The Star Trek Prime Timeline belongs on the big screen

Let’s talk about why Star Trek’s Prime, or original, timeline deserves the big screen.

A short time ago our own David Goodman wrote an article asking the question which Star Trek should be on the big screen, and while it’s a fantastic read and I highly recommend it… no seriously, go read it now if you haven’t already then come back, I’ll wait right here, I promise.

Ok, you’re back, so like I was saying, great read, highly recommend, David reached his own conclusion that the Kelvin Timeline belongs in that space, respectfully I’m here to play devils advocate and disagree for a number of reasons.

And before you ask, yes I did just write a very long article outlining 10 ways the Kelvin Timeline is better than the Prime Timeline but this issue is a little more complex than that.

Prime Star Trek dominates both formats for 40 years.

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Star Trek may have started as a tv series, but it grew organically into multiple series and ten strong movie entries before the Kelvin Timeline was even a concept to be pitched. Sure the Kelvin movies have been strong but it’s been confirmed that the Prime Timeline movies were better overall having claimed the top 7 spots in our Official Ranking of all 13 Star Trek Movies.

Sure you could argue that as many as all of the odd-numbered movies are worse than the Kelvin movies, not that I’d agree, and neither would our own Elliott Thorpe who recently wrote an article speaking out in defence of Star Trek V which has drawn a lot of support for the often maligned quest to find god.  But even if you argued at most you have 3 good Kelvin movies and I’m still sitting with 5 great Prime movies.

The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!

The argument has also been made that much of the hate Star Trek Discovery receives from the outraged but vocal minority trolling the internet for low hanging flame wars is due to continuity and because of the separate but equal sandbox the Kelvin Timeline resides in there is less risk of upsetting the Prime Canon and therefore a happier fan base which immediately threw me back to an article I read last week, Gatekeeping in the Star Trek Fandom it’s one of the best things I’ve read this year, written with passion and authority, and tackles many similar themes David Goodman covered in his article Star Trek fandom may be approaching a crossroads.

The creative minds behind the franchise cannot, I repeat cannot allow themselves to be governed by the fear generated by gatekeepers, while their version of fandom is just as valid as anyone else’s they simply do not speak for all of us.

Yes, canon is important. Yes, continuity is important. Yes, I cringe at the idea of a universe where those things aren’t front of mind, but that doesn’t make them the be all, and end all of television. Retcon is, sometimes, the best part of canon, when it works. When it doesn’t it’s a mistake, but we don’t watch tv or movies for perfection, we watch them for enjoyment.

A mistake is just an experience, and context is for kings.

Don’t get me wrong…

I’m a Kelvin fan, but I’ll never agree that they should be the Star Trek movie franchise, the truth is they should be a Star Trek movie franchise, right alongside the Prime movies and even any number of other alternate realities, timelines, sequels, prequels, different times and different genres all as a part of the larger Star Trek universe.

Now you’re thinking I’ve gone too far, but the truth is I probably haven’t gone too far enough. Star Trek has always been all of those things, and should be on the big screen also.

Disagree? Gene Roddenberry wouldn’t…..?

• Alternate Reality: Mirror, Mirror
• Alternate Timeline: City on the Edge of Forever
• Sequels and Prequels: The Menagerie is a sequel to The Cage, and the entire idea of Pike is a built-in prequel to The Original Series
• Different times: Assignment Earth
• Different Genres: A Piece of the Action (Gangster comedy) Catspaw (Halloween Horror)

And that’s just examples from The Original Series, so its safe to say Gene is on-board, and even if he isn’t, who cares? Star Trek doesn’t belong to him anymore, it hasn’t since the day it first aired, it belongs to the fans. To us. All of us, not just the vocal, and not the studios, they’re just the speakers and the stewards.

So to summarize.

Star Trek’s Prime Timeline belongs on the big screen

Shoulder to shoulder to all the rest of it. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

Think I’m totally wrong?
Join the Redshirts Always Die team and write your own article disagreeing with me, put your voice to good use, we’d be happy to welcome you and your point of view to our team, we’re always looking to improve ourselves by adding alternate opinions and we leave all of our writers free to express whichever opinion they may hold.

Do you have what it takes?  We look forward to hearing from you.