A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Will Star Trek have any new movies coming out with the original cast and not the new actors? Let me get this straight. You’re asking if Paramount will release  new  films starring the cast from the Original Series and the first six feature films instead of the cast from the Kelvin Timeline movies? The answer to that is a definitive “No.” DeForest “Dee” Kelley, who played Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, MD, died in 1999. James Doohan, who played Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, died in 2005. Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, died in 2015 Grace Lee Whitney, who played Yeoman (later Commander) Janice Rand, also died in 2015 The rest of the cast, including William Shatner, has an average age of 80+. With three of the  Enterprise  “Big Four ”  cast members dead and quite a few of the supporting cast members are either dead or no longer active in the acting business, making a new feature film with the Original Series cast is next to impossible....

On Quora, someone who watches too many YouTube videos by "social media influencers" asks: How do you feel knowing that the Star Trek prime timeline is not canon? This includes Discovery and Kelvin. I feel that individuals who get their knowledge about canonicity in  any  franchise, be it  Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter,  the MCU, the DCEU, or James Bond, from an  opinionated  YouTube video creator need to stop depending on YouTube as a reliable source. The  Star Trek  Prime timeline - a construct made necessary when Paramount Pictures greenlit  Star Trek (2009)  a decade ago - was never de-canonized.  Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise,  and  Star Trek: Discovery  comprise the Prime  Star Trek  universe as far as CBS, the current owners of the TV franchise, are concerned. I...

How long will the current Star Trek movie franchise continue? If you’re referring to the Kelvin timeline films ( Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness,  and  Star Trek Beyond,  the “current  Star Trek  movie franchise” is - for all intents and purposes - dead and buried. There are several reasons for this, but it all boils down to this: even though the cast was pretty good, the special effects well-done, and the  initial concept  was interesting (how to tell a “prequel’ story without the usual problems that prequels have), the Kelvin Trilogy just didn’t jive with the rest of the  Star Trek  franchise. Although I liked the basic idea that Nero and his monstrous ship, the  Narada,  travel back in time to the 23rd Century and alter the destinies of James T. Kirk and Crew, the execution was, to put it simply, problematic. In the Prime Timeline (aka  Star Trek  prior to 2009), Kirk is older than most of the bridge cre...

Which is better: the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films or Star Wars: The Force Awakens? All things being equal - and leaving aside the fact that other comparisons between  Star Trek  and  Star Wars aren’t  relevant, I’d venture to say that J.J. Abrams did a better job with Lucasfilm’s Crown Jewel franchise than he did with Paramount’s. I like J.J. Abrams. I like his genuine affection fo r the medium of film. I like his ’80s Kid, 21st Century Adult ethos. I like the fact that he, too, listened to John Williams’ scores as a teenager the way  I  did. He’s a  Star Wars  fan of my generation, even though he’s a few years younger than me. All of this makes Abrams a good choice to direct  Star Wars  films. His detractors may not agree, but it’s a free country and my opinion is just as valid as theirs, I think. Now, understand this. You don’t have to be a Trekker or a franchise actor to direct a  Star Trek  film. In fa...

Star Trek Beyond (2016) Written by Simon Pegg & Doug Jung Directed by Justin Lin Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban,  Simon Pegg, John Cho, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, Sofia Boutella, and Idris Elba Star Trek is perhaps one of the most successful franchises of all time, and maybe even one of the luckiest, at that. Considering that it got its start as a science fiction television series which only aired for three seasons on NBC, Gene Roddenberry's creation went on to spin off five television series (including Star Trek: The Animated Series ) and 13 feature films. Not including Paramount/CBS Studios' income from the various TV shows, Star Trek - the franchise's film element, anyway, - has earned $2,266, 473, 168 at the global box office. ($1,400,952,879 of that comes from the North American domestic market.) Thus it's not surprising that Paramount asked producer J.J. Abrams to give fans a new Star Trek film set in the alternate (or Kelvin) timel...

(C) Paramount Home Entertainment “Star Trek: The Compendium” Blu-ray Set (2014) Contains: “Star Trek” (2009), “Star Trek Into Darkness - IMAX Edition” (2013) The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the Universe - Dr. Leonard McCoy, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” The Enterprise Runs Aground When Paramount Pictures’ Home Media Distribution division released the Blu-ray edition of J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” back in October of 2009, it created several editions which varied in price. Some, like the 1-disc edition, were inexpensive but still offered a standard set of extra features like an audio commentary track and a couple of making-of featurettes. Others were multi-disc sets with an additional extra features disc and a third disc with the digital copy and a “Star Trek D-A-C” game trial. Paramount also created  more expensive versions as exclusive offers for Target and other retailers, but in all of them the extras on the feature film disc, including the c...