STAR TREK MOVIES
Captain, there’s tribble on the bridge. Can Star Trek boldly go into a big-screen future without its captain?
When J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek warp-jumped into action in 2009, satirical news organ The Onion swiftly ribbed Trek fans’ criticisms. “A fun and watchable action-packed thrill ride,” went the complaints, with no “heavyhanded message about tolerance”, no “stiff acting”, and no “interstellar diplomacy” around mahoosive tables.
Well, how about no big-screen Trek? Following a roller-coaster news splurge, it looks like the Enterprise is stuck in stalemate. First came the good news: S.J. Clarkson was to be big-screen Trek’s first female helmer on 4, while Quentin Tarantino was writing a fifth Trek. Then came the bad: Chrises Pine (Jim Kirk) and Hemsworth (George Kirk) left the Federation over alleged pay conflicts.
The rest of the cast are said to be locked in, but this loss throws the bridge into quite the cosmic wobble. Perhaps Trek 4 could be made without Hemsworth, though it would probably involve time-consuming rewrites if George’s return is pivotal, which it surely is. But Pine’s captaincy is currently so established that his absence will simply play like a business decision. If Paramount did launch Trek 4 with a conspicuously Kirk-shaped hole, perhaps they should just call it Star Trek: The Search For A Salary and have done.
So, no cap, no dad… As Kirk said to Spock in Beyond, “Not the best odds.” In an ideal scenario, Paramount would navigate said odds by thrashing out their Chris-sues for the mission’s sake. After all, Star Trek Beyond overcame a shortfall of persuasively heightened stakes to work well as a cast-bonding exercise (and a touching farewell to Anton Yelchin). As for its disappointing returns, perhaps better publicity would help?
If Beyond’s box-office slide has grounded the Enterprise, alternative
Trek options would surely be eyed warily by Paramount. Even if post-Voyager options are worth exploring, they seem more likely to take (space) seed on streaming services, where Trek (Discovery, new Spock, Picard’s – yes! - return) appears to be gaining most momentum.
But the prospect of the Kelvin Timeline stalling seems wasteful, given the crew’s potential. And if Tarantino’s pitch involves Pine’s posse, it would be doubly sad (if not entirely unsurprising) to see his script added to Hollywood’s already towering script-scraper of what-ifs. Somewhere at Paramount, a large diplomacy table patiently awaits brighter developments. KH