Ok so this is a bit of a long shot, but still...
In 1993, some ten years before Batman Begins was even a thing, animators Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski created what I consider to be the ultimate Batman story. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm told the story of a fully formed Batman who faces a mysterious new villain named the Phantasm who is killing mob bosses. Most relevant to this conversation is the concept of Bruce Wayne's long lost love, a woman who he nearly married instead of becoming the Dark Knight. I won't post full spoilers here because the film is a mystery story and I cannot recommend it enough if you're a Batman fan and haven't seen it. But...what if Star Trek took on a similar story with James T Kirk and Carol Marcus?
The closest film to Mask of the Phantasm in the Trek universe is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in terms of story, and they are indeed very similar. A mysterious villain from Kirk's past reappears along with a long lost love. Again I won't go into spoilers but the ending for Mask of the Phantasm is completely unlike the end for Star Trek II. What I think we should see, rather, is the equivalent of the flashbacks from Mask of the Phantasm, in the context of Star Trek, assembled into film featuring Kirk and Carol Marcus in their younger days, with Kirk considering taking command of the Enterprise. He eventually decides to turn down command to stay with Marcus, but some plot device gets in the way and she leaves him. Maybe it's that she finds out she is pregnant with David, and she panics. Kirk, heartbroken, agrees to command the Enterprise after all, and Star Trek as we know it begins.
I would love to see a prequel that showed Kirk in a completely different light than usual, in a situation where he almost took a different road altogether. Maybe not a full on movie, but probably an animated film or short of some kind. It will probably never happen, but it would certainly be cool if it did.
In 1993, some ten years before Batman Begins was even a thing, animators Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski created what I consider to be the ultimate Batman story. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm told the story of a fully formed Batman who faces a mysterious new villain named the Phantasm who is killing mob bosses. Most relevant to this conversation is the concept of Bruce Wayne's long lost love, a woman who he nearly married instead of becoming the Dark Knight. I won't post full spoilers here because the film is a mystery story and I cannot recommend it enough if you're a Batman fan and haven't seen it. But...what if Star Trek took on a similar story with James T Kirk and Carol Marcus?
The closest film to Mask of the Phantasm in the Trek universe is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in terms of story, and they are indeed very similar. A mysterious villain from Kirk's past reappears along with a long lost love. Again I won't go into spoilers but the ending for Mask of the Phantasm is completely unlike the end for Star Trek II. What I think we should see, rather, is the equivalent of the flashbacks from Mask of the Phantasm, in the context of Star Trek, assembled into film featuring Kirk and Carol Marcus in their younger days, with Kirk considering taking command of the Enterprise. He eventually decides to turn down command to stay with Marcus, but some plot device gets in the way and she leaves him. Maybe it's that she finds out she is pregnant with David, and she panics. Kirk, heartbroken, agrees to command the Enterprise after all, and Star Trek as we know it begins.
I would love to see a prequel that showed Kirk in a completely different light than usual, in a situation where he almost took a different road altogether. Maybe not a full on movie, but probably an animated film or short of some kind. It will probably never happen, but it would certainly be cool if it did.
