Open memo to J.J. Abrams -- Star Trek

[Oddball]

But what about Harry Mudd?

 

[Midnight Marauder]

But what about Harry Mudd?

Hell, in this timeline he's probably made hundreds of millions on some planet full of dupes by convincing them that their vehicle exhaust emissions are the lone and only reason for their global warming that's not actually happening!

 

[random3434]

But what about Harry Mudd?

What the hell is that around his neck, hair or a tribble?

 

[Xenophon]

But what about Harry Mudd?

Hell, in this timeline he's probably made hundreds of millions on some planet full of dupes by convincing them that their vehicle exhaust emissions are the lone and only reason for their global warming that's not actually happening!

Roger C Carmel had a bad ending.

 

[Dr.Traveler]

]Klingons? No mention of them at all, do they exist in this new timeline and if so, are they changed?

Klingons are mentioned in the movie. A Klingon fleet is destroyed by Nero's ship off screen and the prison planet from Star Trek VI is mentioned, but it is brief.

Supposedly there's a whole lot of Klingon stuff that was left on the cutting room floor that is supposed to be on the DVD. There's a lot of "supposedly" in there though, so take that with a grain of salt.

As for Gene's opinion, I kinda stopped caring what he thought after I read up on the behind the scenes stuff for Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. Those were arguably the best of the original crew's work, and Roddenberry hated them with a passion.

As for me, I really liked it. The opening sequence was great and had some extra punch for me. My son is named Jim, for my wife's father, so watching that whole scene play out made me appreciate the fact I get to see my son grow up. The "new" Spock was a pretty interesting character and brought a lot of sympathy to the character. The new Kirk played out pretty much like I'd expect a young Kirk to play out.

And for the record: I will never laugh at fencing again.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

As for Gene's opinion, I kinda stopped caring what he thought after I read up on the behind the scenes stuff for Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. Those were arguably the best of the original crew's work, and Roddenberry hated them with a passion.

He didn't hate them. He felt they stepped outside of canon too much. One example, in TWOK Checkov and Khan remember each other, but in ToS Checkov wasn't a member of the Enterprise crew when Khan was first encountered. They couldn't have remembered each other because, they never met.

 

[xotoxi]

TO: J.J. Abrams
FROM: Me
STARDATE: 2009.1119
SUBJECT: Star Trek

Okay, I got the DVD and watched it and all of the special features. Being a life long ST fan, I had to at least see for myself what you have done.

I skipped this movie at the theater, because from what I saw as a long time editor of the Star Trek Wiki I didn't think I would like it. I objected to your destroying of the canon, and really felt the time travel plot device and the "Evil Renegade Romulan" have been way overused in Star Trek.

Everything Star Trek before your movie is still canon, but now canon of an alternate timeline. I get that, actually got it a year before the movie came out. Accepting it was the problem.

But after watching your movie, only one thought came to mind: Gene Roddenberry somewhere was smiling. Gene, wherever he is, approves. I really believe that. And I hope that to you, it's the best complement I could pay.

Because Gene was all about solving problems, and your problem was twofold -- the massive existing canon made telling new stories nearly impossible especially if you're going to use the original crew, and there's no getting around the fact that pretty much everything has been covered already, either in the original work or the many spin-offs and movies which came after. The Star Trek Universe was stale.

Now it's a whole new palate, a whole new canvas for yourself or perhaps future Trek film makers to paint on, making the entire thing all new again.

My hat is off to you and all who worked on this film. Nice job. You've won a convert and a fan.

Carry on. Warp Speed.

Do you really think that J.J. Abrams knows who "Me" is?

 

[Midnight Marauder]

TO: J.J. Abrams
FROM: Me
STARDATE: 2009.1119
SUBJECT: Star Trek

Okay, I got the DVD and watched it and all of the special features. Being a life long ST fan, I had to at least see for myself what you have done.

I skipped this movie at the theater, because from what I saw as a long time editor of the Star Trek Wiki I didn't think I would like it. I objected to your destroying of the canon, and really felt the time travel plot device and the "Evil Renegade Romulan" have been way overused in Star Trek.

Everything Star Trek before your movie is still canon, but now canon of an alternate timeline. I get that, actually got it a year before the movie came out. Accepting it was the problem.

But after watching your movie, only one thought came to mind: Gene Roddenberry somewhere was smiling. Gene, wherever he is, approves. I really believe that. And I hope that to you, it's the best complement I could pay.

Because Gene was all about solving problems, and your problem was twofold -- the massive existing canon made telling new stories nearly impossible especially if you're going to use the original crew, and there's no getting around the fact that pretty much everything has been covered already, either in the original work or the many spin-offs and movies which came after. The Star Trek Universe was stale.

Now it's a whole new palate, a whole new canvas for yourself or perhaps future Trek film makers to paint on, making the entire thing all new again.

My hat is off to you and all who worked on this film. Nice job. You've won a convert and a fan.

Carry on. Warp Speed.

Do you really think that J.J. Abrams knows who "Me" is?

Of course!

 

[Dr.Traveler]

As for Gene's opinion, I kinda stopped caring what he thought after I read up on the behind the scenes stuff for Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. Those were arguably the best of the original crew's work, and Roddenberry hated them with a passion.

He didn't hate them. He felt they stepped outside of canon too much. One example, in TWOK Checkov and Khan remember each other, but in ToS Checkov wasn't a member of the Enterprise crew when Khan was first encountered. They couldn't have remembered each other because, they never met.

Yeah, that is a bad screw up. What I had heard, is that Roddenberry hated how Khan and Undiscovered Country had "militarized" Star Trek. He'd always thought of Star Trek as a kind of Space Western, and in Khan and Country, that isn't the feel of the show. I'd always heard that gripe about DS9 too (though in that case it wasn't Roddenberry, as he was gone, it was folks that claimed to know what Roddenberry would have liked).

I can imagine he probably wouldn't have liked the newest movie for much the same reason. Roddenberry tried hard to keep tight control over the "vision" of Star Trek. I can't imagine a reboot would have sat well with him.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

As for Gene's opinion, I kinda stopped caring what he thought after I read up on the behind the scenes stuff for Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. Those were arguably the best of the original crew's work, and Roddenberry hated them with a passion.

He didn't hate them. He felt they stepped outside of canon too much. One example, in TWOK Checkov and Khan remember each other, but in ToS Checkov wasn't a member of the Enterprise crew when Khan was first encountered. They couldn't have remembered each other because, they never met.

Yeah, that is a bad screw up. What I had heard, is that Roddenberry hated how Khan and Undiscovered Country had "militarized" Star Trek. He'd always thought of Star Trek as a kind of Space Western, and in Khan and Country, that isn't the feel of the show. I'd always heard that gripe about DS9 too (though in that case it wasn't Roddenberry, as he was gone, it was folks that claimed to know what Roddenberry would have liked).

I can imagine he probably wouldn't have liked the newest movie for much the same reason. Roddenberry tried hard to keep tight control over the "vision" of Star Trek. I can't imagine a reboot would have sat well with him.

We have to defer to his late wife on that...

And the "militarization" in TWOK was actually Gene's idea... He wanted a submarine warfare-type scenario somewhat like "Balance of Terror" was, more of a nautical theme like the Hornblower stories. Hornblower being, the actual inspiration for everything Trek..

 

[Xenophon]

He didn't hate them. He felt they stepped outside of canon too much. One example, in TWOK Checkov and Khan remember each other, but in ToS Checkov wasn't a member of the Enterprise crew when Khan was first encountered. They couldn't have remembered each other because, they never met.

Yeah, that is a bad screw up. What I had heard, is that Roddenberry hated how Khan and Undiscovered Country had "militarized" Star Trek. He'd always thought of Star Trek as a kind of Space Western, and in Khan and Country, that isn't the feel of the show. I'd always heard that gripe about DS9 too (though in that case it wasn't Roddenberry, as he was gone, it was folks that claimed to know what Roddenberry would have liked).

I can imagine he probably wouldn't have liked the newest movie for much the same reason. Roddenberry tried hard to keep tight control over the "vision" of Star Trek. I can't imagine a reboot would have sat well with him.

We have to defer to his late wife on that...

And the "militarization" in TWOK was actually Gene's idea... He wanted a submarine warfare-type scenario somewhat like "Balance of Terror" was, more of a nautical theme like the Hornblower stories. Hornblower being, the actual inspiration for everything Trek..

Dr T is closer then you are about this.

Harve Bennett (who produced all the Trek movies from Khan foward) talks about it on the DVD set for the movies. Gene HATED the direction the movies went in, Harve realized the material was a space going Horatio Hornblower and Gene wanted touchy feely liberalism, which shows in Star Trek the Next Generation's first two seasons. Both of those are chock full of that PC crap, it was only when his health failed that STTNG started to become a top show with season 3. Paramount did not let him do to the films what he ended up doing to the TV show (which debuded after ST IV).

As for the movies, Gene had little to do with them outside of the absolute worst one, which was ST the motion picture.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Yeah, that is a bad screw up. What I had heard, is that Roddenberry hated how Khan and Undiscovered Country had "militarized" Star Trek. He'd always thought of Star Trek as a kind of Space Western, and in Khan and Country, that isn't the feel of the show. I'd always heard that gripe about DS9 too (though in that case it wasn't Roddenberry, as he was gone, it was folks that claimed to know what Roddenberry would have liked).

I can imagine he probably wouldn't have liked the newest movie for much the same reason. Roddenberry tried hard to keep tight control over the "vision" of Star Trek. I can't imagine a reboot would have sat well with him.

We have to defer to his late wife on that...

And the "militarization" in TWOK was actually Gene's idea... He wanted a submarine warfare-type scenario somewhat like "Balance of Terror" was, more of a nautical theme like the Hornblower stories. Hornblower being, the actual inspiration for everything Trek..

Dr T is closer then you are about this.

Harve Bennett (who produced all the Trek movies from Khan foward) talks about it on the DVD set for the movies. Gene HATED the direction the movies went in, Harve realized the material was a space going Horatio Hornblower and Gene wanted touchy feely liberalism, which shows in Star Trek the Next Generation's first two seasons. Both of those are chock full of that PC crap, it was only when his health failed that STTNG started to become a top show with season 3. Paramount did not let him do to the films what he ended up doing to the TV show (which debuded after ST IV).

As for the movies, Gene had little to do with them outside of the absolute worst one, which was ST the motion picture.

First of all, Bennett was only involved in 2, 3, 4 and 5, not "all of them from Khan forward" he had nothing at all to do with 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and secondly, he said just this year in the special DVD feature "Star Trek: The Three Picture Saga" pretty much exactly what I posted. Yes Gene had some problems with ST6 and TWOK, and absolutely detested ST5, but none of it had to do with the supposed direction Paramount was taking or trying to take.

TNG was never a "top show" it was always syndicated with spotty ratings, as were all of the ST shows thereafter. ("Great" syndication ratings that never even touched the ratings of TOS by the way.)

What "saved" TNG starting in season 3 was the Borg, and if you'll look more closely you'll see the series still stayed with "all the PC crap" even to the most recent incarnation. It just wasn't noticed as much.

One thing about Gene that remained constant was, he was known to change his opinions constantly. So since he is not here today we have to take his late widow's word for it, Gene would have liked this film.

 

[Againsheila]

TO: J.J. Abrams
FROM: Me
STARDATE: 2009.1119
SUBJECT: Star Trek

Okay, I got the DVD and watched it and all of the special features. Being a life long ST fan, I had to at least see for myself what you have done.

I skipped this movie at the theater, because from what I saw as a long time editor of the Star Trek Wiki I didn't think I would like it. I objected to your destroying of the canon, and really felt the time travel plot device and the "Evil Renegade Romulan" have been way overused in Star Trek.

Everything Star Trek before your movie is still canon, but now canon of an alternate timeline. I get that, actually got it a year before the movie came out. Accepting it was the problem.

But after watching your movie, only one thought came to mind: Gene Roddenberry somewhere was smiling. Gene, wherever he is, approves. I really believe that. And I hope that to you, it's the best complement I could pay.

Because Gene was all about solving problems, and your problem was twofold -- the massive existing canon made telling new stories nearly impossible especially if you're going to use the original crew, and there's no getting around the fact that pretty much everything has been covered already, either in the original work or the many spin-offs and movies which came after. The Star Trek Universe was stale.

Now it's a whole new palate, a whole new canvas for yourself or perhaps future Trek film makers to paint on, making the entire thing all new again.

My hat is off to you and all who worked on this film. Nice job. You've won a convert and a fan.

Carry on. Warp Speed.

I gave it 10 stars too...pun intended. I'm really looking forward to future movies with this crew.

 

[Xenophon]

We have to defer to his late wife on that...

And the "militarization" in TWOK was actually Gene's idea... He wanted a submarine warfare-type scenario somewhat like "Balance of Terror" was, more of a nautical theme like the Hornblower stories. Hornblower being, the actual inspiration for everything Trek..

Dr T is closer then you are about this.

Harve Bennett (who produced all the Trek movies from Khan foward) talks about it on the DVD set for the movies. Gene HATED the direction the movies went in, Harve realized the material was a space going Horatio Hornblower and Gene wanted touchy feely liberalism, which shows in Star Trek the Next Generation's first two seasons. Both of those are chock full of that PC crap, it was only when his health failed that STTNG started to become a top show with season 3. Paramount did not let him do to the films what he ended up doing to the TV show (which debuded after ST IV).

As for the movies, Gene had little to do with them outside of the absolute worst one, which was ST the motion picture.

First of all, Bennett was only involved in 2, 3, 4 and 5, not "all of them from Khan forward" he had nothing at all to do with 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and secondly, he said just this year in the special DVD feature "Star Trek: The Three Picture Saga" pretty much exactly what I posted. Yes Gene had some problems with ST6 and TWOK, and absolutely detested ST5, but none of it had to do with the supposed direction Paramount was taking or trying to take.

TNG was never a "top show" it was always syndicated with spotty ratings, as were all of the ST shows thereafter. ("Great" syndication ratings that never even touched the ratings of TOS by the way.)

What "saved" TNG starting in season 3 was the Borg, and if you'll look more closely you'll see the series still stayed with "all the PC crap" even to the most recent incarnation. It just wasn't noticed as much.

One thing about Gene that remained constant was, he was known to change his opinions constantly. So since he is not here today we have to take his late widow's word for it, Gene would have liked this film.

You are trying to split hairs.

Yes, Bennett left before 6, but 6 was also the last to use the full old cast and he did have imput through Nichols Meyer who shared Bennett's view of the property and was opposed to Roddenberry's.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was the last film with the cast of the original Star Trek series and was dedicated to Roddenberry. He reportedly viewed an early version of the film a few days before his death. In his book Star Trek Movie Memories, William Shatner clams that after Roddenberry viewed the film in a private screening, he promptly drafted a list of changes he wanted made, but by the time his attorney submitted that list, Roddenberry himself had died.

Gene Roddenberry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

STTNG was not 'spotty' in ratings, it was the #2 show in syndication behind wheel of fortune for 5 years, and it was not 'the Borg' that changed matters, they had been introduced in season 2, it was the decision to move away from the silly spandex jumpsuites (which actually caused Patrick stewart pain and had to be replaced) and the 'children onboard' for a greater focus on action and adventure and development of characters such as Worf (begining with sins of the father) and data (the ensigns of command) as well as questioning the Prime Directive (Who watches the watchers) and alternate futures (yesterday's enterprise).

The season ending cliffhanger with the Borg was the climax of a year for the show that now had little to do with Roddenberry.

Roddenberry was deeply involved with creating and producing Star Trek: The Next Generation, although he only had full control over the show's first season. The WGA strike of 1988 prevented him from taking an active role in production of the second season and forced him to hand control of the series to producer Maurice Hurley. While Roddenberry was free to resume work on the third season, his health was in serious decline, and over the course of the season, he gradually ceded control to Rick Berman and Michael Pille.

again,
Gene Roddenberry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Charles Stucker]

Shit.....I'm gonna have to see it now, huh?

Makes two of us.

 

[Harry Dresden]

i cant rep you anymore EZ or you would have gotten one for this....

 

[Xenophon]

i cant rep you anymore EZ or you would have gotten one for this....

DYK that Gene was banging her and Nurse Chappel at the same time?

They made him pick one and he married Majel.

 

[Harry Dresden]

TNG was never a "top show" it was always syndicated with spotty ratings, as were all of the ST shows thereafter. ("Great" syndication ratings that never even touched the ratings of TOS by the way.)

What "saved" TNG starting in season 3 was the Borg, and if you'll look more closely you'll see the series still stayed with "all the PC crap" even to the most recent incarnation. It just wasn't noticed as much.

not true MM.....this is backed up on the Memory Alpha site....

The Next Generation (1987–1994)
Main article: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation, also known as "TNG", is set approximately a century after The Original Series. It features a new starship, the Enterprise-D, and a new crew led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). The series introduced alien races new to the Federation as crew members, including Deanna Troi, a half-Betazoid counselor played by Marina Sirtis, and Worf as the first Klingon officer in Starfleet, played by Michael Dorn. It also featured Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, LeVar Burton as chief engineer Geordi La Forge, and the android Data portrayed by Brent Spiner. The show premiered on September 28, 1987, and ran for seven seasons, ending on May 23, 1994. Unlike the previous television outings, the program was syndicated instead of airing on network television. It had the highest ratings of any of the Star Trek series and was the #1 syndicated show during the last few years of its original run, allowing it to act as a springboard for ideas in other series. Many relationships and races introduced in TNG became the basis of episodes in Deep Space 9 and Voyager. It was nominated for an Emmy for Best Dramatic Series during its final season. It also received a Peabody Award for Outstanding Television Programming for the episode "The Big Goodbye".

 

[Harry Dresden]

Shit.....I'm gonna have to see it now, huh?

Makes two of us.

i was reluctant to see it ....but when i found out it was a alternate reality i went and thought they did a great job....definatly worth a rent....i have it sitting here waiting to see it in Blue Ray...

 

[Mr. H.]

Watched it today for the 3rd time. Two thumps up