Star Trek's Troubling 50th Anniversary

[Mudd]

The brother of Doug Jung, the co-writer, said something to that effect.

On a Twitter feed no less? I put about as much stock as some unknown fanfic writer posting on Facebook they know about two new Trek series because they've "seen some art."

I'll put a great deal more faith in the Jung report.

 

[BillJ]

The brother of Doug Jung, the co-writer, said something to that effect.

On a Twitter feed no less? I put about as much stock as some unknown fanfic writer posting on Facebook they know about two new Trek series because they've "seen some art."

I'll put a great deal more faith in the Jung report.

I'd still like to see independent verification of it though.

 

[Campe]

On a Twitter feed no less? I put about as much stock as some unknown fanfic writer posting on Facebook they know about two new Trek series because they've "seen some art."

I'll put a great deal more faith in the Jung report.

I'd still like to see independent verification of it though.

I may have been being dramatic.

Having read up on Leslie E. Owen and Para Mobius, I would too. Nonetheless, I agree with BillJ that some confirmation from an industry source outside of a Twitter account would be nice.

 

[The Doctor]

The brother of Doug Jung, the co-writer, said something to that effect.

On a Twitter feed no less? I put about as much stock as some unknown fanfic writer posting on Facebook they know about two new Trek series because they've "seen some art."

I'll put a great deal more faith in the Jung report.

It certainly has the smell of truth about it. Strange that no one else has followed up with either a confirmation or a denial.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Inside Star Trek (the Solow-Justman book) advocates, if I remember correctly, that Coon did read the story and had completely fortotten that he had. The book describes the writing of "Arena" as troubled, and Coon volunteered to take it on over the weekend and was able to crank it out in impressive time by Monday, but later realized his error.

In fairness to Coon, I don't believe that there's a way to glean from Solow-Justman what happened for sure, so I recounted it as either a case of cryptomnesia or one of independent recreation.

The key passage seems to be this one [underlining mine]:

Inside Star Trek wrote:

Joan has absolutely no doubt he was unaware he had "lifted" the material.

Thanks for doing the research, doubleohfive.

Ditto!

 

[doubleohfive]

Oh, I agree with you. I don't know enough about the context of the story to be able to say anything definitively (especially as I worry about cryptomnesia myself all the time in my own writing.)

I just knew I remembered that passage and thought it appropriate to post here.

 

[RandyS]

But if you're moving that far away from the core of what Star Trek is, then what's the point of it being Star Trek?

Isn't what you're saying the core argument against JJ Trek? Since there's no way to impose your idea of what the core of Trek is on me or vice versa, this problem is intractable. It simply devolves into a marketing prediction for Hollywood to determine how people will vote with their wallets, and that's the direction the franchise goes. New directions are tried only after the gravy-train runs dry. For instance, Nolan wasn't allowed to take over the Batman franchise and push it into a more "serious" direction until we were subjected to dreck like "Batman and Robin" with male-nipples.

By the core, I'm referring to the core material. Kirk, Spock (big heroes) and the Enterprise out in space having adventures and encountering weird shit. You can move away from that to some degree, but there comes a point where you move too far away and your audience begins to abandon you.

Somebody needs to tell that to the present novel writers.

 

[Mudd]

When Star Trek in other media begins generating hundreds of millions of dollars in income per project you can be sure that Paramount will follow that lead.

 

[doubleohfive]

BOOM.

Confirmed less than 20 minutes ago: Simon Pegg Co-Writing ‘Star Trek 3′ With Doug Jung

Deadline.com wrote:

EXCLUSIVE: Simon Pegg has been set to co-write Star Trek 3, the film that just got Fast & Furious director Justin Lin aboard after Roberto Orci exited the helmer chair. He will co-write the script with Doug Jung, creator of the TNT series Dark Blue. Pegg’s already a pivotal player in the JJ Abrams-produced Paramount/Skydance pic; he will also reprise his role as Scotty, the engineering wiz originated by James Doohan in the original Gene Roddenberry 60s series. Don’t be surprised if Scotty beams up further on the call sheet. Jung also wrote for Bad Robot and Paramount a film called Diamond, which is how he got the gig. They are just getting underway.

 

[Maurice]

So what you want are stories like these:

Nnnnnno. I said "short stories". Pay attention.

Your ideas are, of course, generally well-taken. I wonder, though, how many episodic TV shows at any level of quality right now could come up with 40 one-line story descriptions that were distinct? I suspect that's one reason that TV drama now relies so heavily upon serialization.

Well, I was speaking for myself. For the pilot pitch I've been working on I set a goal for myself to come up with 3 seasons (13 episodes each per Nteflix, etc.) worth of ideas just to see if the idea had legs. Most of these are one-liners about themes, basic plots, and character stuff. I've had other ideas where it was difficult to come up with even a dozen story ideas, which made me realize I had to rethink the formula and format. Ideally you want to create a world and situations which suggest stories, not one where you struggle to find stories to fit it.

 

[Set Harth]

Simon Pegg?

Well, I didn't see that one coming.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Nothing wrong with it, from what I can see, and it sounds just like what Nimoy, Shatner, Frakes, Burton, McNeil, and Dawson ended up doing before (with some of them becoming directors.)

 

[Lance]

Simon Pegg?

Well, I didn't see that one coming.

Like a sharp jab to a glass jaw?

 

[Kruezerman]

So I wonder if the original script was completely thrown out or if Orci is part of the writing process at all.

 

[Mudd]

I imagine they're largely starting over.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Better Simon Pegg than David Loughery.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Can't imagine they can totally start over, not with only three months to go 'til shooting. No doubt there's been a lot of production art already generated, costumes being designed and sewn, storyboards, props, set construction, etc. No, this script's going to be built over the bones of whatever Orci had come up with and incorporate most of his story.

 

[Mudd]

Sure they can, no problem. June is a more likely start of production than April.

 

[HaplessCrewman]

Nothing wrong with it, from what I can see, and it sounds just like what Nimoy, Shatner, Frakes, Burton, McNeil, and Dawson ended up doing before (with some of them becoming directors.)

The difference is that Simon Pegg has a significant body of work and has (co-)writing experience. Plus, he carries some celebrity with him.

 

[StarMan]

Colour me enthused. Always been a fan of Pegg's work.