New Trek Props / Star Trek XI

[phase pistol]

One-of-us. One-of-us. Gooble Gobble.

- k

 

[aljf]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jimbo890 @ Apr 21 2006, 09:26 AM) [snapback]1230474[/snapback]</div>

Academy days, yawn. Early Mission or the transition from Pike to Kirk, and some of those missions, now I am game.

[/b]

Me too I'd be up for that

 

[Geniepants]

I'd heard a rumor about a movie taking place between Enterprise and TOS during the Earth-Romulan War. I'd much rather see THAT than Starfleet Academy 90210.

 

[SmilingOtter]

First thoughts: "JJ Abrams. He did 'Lost.' This could be good. Wait. A Starfleet Academy movie? This could blow chunks."

Time will tell. I suspect it's going to end up on one end of the spectrum or the other; no middle ground.

On the other hand, they should make a movie out of "How Much for Just the Planet." With a bit of a rewrite, they wouldn't even have to include the Enterprise crew.

 

[AndySertin]

Here's an angle they could approach from, MIRROR MIRROR..

This way you can safely throw continuity out the window.

 

[phase pistol]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geniepants @ Apr 21 2006, 04:19 PM) [snapback]1230744[/snapback]</div>

I'd heard a rumor about a movie taking place between Enterprise and TOS during the Earth-Romulan War.
[/b]

Rumors about the next Star Trek film have circulated since about 2003. The rumors mostly fell into two camps: the "First Romulan War" (to be set later than "Enterprise" but pre-TOS), or "Kirk and Spock at the Academy".

The K/S Academy concept was first seriously proposed by Harve Bennett in the 1980s, possibly as a ploy to continue to make films with the popular characters but not have to involve Shatner and Nimoy.

Here's a pretty good synopsis of the previous rumors and development surrounding Trek XI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_XI


- k

 

[Toferay]

I bet 200 quatloos there will be a Brokeback Academy trailer made by a disrespectful farscape nerd.

 

[phase pistol]

The newcomer is a "true gamester." B)

 

[phase pistol]

OK here we go.. as it was designed to do, the Internet tells us what nerds think of Star Trek. :lol

(from Saturday's Los Angeles Times)

BUZZTRACKER
'Star Trek' Reborn: The Fans Speak
After a year on ice, Sci-fis longest running francise is returning with J.J. Abrams at the helm. But what do the trekkies think?
By Deborah Netburn
April 21 2006

Those of us who are not mega Star Trek die-hards, glancing at the morning's news it seemed safe to assume that the streets would soon be filled with young men in plastic pointy ears dancing with glee. We assumed that Trekkie reaction to news that one year after the franchise was last seen on the airwaves or in movie theaters Paramount had tapped J.J. Abrams to write, direct, and produce "Star Trek" 11 would be similar to the effect of Zac Efron striding into a bat-mitzvah for a dance. Squeals of delight, fits of hysteria, perhaps some passing out was fully expected.

Au contraire. Trekkies are no longer the innocent, accepting 13-year-olds they once were. They've had their hearts broken before and they are wary of being hurt again.

We spoke with the Commanding Officer and Second Officer of USS Angeles--the LA based "Star Trek" and science fiction fan club, as well as the former editor of "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: Next Generation" comics for D.C. They greeted the news with cautious hope, but to our surprise, they all agreed that JJ Abrams is not their dream boy. Not by a long shot.

Janice Willcocks, Commanding Officer, USS Angeles.

How long have you been into Star Trek?
Well, I've been a fan since the beginning. I was six when the first series came out and it was so far beyond any other science fiction that was out there. I mean, "Lost in Space" and "Land of the Giants," give me a break. I've always been into it. I'm a long time fan.

WWhat do you think about JJ Abrams taking over the franchise?
I think it's great news. I was thinking that "Star Trek" was going to go away for a while. Everyone seemed to be packing things up and shoving it in a corner, and I'm glad to hear that JJ Abrams is going to be at the helm. I'm a big fan of "Lost," and it sounds like Trek is in good hands.

What do you think about the storyline?
MmmÂ…I have mixed feeling about that. Obviously they will have to use different actors to play those parts. But they are such special people it will be really tough to recast those parts. As somebody mentioned on our list, how are you going to get new actors to be good as those characters without being a parody of them?

Who would be your first choice to direct the film?
There was some talk about J. Michael Strasinky showed interest, he wrote and produced "Babylon 5," a couple of years ago he was thinking he could come in and do something with it, he really cares about it, it's not just a job or making money, he really cares about star trek, I thought that was very important, I'm not as familiar with personal traits as J.J. Abrams, I have no idea how he really feels about it, is he really a trek fan at all. It will be interesting how it turns out. But you know star trek lives.

How would you rate your star trek fandom on a scale of one to ten?
I'm probably more toward the extreme side, but I don't speak Klingon. And unless it is a convention or Halloween, I would be embarrassed to wear my uniforms in public, but I do have them. I would say 8.5.

Jackie Bundy, Second Officer of the USS Angeles

How did you get interested in Star Trek?
I grew up with it. It has been a part of my life since I can remember, and the past eight years I've been reviewing "Star Trek" novels as well as mysteries and other science fiction books as a freelance writer. There are over 600 "Star Trek" novels at this point, and a minimum of 32 novels come out every year. There are authors I refuse to read, but the majority I do read. I review for treknation.com.

What do you think of JJ Abrams taking over the franchise?
I'm positive and hopeful because of the work he's done in the past but will be reserving judgment with what they are thinking about with the next movie. I'm not surprised they would tap him because he is so hot right now. Hopefully he will get some people around him that do know "Star Trek" and will be considerate of the fan concerns.

What do you think of the proposed storyline?
The press release I read said they are thinking of going back in time again. God, I hope not, but if they do a younger version they are going to be treading a minefield -- every long time fan has those dates committed to memory. They know that Kirk and Spock could not possibly be in academy together. To old timers like myself, who have 40 years invested in the series, when someone comes along and says 'Oh, never mind, we are going to contradict all of that,' it pisses them off. It makes them feel almost used in a way, because they've invested a lot of time over the years and an awful lot of money. "Star Trek" fans spend a LOT of money.

How would you rate your star trek fandom on a scale of one to ten?
I love "Star Trek." I grew up with it. I think I'm about a six or seven.

Robert Greenberger, Author of 4 "Star Trek" novels, and former editor of "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: Next Generation" comics for D.C. Comics.

How did you get into "Star Trek?"
I remember coming downstairs late one night and my father was watching TV and I saw people sparkling in and out of existence. One year later I got to stay up late enough to watch with him and I got fascinated. I blame my father.

What do you think about JJ Abrams helming the Star Trek 11 film?
This morning when I heard the news I thought, "JJ Abrams? "Star Trek" 11? Thank God. Fresh blood who knows how to tell a story." When I read further that it was another backwards looking story I was disappointed. That's not what the franchise needs. "Star Trek" is so much bigger than just Kirk and Spock. You feel you are running in circles instead of growing, so there is some concern.

Were there any rumors circulating in the fan world about the next film?
It was not rumored at all. There are rumors -- the actors talk at the conventions and all. Rick Burman was talking about an 11th film, and when they named the guy writing the screenplay, everybody said, "Who?" But this is big and it came totally out of left field.

Is it possible for Kirk and Spock to have been in Academy at the same time?
Somebody just pinged me with a note about thisÂ…. There is a book in print called "Star Trek Chronology," published by Pocket Books and it says Spock entered Starfleet Academy in the year 2249 and that Kirk was admitted to the academy in 2250Â…so it is plausible.

How would you rate your star trek fandom on a scale of one to ten?
Oh boy, I can't speak Klingon. I'd put myself a notch or two below the top. Although I've been a big fan for a long long time.

 

[Treadwell]

We spoke with the Commanding Officer and Second Officer of USS Angeles[/b]

These Starfleet International people just don't get how incredibly dorky their titles make them, and the whole of fandom, look to everyone else.

Okay, we ARE dorky, but we don't need to add fuel to the fire.

(Which is why during the early days of the 501st I argued against using terms like "Garrison", "CO", etc. You can see how persuasive I was. )

 

[BlindSquirrel]

Maybe now Kirk can wear lots of pretty dresses, disquise himself with wigs and travel to exotic lands while Spock resolves his "Daddy issues". :rolleyes

 

[rad1701]

It seems some of us were a bit off on the timing/history (me included). I did a bit of digging online. I guess I had assumed since Spock was on the Enterprise with Pike so much earlier, that he finished up at the Academy years before Kirk. I just looked at both the Kirk and Spock entries at Startrek.com. They were there at some overlapping times. With Spock about a year ahead of Kirk. The weird thing is they both were assigned to ships during various times as cadets. Spock to the Enterprise under Pike, and Kirk to the USS Republic with Ben Finney and then later to the Farragut under Capt. Garrovick once he graduates. Here's both of the entries so you can compare:

Spock:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/libr...io/1112508.html

Kirk:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/seri...er/1112496.html

So this might not mess with Trek history as much as I first thought.

 

[phase pistol]

Yeah I was surprised to see that as well. However when watching TOS, you don't get the idea that Kirk and Spock were buddies at the Academy. In fact nobody mentions them even knowing each other back then.

Kirk has many acquaintances from those days; Gary Mitchell, his best friend ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"), Ben Finney ("Court Martial"), Finnegan ("Shore Leave") so on and so forth. Spock is never mentioned in that context.

And yes there's the "eighteen years ago" thing from "The Menagerie"... Spock is obviously very devoted to his former Captain, Christopher Pike... to the extent that he betrays Kirk and the present crew, all for the sake of taking Pike to a forbidden planet and risking the Death penalty. This is the sort of sacrifice that Kirk and Spock would do for each other in the movie era, but at this early time (midway thru the first season of TOS), Spock does not even owe Kirk an explanation before stealing his ship. :lol

So yeah, on the face of it, doesn't look good for a Kirk/Spock buddy picture. :rolleyes

One also wonders if the new movie will be true to the characters as they are depicted in the series. References to Kirk in his Academy days indicate that he was deadly serious and bookish:

McCOY: Well, I'm beginning to feel picked on.

KIRK: I know the feeling. I had it at the academy. An upper classman there-- one practical joke after another
and always on me-- my own personal devil, a guy by the name of Finnegan.

McCOY: And you being the very serious young--

KIRK: Serious? I was absolutely grim, which delighted Finnegan no end. - "Shore Leave"



MITCHELL: I'm getting a chance to read some of that longhair stuff you like. Hey, man, I remember you back at the academy-- a stack of books with legs. The first thing I ever heard from upperclassmen was, ''Watch out for Lieutenant Kirk. in his class, you either think or sink.''

KIRK: I wasn't that bad, was I?

MITCHELL: lf I hadn't aimed that little blonde lab technician at you-- - Kirk's best friend Gary Mitchell, "Where No Man..."

Note this implies that "Lieutenant Kirk" was an instructor at the Academy when Mitchell first met him... Or perhaps that Kirk was so competitive, that you had to work to keep up with him perhaps?


- k

 

[temponaut]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(phase pistol @ Apr 22 2006, 11:48 PM) [snapback]1231102[/snapback]</div>

MITCHELL: The first thing I ever heard from upperclassmen was, ''Watch out for Lieutenant Kirk. In his class, you either think or sink.'' [/b]

I always took this to mean that Kirk was a young instructor (a grad, not a student), who taught a class for underclassmen. When Mitchell entered the Academy as an underclassman, upperclassmen who had survived Kirk's class warned him about how tough it was. How underclassman Mitchell got to be instructor Kirk's best bud is a bit of a mystery... although it may have had something to do with procuring blondes.

 

[phase pistol]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(temponaut @ Apr 22 2006, 10:32 AM) [snapback]1231131[/snapback]</div>

How underclassman Mitchell got to be instructor Kirk's best bud is a bit of a mystery... although it may have had something to do with procuring blondes.
[/b]

Kirk had the same relationship - only reversed - with Ben Finney.

He was an instructor at the academy when I was a midshipman. But that didn't stand in the way of our beginning a close friendship. His daughter Jamie, who was here last night, was named after me. ... We were assigned to the same ship some years later. - Kirk, "Court Martial"
- k

 

[WinstonWolf359]

Well, Kirk always was quite the overachiever.

Since it seems possible that Kirk was promoted TWICE while still at the Academy his promotion to lieutenant AND assignment to teach a class might have been because of his "creative solution" to the Kobyashi Maru scenario...

 

[E Williams]

I think it has some promise... They don't just have Abrams, but also several other of the producers (and writers?) from Lost working on it.

Oh, and NO BERMAN.

 

[GeneralMayhem]

Amen, brother. As far as I'm concerned, Berman killed the franchise.

 

[phase pistol]

I used to think Berman/Braga were the culprits as well... but it turns out Ira Stephen Behr had a large role to play in the ruination of Star Trek as well.

Behr was a writer on TNG, and hated it. He's the one who decided "well maybe the Federation isn't so noble and heroic after all." He helped create Deep Space Nine, which IMHO was the end of Star Trek as conceived by Gene Roddenberry.

The corpse kept walking for several years afterwards...

- k

 

[phase pistol]

I dug up some background on Harve Bennett's earlier Starfleet Academy pitch to Paramount...first here's an interview with TrekNation

By Michelle Erica Green
Posted at February 28, 2006 - 5:37 PM GMT

Harve Bennett was the executive producer of four of the original series motion pictures - The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock,"The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier - all of which he helped to write. But his career was long and varied before his involvement with Star Trek, beginning with a stint on The Quiz Kids on the airwaves during the 1940's, when Bennett was a child. A graduate of UCLA with a degree in theatre, Bennett had a brief career as a journalist before spending two years in the army during the Korean War. Upon returning home, he became a production assistant at CBS and rose through that company, then ABC, where he developed dozens of successful shows including Batman and The Fugitive.

After producing television's first miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man, and numerous other shows, Bennett went to work at Paramount, where he was asked to improve upon the first Star Trek motion picture, thus leading to a collaboration with Gene Roddenberry and a film team including Nicholas Meyer and the crew. While he was producing the Star Trek films, Bennett also produced and won an Emmy for A Woman Called Golda. He pitched a Starfleet Academy film in 1989 - a proposal that has resurfaced several times as a prospective television series. He talked to The Trek Nation about the franchise and his involvement at the Farpoint Convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland on February 18th.

Trek Nation: Did you follow the decline and cancellation of Enterprise?

Harve Bennett: No. I am very uninvolved in the subsequent series for one reason, and that is that Next Generation came on when we were still doing the films. I saw the pilot, but it was hard to be writing Star Trek V and see what would be happening beyond. So I never got into it. People ask me questions about everything from episodes to whether I knew Michael Piller, and I didn't. Berman was an executive at the studio, and I knew him well, but that was my only contact with The Next Generation.

Trek Nation: You were involved with the Starfleet Academy proposal.

Harve Bennett: I was very involved with that. We had a green light to picture which was cancelled only when there was a regime change at the studio and a concern that we should do something more conventional for the then-25th anniversary. We had 19 months to do it in. 19 months? There's no way to do a special effects picture in 19 months. The best time we had was Star Trek III, which was two years from concept to release date. And the reason for that is, we would write the script normally and that was an easy script, that was six weeks and we were ready to go. But the special effects planning takes the better part of the year. I said, 'It can't be done.' And then my time was up, so I left.

Trek Nation: Is that back in play now? There are rumors about it, it seems, every six months.

Harve Bennett: I'll tell you how recently it was. Before Sherry Lansing left [Paramount Pictures] last year, we had a meeting, about two years ago, in which I proposed that now was the time to do Starfleet Academy. And she loved it. We would have made it. But then she said the television department had asked her not to do it, because Enterprise was being produced and they thought that should be the prequel. Therefore, we did not do that. Could we make it now? If somebody wants to, I'm there. Technically, I'm retired, and non-technically but actually, I'm writing my own book. I'm considerably happy not to go into downtown Los Angeles every day.

Trek Nation: I'm not even sure, with the Viacom-CBS split, exactly who would make the decision to go ahead with the next movie or TV show.

Harve Bennett: I can't answer that question. I'm just as confused as you are. The whole conglomeration...I thought I understood it when Gulf & Western took over Paramount in my day. But I've lost track of it since. I still have a couple of connections there when I want to get legal things cleared up, though they may be gone now that Dreamworks is coming into the picture. If that deal goes through, I know at least three good friends who aren't going to be there. They'll put in their people.

Trek Nation: So you aren't actively pursuing the Starfleet Academy idea right now.

Harve Bennett: No, but I love it. Some of the steam went out of it when my dear DeForest Kelley died. He was going to be in it along with Bill and Leonard, those were the only two regulars, and they were involved in a flashback. That's how we incorporated the three main characters into the prequel: it was a memory. Kirk comes to the Academy to address the classmates and remembers his time, when they were 17.

Trek Nation: I had heard that Shatner was going to write a pilot, or was pitching something, along those lines...maybe it was to Pocket Books, not for television.

Harve Bennett: We always said that the benefit of doing this as a film was number one, you have nothing but good comes out of this because the original cast continues, the original Enterprise is there waiting to beam up our guys. Two, you have a potential television series called Starfleet Academy. I saw Bill a few weeks ago on the set of Boston Legal and Leonard I talk to occasionally from time to time. We remain friends. We're all about the same age. Critical this is a gentleman named Ralph Winter who was my associate producer on Star Trek II, and gradually became the man we all turned to for everything.

[/b]

And another article, from Startrek.com, on Bennett and Treks not taken .

12.20.1999
Spotlight: Harve Bennett's Visions of the Future


Special to STAR TREK: CONTINUUM by Kevin Dilmore

Imagine a Star Trek film that shows us not the newest adventure of the original crew of the U.S.S Enterprise, but one that peeks backward along that future time line to those characters' first encounters with each other. This film would lay a foundation for the relationships forged between James Kirk, Spock, Leonard McCoy and others who one day would become heroes in their fictional universe and cultural icons in our own.

Now imagine some of Hollywood's most talented young actors stepping into those space-faring roles. Ethan Hawke, perhaps, taking Starfleet by storm as Cadet Kirk? And John Cusack, possibly, at Kirk's side with the distinctive pointed ears and arched brow of a certain Vulcan?

A decade ago, this very scenario was proposed to Paramount Pictures chiefs as the sixth Star Trek film by none other than Harve Bennett, the producer who led the Star Trek franchise through its most popular and successful run of motion pictures to date. The year was 1989, and then on the table was Bennett's finished script for Star Trek: The Academy Years.

"I had a joyful script about cadets Kirk and Spock in a simpler time," Bennett said recently from his home office in the Los Angeles area. He proposed the script not long after his fourth turn as producer for a Star Trek movie and nearly a decade after he first joined the world of Star Trek, having been hired by Charles Bluhdorn, then chief executive of Paramount's parent company Gulf+Western to produce Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. "It's one thing I left unfinished, and when I tried to finish it, it just didn't work out."

At that point, Bennett admittedly had come a long way in the Star Trek franchise. An experienced and accomplished producer before getting the Star Trek job at Paramount in 1980, he began his tenure there with a days-long marathon screening of each and every episode of the original Star Trek series ever made. His first outing, ST II, became the fifth highest grossing film of 1982, and led to his writing and producing its sequel, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, in 1984. He followed that in the fall of 1986 by producing and co-writing Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which remains the franchise's most successful film ever, then remained onboard the Enterprise as producer of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Even though Bennett will admit that his experience on ST V was less than satisfying, he wanted to continue his work of 23rd Century storytelling with a proposal for a bold new direction in the big-screen adventures of Kirk and the crew. Star Trek: The Academy Years would give audiences a glimpse into the early lives of their favorite Star Trek characters.

In his script, Kirk and Spock were fresh-faced cadets at Starfleet Academy, joined by McCoy, older than the typical cadet and already a physician, having joined Starfleet to put behind him some of his life's tragedies including the death of his father as mentioned in ST V. Among the cadets' favorite instructors in the script was one Montgomery Scott, a teacher of mechanical sciences.

While Bennett still holds some of the script's plot points close to the vest, he mentioned that at the time of the story, warp speed had not been reached by Federation scientists - but would be by the end of the picture.

"I had a romance between Kirk and a cadet named Cassie, who dies bravely in his arms," he says, "which explains how he never came to love that way again." And the producer had specific ideas for the film, having selected Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., as the location for Starfleet Academy, and sending feelers on the project to young actors including John Cusack to play Spock and Ethan Hawke to play Kirk.

Some initial hesitation was voiced by Paramount official Martin Davis, who told Bennett that there couldn't be a Star Trek movie without the original cast. In response, Bennett wrote "wraparound" scenes, making the main story of the script a flashback sequence. The film might have opened, Bennett said, with William Shatner as Kirk addressing the cadets at the beginning, then ending with Leonard Nimoy as Spock meeting Kirk up at the graveside of his lost love before their return to the Enterprise.

When Bennett actually was offered the chance to produce a sixth Star Trek film, though, officials preferred he go a more traditional route with the original cast as a nod to the 25th anniversary of Star Trek's debut on television.

"When they said I could do the next Star Trek movie, they wanted an anniversary piece - and wanted it done in nine months," Bennett says. "I figured it would take three months for a script, considering that the fastest I'd ever done one was six weeks. Then I figured that it would take a minimum of six months for the opticals, so I passed."

Bennett's close friend Ralph Winter went on to produce Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which was directed by Nicholas Meyer a decade after Bennett hired him to direct ST II.

And Bennett also allows another glimpse into a Star Trek that never was one from the mind of the show's creator himself. Bennett got that glimpse in a conversation with Gene Roddenberry about the time that studio heads gave their approval for ST IV.

"For many years before and during my time, Gene Roddenberry had wanted to do, since (the classic original series' episode) "City on the Edge of Forever," another time travel story. They turned him down, and he always was very disappointed in that. When we told him that we were going to do a time travel story, he said, 'Good, now's the time to do the one I've always wanted to do.' It was the Kennedy assassination, and it involved the crew being in Dallas on that fateful day.

"I have had my issues with Gene," says Bennett, "and I said that this is a story we cannot tell. There is one thing we cannot change, and that is a major event in history. If we changed the outcome, we would be booed out of the theater; if we show the outcome of the killing of a beloved president, it's a downer. And it's a story in which the crew cannot come out as winners."

Looking back on his tenure with the films of Star Trek, Bennett says he remains proud of his work, comparing his role in the Star Trek universe to that of producer Gene L. Coon's on the original series. Bennett's respect for Coon's work grew from his marathon screenings of Star Trek and his understanding of the role of a great producer.

"Here's the thing about Gene Coon," explains Bennett. "Roddenberry was the man behind Star Trek; he was the visionary and its great promoter. But it was Gene Coon who did the day-to-day aspects of production.

"I liken myself to that next decade's Gene Coon, whom I consider to be an honorable, wonderful man," he says. "I feel wonderful about my place in Star Trek. It's very satisfying to see how we revived the beached whale. It's false to say that we started out to do that. I just wanted to make the best movie I could make." [/b]