Exploration Movie

[siskokid888]

All of the Trek movies, including the latest, have taken place in the vicinity of earth or the "known" Federation, either defending the Federation or earth itself from some danger or doom. Is it possible to make a movie about actually exploring, going "where no one has gone before"? Can a movie that deals with something other than a direct threat to earth or the knownTrek universe work? Opinions?

 

[clint g]

I think with some creative writing it could work great. The only problem is that the last movie to do so (The Final Frontier) sort of sucked

 

[azebelys]

good idea, but would it capture the non trekkie film go'ers? doubt it

 

[siskokid888]

I think with some creative writing it could work great. The only problem is that the last movie to do so (The Final Frontier) sort of sucked

Yea, because the circumstances were so convoluted and what they were exploring (by force) was so weak that it really was just a mess. It would be interesting to see if they could come up with a story about the Enterprise, on its mission of exploration, coming upon some situation they haven't seen before. The main problem I see is that the danger would be limited to the ship and crew, which is good for a tv series, but is it enough to carry a movie? I guess they could run into a danger that could eventually endanger earth or the federation, but could it sell a movie, especially without Klingons, Romulans, Borg or any of the other well known villians?

 

[Myasishchev]

^I don't think every movie has to have its conflict turn on genocide. Not even every Star Trek movie.

But I don't think I'd like to see the Enterprise cataloging gaseous anomalies for two hours either.

A potentially hazardous first contact could make a good movie; the plot from DS9's Emissary could be made into a great film, although I doubt it could've worked without Sisko.

But then the last movie that tried to introduce a new civilization sucked incredibly badly, because that new civilization was the irredeemably uninteresting Bak'u/Son'a complex.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Exploration doesn't have to be taken quite so literally, IMO. Sometimes it doesn't involve exploring a new planet or sector, but just doing something that's unprecedented or confronting something unfamiliar that's popped up out of nowhere (and most Trek movies follow that formula, IMO). It doesn't necessarily require having to go thousands of light-years from Earth or whatever. Space is pretty big enough and I think there are many sectors of Federation space that have been claimed or annexed for political regions, but have not been fully explored or charted yet.

But I think Q said it best in his closing remarks in TNG's finale...

 

[Warped9]

All of the Trek movies, including the latest, have taken place in the vicinity of earth or the "known" Federation, either defending the Federation or earth itself from some danger or doom. Is it possible to make a movie about actually exploring, going "where no one has gone before"? Can a movie that deals with something other than a direct threat to earth or the knownTrek universe work? Opinions?

Like anything else it's all a matter of execution.

If done well it should work. Much of entertainment is about novelty, seeing something new. An exploration story should be right up that alley.

 

[tmclough]

Much of entertainment is about novelty, seeing something new.

Tell Hollywood that.

 

[Warped9]

Much of entertainment is about novelty, seeing something new.

Tell Hollywood that.

Can't argue there.

 

[Nardpuncher]

The problem is that it has to be exciting. You can't just have a story where they go to a planet, meet aliens, have some sort of misunderstanding then resolve it. The audience should rightly go nuts at that.

 

[Myasishchev]

That's pretty much what James Cameron's Avatar's going to be about, isn't it? Then again it also is set against a background of war.

 

[Warped9]

The problem is that it has to be exciting. You can't just have a story where they go to a planet, meet aliens, have some sort of misunderstanding then resolve it. The audience should rightly go nuts at that.

What it comes down to is that you first have to have a good story worth telling, a story that is actually about something before you start filling in who goes where and does what. You may start with a beginning and then need to figure out where it goes from there or you have an ending and need to figure out how to get to that resolution. Either way you need to have a good story first to build upon.

Too often I think franchises get caught up in "Let's see these characters do this and this and this..." without thinking about what the whole thing is supoosed to be about.