Yes, Abrams was not a fan of Star Trek, and he was never shy in admitting that fact. The results are, of course, going to vary by individual but I think his lack of fandom allowed him to make choices that perhaps would not have been made.
Should not have been made.
Why not?
I think that Trek 09, despite Abrams profession about not wanting it to be too philosophical, hit upon Roddenberry's philosophy quite well with Kirk's arc.
What philosophy are you talking about? Because Kirk's arc in 2009 was all about privilege and destiny. It was: have a rough life, have a mentor that likes what your father did, cheat and get caught, get nearly kicked out, have an idiot for a mentor that promotes you to first officer over every other qualified person on the ship, be told you have a destiny, emotionally manipulate a near-genocide survivor to get command of a ship, and the brilliant plan no one else in the whole universe can come up with except you is "take the fight to him".
Well, and this is simplified for brevity, but how about the whole reaching your potential thing, which GR was a big proponent of (especially in TNG). Kirk is obviously contributing nothing to society at the beginning, when Pike finds him in the bar.
Privilege and destiny? Destiny I will grant but that has been established in Trek long, long before Abrams took it on (
"Commanding a starship is your first, best, destiny," Captain Spock).
As for privilege, I'm sure there is an argument to be made there, but it isn't anything that others in Star Trek have done before.
As I posted elsewhere, there's a big difference between these two "non-fans". Meyer was a non-fan in the sense that he'd never seen it before taking the job and was only vaguely aware of Trek as a thing. Abrams had actively watched the stuff and did not like it. He thought it was too philosophical. Meyer was a blank slate, Abrams actively disliked what Trek actually was. Huge world of difference there.
And hey, since we're talking about Meyer and Abrams...
And Meyer never watched another Trek episode again, and had his own sensibility about what Star Trek was about (Hornblower in space, which GR actively fought against). Meyer certainly did not hold fast to the same style, or storytelling that had come before (even one film before). The pacing of TWOK is markedly different, the atmosphere is darker (approaching horror style in some scenes), and very tightly edited towards the end. I would not say that Meyer was a blank slate.
Abrams came at it as an outsider, and wanted to make it more accessible to all comers, not just Trek fans. It isn't just a blanket rejection of Star Trek, so much as a recognition of the limits that he had (and again, two of the writers were far more in to Star Trek than Abrams, so not like he didn't have people to help inform him).
You may disagree with the result, and that's fine by me. My only point is that Abrams didn't do anything that Trek had not done before. He just did it bigger, faster and louder.
Kirk's arc is straight through about a man achieving his potential. Now, could it have been done differently, and perhaps (
dare I say?) better? Absolutely, and I would change things if I could. I don't buy in to Abrams hook line and sinker, any more than I do any other iteration of Trek.
I've argued this in a variety of other threads, but I think there is more to Abrams Trek than meets the eye. But, it isn't for everyone.
