A re-imagined Star Trek?

Back in 2004 writers Joe Straczynski and Bryce Zabel got together and created a 14 page pitch to Paramount on how they would do a new Star Trek show. Zabel posted a pdf of the treatment in his blog.

Interestingly, their idea is not unlike Ron Moore's take on Battlestar Galactica, which was to start over. As we know, Moore took a lot of flack from Battlestar fundamentalists who wanted a continuation series instead. But, Ron correctly saw the potential of doing it over, better. The ratings for BSG, critical praise, Hugo Awards, Peabody Award, and likely Emmy nominations have indicated that his way was wise and correct.

So, it's interesting that JMS and Zabel had a similar idea for Trek, to do the 5 year mission over again, with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, in a "re-imagined" Trek universe with new actors filling those iconic roles. And I think after years of pretty dull Trek like Voyager and Enterprise, fans would have been open minded about "re-boot" of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy Star Trek.

(Oddly enough one of the ideas in the treatment, a sort of DNA quest showing the various Trek races to be related was actually also explored in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, that Ron Moore co-wrote called The Chase.)

Anyway, Trek is now in the hands of J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, MI3, etc.) and he plans to be doing a kind of re-boot as well, for the film franchise. The rumor is that he's dusting off and revising Harve Bennett's idea of a Starfleet Academy movie, showing Kirk, Spock and McCoy in their college days. Though, another twist on that rumor is that Matt Damon is who Abrams wants as Kirk... And since Damon is a bit older than college age, one wonders if that's actually the idea? Anyway, supposedly Denny Crane himself approves of Damon taking on the role.

I think the JMS/Zabel project had a lot of potential. It could have been kinda fun.

Anyway, bringing this topic back to Battlestar Galactica, Ron Moore and David Eick have shown that doing a "re-boot" or re-imagined version of an established franchise can work very very well, if done right.

Check out the proposed JMS/Zabel version of Trek and decide for yourself.