[Vic]

Creator of 'Star Trek New Voyages' speaks out on 'Star Trek XI'. Plus: Cawley on the Enterprise.

By T'Bonz
November 14, 2007 - 8:13 PM

Elements of the upcoming movie from the appearance of the ship to story elements are drawing both praise and criticism from those involved in the world of Star Trek.

The plot of Star Trek XI is reported to contain elements from both The City on the Edge of Forever (original series) and Star Trek: The Next Generation's episode Yesterday's Enterprise. Eric A. Stillwell, co-writer of the latter, had this to say when he spoke to Trekweb. "Personally, I'm looking forward to the J.J. Abrams film. As one of the co-writers of the story for Yesterday's Enterprise, I'm excited to hear that the new Star Trek movie may revisit some of the best elements of the original series, including elements from City on the Edge of Forever. Any similarity to Yesterday's Enterprise would be ironic since the original story I developed for TNG involved Sarek and the Guardian of Forever, and an altered universe where the Vulcan-Romulan Empire had conspired to destroy the Federation by seeking to capture the Guardian planet and use it to their own nefarious purposes."

James Cawley, creator of Star Trek New Voyages has seen the new Enterprise ship and is not impressed. "I have seen the new rebooted Enterprise. I have friends in the right places! At any rate, I don't like it. It is supposed to be NCC-1701, no bloody A,B,C,D or E! and it sure does not look like the 1701 I grew up with!" He went on to say, "I see Matt Jefferies designs as timeless and as pure science fiction. I feel the Big E as designed by Matt deserves its day on the big screen." Cawley feels that nothing was wrong with Trek and "Re-imagining or rebooting is changing what Star Trek is," he said. "I am not against the recasting at all. But Star Trek is not broken, it does not need to be fixed or reimagined or anthing of the sort." Having said that, Cawley is not against the recasting and he hopes that the film will be successful.

Eugene Roddenberry, who met with Abrams at an informal breakfast meeting, had praise for the Star Trek XI director. "If anyone could continue carrying the torch of Star Trek, it could definitely be Abrams," he said. "I think J.J. is a genuine fan, and I think he knows what fans want. I think we will still see Star Trek in it, but are they going to try and reinvent Star Trek? I don't know."

For more of the Stillwell interview, head here. More comments from Cawley can be found at The Trek Movie Report.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/141107_04.shtml

[Kor37]

I don't like the fact that they are apparently changing the look of the Enterprise. That just isn't right!

[Lady Britannia]

But Star Trek is not broken, it does not need to be fixed or reimagined or anthing of the sort

This statement IMO proves that James Cawley is delusional and has obviously been spending too much time in his basement.

Star Trek is in dire need of serious attention and reworking.

[Jack_Bauer]

At this point, we have absolutely nothing to substantiate what Cawley is saying. The movie is over a year away and a lot can change and Cawley can't even be sure what he saw was the Enterprise.

However, as someone on another board brought up, Abrams wouldn't go so dead on with Quinto as Spock and then screw with the Enterprise.

I'm not expecting they'll be leaving the Enterprise unchanged but I think they'll retain most of it. I'm really just hoping for a more texturized version of the original series Enterprise. Something that looks slightly better than the remastered version but not as far Gabe Koerner's redesign he did in his spare time.

[Theunicornhunter]

I did read there may be copyright issues if they go with the City on the Edge of Forever; so I wonder if this part of the rumor is true.

Before you can argue if Trek is broken we really need to define Trek - meaning if the direction it was taking with Enterprise was really Trek at all or just an offtrack wannabe. And what makes Trek Trek? It's a lot more than the names of the ship and crew.

I've never been too optmistic about this movie because I know what Hollywood churns out these days and I really wonder if they're capable of producing something with the dramatic quality of TOS. It is also much harder to make a movie where you develop an emotional attachment to the characters because you're only with them for a couple of hours rather than with a series where you spend time with them every week.