Which TOS episode should get the film treatment?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

"The Doomsday Machine."

"Balance Of Terror" has already been a movie, called "The Enemy Below." Let's save "Space Seed" for a while - but damn, TDM could be epic and that's what they need to keep rolling with.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

"The Doomsday Machine."

"Balance Of Terror" has already been a movie, called "The Enemy Below." Let's save "Space Seed" for a while - but damn, TDM could be epic and that's what they need to keep rolling with.

I love TDM, but I'm afraid a movie version of it at this juncture may come across as a redo of the whole giant probe coming to kill planets that has already been done in so many of the movies. I would like to see a story about the characters on a personal level where they deal with a crisis that is not neccessarily universe or even planet level.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

I'm not sure what this has to do with Treklit, but I want to say that I think it would be incredibly foolish if they decided to adapt old episodes for future films. We've just wiped the slate clean so that Star Trek can do something new, and redoing "Space Seed" or "The Doomsday Machine" strikes me as the kind of fannish thinking that narrowed the Star Trek audience over the past ten years or so. Let's see "strange new worlds," not familiar old worlds.

This person gets it.

I wouldn't mind seeing elements from the old show, like say, Kodos the Executioner...but flat out redoing Khan is absolutely a waste of all the work they did to create a prequel universe with a clean slate.

Well, Orci et al have already said they have considered how certain key eps would be different in this new Trek universe...

Now a redo of "The Ultimate Computer" with M-5 as a Skynet style "overmind" could be interesting. The idea being that the M-5 experiment took control of a Starfleet task force only the Enterprise could stop it...

 

[Shaw]

Well, if I was in charge of the new movies (never going to happen, but this is a sort of what if question), I think that it would be proper to treat the stories of TOS in the same way that the Bond films have treated the short stories of Ian Fleming. That is to say, weave a few together to make a movie.

Basically run two smaller stories back to back as the background for another who's arc spans the entire movie.

And now that I've brought it up, I'd prefer that they did something like this with new stories. Trek was never meant for the big screen, and in that environment the best stories of Trek will never be told because those stories aren't epic. But there is enough time in the span of two hours to have a number of character driven stories that could explore aspects of many of the crew members.

Of course the reason this will never happen is because Trek movies have become effects spectaculars, where we are about as lucky to get a compelling story (that isn't captain saves the day) out of them as we are to get one out of any fireworks display on the Forth of July. I'd like to see the big effects of all of Trek (including fan films) limited to about one minute out of every ten minutes of run time.

I've said it before and I think it stands to be repeated, the best Trek stories ever (in my opinion) would never have been told if Trek was only a movie series. Stories like City on the Edge of Forever and Inner Light wouldn't make it to the big screen because everyone sees Trek movies as a showcase for effects rather than a showcase for stories. And yet stories like City on the Edge of Forever and Inner Light make it to the big screen as successful movies all the time as standard character driven dramas.




Of course The Doomsday Machine would be somewhat interesting... though the original planet killer wouldn't seem all that impressive being dwarfed by the new Enterprise.

The real problem with telling The Doomsday Machine effectively is that that episode came after a full season of TOS where we saw the Enterprise survive all threats unscathed and the only starships to have been lost were years in the past. The Enterprise seemed almost invulnerable, so seeing the abused body of a ship just like her was shocking.

Today, that is a standard plot device and is expected. Heck, we just saw that happen to a ton of ships in this movie, so why would it matter if it happen to one ship (or a dozen) in a Doomsday Machine movie?


But hey, this is just me, and I stopped attending fireworks displays years ago.

 

[BillJ]

Well, in the spirit of the OP...

I think that either Flint or Garth could make particularly effective movie villains. Flint is a genius and an immortal, he can create terrible weapons as well as beautiful androids, he's even got a cool fortress on an alien world. He's the Star Trek equivalent of a Bond villain. Garth, on the other hand, is like Kirk gone wrong. He's a brilliant and extremely experienced starship captain. Plus, he's a shape shifter with a loyal gang of psychotic alien criminals. Either character could work very well in a summer blockbuster.

Though, they would be better off crafting new stories for those characters that would better take advantage of the blockbuster film format.

What he said.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm hoping for a remake of "Spock's Brain."

 

[flightmech73]

my votes are for balance of terror and doomsday machine.

 

[I am not Spock]

Yeah, nuff said, why do a 'clean slate' approach to Trek if they're just going to remake old episodes? I think Abrams and co. should try something new for the next film.

 

[Doomsday]

Well, in the spirit of the OP...

I think that either Flint or Garth could make particularly effective movie villains. Flint is a genius and an immortal, he can create terrible weapons as well as beautiful androids, he's even got a cool fortress on an alien world. He's the Star Trek equivalent of a Bond villain. Garth, on the other hand, is like Kirk gone wrong. He's a brilliant and extremely experienced starship captain. Plus, he's a shape shifter with a loyal gang of psychotic alien criminals. Either character could work very well in a summer blockbuster.

Though, they would be better off crafting new stories for those characters that would better take advantage of the blockbuster film format.

I rather like this approach. I think TOS contains a wealth of rich characters that can be used with NEW stories. Orci has conceded that even in the alternate timeline, these characters are still there, even if their lives have taken a completely different turn in the "rebooted" universe.

I agree that Garth could be a potentially great villain for a film, if played by the right actor, and given a sufficiently epic story.

In addition:

The Salt Vampire -- Done right, this could be a creepy scary Trek, with the same kind of atmosphere as "Alien".
Harry Mudd -- oh what trouble he could cause with a $150 mil budget! And this one could be light-hearted like TVH.
Kang -- though they've been to the Klingon well enough, so this is unlikely.
Commodore Decker -- assuming he wasn't killed in the attach on Vulcan, he should still be out there commanding the Constellation, and we know he can be driven over the edge, even if it's not the Doomsday Machine that does it.
Gary Seven - not necessarily a time-travel story, maybe he shows up in the 23rd century too.
Kodos the Executioner -- Maybe tell the story of what happened on the colony.

Still, they should probably tell a whole new story, but I think the TOS character approach could work.

 

[Cakes488]

I agree with Allyn -- what possible point would there be in remaking stories we've already seen? If any character or story element were to be revisited, it should be in a new story, one that develops it in a different way.

They may just do this...or something like it...when something works...you know it's gets driven into the ground until it's dead. They're already talking about Khan possibly making an appearence....who knows what else they'll "borrow"....

I think since this is a new timeline that is occuring alongside the old that they should incorporate things from the old timeline....props, characters that sort of thing. My thinking is that even though it's a new timeline...some things are bound to be the same....do you think in this new timeline that it's possible for some events to occur that are identical in the original timeline...or is the general consensus that since it's a whole new time line then events yet to unfold are completely different?
In any case if "they" decide that some events are bound to be repeated ...that's how they can get away with reusing Khan..et. al.

 

[Doomsday]

I think since this is a new timeline that is occuring alongside the old that they should incorporate things from the old timeline....props, characters that sort of thing. My thinking is that even though it's a new timeline...some things are bound to be the same....do you think in this new timeline that it's possible for some events to occur that are identical in the original timeline...or is the general consensus that since it's a whole new time line then events yet to unfold are completely different?
In any case if "they" decide that some events are bound to be repeated ...that's how they can get away with reusing Khan..et. al.

I think that whether or not some things are "bound" to be the same is probably a function of how closely related such event is to the Nero incursion.

For example, the race that launched the PlanetKiller did so hundreds or thousands of years prior to the Kelvin/Nero incident. So I can't imagine it would be impacted at all. The PlanetKiller is on its way, and when and where it shows up in Federation space should not change. However, which ship encounters it and what they do might change. For example, we don't know if the Constellation was destroyed during the attack on Vulcan, and even if it wasn't, it may be patrolling a different sector because of a ship that was destroyed. So we know the PlanetKiller is still coming, we just don't know if Commodore Decker will be the one to encounter it.

Same with the big space bug in Immunity Syndrome, same with the Kelvin's of By Any other Name, etc.

 

[Botany Bay]

Errand of Mercy will be next - they'll want Klingons in the next one for sure.

 

[Cakes488]

I think since this is a new timeline that is occuring alongside the old that they should incorporate things from the old timeline....props, characters that sort of thing. My thinking is that even though it's a new timeline...some things are bound to be the same....do you think in this new timeline that it's possible for some events to occur that are identical in the original timeline...or is the general consensus that since it's a whole new time line then events yet to unfold are completely different?
In any case if "they" decide that some events are bound to be repeated ...that's how they can get away with reusing Khan..et. al.

I think that whether or not some things are "bound" to be the same is probably a function of how closely related such event is to the Nero incursion.

For example, the race that launched the PlanetKiller did so hundreds or thousands of years prior to the Kelvin/Nero incident. So I can't imagine it would be impacted at all. The PlanetKiller is on its way, and when and where it shows up in Federation space should not change. However, which ship encounters it and what they do might change. For example, we don't know if the Constellation was destroyed during the attack on Vulcan, and even if it wasn't, it may be patrolling a different sector because of a ship that was destroyed. So we know the PlanetKiller is still coming, we just don't know if Commodore Decker will be the one to encounter it.

Same with the big space bug in Immunity Syndrome, same with the Kelvin's of By Any other Name, etc.

Good points...and same thing with Khan too....the Botany Bay is still out there floating around and waiting to be happened upon....I'm telling you I have a feeling that they are not done milking the Khan angle.....