queerbent?

Your sarcasm is also duly noted.

All Acting Regiment

04:52 / 11.09.05

But really... "Tainted Love?"

Can you explain what was so wrong with this? It was the far future, they thought a jukebox was an ipod, they thought pop music was classical music. Tainted love is a pop song. A well known one, popular at all discos everywhere, gay or straight. How is that a problem?

12:25 / 11.09.05

Is Tainted Love more or less camp than Britany Spears' Toxic? Are they both camp? is pop camp? are they camp in different ways? Would a soft metal ballad in the ilk of the theme tune of Enterprise been better in your mind?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:12 / 11.09.05

It's things like playing "Tainted Love" on a space station five billion years in the future.

It was a joke at your expense.

On another level, it's just a great song.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:14 / 11.09.05

Oh, and...

Your sarcasm is also duly noted.

I don't understand. You said Batman had been "queerbent". I asked when. You think I was being sarcastic. I was not. Two options here: either you answer the question, or admit you were making shit up to start with. Thanks!

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:04 / 11.09.05

Oh, and one more thing, which GGM has already touched on. The idea that having 'Tainted Love' on a programme detracts from heterosexual enjoyment of that show? Fucking hilarious!

18:27 / 11.09.05

Seth, your disagreement with me probably stems from the fact that you haven't read any of Astonishing X-men

Different medium. I'd like to read it, though.

My disagreement is based around his TV work. Buffy had about three good years and a lot of nonsense, Angel was fab most of the way through and Firefly was pretty uninvolving from the first few episodes. Business wise Buffy got seven seasons that it didn't deserve, he loved Angel but it didn't last beyond five years, and Firefly got cancelled after fourteen episodes (with no clear idea yet how the movie might change that). I know there's other factors involved with series cancellations, but there's enough there to justify "hit and miss."

02:24 / 13.09.05

Flyboy/Petey-
I don't think that Batman was ever "queerbent" as such, but the Adam West TV show was adopted, much as Xena was.

15:33 / 13.09.05

Personally, I'd dump the military aspect. Make the show about a civilian guy in a personal space ship kicking around the Federation, just trying to make the monthly payments and struggling with his own sense of heroism.

I seem to remember some pitch involving the character of Harry Mudd.... I'd watch that.

12:33 / 20.09.05

I'm really digging the Shatner novels at the moment, which surprised the hell out of me, becuase I'm not a Kirk fan, and I think reading books about TV shows is about as low as you can get. However, the mirror universe books in particular are frickin' awesome, and fully deserve to be the last films. Especially, with ALL the characters in them, it's a total fanwank, but it's Shatner's fanwank, and, y'know, that's cool.

Maybe the logistics would be too hard to film these, but I think these are the best 'film-style' Trek Stories so far.

On another note, I HATE the series that backtrack and try to fill in the gaps - that's why I disliked Enterprise so much. However, I thought DS9 was the best thing with Trek attached to it, and I would like a return to the more ambiguous characters and massive story arcs that made the last few seasons of this such a treat.

16:04 / 28.10.05

Somebody mention something about the queering of Star Trek back there?

Sulu = out of the closet.

10:16 / 29.10.05

Was George Takei ever immensely and securely *in the closet* though? Or was my subconscious planting ideas in my head, again? I assumed he was gay since I was a kid.
And not because he looks wantingly from the screen right at me all the time. That's just ASSuperman does that.

Also, dammit, I would watch a series where Sulu's in charge of a ship as long as there were some DS9-style politicking and warfare, plenty of weird alienesque aliens, and the occasional swordfight. And Sulu's gun collection. Because there aren't enough guns in that era.

Or, just restart DS9 but all but the last five minutes of the first episode take place in that lounge-singer's holodeck program and never actually discuss on camera why there's y'know a Klingon or a Bajoran there. Intrigue and weird people out.

18:20 / 29.10.05

Also, dammit, I would watch a series where Sulu's in charge of a ship...
At the end of the undiscovered Country, it falls to Sulu, in the Excelsior IIRC, to to save Kirk's bacon. I remember my best friend and I turned to each other and said, "About fucking time."

The more I think about it, there is an element of glee tyhat is missing from recent iterations of Star Trek, moments where the crew, collectively, realizes, "hey, we've got this big ship, goes real goddamned fast, we're armed to the teeth and the nearest authority figure is 205 lightyears away. Let's go kick some Klingon/Romulan/Cardassian ass."

01:27 / 30.10.05

The Kirk-headed Enterprise crew did seem significantly less concerned with getting into trouble than later iterations. "One of the benefits of being a million lightyears from Starfleet Headquarters" and Romulan Ale, and all.
Am reminded of the Harlan Ellison proposal about the wall at the edge of existence. Behind the wall: God. Enterprise finds wall and immediately starts trying to shoot a hole in it. Because that's what they'd do, it's SOP, really. Shoot and/or fuck everything.
Remember the fantasy-world thing where Kirk fights a classmate, Bones gets run through by a knight or something, and Sulu gets shot at by a plane then attacked by a samurai? Or the fucking tribble episode, even! If you combined that psychotic glee with DS9's political betrayals, compromises, and economics... filter through a glazed-over hotbed of amphetamined-to-the-teats 'Split Second' greatest moments, and just ran with it...? Beauty is all that could be achieved.

05:09 / 30.10.05

I would watch a series where Sulu's in charge of a ship...

Ensign Nameless: "Sir, the ship will come apart!"
Sulu: "FLY HER APART THEN!"

Friends still cheer whenever they see that, in Star Trek whatever.
One of the great tragedies of meta-Trek : Sulu got his own ship way too late, and never got his own series as Takei expected (and may have been promised).

21:17 / 30.10.05

Because that's what they'd do, it's SOP, really. Shoot and/or fuck everything.

TRUTH! I grew up with the Next Gen crew but watching some of the TOS stuff makes me realise that the Star Wars/Star Trek divide was a bigger product of NG than anything else. OrigiTrek is well Star Wars. Corbonite manuevers. Rogue supermen with a grudge. Planet makers. Warp 135. Kirk single-handedly seeding the quadrant. Enter the Sulu!

Star Trek needs more fucking pulp action is what.

So, break the Federation in half and send a crew in a fuck-hot ship to make peace by force all across the galaxy.

I still say Voyager could've been amazing if Janeway lost all pretense of following the Prime Directive and fought tooth and nail to get her crew home. Sly deals and slipping Fedtech to whatever those guys were called out in the Delta Quadrant. A big fucking pirate/survival epic with phasers.

00:02 / 31.10.05

Did they Admiralize Janeway just to keep her from commanding a crew and getting them lost and/or killed, again? Losing precious, expensive test-ship and signing Borg pacts and all?

Janeway on trial would be a fun opening of a new Trek series. 'Star Court' or something removed from the military/ship aspect of the Trek-verse.
Of course, after a couple courtroom drama episodes, everybody regathers on a ship they served on fifteen years earlier for *one last mission*. Repeat for a few seasons as necessary; retire, regather, retire, regather.

XXII:X:II = XXX

05:36 / 31.10.05

Our Lady ashed: I still think there's room for them to basically do Andromeda, but do it in a Star Trek stylee. After all, no-one actually watches Andromeda any more do they? Is it even still being made?

Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing a single ad for Andromeda this season... maybe not even one for months before the summer. Yep, according to IMDB, it's history.

It really lost its way, from being a really great, witty, interesting series to utter Star Drek. When they lost Tyr to soap operas and replaced him with just another Nietzschean, I knew it was over; it just took two seasons for it to lay down and die. I still crush on Trance, though I preferred her when she was all purple and undreadlocked.

XXII:X:II = XXX

18:11 / 17.11.05

All right, WHO TOLD???

http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article327528.ece

"Channel 4 is attempting to pull off the biggest hoax in television history: convincing nine contestants that they have travelled into space.

"Space Cadets is a prime-time programme that bears an uneasy resemblance to The Truman Show, the film starring Jim Carrey as a man whose entire life, unbeknown to him, is being broadcast to the rest of the world as a never-ending soap opera."

18:22 / 23.04.06

from Zap2it.com (entertainment/pop culture site):

>> 'Star Trek' Will Live Long and Prosper With Abrams
'M:i:III" team will boldly try to revitalize franchise

April 21 2006

From the "Just Wacky Enough To Work" file, Paramount is looking to resurrect the "Star Trek" franchise with the help of "Alias" and "Lost" mastermind J.J. Abrams.

According to Variety, the studio is so excited about the quality of "Mission Impossible III" that it's entrusting "Trek" to "M:i:III" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Abrams would produce and it's very possible he may direct as well.

The trade papers says that Paramount wants to have the 11th "Star Trek" feature in theaters by 2008. The script will apparently go back in time to show the early days in the relationship between James T. Kirk and Mr. [Unpronounceable First Name] Spock, including their rowdy student days at Starfleet Academy.

There have long been rumors in the "Trek" community about a possible Starfleet Academy series, but an assortment of producers have denied interest in the idea.

Paramount, however, is a bit desperate to revitalize the franchise after the $43 million domestic take of "Star Trek: Nemesis" four years ago and after UPN's cancellation of "Enterprise" at the end of last season. The 10 "Star Trek" films have made more than $1 billion worldwide.

"M:i:III," Abrams' feature directing debut, hits theaters on Friday, May 5, though much of the film's publicity has been overwhelmed this past week by stories of star Tom Cruise's new child.

Abrams' would bring along his "Lost" colleagues Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk as producers on the "Star Trek" film.
-------------------

I hope they don't do the Starfleet Academy concept...I'd much prefer talented writers breaking new ground than another 'prequel' about young versions of the characters. But at least having a big hitter like Abrams is a good step towards reinvigorating the franchise.

20:16 / 23.04.06

As i said in another thread, I'd go a 1000 more ears in the future and make a seires about extreme transhumanism. Scrap the no-genetics dogma, borg implants on everyone, a self-aware ship (with a female personality, of course) that can self-repare, since it's entirely made of self-replicating nano-robots, starfleet uniforms that can protect their users from space vacuum and shoot phasers and project force fields, ressurecting/duplicating the dead crewmen via teleport inprints at will, warp 100, exploring not other planets, but other galaxies, whole species of Data-like androids and Voyager Doctor-like holograms (lead by Moriart - remember Moriart/the butler from Nanny?), Romuland and Vulcans reunited as one new xenophobic species with extreme mind powers (good vilains), Earth gone missing in a teleport kidnapping by unkown forces (good starting point, eh?) intelligent planets, intelligent stars, hipercube-like pocket dimensions inside the ship instead of holodecks, gender-shifting as an usual practice (plenty of soap opera possibilities there), a war against the Q Continuum, the entire Milky Way under control of the Federation (Borg? Extinct - or even better, assimilated; The Dominium? Extinct), artificial wormholes by bulk, statues of Wesley Crusher in every federation planet, people walking in ceilings and walls (artificial gravity as it should be), first-contact with other once-thought-as-legend dimensions (i.e. Hell, Heaven); everybody's young (no more aging), no doors inside the ship (instead: opaque force fields that allow passage only to authorized crewmen). Did I forget something?

20:21 / 23.04.06

Did I forget something?

Oh, yeah, Singularity godheads inhabiting star-cores as the Federation's overlords...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

20:38 / 23.04.06

The keyword in that press report being: desperate, as in 'desperate and bankrupt of ideas'. 'Enterprise' didn't work, so why do they think the same sort of thing, just with the names Kirk and Spock, will?

The only stories from this era that I may have the smallest smidgen of interest in are those of Captain Sulu and whatever ship he's in command of. Especially if he's as gay as George Takai is.

13:14 / 24.04.06

DM, today I Barbe-crush yooooooou!

Give us the terrifying post-human future of the Federation we all deserve!

13:40 / 24.04.06

If you write and direct the movie for me (u)DM, I have Five Whole English Pounds Sterling for you!!1! Go on, you knows you wants it.

14:10 / 24.04.06

I think Trek needs to stay dead a while longer before it can be ressurected with any vigour...

14:14 / 24.04.06

Damn right I wants it. If only I had the money to back it up, I'd be the greatest franchise re-vamper of the world. I'd be the best sequel and/or comic book adaptations director ever.

14:20 / 24.04.06

Yay DM. That's a perfect revamp. No who's the enemies of the SuperFederation? Villain Workshop?

15:07 / 24.04.06

Well, for one (and I quote myself):

Romulans and Vulcans reunited as one new xenophobic species with extreme mind powers I'd called them Velurians, and would make them like the Vulcans, but with longer antennae-like years, tattoos in their foreheads representing the mind chakra, and wearing those hooded monk robes the Vulcans sometime use, and with the ability to mind-meld across interplanetary distance.

Plus, other possibilities:

demons and dead people (from Heel dimension)

A species I'd call "Deep Space Angels": planet-size beings that come from other galaxies and eat stars.

The Black Sun

Remember a episode ot the Original Stat Trek where the Enterprise fights a planet destroying ship of unknown origin that looked like an icecream cone without the icecream on top (tyehy defeated it by detonating the warp core of a stafleet ship inside its "month")? Well, how about a whole army of those?

A race of intelligent microbes (the big has been done, it's time for the small)

An invasion from the mirror universe with the evil Federation.

Again, Moriart the Hologram (or maybe I'd put him as a crewmember - which would only wiork if he still wears victoriona England clothes - I haven't decided yet)

Time-travelling nihilist Entropy worshippers from 10 billions years in the future (Universe's Enders, they'd be called)

Anti-transhumanism fanatic terrorists infiltrated in the crew.

Intelligent dinosaurs from the Delta Quadrant (that's from a Voyager episode)

Planet stealers who join the stolen planets in a long pearl neckless-like zoo (you know, the guys who stole Earth - recurring enemies)

The Q Continuum

The guy from Star Trek the Final Frontier movie who claimed to be God - and his following.

Rebel changelings from the Great Link who refuse to accept Federation lifestyle - rare, but there are some.

And Klingons. (Exactly how they are in the 24th century.)

And that's just from the top of my head now. Gimme time and I'l think of plenty of new enemies.

09:00 / 25.04.06

Would I be in danger of losing my money if I wagered that Flash Gordon wasn't made gay in an actual Flash Gordon film or comic or cartoon, either?

Come on, Flyboy, Flash Gordon himself may wind up with Dale at the end, but the Flash Gordon movie is the gayest (alright, campest) film EVAR!1!1! It's got Peter Duncan, lizard-men in make-up, men fighting each other with whips, and Brian Blessed in wings and a big nappy! This is what we should be planning a sequel to, not boring old Star Trek!

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