Could the Star Trek Universe Get the Same Treatment as Marvel?

[Kruezerman]

This guy seems to think so:

And none of this precludes the continued success of the movie franchise under the stewardship of Bad Robot. Both films under the aegis of J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk have been hugely successful and critically acclaimed (despite the damning protestations of some die-hard Trekkers) and with Roberto Orci at the helm of the next film, an avowed and passionate Trek fan himself, there's no reason to believe the next movie will be any less successful than its two predecessors and certainly has the potential to be the best one yet. The brain trust behind these films made a very smart decision early on which was that these films exist in an alternate universe to the original movies and TV series so neither needs to preclude either from continuing to live long and prosper. Clearly, Bob Orci will have a prominent role in the new Trek order and as a fan and uber successful screenwriter and TV producer his contributions to the future of Trek are essential. While I would've said a few months ago that it's time to take off the training wheels and let the new series continue without the participation of previous Trek stars, the prospect of Shatner and Nimoy re-uniting for the 50th anniversary is too thrilling a prospect to ignore and I certainly hope that they do a find a way to make it so.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has gotten a lot of exposure lately - more, it would seem, than the Trek universe has ever gotten - but I see no reason why subsequent Trek films couldn't receive the same attention that the Marvel films have.

 

[Khan 2.0]

didn't Star Trek do a Marvel back in the 90s? (movies and 2 tv shows)

I guess it could do it again now (following SW doing a Marvel, like it followed SW with TMP and then doing a prequel in 2001)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

didn't Star Trek do a Marvel back in the 90s? (movies and 2 tv shows)

Trek has never done a crossover with any comics (DC or Marvel) onscreen. I think there was a Trek/X-Men crossover in the comics, though.

 

[M'Sharak]

didn't Star Trek do a Marvel back in the 90s? (movies and 2 tv shows)

Trek has never done a crossover with any comics (DC or Marvel) onscreen. I think there was a Trek/X-Men crossover in the comics, though.

Great, but who said anything about crossovers?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Oh, I misunderstood the phrase "do a Marvel", then.

 

[bbjeg]

The thread question sounds odd. Not only has Star Trek done what Marvel is currently doing, it sounds like your asking can the current soft reboot maintain its continuity? The fact that it's a soft reboot doesn't bode well with that question.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

didn't Star Trek do a Marvel back in the 90s? (movies and 2 tv shows)

Trek has never done a crossover with any comics (DC or Marvel) onscreen. I think there was a Trek/X-Men crossover in the comics, though.

Trek crossovers / "team-ups":

- Data and McCoy
- Picard and Sarek
- Picard and Spock
- Geordi / Picard / Data and Scotty
- Picard and Sisko
- Sisko and Q
- Janeway and Q
- Picard and Janeway
- Sulu / Excelsior and Tuvok
- Picard and Kirk
- etc....

Of course they didn't team up with the Marvel universe, but why would they?

 

[bbjeg]

^Actually, there was a novel where the X-Men joined the Enterprise D's crew. I read it when I was much younger but I thought it was a good read back then.

 

[The Colonel]

This article is along the lines of some of the things I've been thinking about recently. I think Star Trek has suffered from a lack of overall creative direction in the franchise. Now I'm not really a fan of Marvel, (the only superhero I even like is Batman which is a DC property) and I don't think Star Trek should be overexposed on the big or small screen with many disparate movies and TV series happening all at once. Superhero franchises don't have the same concerns of world building and continuity as science fiction and if the Marvel model was attempted with Star Trek, it would all come crashing down eventually.

I think the better example to follow would be Star Wars which has always benefited from a centralized creative team that oversaw all of its media (books, comics, games, TV and movies). The Lucas organization made sure that all of this fit together to create a coherent universe with a rich history. Shadows of the Empire is a great example where Lucas Arts and Lucas Books came together in a joint multimedia project to produced a great story spanning a novel and comic series and a very entertaining video game. Disney is now following this model in continuing the franchise.

Star Trek is drifting without any larger direction, split between multiple license holders all doing their own thing. CBS is happy enough collecting its fees for these licenses and milking out TOS and Berman era Trek. No one seems to know or care about what to do with the franchise beyond the occasional film entry and churning out non-cannon and incongruous novels, comics and games. Star Trek needs a centralized creative team directing it and most of all it needs a return to television, if it is to have any success in the future. The current film series will putter out eventually after another entry or two, after it runs out of nostalgia to exploit.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think the better example to follow would be Star Wars which has always benefited from a centralized creative team that oversaw all of its media (books, comics, games, TV and movies). The Lucas organization made sure that all of this fit together to create a coherent universe with a rich history. Shadows of the Empire is a great example where Lucas Arts and Lucas Books came together in a joint multimedia project to produced a great story spanning a novel and comic series and a very entertaining video game. Disney is now following this model in continuing the franchise.

No. Despite the Myth that existed about the Star Wars EU being entirely canon, it never was. Novels and comics contradicted each other, and the movies overrode everything as they pleased. It got so out of hand that a "tiers of canon" system was introduced establishing an order of precedence between all the various media in regards to what counted until Disney finally stepped in and wiped the slate clean.

Star Trek is drifting without any larger direction, split between multiple license holders all doing their own thing. CBS is happy enough collecting its fees for these licenses and milking out TOS and Berman era Trek. No one seems to know or care about what to do with the franchise beyond the occasional film entry and churning out non-cannon and incongruous novels, comics and games.

Is this a bad thing?

Star Trek needs a centralized creative team directing it

It got along fine without one even in its hey day back in the 90s. Why does it need one now?

 

[Set Harth]

No. Despite the Myth that existed about the Star Wars EU being entirely canon, it never was. Novels and comics contradicted each other, and the movies overrode everything as they pleased.

Things were still canon unless contradicted, though. It's become fashionable lately to claim "the EU was never canon", but that is the operative myth in this context.

It got so out of hand that a "tiers of canon" system was introduced establishing an order of precedence between all the various media in regards to what counted until Disney finally stepped in and wiped the slate clean.

All that the "tiers of canon" really signified was that movies took precedence over everything else. That's basically the idea.

 

[The Wormhole]

Things were still canon unless contradicted, though.

Which means it wasn't canon. There is no middle ground on the matter, either something is canon or it isn't. Nothing can be "canon unless contradicted."

 

[BillJ]

Star Trek needs a centralized creative team directing it

It got along fine without one even in its hey day back in the 90s. Why does it need one now?

Agreed. I like that the creative teams are decentralized and all doing their own thing. It gives a greater variety of storytelling types.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

It's become fashionable lately to claim "the EU was never canon", but that is the operative myth in this context.

If by "fashionable" you mean the production team of SW ep VII said the EU would be discarded, then I suppose fashion rules.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Nothing can be "canon unless contradicted."

Except canon itself.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Geez, enough with that kind of talk! Canon to the left of me, canon to the right of me...

 

[BeatleJWOL]

We have nothing to canonize except canon itself?

 

[Kruezerman]

Trekmovie is running a more expanded article.

Admittedly, Star Trek is a dramatically different franchise than Star Wars, but the template remains just as applicable. While at its heart Star Wars is a movie franchise, Trek is a television franchise with a motion picture component. The sense of wonder and exploration at the heart of Star Trek can only be served best in an episodic series. There’s a reason that Star Trek inspired a generation of fans to become scientists, astronomers, engineers, doctors and bricklayers. While Star Wars is elevated pulp in the best sense of the word, Star Trek is something else entirely. At its heart have always been characters who are a family who are united by friendship, loyalty and an insatiable curiosity about the unknown. In a culture in which cynicism and fatalism are the currency of the day whether it be because of political gridlock, economic depression, famine, the horror of disease, even our best television series such as Breaking Bad plumb the darkness of man. What makes Star Trek so great is that even when it goes into darkness – it still manages to come out the other side extolling the human adventure which is a palpable sense of optimism and hope for the future. It’s a progressive, liberal vision that is to be lauded and not deconstructed or replaced with the fashionable pessimism that permeates the zeitgeist of today. I don’t think optimism needs to be old school, but it needs to be earned. In the end, it’s harder to write characters that aspire and situations that inspire without being hokey and, dare I say, old-fashioned, which is why it’s so important that the creative team be chosen wisely and rise to the challenge before them. It also doesn’t mean there can’t be conflict, both inter-personal and inter-stellar, there must be both in order for Star Trek to be good drama, but humanity united has always been at the very heart of Star Trek rather than humanity divided. Star Trek at its best is space opera writ large with something to say about the human condition.

 

[BillJ]

I have no desire to return to the wall-to-wall Trek of the mid-90's. A movie every two-four years makes it an event.