Film Review: Chris Pine And Star Trek

Star Trek 2009 is well enough received to no longer be considered an imitation.

This first in a series of films is the opening of a new Star Trek® timeline that can depart from the television and film canon in whatever ways the new writers wish to boldly go --

It's Spock's fault, for chasing a criminal through time. But this chase creates a very interesting new timeline.

Star Trek Into Darkness for 2013 is a worthy sequel, with Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, BBC) as the villain. The new timeline promises to please fans and newcomers with many more films. In 2013, the franchise was already 47 years old! Even though it is all on the big screen now, can its universe of storytelling match the Dr. Who and Coronation Street concepts for longevity? It might.

Episodes from ST: TOS and at least the films of Star Trek II and IV have been referenced in the 2009 film, leaving room for more of the historic film series and TV series to be tapped.

Add time travel alternatives and as Spock says, “There are always possibilities.”

Instead of another television series, we might look forward to another ten films over the course of 20 years ot less.

By the end of the second weekend after the May 8 release of ST 2009, box office receipts were nearly $150 Million. Director J.J. Abrams can be proud of his success in this project and hopefully can provide us with several sequels in the alternative universe he and writer Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orco created.

Older versions of Sulu, Chekov, Kirk, and Uhuru as well as Spock are still available; and further, in the Star Trek® novels, Uhuru lives to be an Admiral over 100 years old and still working. Grace Lee Whitney is also still around. On the other hand, Karl Urban is so believable as Dr. McCoy that aging-makeup would allow him to portray the Older Bones himself.

Christopher Pine makes an entertaining Kirk and I can see him in a few years playing a younger Denny Crane in a new pre-Boston Legal series. If they can bring back Cupid with someone other than Jeremy Piven in the title role, then they can do a prequel to Boston Legal. I thought it was a shame that Leonard Nimoy (born in Boston) never appeared on the Boston Legal with William Shatner.

They had worked on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. prior to ST: TOS and T.J. Hooker afterward; and I was hoping to see them together on Boston Legal with Rene Auberjenois and John Larroquette. For example, they and James Spader might attempt to defend Dr. Gregory House on malpractice charges, especially since Jennifer Morrison (House’s Dr. Cameron) was James T. Kirk’s mother in ST 2009.

There could be a panel of judges with all of the regulars: Shelly Berman, Henry Gibson, and Night Court’s Harry Anderson and Markie Post -- Bull (Richard Moll) might be a judge by now.

J.J. Abrams has hinted that William Shatner may appear in future Trek films. There were rumors that Shatner was angry that he was not in ST 2009, and reports that he had been offered a cameo appearance in one of the last scenes, but was unsatisfied with the offer.

His interviews revealed that he did not know how to bring Captain Kirk back from the dead yet for the new films. At the same time, Kurtzman and Orco have been discussing ideas for sequel films. In the novel canon, to which Shatner himself has added, Kirk was brought back from the dead by Borg nanite technology. In interviews, he has reported a new novel he has written about Kirk and Spock’s beginnings, called Collision Course. Thus, Kirk could enter any timeline into which writers choose to inject him.

If you saw the film Galaxy Quest (December 1999), the parody of ST:TOS with Time Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Tony Shaloub (Monk), you’ll recall that the film ended with the cancelled sci-fi series being updated and re-launched for current fans and a new generation of fans to come. ST 2009 may have accomplished the same feat in full length feature films. The bald captain in a form-fitting uniform on the Kelvin at the start of the feature was very reminiscent of the ST: TNG first season’s Captain Jean Luc Picard, so this opens the door for ST: TNG characters to appear – not only Spiner, but others. Marina Sirtis would certainly be overjoyed to be called back to duty as Commander Troy, just as she was when she was called back for the finale of Enterprise. Ms. Sirtis always said that the TNG series seemed to mean more to her than other others in the cast… A film with all the fun characters in it might prove be quite expensive, so a series of films is the ticket.

Interestingly, even President Barack Obama has enjoyed Star Trek 2009 – at home in the theater on the ground floor of the White House. In a 30-minute interview aboard Air Force One, the President discussed several items with Jon Meacham from Newsweek magazine: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Dick Cheney, and Star Trek 2009. He stated that he enjoyed the original series because it contained some philosophy as well as being entertaining and speculative about the future.

And so it remains…