Star Trek is one of the few stories that has succeeded in both film and television. While Gene Roddenberry's vision of humanity's future started off on TV in 1966, it made the jump to the big screen in 1979 after the success of Star Wars before returning to TV in 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Since then, Star Trek's big-screen adventures have shifted focus, turning to a reboot that sees the creation of a separate universe - the Kelvin Timeline - so that the stories of the original crew could be continued with new, young actors. While most Trek fans want to see more movies, there's an ongoing debate on whether or not the continuation of the Kelvin Timeline films is the best course of action.
10 Continue The Kelvin Films: Big Screen Action
While Star Trek has never been known for its action scenes in the way that the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Star Wars movies are, the long-running franchise has had some big battles both on the small screen and the silver screen.
But with JJ Abrams' work on the first two Kelvin Timeline films, the sense of action for Star Trek was raised to new levels. Abram's work on the 2009 film and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, as well director Justin Lin's style in 2016's Star Trek Beyond, introduced the hyperkinetic action that made its way to Star Trek: Discovery and Picard. Still, that type of action works best on the big screen.
9 End The Kelvin Films: Star Trek Works Best On TV
While the Kelvin Timeline has certainly had an impact on the current Star Trek shows, it is hard to argue that Star Trek belongs on the big screen. Roddenberry envisioned Star Trek as an episodic series, and while the progress of television has moved into a more serialized format since 1966, Star Trek helped pave that way, especially with the later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's focus on the Dominion War.
But what Star Trek is really about is the characters and how they interact. Movies don't have the ability to go as in-depth into the relationships of the characters that a TV series does.
8 Continue The Kelvin Films: Cast Chemistry
Two things have helped the Kelvin Time films work as well as they have: the audience's previous knowledge of the relationships of Kirk, Spock, and the crew, and the wonderful chemistry between the cast.
These actors, with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Karl Urban leading the way, all work wonderfully together, and getting to see them play off one another on-screen is a delight. More than anything else, it has been the actors and actresses of the three latest movies who have made each of the films work as well as they have.
7 End The Kelvin Films: It Would Be Missing Anton Yelchin
Sadly, a tragedy hit the cast shortly before the release of Star Trek Beyond with Anton Yelchin passing away at the all too young age of twenty-seven. Yelchin, who played Checkov in the Kelvin Timeline films, brought a sense of frantic excitement to the films that has rarely been seen in Star Trek, and the idea of continuing the films without him is hard to imagine.
While the films could carry on without Yelchin, his absence would be felt in every scene. Whenever the crew of the Enterprise is shown on the bridge, and Checkov is not there, the hearts of fans around the world will hurt for a moment.
6 Continue The Kelvin Films: Give Sulu His Due
With the upcoming Cowboy Bebop live-action series on Netflix, it looks like star John Cho is about to reach new levels of popularity. Cho, best known for his work in the Harold and Kumar films as well as playing Sulu in the Kelvin Timeline films, was sadly underused in the movies, something that a fourth film could fix. Sulu is a character who has gone underused throughout the history of Star Trek, and the chance to finally see the character get the respect he deserves would make many fans very happy.
5 End The Kelvin Films: The Audience Isn't There
These days, a big-budget movie coming from a long-running franchise is expected to hit certain levels of box office success, and the Star Trek films just haven't hit those marks, no matter what the critical and fan reaction has been. 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness is the highest-grossing of the three, but even that film didn't break $500 million worldwide.
In a time when more and more franchises are breaking past the billion-dollar mark, Paramount can't be happy that Star Trek has never even come close. At some point, one has to wonder if there's a big enough fanbase for the franchise to hit the highs of other summer blockbusters.
4 Continue The Kelvin Films: Bring The Hope
More than just about anything else, Star Trek is known for its sense of hope. While so much science fiction is built around desolate futures, Roddenberry envisions a time when mankind would work past its issues with race, sexuality, and class to come together and build a better society.
Sadly, Star Trek's bright future has dimmed over the years as the movies and shows focused more on the darkness. While Star Trek Beyond has helped remind fans that Star Trek is about hope, a fourth film could go a long way in cementing that stance once again.
3 End The Kelvin Films: Too Much Confusion For General Audiences
One thing that may have hurt the Kelvin Timeline films is the idea of the Kelvin Timeline itself. Across all three films, there are reminders that these movies take place in an alternate timeline from the original Star Trek, with multiple Spocks and a different version of Khan running around. For general audiences, that could be a little confusing. The idea of starting clean with no need for the average movie-goer to know the long history of Star Trek may help sell some more tickets at the box office.
2 Continue The Kelvin Films: Finally Free Of The Past
At the same time, with the death of the original Spock in Star Trek Beyond, the Kelvin Timeline can finally move forward with its own continuity and open itself up to new and exciting ideas. No longer will they be forced to mention that these films are set in an alternate timeline created by the original Spock as he tries to help the Romulans, only to travel back in time and change history.
As it stands, Quentin Tarantino has often talked about his idea for a movie with this cast, and while it is unlikely Tarantino's idea will ever come into being, it does serves as a reminder that Star Trek can really play with concepts that other franchises can't. Unlike Star Wars, Roddenberry's creation was made to fit sci-fi along with comedy, drama, and any other genre one can think of.
1 End The Kelvin Films: So Much More Could Be Done
Because so much more can be done with the Star Trek franchise than the movies have tried to do in recent years, it's debatable whether or not Star Trek can grow if it keeps going back to the well. As great as the cast of the Kelvin Timeline films are, will the world ever really think of Chris Pine as Kirk, or will that role always belong to William Shatner?
It may be best for Star Trek to leave its most famous characters behind and explore strange new ideas. They could seek out new concepts and new characters and go where no Star Trek movie has gone before!
0 Comments