Re: Paramount Agrees To Two More Trek Movies

Steven L. wrote:
> Jaxtraw wrote:
>> Steven L. wrote:
>>> Jaxtraw wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm still working on the premise that nobody relaunching the
>>>> franchise would be daft enough to try and fit this major relaunch
>>>> in between TOS and the risible ENT. There's simply no room for
>>>> maneuver in storytelling terms.
>>> There's enough room for at least some stories about Captain Pike's
>>> career.  We never saw Pike in action commanding the Enterprise to do
>>> very much--just beam down to Talos IV.  It might be fun to see some
>>> of the experiences Pike had, that were causing him to want to quit
>>> the captaincy.
>>
>> It might be fun indeed, but that's the kind of thing I might enjoy
>> as some kind of extra project, a mini-series or something. It's not
>> the basis of a whole new era of Trek.
>
> Who ever claimed it was???
>
> All we know is that Paramount wants to get just 3 movies out of it:
> XI, XII, and XIII.  And there's enough material for that, from the
> time Spock first signs up with Pike, through Pike's disillusionment
> with being a captain and being relieved by Kirk.  And finally, the
> time of Pike's horrible accident and coping with his disability.

You really think anybody cares about that, beyond "fact collectors"?
Remember watching the three Star Wars prequels? What was the point of
them?
"Ooh, will little Anadin become Darth Vader?" we wondered. No we didn't,
because we already knew.

Add to that that Pike is a minor, minor character who's only part of canon
because of a casting change and desire to reuse the pilot footage. It's
hardly riveting stuff.

>> For instance the recent BSG TV-movie Razor had a sequence where
>> there was this thing abut Starbuck maybe having to sacrifice
>> herself. Except it didn't work because we've already seen her future
>> and she's still alive after the events of the movie. Any kind of
>> threat tension to Pike or the Enterprise would be ruined by the
>> knowledge of what happened in the future.
>
> The tension may, but the mystery won't.
>
> When you watched "The Menagerie," you didn't think "We already know
> Pike ended up a cripple now, so why are we bothering to see his
> past?"  The plot with Spock forced us to view Pike's past as a
> solution to a present-day mystery.  And past and present all came
> together elegantly at the very end.
>
> The fun of a nonlinear plot is figuring out how to fill in all the
> holes and connect all the dots.  The fact that we know the ending in
> advance doesn't matter.  It's figuring out the beginning that's the
> fun.  I'm sure there will be themes and threads, like in "The
> Menagerie," that tie it all together.

Yes, but there wouldn't be any such mystery with another Pike story. The
Menagerie was written as a coherent whole story, an inventive way to use
the
Cage footage while not needing Hunter to reprise his role. We really do
know
everything we need to know about Pike.


Ian


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