Re: So, it's Captain Rabau...
I'm still of the opinion that this character, and his crew, are being prepped for a possible "spin-off" TV series if this movie is successful.
Huh?
Did you have the same prediction for the
USS Reliant, Terrell, Kyle, Beach and Chekov when we first started to hear about character names in ST II?
Or
USS Excelsior and Styles in ST III? Or
USS Grissom and Esteban, Saavik and Marcus?
Or
USS Saratoga and Alexander in ST IV?
Is it really necessary to take that sort of tone in responding? Really?
First off... I said "I'm of the opinion." I base that upon some things that are in public, and some things that aren't, about the sort of character we're seeing.
One particular element that's worthy to note is that this guy's character is really being portrayed as EXTREMELY COMPETENT. Which is a massive change from "Treks of the past" if you really look at it. The last competent commander, other than Kirk, we saw in the TOS/TMP era was Bob Wesley, after all.
The new ship he's commanding isn't a "throw away" design, and he's getting quite a bit of screen time and fairly high billing... unlike the actors who played some of the parts listed above.
I've been talking about a "spin off" idea for ages... long before the character was publically announced. I just think it's a remarkably GOOD IDEA to set a new series in the TOS era, but not involving the classic characters. I think it's a BAD idea to have an ongoing series with the "classic characters" because the longer we see them, the more likely that one of two things will occur:
1) We see no changes to the characters, and the audience gets bored... without the change to see change and growth, without the idea that we don't KNOW what the future holds for these people... there's very little drama.
OR...
2) We see new characters which are NOT the same characters we know, developing into different personalities, living different lives... but who we're being told are "really" the same characters. This will result in a disaster that makes the sniping between TOS-BSG and NuBSG fans over who's really "Starbuck" or who's really "Apollo" or so forth seem like a game of patty-cake by comparison.
Either case is going to be disastrous. The only way to tell good stories is to have give the audience new characters and new situations. I know, the "robotic response" to that comment is "well, look at Voyager, look at Enterprise. Those sucked. Therefore, new characters and new situations suck." Of course, the reason that I'd say either of those "sucked" was not because of the fact that they had new characters and situations, but rather than they had subpar production quality. Give us a well-managed, well-written, well-directed, well-designed, and well-acted show with new characters and new situations and there would be NO COMPARISON.
SO, I've wanted to see a TOS-era spin off for a while. I predicted certain things would happen. And now, I'm seeing the things I predicted happen, which SUPPORTS (not PROVES, just SUPPORTS) my thought process.
Could it not happen? Sure... but I strongly suspect it's something that's on the "back burner" at PPC and CBS (which are different divisions but still the same company in lots of ways), pending the success of this movie, we will see them attempt to leverage the movie into a new series, with real room for character growth and development without starting a fandom-jihad in the process!
