Redshirts Always Die
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Star Trek Reboot: Two Movie Plot Options

By Rich Libero

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The Star Trek reboots stirred a wide variety of opinion among traditional fans.

I’ll be honest with you: Since the JJ Abrams movie reboot of Star Trek, I’ve refused to watch the rest of the movie series.

I know. I’m ready for flack. There’s no doubt a faction of fans are not happy with the films. Why is that so for me?

Well, the complete lack of disrespect to the overall canon serves as a first reason.

And, of course, you don’t just drag James T. Kirk out of the academy and plop him in the command chair of the Enterprise.

Don’t get me going on the second movie – which I didn’t see, but learned about. There’s a complete lack of innovation by re-making Khan and the Kirk-Spock “dying-friendship” scene. Seriously, these guys just met in this “alternate universe.”

Kirk is Kirk because of all the things he experienced on the way to the captain’s chair. You want to know what shaped him? Read about it on Memory Alpha.

The final insult in the re-boot comes in the form of Vulcan’s destruction and the feeble “alternate timeline” wrap-up.

Seriously?

That’s what you got?

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The Original Series is not perfect. We know that. It battled incredible odds to even make it to three seasons. So the chances of TOS finding its footing and delivering story arcs proved slim. Roddenberry’s philosophy seemed to orbit around delivering a series of individual teleplays within the construct of a fictional universe.

TOS offers small glimpses of arcs, particularly in linkages between the episodes Balance of Terror and the Enterprise Incident.

New Star Trek programming should be answering questions and tying together loose ends from TOS in order to enhance the fictional universe. Enterprise, in its final two seasons, helped to tie some issues together not only to TOS, but also The Next Generation.

Three examples involve tie-ins to the Eugenics class discussed in Space Speed, Klingon mutation (launched in the second movie) and the thread linking the Tholian Web to the parallel anti-verse of Mirror, Mirror. (Enterprise: In a Mirror, Darkly).

All that being said, and leaving me open to corrections and other viewpoints, here’s two potential re-boot plots:

WELCOME ABOARD CAPTAIN:

As we learned in Menagerie, Spock retained deep loyalty to Kirk’s predecessor Captain Pike. Kirk and Spock did not develop a friendship overnight. In fact, they almost distrusted each other.

Plot: The newly-minted Captain Kirk assumes his first command and must learn to trust his first officer, doctor and chief engineer. As he quietly doubts himself, Kirk flashes back to confrontations and incidents involving his late mentor Captain Garrovick.

Racked with guilt and anger, Kirk replays his role in Garrovicks’ death (as explained in the TOS epside “Obssession“). Eventually, Kirk decides to break Starfleet protocol to seek out and destroy the creature.

Of course, the alien would take on a more intelligent and menacing form – perhaps as an actual walking/talking alien as opposed to the mindless hemoglobin-sucking cloud from Obsession. The creature would have to be attacking a colony in order to justify Kirk’s disobedience.

Action and mayhem ensue. Vulcan is not harmed. Nor is the timeline.

VULCAN CULTURAL EXPOSURE:

Once again, Kirk’s newly commissioned to the Enterprise and after a couple of uncomfortable incidents with Spock, seriously considers a request for a new first officer. However, Kirk and crew are thrust into action before he can contact Starfleet HQ.

Plot: Kirk’s first mission appears mundane: Re-supply a Vulcan science outpost. The crew discovers upon arrival that the outpost’s inhabitants are either dead or missing. The trail eventually leads to an Andorian/Orion alliance trafficking live Vulcans to Romulus for blood and body parts.

The Enterprise takes on a fleet of Andorians/Orions and a Romulan ship. We get mayhem, bird-clad Romulan ships, antennae, blue people, green people – maybe even a few “slave girls” – and awesome action.

LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 16: Karl Urban arrives for Paramount Home Entertainment’s ‘Star Trek’ DVD Release Party at the Griffith Observatory on November 16, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty Images)

Kirk learns a great deal about Vulcan culture in the process as well as the special qualities of his first officer and crew. The pre-amoeba USS Intrepid turns up to join the fight. In the final act, Spock earns an opportunity to serve aboard the all-Vulcan ship, but is intrigued by his new captain’s qualities and opts to remain aboard Enterprise.

There you have it: Two potential plot lines chock-full of canon, action, aliens and ships.

I’m just a blogger and I offer alternatives worthy of discussion. Why can’t the “stewards” of the brand figure this out?

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