When Will 'Star Trek' Get a Cinematic Universe?

[Quinton O'Connor]

Star Trek as a franchise was pulling off shared-universe appeal several years before Kevin Feige's famous "I have a dream..." speech. (Wait, what?)

It has the lore to pull it off again, absolutely. This is what I want to see from it, because as a guy who just isn't too hot for superheroes (I've come around and begun charting the MCU, but it ain't no space opera... er, well, mostly it ain't no space opera) I admittedly feel a small twinge of jealousy at all the comic book fans who have been attending a kind of neverending buffet lately. :P

That said, it'd need to be handled well. I'm fairly convinced Paramount is going to try to find a way to turn the movies into this kind of experiment at some point in the next few years, but the relative success of Beyond will dictate the how and when of it. I don't foresee television Trek coming back anytime soon, though, and when it eventually does, I do believe it'll be handled more to the Marvel standard of taking place in the same universe rather than DC's approach. (Sorry, Daniel!) Reason being, TPTB have allegedly been ever-fearful of confusing audiences with Trek oversaturation ever since the TV revival era concluded, and I don't foresee them changing their minds on that.

 

[Isolinear]

With multiple TV spinoffs set before and after TOS, there's simply no need for a cinematic universe (it's just doing spinoff after spinoff again). If anything, that takes us back to milking the franchise dry again.

Personally I don't see what's wrong with spinoff after spinoff and I don't get the 'milking it dry' or 'too many trips to the well' arguments.

It comes from those of us that experienced the milking of the franchise in the nineties and don't want to see that same mistake repeated. By the time Voyager came along I was ready for Trek as a series to end.

I experienced the franchise in the ninetees as well and don't remember thinking it was being milked. Of course it was being milked with two shows running at the same time, but the stories didn't feel cheap to me. Milking doesn't have to mean bad quality.
(Enterprise S1 and 2 do feel a bit generic at times, but I never watched those on TV, so I can't say how I would have felt about the show if I had.)

Star Trek is mostly episodic. Each episode stands on its own. The Star Trek universe is just a vehicle for telling SF short stories. Basically The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits but with a permanent cast to glue it all together.

I take it you never caught DS9. That was a trek show that became very serialized it's last few seasons.And even before the multi arcs the episodes were always referencing something that happened in another episode.

I've seen every single episode. Sure, in later seasons the Dominion War becomes a major theme, but even those episodes (most of them anyway) could easily be rewritten as standalones.
Just compare DS9 to the serialized shows we have today. These shows are one long stream of cliffhangers where in each episode random things happen until the 40 minutes are up. In DS9 that is most certainly not the case.
The canon (shared universe if you will) is what makes Star Trek the Star Trek universe. That's why I have so much trouble accepting nuTrek as Trek. It looks like Trek, but it doesn't feel like it's part of the same universe.

If the writers are good at what they do, they will come up with good stories that feel fresh. When an episodic show feels tired, it's probably the writers who are tired, not the show itself.

If that were true, no show would ever be canceled. No matter how new or talented a writer is, he or she is going to have a hard time coming up with a fresh idea for a show that has hundreds of episodes. Add in the problem that writers for Voyager and Enterprise had of writing something new for an audience that had already seen TOS,TNG, DS9 and at least 7 or 8 movies and you can quickly see how impossible that task became.

Hire new writers if you can't come up with anything new. You can't tell me that in a Universe as big and diverse as Star Trek it's impossible to come up with something?! Really?
It's true the show seemed to repeat itself sometimes in later seasons, but I don't blame the Star Trek universe. Only tired writers and rigid higher-ups.

 

[ichab]

I've seen every single episode. Sure, in later seasons the Dominion War becomes a major theme, but even those episodes (most of them anyway) could easily be rewritten as standalones.

Sure you could rewrite them as standalones, but they will have nowhere near the impact. Hence the reason many shows use the format now.

Just compare DS9 to the serialized shows we have today...

No, because you would be comparing apples to oranges. If DS9 was created today it would have been written very similar to serialized shows of today. For it's time it was a radical departure and was only allowed to go as far as the powers that be allowed them to.

The canon (shared universe if you will) is what makes Star Trek the Star Trek universe.

In your opinion. For some people Star Trek is Kirk,Spock and McCoy only. For others Star Trek can be more than that, but only if it's centered around a ship exploring the great unknown.

That's why I have so much trouble accepting nuTrek as Trek. It looks like Trek, but it doesn't feel like it's part of the same universe.

Welcome to the same argument that comic book fans have every time Marvel or DC reboots their universes. DC is in the process right now of ending the NEW 52 storyline /and starting all over again with a "fresh" take on the same characters they have been writing about for the last 50+ years. Inevitably some part of "canon" will be changed and there will be fans pissed off about it.

If it's got the Star Trek name on it, then it's Star Trek.

Hire new writers if you can't come up with anything new. You can't tell me that in a Universe as big and diverse as Star Trek it's impossible to come up with something?! Really?

Yes, really. You can only write so many new stories about a ship meeting aliens in so many different ways without repeating yourself.

It's true the show seemed to repeat itself sometimes in later seasons, but I don't blame the Star Trek universe. Only tired writers and rigid higher-ups.

They brought in new writers all the time.It didn't make any difference. After a period of time the "canon" becomes so large that the show reaches its end creatively. At that point you have to either cancel for good or reboot.

 

[ChristopherPike]

That'll just be me then, who'd get a kick out of seeing characters from other Star Trek series again in some way. If a plausible and entertaining enough story allowed preceding/succeeding generations to be brought together.

 

[Isolinear]

You can't tell me that in a Universe as big and diverse as Star Trek it's impossible to come up with something?! Really?

Yes, really. You can only write so many new stories about a ship meeting aliens in so many different ways without repeating yourself.

"Ship meeting aliens" is just the format that allows writers to come up with almost anything they want. Over the years we've seen Westerns, Zombies, Gothic Horror, Soap Opera, Time travel, Comedy... IDIC. There are always new stories to tell.

It's true the show seemed to repeat itself sometimes in later seasons, but I don't blame the Star Trek universe. Only tired writers and rigid higher-ups.

They brought in new writers all the time.It didn't make any difference. After a period of time the "canon" becomes so large that the show reaches its end creatively. At that point you have to either cancel for good or reboot.

Canon too large? Why should that be a problem? It was a choice to keep writing the same type of stories over and over. Just tell isolated stories mostly disconnected from previous shows. Do what Voyager did and warp that ship to who knows where or when. Problem solved.

 

[T'Girl]

After a period of time the "canon" becomes so large that ...

Never have bought into this, nor into "franchise fatigue" either. If the back history of the Klingons get too burdensome stop including them in the scripts and create a new species. We saw with the Andorians and the Cardassians that the writers can create new and interesting species when they put in the effort.

Canon should be treated as a asset and treasure trove, not an excuse. The writers can include as much or as little canon as is needed.

If they want a Trill to do something in a episode and it was previously established that Trill don't do that, use another damned species in that episode.

 

[ichab]

After a period of time the "canon" becomes so large that ...

Never have bought into this, nor into "franchise fatigue" either. If the back history of the Klingons get too burdensome stop including them in the scripts and create a new species. We saw with the Andorians and the Cardassians that the writers can create new and interesting species when they put in the effort.

Canon should be treated as a asset and treasure trove, not an excuse. The writers can include as much or as little canon as is needed.

If they want a Trill to do something in a episode and it was previously established that Trill don't do that, use another damned species in that episode.

All I can say is the ratings and the network disagreed with you guys. Both Voyager and Enterprise tried new concepts and aliens. Yet it didn't take long for both shows to bring back characters, aliens and recycled stories due to poor audience response.

Far as quality goes I'd put the fourth season of Enterprise up against any of the other show's best seasons.Yet it still got canceled because people had stopped watching.

 

[eyeresist]

Both Voyager and Enterprise tried new concepts and aliens. Yet it didn't take long for both shows to bring back characters, aliens and recycled stories due to poor audience response.

Actually, the odd thing with ENT is they brought in new writers (including non-sf writers) at the beginning to freshen things up, but right from the start they were rerunning old ideas.

Episode 3 "Strange New World" was about a planet whose atmosphere makes the crew "crazy", and episode 6 "Terra Nova" was about finding lost colonists who had "devolved".

But then that was immediately followed by "The Andorian Incident", which began the show's intriguing exploration of relations between Andorians and Vulcans. And that in turn was followed by "Breaking the Ice", a great slice-of-life episode which gives a taste of what real exploration would be like.

So the development of ENT was weirdly schizophrenic. They were mixing new stuff with really old. Maybe they thought mixing in the old would pacify nostalgia fans? But by that stage, it was impossible to please one aspect of fandom without pissing off fans who wanted the complete opposite.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

All I can say is the ratings and the network disagreed with you guys. Both Voyager and Enterprise tried new concepts and aliens. Yet it didn't take long for both shows to bring back characters, aliens and recycled stories due to poor audience response.

New concepts and aliens poorly conceived and executed though. VOY relied too heavily on the reset button, which is a shame as it was the series that would've benefitted most from a serialised structure.