The Voyage Home

Before Ronald D. Moore brought Battlestar Galactica into the 21st century, he wrote for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", helping both "Star Trek" TV spin-offs hit their stride in the 90s.

In a recent interview with Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, Moore talked about how he “wrangled a set visit” on the new Star Trek flick. He also drew a parallel between the J.J. Abrams team and when Harve Bennett (pictured with William Shatner) and Nicholas Meyer took over the film franchise in '82 for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.



I saw the sets and thought the production design was just great. I just really liked the visual of it. And the vibe on the set was incredibly positive and very up. People were feeling good and confident and happy. It was really great for me. It was great to be back at Paramount and to walk into a stage where there was a Federation starship.

Moore on if the studio suits did the right thing hiring Abrams:

Absolutely. I think that was a very smart decision. God love all of us that did all the series and the movies during those years, but that’s a long time. There were a lot of tired people. A lot of tired blood. And it’s time to bring in fresh eyes to it all.

I think it’s akin to when they brought in Harve Bennett to write ‘The Wrath of Khan.’ [Creator Gene Roddenberry] had lived and breathed ‘Trek’ for a long time. He did [‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture] ’ and ‘The Motion Picture’ is what it is – I certainly went to see it and loved it at the moment, but it was bloated and [had] overruns and there a sense of it not really finding its feet yet.

Then they brought in Harve Bennett, who had no connection to the show, and [director] Meyer, who had never seen the show, and they reinvented it. They started over. They went at the costumes differently, the storytelling, the vibe of it, the style of story that they were going to do. They rescued the whole franchise. ‘Wrath of Khan’ makes all the subsequent ‘Star Trek’ projects possible.

And I think that’s where they are with the franchise now. They’ve brought in someone new, someone with no connection to the what’s come before, who cares about it and says, ‘Wipe the slate, let’s make this version...

If the Trek reboot ends up being as good as TWOK is expect Abrams to hang around for a while doing a few more missions.

Moore has a pretty good sense of what works--If the vibe he's getting is positive then that's a good omen...