J.J. Takes The Helm

I have been a fan of Star Trek for a long time...Ever since my sister took me to see the first big screen flick, 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. While certainly not the best movie in the franchise, it was enough to get me hooked, causing me to seek out the 80 episodes that made up The Original Series.

I stayed with the saga through Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine (the most underrated Trek series), and the first few seasons of "Star Trek: Voyager". But then, the quality of the shows and movies began to really suffer, veering off of the original intention of creator Gene Roddenberry. In fact, I only watched a few segments of the last spin off show, Star Trek: Enterprise. It was just too much for me to take...The day that the "suits" cancelled the program, after 4 years on the tube, came as no surprise....

Dave McNary of Variety has all the details on what's next in store for The Final Frontier:

Paramount is breathing life into its "Star Trek" franchise by setting "Mission: Impossible III" helmer J.J. Abrams to produce and direct the 11th "Trek" feature, aiming for a 2008 release.

Damon Lindeloff and Bryan Burk, Abrams' producing team from "Lost," also will produce the yet-to-be-titled feature.

Project, to be penned by Abrams and "MI3" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will center on the early days of seminal "Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission.

Deal reflects [Paramount]'s bullishness on "MI3," which launches worldwide next weekend, and underlines the goal of [studio] chief Brad Grey and [president] Gail Berman to re-energize the pipeline via high-profile tentpoles while revitalizing the..brand with top-tier talent such as Abrams.

"MI3" is the first pic to be released that's been greenlit by Grey.

"Star Trek" has been Hollywood's most durable performer other than James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series.

Decision to relaunch "Star Trek" comes less than a year after UPN pulled the plug on [Enterprise]...and four years after "Star Trek: Nemesis" turned in the worst performance of the 10 films with $43 million domestic.

The idea of a Kirk/Spock prequel film has been around for years... I don't quite know how I feel about that idea being resurrected yet. Sure, it will have Kirk and Spock but can that work?...Given that prequels often don't... and isn't Trek all about moving forward?...I like the idea of bringing in new blood...I have wanted current Trek overlord Rick Berman to be given the boot for quite some time--given his "cookie cutter" approach to the whole thing in recent years. Hiring JJ Abrams and his crew to helm a new film makes for an interesting choice. I like Alias, am a big fan of Lost, and if it weren't for the strange behavior of Tom Cruise...I would be first in line to see Mission Impossible III.

Overall, I'm pleased that Paramount Pictures made this move regarding Trek, and say that it should have been done a few years ago. I'm cautiously optimistic that the history of the future is now in capable hands.