If there’s one thing I wish would die already, it’s Star Trek. Paramount has announced that a total of 15,000 Star Trek movies have gone into preproduction since Beyond left theaters and ALL 15,000 of them failed to get made. With god on our side, maybe the latest one from John Francis Daley and Jonathon Goldstein will follow.
But unfortunately, I have a mostly positive opinion on this pitch. Mind you, I don’t think the “submarine movie in outer space” model should be the future of Trek. Even though that model has worked well in the past, my concern is whether or not the guys who made Vacation and the Dungeons and Dragons movie can pull it off. But how big of a concern should that be? After all, William Friedkin’s first scripted movie was Good Times, starring Sonny and Cher. Judging from that alone, we would have no idea this guy would later create the gritty cop genre and modern horror film. So arguably, my concern here might be misplaced. But I feel like the “submarine movie in outer space” approach is a bit too familiar and limited. It’s like we’re still trying to relive the glory of Star Trek II despite Alex Kurtzman’s numerous failed attempts to do so. With that said, Paramount seems to have the right idea: smaller budgets, smaller sets, and focus on the human drama.
Instead of a $300 million budget, let’s drop that figure down to $90 million. And since two Denzel movies are the inspiration, use most of that money to bring Denzel into the production. His appearance alone would elevate the quality. So if the pitch is Denzel Washington playing a Starfleet captain butting heads with a young and brash first officer in a tense two hour situation, then I’m not gonna lie, that’s a movie I want to see.
But as the towering intellect of our age — Rich Evans of Redlettermedia — once said, as great as Star Trek II was, it did set up a bad precedent. Star Trek shifted from being a colorful and hopeful vision of the future into a violent, cynical, and highly militaristic world. That version of Star Trek might better reflect our era of Trump, ICE, Gaza, Iran, etc. but is that what fans or potential fans want? The good news is we can have it both ways. If Roddenberry purists want to criticize Nicholas Meyer for reducing the franchise into some revenge opera for Star Trek II, Meyer turned right around and bridged the two interpretations for Star Trek VI. And in my opinion, he did it quite well. So if I were to place a wager, I’d say Star Trek VI is the template for the Daley and Goldstein production.
Or at least it should be.