Wil Wheaton on re-invented Trek

Television, Movies Games and Books Star Trek
#1

Star Trek The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton posted in his blog a few comments regarding director J.J. Abrams recent remarks about his Star Trek movie (story). Here are few excerpts of Wheaton’s article.

“Speaking as a lifelong geek, my knee-jerk reaction when I hear someone talking about “reinventing” something like Trek is that it will be a tower of suck, built out of an endless supply of Jar-Jars and midichlorians.”

“However! Ron Moore reinvented BSG, and it’s the greatest thing ever, so reinventing things isn’t automatically horrible. In fact, if the article had been titled “JJ Abrams promises thrilling effects for Star Trek movie” I’d be celebrating right now. Language is important, as they say.”

“I guess it comes down to who is doing the reinventing, and if their vision builds upon the existing foundation in an interesting way, instead of pulling a massive, insulting retcon on us all. In his favor, JJ Abrams is really, really good at starting things (not so much with the keeping them awesome after one season, sadly,) but absolutely awesome at starting things. Since this is the beginning of Star Trek, I’m hopeful. Apprehensive, but hopeful.”

“So, yeah, not entirely sure how I feel about the “reinventing.” At least the people who totally fucked Star Trek up aren’t involved, but why does anyone need to “reinvent” Star Trek at all? There’s a good reason it managed to endure through four decades and several generations of Trekkies and casual viewers alike. I hope JJ Abrams groks that, because I really want to like this movie.”

“[…] I’m going to commit heresy right now and say what few people are willing to say out loud: most of the Star Trek movies are absolute garbage. There have been ten Trek movies, and I’d say that two of them are accessible to mainstream audiences, another two are great, and the remaining six are nearly unwatchable. If JJ Abrams wants to make his new Trek movie unlike the 80% of Trek movies that aren’t that good, that’s just fine with me. Not that my opinion means anything, you understand, but rambling on and on about things like this is the price of being a geek, and I regret nothing. NOTHING!”

You can read the whole thing here.

#2

There’s only two Star Trek movies that are unwatchable in my book.

#3

To be perfectly honest I used to be a typical fanboy that would bitch and moan about every episode every week and then rip apart the movies. I knew how to do everything better. (Please see shameless and pompous thread). It was a result of unanswered and unacquired dreams. Delusions, actually. Nowadays I look at them as meals. Some are good. Some are bad. But overall they all satisfy. I can appreciate all the hard work that went into something I truly love, Star Trek.

Whatever JJ Abrams will do I have no doubt that it will be Star Trek and I will enjoy it.

#4

Ok…let the games begin. I went and checked the thread that is similar “which is your favorite” and feel that this is different enough to be contained in a different thread.

Below is the text to copy from for your votes. Enjoy.

The Motion Picture
The Wrath of Khan
The Search for Spock
The Voyage Home
The Final Frontier
The Undiscovered Country
Generations
First Contact
Insurrection
Nemesis

Here are the rules:
You have to rate each one from 1 to 5, 1 being unwatchable, 5 being awesome. Here is the catch: You only get two of each number…meaning, only two can be awesome (5)s and only two can be unwatchable/least favorite

Ready? Go.

#5

The Motion Picture: 3
The Wrath of Khan: 4
The Search for Spock: 2
The Voyage Home: 1
The Final Frontier: 1
The Undiscovered Country: 5
Generations: 5
First Contact: 4
Insurrection: 2
Nemesis: 3

#6

Feeling bad that I used to laugh at alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die.

Feeling a bit better because I never posted there…

#7

The Motion Picture: 2
The Wrath of Khan: 5
The Search for Spock: 4
The Voyage Home: 3
The Final Frontier: 1
The Undiscovered Country: 5
Generations: 1
First Contact: 4
Insurrection: 3
Nemesis: 2

As I mentioned earlier, unwatchable is harsh. I would call it least favorite. I just watched them all recently after I purchased a new HDTV. Every now and then I NEED to watch The Final Frontier or The Motion Picture. It brings back memories. They’re like hearing an old song or something like that. Maybe me just weird.

#8

I giggled at it also, way back then. Ditto on the not posting.

#9

Look, I am enough of a hardcore Trek fan that you’re not gonna get me to use the word “unwatchable” anymore than I could describe the worst episodes of BSG as unwatchable. Unwatchable is a term I reserve for 90% reality TV shows. So for me, count my "1"s as "least favorite. It hard to be objective about some of the Trek movies, because Generations, for example, as flawed as it was, holds a special exictment because it’s the 1st ST: Next Gen movie.
And Wrath of Khan was not only great, but it was also the 1st Trek movie (I say that because I count The Motion Picture as dress rehearsal). Not also that I don’t share the hate many have for Nemesis. Nemesis was great!

The Motion Picture 1
The Wrath of Khan 5
The Search for Spock 4
The Voyage Home 2
The Final Frontier 3
The Undiscovered Country 2
Generations 5
First Contact 3
Insurrection 1
Nemesis 4

#10

Trek is my first sci-fi love, and while I agree that none of the movies is truly unwatchable, several were thoroughly disappointing. Doubtless some of you will have the same jaw-dropping WTF? reactions I had to some of your ratings. IDIC, baby

The Motion Picture 1
The Wrath of Khan 5
The Search for Spock 3
The Voyage Home 5
The Final Frontier 2
The Undiscovered Country 4
Generations 1
First Contact 4
Insurrection 3
Nemesis 2

#11

Okay, let me get this straight - 1 is unwatchable and 5 is awesome? That’ll require some serious thinking on my part because that’s exactly the opposite from how grades work over here, but I’ll give it a try.

The Wrath of Khan 5

The Undiscovered Country 5

The Voyage Home 4

Generations 4

First Contact 3

Insurrection 3

Nemesis 2

The Search for Spock 2

The Motion Picture 1

The Final Frontier 1

#12

The Motion Picture - 1
The Wrath of Khan - 5
The Search for Spock - 3
The Voyage Home - 4
The Final Frontier - 1
The Undiscovered Country - 3
Generations - 4
First Contact - 5
Insurrection - 2
Nemesis - 2

You know, I think I’d rather rank them. Becuase there’s no way I consider some of the movies that I gave the same score to equal.

#13

Yeah, I feel the same way Lady D. And can anyone really look back and be totally objective of their first love?

It’s also—I suppose to use a relationship metaphor again—a matter of connection. For example, by all accounts Undiscovered Country was a better movie than Final Frontier. But it just didn’t connect with me.

#14

The Motion Picture - 2
The Wrath of Khan - 4
The Search for Spock - 3
The Voyage Home - 5
The Final Frontier - 2
The Undiscovered Country - 5
Generations - 3
First Contact - 4
Insurrection - 1
Nemesis - 0

I’m glad we’re not into the hating at GWC. It makes the ungodly amount of time I spend here so much more pleasant. But every now and then, you just gotta unload, and I appreciate Wil Wheaton’s candor. Unlike most gripey fanboys, he’s earned his time on the soapbox–he was actually IN Star Trek, for crying out loud!–so if he wants to call 'em like he sees 'em, I’ll bend my ear his way.

And yeah, I gave Nemesis a 0. So sue me.