probably from the first trailer, with its emphasis on having the makers of fast & furious on board and action action action. I remember entering the theater prepared for a film I wouldn’t like and exiting having liked it a lot.
Paramount/JJ trying another Trek movie (that will probably never get made).
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If memory serves there was some disappointment the fandom because Beyond came out during the franchise's 50th anniversary and the marketing for Beyond was pretty muted and didn't capitalize on the anniversary at all. It was especially vexing when you compare Trek's 50th anniversary to Dr. Who's. Dr. Who blew the doors off and gave everyone a very special 50th celebration and Trek did (comparatively) nothing, and Beyond gets tied to that I think.
They didn't market the 50th anniversary no, but they didn't try and pretend it wasn't a Star Trek movie.
Right, I was saying that I think people make the association between the two things which is how it gets transformed into the "they pretended it wasn't a Star Trek movie" meme.
Beyond had a subtle acknowledgement to the 50th anniversary with the photograph of the TOS crew Spock looks at towards the end; at least that's how I looked at it.
First Contact came out during the 30th anniversary and I don't recall there being much noise about that as far as the film's marketing went. I do remember the 30th anniversary of the franchise garnered a lot of hype and excitement within the franchise itself. DS9 and Voyager acknowledged that with their respective episodes, Trials and Tribble-ations and Flashback. My recollection was the 30th anniversary was mostly tied to the merchandising, which I remember practically went into overdrive. Then there was that 30th anniversary special that aired on UPN, 30 Years and Beyond.
Oddly, Generations came out when the franchise was 28 years old and that, to me, comes off more as an "anniversary" type of film given that it brings both Kirk and Picard together.
I think the same went for the 25th when Star Trek VI came out, but, I barely remember that being all of five years old at the time.
First Contact came out during the 30th anniversary and I don't recall there being much noise about that as far as the film's marketing went. I do remember the 30th anniversary of the franchise garnered a lot of hype and excitement within the franchise itself. DS9 and Voyager acknowledged that with their respective episodes, Trials and Tribble-ations and Flashback. My recollection was the 30th anniversary was mostly tied to the merchandising, which I remember practically went into overdrive. Then there was that 30th anniversary special that aired on UPN, 30 Years and Beyond.
Oddly, Generations came out when the franchise was 28 years old and that, to me, comes off more as an "anniversary" type of film given that it brings both Kirk and Picard together.
I think the same went for the 25th when Star Trek VI came out, but, I barely remember that being all of five years old at the time.
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All of that kind of proves the point though; the 50th acknowledgments were kind of weak and oblique (a photo at the end of the movie of one part of a sprawling franchise), and when you compare it to Dr. Who it just seems almost nonexistent.
Beyond was totally approached to try and avoid Star Trek where possible. At one point, I recall, it was suggested to create a heist movie and just populate it with Star Trek characters. Even one of the earliest drafts of the scripts was rejected as being "too" Star Trek. In the trailers, the words "STAR TREK" above "BEYOND" are far less prominent and even fade into the title last.
The initial teaser trailer for it was to try and make it seem like a Fast and Furious film and the continued use of Sabotage. I know that song does appear in the 2009 film and one could say it was just a nod to that one, but, it's painfully clear Paramount was trying to not reveal it was the Star Trek brand until the last second.
They weren't trying to avoid it entirely, but, they absolutely were downplaying it as much as possible.
I guess but does the same go for the previous anniversaries? I'm not saying you're wrong, but, I'm just curious how you do that?
Maybe anniversaries don't mean a whole lot. I get that.
CBS put out a YouTube video to celebrate 50 years... and only showed footage of TOS, TNG and the reboot films.
Utterly awful, and sadly to be expected.
Les Moonves was in charge at CBS during that time, wasn't he?
If so, then that explains everything, because he didn't care about Star Trek, right? And whoever was in charge at Paramount during that time apparently didn't care either.
I suspect the only time Paramount cared about Star Trek was for The Motion Picture. And after the box office for that came in, they cut the budget for Wrath of Khan, and everything following that pretty much stayed along that course. They of course made movies and whatever, and utilized the property because they owned it and there was money to be made, but it doesn't seem like they really cared that much about it.
Then they cared about the JJ stuff... until they stopped caring. And now that Paramount and CBS are unified, they kind of care about Star Trek again. And I guess they care now because they see the Marvel money. And I guess Star Wars always made the money, but I guess Paramount was like, "Yeah, we're not that."
I don't know, something like that maybe...
Again, it's a matter of value. Not everyone puts super important weight in to anniversaries (I do not). Companies should stop being treated like they have a vendetta against a property because they don't celebrate like fans or value things the same way.
ST4 wouldve been delayed to 2016/50th maybe (and to avoid the same year as Force Awakens).. in which case Tarantino Trek MotherFuckers! be 2018 and so on (or maybe still be the following year 2017?)Sorry to quote myself, but...
Funny thought: if the new Star Trek movies had come out every two years since 2009, then there would've been enough room for all of these to be made, and the version it looks like we're getting now would still be coming out in 2023, right on cue.
Don't believe me? Check it out:
2009 --> Star Trek
2011 --> Star Trek Into Darkness
2013 --> Star Trek Beyond
2015 --> Star Trek 4 (George Kirk story)
2017 --> Star Trek 5 (Tarantino motherfuckers!!!)
2019 --> Star Trek 6 (Noah)
2021 --> Star Trek 7 (Kelinda)
2023 --> Star Trek 8 (co-written by Lindsey Beer, whose name is the only one that stands out.)
Weird, when you think about it like that.
'16 for George Kirk, '17 for Tarantino.
"Sorry! We know you have to wait, but at least you'll get two new movies two years in a row!" Someone who'd know how to keep the momentum going would've figured out a way around that.
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I didn't think anything of them not promoting First Contact as a 30th Anniversary Film because it would've felt strange to do that with a film starring a cast that had only been around for nine years at the time.
"Trials and a Tribble-ations" was a fun anniversary episode.
I was disappointed with "Flashback" because this was their chance to do a new story with Captain Sulu on the Excelsior. I thought the episode as it is was okay as something to kill time if you're having a slow day, but they could've done so much more with it.
I do remember the 30th Anniversary Special on UPN, vividly. I even recorded it on VHS. It's strange to think how much (and how fast) things changed even just a few years later.
I thought both Trials and Flashback were fun enough episodes. Flashback could have been more, and was rather confusing at times with continuity but it's a brain bug so I give it a pass.
But, even if those were not anniversary things they would still be fun. I think people put too much weight on anniversaries. Beyond is a fine movie, appropriately reflective at times, and fun adventure for the rest.
DS9's felt more like a tribute to the 30th anniversary because of its ability to literally insert itself into an existing episode of TOS. Plus it was a pretty big technical achievement for the franchise, too.
While I liked Voyager's, it felt more like, "Well, DS9 is doing its 30th anniversary tribute; what can we do?" I also don't think it was a very interesting episode, overall. Though I loved how they were able to recreate the opening of Star Trek VI pretty well.
Flashback came very early in the show's third season -- it was the second episode. DS9's was several weeks before the release of First Contact plus that UPN special had just aired, so, the 30th anniversary vibes were already there. I had forgotten all about Flashback by that time and have only retroactively realized that episode was Voyager's tribute to the franchise's 30th anniversary.
An excellent example of what fans value is completely different than what the production teams value.
Just to clarify: It's only Behr and Roddenberry that hated those episodes. The rest of the production teams were very much for them, and it was Coon who was behind the original tribbles. Behr hates it because he felt it was a TOS episode, not a DS9 episode and Roddenberry hated the OG tribbles because it was made while he was on vacation and he didn't like the comedy episodes, and had a fight with Coon about it when he returned
Again, according to The 50 Year Mission books.
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