With word making the rounds on the old rumor mill that Star Trek will launch a new film series, set in the Kelvin Timeline, that will serve as a prequel to the 2009 version of the film, many fans are buzzing over the possibility of what this film could entail. The only thing we know about the movie is that it's set decades before the 2009 film, meaning it won't feature Chris Pine and the rest of the cast.
So naturally, everyone is thinking that this film could be the origin story of Starfleet, similar to that of Star Trek: Enterprise. In Enterprise, the show revolved around the NX-01 Enterprise, the first Warp 5 ship in Starfleet history, captained by Jonathan Archer. Archer, of course, was brilliantly played by Scott Bakula, a role that he nailed with ease.
So since the first Star Trek film in 2009 rebooted the characters from the original series, many now believe that this prequel will do the same thing with Archer and the crew of the NX-01 and I'm here to tell you why that would be a mistake.
Star Trek 2009 caught lightning in a bottle, relaunching a franchise that was nearly 50 years old. It gave new life to characters who many fans only saw in reruns and in viewings of old, 30-year-old films. Trying to recapture that again, this time with a show like Enterprise, a show that is only starting to be seen as the classic it deserves to be recognized as, would backfire.
The fandom is more divisive than ever before, and trying to subvert the glory that Bakula and company deserve, all to relaunch a property that wasn't embraced by the studio the first time around would be met with condemnation by the fans.
Yet, the franchise has a chance to get those fans on board, simply by making a new property with new characters. It can be set in the Kelvin timeline but actually building the mythos they want in the Kelvin Timeline would actually bring some fans into the film. It's something many wished they had done with the '09 film, go original. Tell a new story. Feature new characters.
Fans want that, and this prequel film gives us that potential.