Re: What do you think Orci, Kurtman, et al will decide to do for a seq
Having Carol Marcus as an antogonist would be pretty cool, but there would be a pretty vocal fan base against that, and Orrci and Kurtman seemed to be going for a close to Prime-verse relationship for the two, so that's kinda unlikely.
Then again, it could work if you have an idealistic Carol not budging on some sort of issue while a threat bears down on the Enterprise and a colony/science outpost/whatever, forcing Kirk to outsmart her or something before she ends up getting herself (an/or a lot of people) killed.
I like that idea. It would be more interesting if they do not focus on straight-up villains this time. Instead, have a crisis and a major difference in opinion and tactics, where both parties are good people with good goals, but they are still antagonistic to each other.
Whatever the A-storyline is (and I agree that it will most likely include Klingons in some way), I think they have to follow up on the destruction of Vulcan and the changes within the Federation and the political climate in general. This is too huge a plot to just leave it hanging. Show the surviving Vulcans cope and what effects this will have on their attitudes, as well on the Vulcan-Romulan relations... Is the Federation in general going to be seen, now more than ever, as dominated by Earth? How much has its status, reputation and strengh been hurt by Nero so easily destroying one of is founding planets? Dos it affect its balance of power with the Klingons and the Romulans?
On the personal level, they should put McCoy more in the focus and develop his relationships with Kirk and Spock; develop Sulu, Chekov and Scotty more - in patricular, show Scotty's serious side in addition to the comic relief one. Explain the background on Uhura and Spock's relationship, and show the obstacles and problems that their relationship will be facing; it's an opportunity to have a storyline about obstacles that an interspecies(interracial), cross-cultural relationsip can face - there's social relevance for you; keep racism as a theme, in ST09 we've seen Spock suffer racism from Vulcans and to a lesser degree we've seen glimpses of racism he faces from the humans, but the latter was not as prominent. And,as we know, nothing brings out the hidden racism out in the open as being faced with interracial relationships - for many closet racists, this is the ultimate taboo. (There are also lots of opportunities of exploring the theme of racism and prejudice with the relations between humans and Romulans, Vulcans and Romulans, and probably some other races, if there is another conflict in the movie.) Spock might have concluded that Earth was the only home he had left, but will the majority of the humans ever see him as one of his own, and will that make him resort more to his Vulcan identity? Especially since there are so few Vulcans left - he may feel an obligation to be loyal to his 'endangered species' by being and acting more as a Vulcan.
Kirk's relationship with Carol Marcus, if they introduce it as they seemed to be planning, could be a contrast to it, as two people who are of similar backgrounds (at least they could be in this version - Carol was supposed to be seen as a child in Iowa scenes) but have opposing career paths and decisions that will break them apart. It's also an oportunity to emphasize that, despite Kirk's interest in women, his ship and his career as a captain is the most important to him, and that his relationships will suffer as a resulf ot it.
Also, Kirk should not be presented as a trusted captain right at the start of the sequel. He got a fast promotion, and despite probably being the hero of the day, as an inexperienced captain, he should still be struggling to prove himself to everyone and earn the kind of respect they had for him in TOS.
Please no Khan, no revenge-bent villains in general, and no other storyline that has been done to death (e.g. Nomad/V-ger, etc.).
