Monday Morning Quarterback Part II

By BOP Staff

May 22, 2013

The Oxbow Incident

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Bruce Hall: As a former Trekkie who no longer drinks the Kool-Aid but is still a fan, I'd argue that what first sealed the franchise's fate was an inability to take true creative risks with the film version. And by that, I don't mean letting Shatner direct one. I mean that at one time, the studio was notoriously tight with the production budget because they were content to churn out increasingly mediocre pictures, knowing they could always count on a mathematically profitable number of devoted fans to show up. Eventually, the television product also meandered as the same producers tried to handle both the big and small screen adventures. Things had become a matter of repetitive parody by the time Star Trek: Enterprise was mercifully shot out the airlock in 2005.

They took their fanbase for granted, and people like me got off the bandwagon in the 1990s. I would gladly have put Star Trek out of its misery myself, if only to spare an old friend any further suffering or indignity.

Fast forward to 2009. Only one of ten previous Trek films broke $100 million, and that one was the entertainment equivalent of a Dr. Who Christmas episode. Since then, we're two for two and I don't see any reason why Into Darkness does not marginally outperform its predecessor when all is said and done. Abrams made Star Trek relevant again, and he did it by proving that the franchise can and does have appeal outside the fanbase - particularly overseas. This was going to be critical if the brand was to survive. To purists, nothing about Abrams' vision resembles Star Trek other than the uniforms and the ships, so it'll be up to the next director to put some brains back into it. But personally, while I find the stories themselves somewhat lacking I do love the world they've created, I love the cast, and I love these interpretations of the characters. And most importantly, a lot of people with no previous emotional attachment to the franchise do as well.




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There will be more Star Trek, but it'll be interesting to see how much further Paramount will sex it up and dumb it down as opposed to the more challenging material Star Trek was once known for. I feel like I can already guess, and it's possible that by the franchise's 50th anniversary, Gene Roddenberry himself wouldn't recognize it.

Max Braden: I'm far more interested in the future of these characters than the string of Star Wars movies coming up, but I imagine Star Wars is going to dominate the box office. I don't see any problem with development and release of the next Star Trek movie, but I think expectations will be that it must earn more than Darkness in order to be considered a success worth pursuing.

Jay Barney: I think the future of the franchise is quite bright. At this point it is the #1 movie in America...there will probably be another movie a few years down the road. I wouldn't doubt there will be a return to television at some point. As far as "franchises" go, I don't think there is a universe out there that can claim the longevity or appeal of Star Trek - three seasons during the '60s that became iconic with reruns in the 1970s, followed by six films spread over 15 years with the original crew. A new direction was taken with the TNG, but that only became the highest rated syndicated show of its era. The success of that show brought on three more series and spawned four TNG centered films. After a little break...we now have two hit films in the span of four years. Paramount has the rights to the film franchise and CBS has the rights to the shows. It will be interesting to see when the return to television comes.


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