Hello and welcome to In Too Deep, where I over-analyse a certain section of pop culture.
Well today is the 48th anniversary of Star Trek’s first regular episode, meaning that in just 730 odd days Star Trek will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary (probably, since the exact date will probably be something I’m not factoring in). So what exactly should Star Trek do to celebrate its 50th anniversary in two years time? Well here’s my suggestion at least.
So to start with a lot of the inspiration for this is gonna be coming from what happened with the 50th Doctor Who anniversary. As such don’t be surprised if a lot of this is just a shameless copy+paste from what was created last year. So while I’ll add in how Star Trek could do it, don’t be surprised if I’m rather shameless about it all.
Film: Well it’s already been confirmed that the third film of the rebooted series (or the thirteenth film overall) will be coming out in 2016 because no duh. So what should they do in it? Well one thing that would be neat is having a cameo by William Shatner. Yes I know Kirk is dead in continuity, but I’m sure they could easily fake something. Even if it’s just audio, or some alternate universe gimmick, it needs to happen. Failing that do something to James Bond’s 50th, having a film that has a lot of great callbacks to The Original Series. I mean the films already do this, but a few more would be nice. Maybe even directly tie it back to one of the first episodes, either by having the same actor appear in it or a character. But since most of this is sorta obvious and is probably the most likely thing to happen in 2016 I won’t go on about it much more.
Comic Book: If there is not a comic book that reunites all six captains (including both Kirks) than I’ll be pretty damn upset. Not only is the comic book the perfect place to do it it’s practically demanded at this point. Sure they had Kirk meet Picard, but that was rubbish. No what we need is a nine issue miniseries (January – September) that first builds up the story with each captain in their own issue, before spending the last three issues coming together to solve some sort of giant threat. I mean they have Q for eff sake, he’ll happily cause this to happen. If this doesn’t get made I’ll be highly disappointed, since having all six captains in one room would be a great story. Not to mention having six Enterprises in the same comic book panel. This is another one of those ‘no duh’ ideas, but it’s something that really needs to get made.
TV: There are two ideas here. The first is a drama a la An Adventure in Space and Time. It’s a great look at the first three years of Doctor Who, so doing the first three years of Star Trek would be a great idea. I mean who doesn’t want to see the story of Gene Roddenberry trying to get his show to the small screen? Seeing the filming of the first unaired rejected pilot, seeing the second one becoming somewhat successful and seeing the franchise living on. It’d be a great story, even better if they could get the original surviving actors to make quick little cameos. I mean what’d be really nice is if Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto etc. could play the roles of the actors but, failing that, I’m sure there are great actors that would do the role justice. But that’s just one thing they could do. What’s the other?
Well why not make a new TV series? I mean while the rebooted Star Trek movies are great and all, who doesn’t want to see a TV series come back? There are three ways you could go about this. You could either set it in the rebooted universe starring a ship that isn’t the Enterprise, you could set it after the TNG/DS9/VOG series or you could set it the 70 odd year gap between TOS and TNG. I mean they must have had Enterprises in that time, why not create a show that lives in that very gap? But whatever route they take, the Enterprise needs to come back to the small screen somehow. It started on TV and deserves to stay on TV. I mean chances are they’ll ruin the show with bad writing and whatnot, but I think a new Star Trek series might be a surprise hit. Especially if they continued the social trend that defined much of Star Trek and make the captain a gay man (since they’ve done both a black man and a woman, so a gay man is the next logical step in this social progress). Here’s hoping in 2016 a new series gets launched to boldly go where no one has gone before.
So there you have it. My look at the Star Trek franchise and where they could take it in the future. If you disagree with anything, or have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment. Till next time.
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