More On Star Trek 3 Director Change
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According to the rumor mill, the reason Roberto Orci is gone from Star Trek 3 was because Paramount wasn’t happy with the script for the movie.
And with a director vacancy, fans have mounted a campaign to bring in a familiar Trek face to director’s chair.
Badass Digest reported that they had “been in touch with some folks and it seems like the script was one of the problem factors. Paramount shut the production down last month, sending home all the design people while they battled over the direction of the screenplay.”
Supposedly, the Star Trek 3 story involved “the Enterprise, the Vulcans and a new alien race competing to get a time travel device. The Vulcans want to go back and stop the destruction of their planet, and the time travel schtick is what would allow Chris Pine and William Shatner to share the screen.”
With the exit of Orci, the film needs a new director. Fans are hoping to see Jonathan Frakes at the helm this time. They’ve set up a Facebook page hoping to catch Paramount‘s attention, and also have a hashtag on Twitter, #BringInRiker. Frakes directed the very well-received Star Trek: First Contact back in 1996.
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Enough of time travel already !
I agree — time travel has been overdone, and if you can go back and “fix” things like the destruction of Vulcan, then nothing has any consequences. Then, anytime something bad happens in the ST universe, the question will be, “Why not go back in time and fix it?” Also, how was this story supposed to be more about exploration, which was supposedly the concept of the movie? I fear that Paramount/CBS will go with a generic action story unless someone like Frakes is put in charge. But more important to me is who’s writing the dang thing! Let’s see what Ron Moore or Manny Coto could do — someone who’s a talented writer and was heavily influenced by TOS and would love to write for these characters. The hope would be for a good action story that also contributes to Trek lore and has great character moments.
For once I agree with the haters, time travel is played out. How about you guys do something bold, like bring in Q and/or The Borg?
So maybe even if we can’t get Frakes we could find somebody who actually likes and understands Trek. That would be a refreshing change.
No more time travel stories! It’s a tired and worn out plot device. If it was that easy, every dramatic event going forward becomes minimized because hey, we just go back in time and fix it!
And enough McGuffins…different races chasing each other around the quadrant for some device. Tell a story, dammit!
This is destined to be the Jurassic Park III of NuTrek.
Perhaps the Enterprise should find Harry Mudd’s planet of androids with Mudd capturing a few senior officers to create android clones in an attempt to commandeer the ship. Mudd was also a trader so he might want the ship to defend from an aggressive species of traders like the Ferengi. That brings in some wider TOS materials with a newer species that fans may enjoy, although perhaps the oo-mox and slapstick comedy can be left in the writer’s room.
I think a Borg storyline would have to involve time travel in some way, wouldn’t it? Starfleet shouldn’t come into contact with them until the time of Picard’s Enterprise. Even in the alternate universe these movies take place in, that shouldn’t have changed. But of course, they could always write a way around that.
One last slingshot into the past to replace Paramount and CBS executives before they completely turn our beloved franchise into a garbage scow.
I think the divergent timeline created by the original reboot could account for the borg showing up early, or Q showing up early.. Or Both..
That being said, I wouldn’t mind some original non-existing-trek-cannon stuff as well…. Just as long as it’s good.
I am in favour of bringing back Vulcan (and saving future Romulus), but they really should hold off from immediately solving the problem in the sequel. We could still have Vulcans involved – perhaps they are being persecuted in a parallel to the Jewish diaspora? Maybe they want to make an already occupied planet into their new homeworld? Trek is supposed to deal with modern problems, after all.
“Frakes directed the very well-received Star Trek: First Contact back in 1996.”
And also the oft-derided Star Trek: Insurrection back in 1998. And the universally panned Thunderbirds adaptation a few years after that. I like his work on TNG as Riker, I like his directing work on various Trek shows and Castle, but this is not who you hand a $200 million movie to.
fuck star trek it is a dead franchise.
Good point. Butterfly effect and all that could have resulted in an early Borg invasion or something along those lines. It is sci-fi after all so anything can be explained into existence. And of course, a quality and original story before all else!
^Star Trek’s no. 1 fan right here, folks!
Frakes is a good Trek director. First Contact is one of my favorites and although the script was not strong for Insurrection, I thought he did the best he could with what he was given. I think Nemesis may have been better if it had been in his hands.
Uh…Star Trek:First Contact was a generic action movie and Insurrection was worse than the Final Frontier. No, keep Frakes far the fuck away from directing.
LOL!
Is the studio going to pay attention to what the fans want?
Frakes would do fine. First Contact was pretty much a generic action movie, but that’s the script’s fault. The direction was fine. Insurrection had an awful script, but the direction was very good. Even a good director can’t turn a turkey script into gold. At least Frakes understands Trek and could possibly hold the line on really off-the-wall ideas being proposed.
And, please, no time travel, it’s been done ad naseum already.
So does that mean they’re scrapping the alternate timeline stuff?? I don’t think Jonathan Frakes/Nicosimpler times. I think, at least. As much as I’d like to see that, it isn’t realistic.
So does that mean they are scrapping the alternate timeline stuff? I don’t think Jonathan Frakes/Nicolas Meyer are experienced enough or capable of handling something of this scope. They are from the old-school, low-budget, simpler times. I think, at least. As much as I’d like to see that, it isn’t realistic.
That’d be like buying a brand-new Lexus, just to go get a gallon of milk from the neighborhood corner store.
5 bucks says that they are going to reboot the next generation.
Not necessarily. The Borg are always interested in future technology — like they were interested in the Doctor’s mobile emitter and Admiral Janeway’s (“Endgame”) tricked-out shuttle. Maybe the Borg of the Jar Jar verse got wind of the technology on the Narada and want to get their hands on it. It’s a thin thread — at best — to hang a plotline on (the Narada doesn’t even exist anymore, though some of its reverse-engineered technology is now in use on Starfleet ships) and I’m not suggesting it be the storyline. I’m just speculating about how the Borg could be shoehorned into nuTrek.
I don’t know whether Frakes was responsible for them, but First Contact was full of nice little touches: (1) the nacelles on the Phoenix, foreshadowing the look of every Starfleet vessel in canon from thence forward (except the Kelvin), (2) the “You people — you’re all astronauts, on some kind of star trek” bit, (3) Riker’s and LaForge’s reactions when Cochrane said “Engage!”, (4) Lily’s “It’s my first ray gun,” and (5) Lily’s saying, “Borg? Sounds Swedish.” I’m sure there are more but I can’t think of them right now. These are the kinds of things I like to see in Star Trek productions, and I really can’t think of any that were in the two nuTrek movies.
That may be so, but we gotta use time travel in one form or another if we are to correct the mistake of creating that damn jarjarverse (and, of course, if we want to use William Shatner, don’t forget that). I know, it’s actually an “alternate universe” (which came into existence with a little addition of “red matter”… right), nevertheless, some sort of time travel was involved, because that ugly, stupid, bald-headed romulan traveled back in time and made an incursion into the past and changed the events. So, that at least would need to be corrected. After that, they could switch to non-time travel plotline. I guess the movie could be made with a semi-time-travel plot.