407 replies to this topic

[Tyler]

Abrams will direct.

[Peter T Chattaway]

So J.J. Abrams will now officially become the fourth person to direct two Star Trek films ... and the first non-cast-member to direct two CONSECUTIVE Star Trek films. (Leonard Nimoy directed ST3:TSFS and ST4:TVH, and Jonathan Frakes directed ST:FC and ST:I, while Nick Meyer directed ST2:TWOK and ST6:TUC almost a decade apart.)

[Peter T Chattaway]

And so one of the cast members has let us know that the title won't be Star Trek 2.

Well of course it won't. There already IS a "Star Trek Two". And not only that, but it's the most highly-regarded movie in the entire franchise. Putting ANOTHER "Star Trek Two" out there is just asking for trouble.

But there's no word yet on what they WILL call this movie.

It's a challenge, to be sure.

The first six movies all had numbers, because they all starred the original-series cast (who, during the first four movies, were the only cast the franchise had ever known). But after that, they went to a non-numerical system; the next four movies all featured the Next Generation cast, and, given that they were just getting started on their big-screen adventures, it wouldn't have been right to call their first movie Star Trek 7 and their second movie Star Trek 8, etc. And then the eleventh movie just called itself plain old Star Trek because it wanted to establish itself as a reboot of sorts.

The problem now is that if any of these reboot sequels have short punchy titles like Star Trek: Sequel, it might end up sounding like one of the Next Generation movies (only one of which -- Star Trek: First Contact, the only one with a FOUR-word title! -- is really all that well-regarded). And a numerical title is pretty much out of the question because, as noted above, it's already been done and comparing part-two's in particular would just be a bad idea.

But what else can they do?

Well, perhaps they could go the route of the current wave of Batman movies and just avoid mentioning Batman -- er, I mean, Star Trek -- altogether. The Dark Knight was one of the most successful movies of all time even though it was the first of six (or seven, if you count the 1960s spin-off movie) Batman movies that didn't even mention Batman in the title. So maybe they could call this next movie Kirk Lives or Spock Dies or Where No Man/One/Thing Has Gone Before or Final Frontier (oh, wait, William Shatner already used that as part of the title for Star Trek 5) or The Needs of the One or some similarly thematically relevant thing.

Edited by Peter T Chattaway, 27 October 2011 - 12:23 PM.

[Overstreet]

Just start calling them Captain's Log Stardate ________. Endless numbering. And then retitle the originals accordingly. They'd be unlikely to ever use the same stardate twice.

Or better yet, retitle all of them Captain Kirk/Picard and ______ of _______.

Captain Kirk and the Wrath of Khan

Captain Picard and the First Contact

[Thom Wade]

I was hoping for Star Trek: The Dream Warriors or Star Trek: Flares! as the title.

[Buckeye Jones]

Star Trek: Too!

[morgan1098]

Star Trek: 2 Much Lens Flare

Sorry.

[Tyler]

Since it's a parallel universe they're in, the movies should have-similar-but-not-quite-the-same titles.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Juan (they battle a megalomaniac salsa dancer)
Star Trek III: The Search for Sporks (set on the Taco Bell planet)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Gnome (Travelocity tie-in)

I'll stop now.

[mrmando]

Aw, c'mon. Don't deprive us of:

Star Trek V: The Final Front Tire
Star Trek VI: The Undies-Covered Country

[Andrew]

I'm about to experience Star Trek: Emesis.

[CrimsonLine]

Yeah, but I'm experiencing Star Trek: Groan-ations...

Seriously, though, I think a Star Trek: Literary-Sounding-Title idea has a lot of merit, like Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before, or Star Trek: Vulcan's Forge or something like that.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Buckeye Jones wrote:
: Star Trek: Too!

Love it!

morgan1098 wrote:
: Star Trek: 2 Much Lens Flare

2 Star 2 Trek?

[Peter T Chattaway]

Looking at the poster for The Muppets at the theatre yesterday, a thought occurred to me: that movie, too, is a reboot of sorts of a franchise that began on TV and then segued to the big screen in the late '70s; and that movie, too, cuts the title down to its bare basics, whereas the first movie in that franchise had a title which differentiated itself from the franchise's TV origins (from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Muppet Movie to Star Trek and The Muppets).

And then it occurred to me that the Muppet franchise had never used numbers, like the original-series Star Trek films, and it had never used colons followed by short one- or two-word titles, like the next-generation Star Trek films. So maybe there is a form of sequel-titling that remains untapped here. Maybe the next round of J.J. Abrams films could have titles like:

• The Great Vulcan Caper
  
• The Klingons Take Romulus
  
• The Tribble Christmas Carol
  
• Borg Treasure Island
  
• Andorians in Space

Just an idea.

[mrmando]

Now I'm trying hard to think of an actor with credits in both a Star Trek and a Muppet property. Best I can do thus far is Orson Welles popping up at the end of The Muppet Movie and doing the voiceover for the trailer of Star Trek: The Motion Picture ... but there has to be a better connection than that.

{later} Ah, here we go ... Whoopi Goldberg has a number of appearances on Sesame Street and other Muppet-related programs, in addition to her TNG work.

Edited by mrmando, 30 October 2011 - 04:04 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

mrmando wrote:
: Ah, here we go ... Whoopi Goldberg has a number of appearances on Sesame Street and other Muppet-related programs, in addition to her TNG work.

Egad. Whoopi Goldberg actually plays GOD in a Christmas-themed Muppet movie that my sister gave to my kids.

I'm not sure we should count Sesame Street episodes -- there are so, so many of them -- but if we do, then the first cross-over actor who comes to MY mind is Patrick Stewart:



I'll have more to say in another post; I can't post more than two videos in this one.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Okay, so I looked at all of the big-screen Muppet projects, and this is what I found. (I haven't looked at any of the TV or straight-to-video ventures, except insofar as people involved in the big-screen ventures were also attached to those.)

Working backwards from the most recent film to the earliest film:

The Muppets (2011) apparently counts Sarah Silverman among its cast members; she played a scientist in a major two-part time-travel storyline in Star Trek: Voyager (1996).

Muppets from Space (1999) featured F. Murray Abraham, who had previously played the leader of the bad guys in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998).

Muppet Treasure Island (1996) was co-written by Kirk Thatcher, who played the punk that Spock nerve-pinches in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986); he also co-wrote 'I Hate You', the song that provokes Spock to take such action. Hmmm, it seems Thatcher also directed that Christmas movie with Whoopi Goldberg as God, as well as a bunch of those recent YouTube videos, e.g. this one:



Oh, and of course, how could I forget: the most significant single overlap between the world of Muppets and Star Trek is probably Gates McFadden, who choreographed a number of Henson projects (The Dark Crystal (1982), Labyrinth (1986)) and had a small part in The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) before playing Dr. Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) and its subsequent movies (1994-2002).

[John Drew]

Leonard Nimoy on Muppets Tonight...



... and William Shatner as well...

[mrmando]

Peter T Chattaway, on 30 October 2011 - 08:49 PM, said:

Oh, and of course, how could I forget: the most significant single overlap between the world of Muppets and Star Trek is probably Gates McFadden, who choreographed a number of Henson projects (The Dark Crystal (1982), Labyrinth (1986)) and had a small part in The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) before playing Dr. Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) and its subsequent movies (1994-2002).

Nice work. Now that you mention it, I have a dim memory of recognizing McFadden when I watched The Muppet Movie with my wife recently (which was, believe it or not, the first time I had ever seen The Muppet Movie.)

[Darren H]

If anything ever happens to Peter, I think we'll be able to reconstruct his mind--Search for Spock-style--based only on this thread.

[NBooth]

Will Benicio Del Toro play the villain?

Quote

Though no offer has been delivered, sources close to the project say Benicio Del Toro is expected to be offered the part soon, maybe by weekend's end.

Insiders say Del Toro has met with Abrams but doesn't know what the role is, in order to keep in a secret.