Well, here they are. Left to right: Chekov, Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura. The photo was released with a number of other stills from JJ Abrams’ Star Trek prequel/reboot/whatever the heck it’s supposed to be.
I’ve talked about this before a few times and its run through a variety of rumours, including Matt Damon as Kirk and Gary Sinese as McCoy, but I think that was always just fan-casting.
This is what I think I know about the movie, so be mindful of spoilers herein: A bald, one-eared Romulan pirate named Nero wants to kill Captain Kirk through time travel but Spock hears about it so he goes back in time to help his younger self save his future friend and this brings us to the film’s setting: the original crew’s first adventure aboard the Enterprise. Wow, that actually sounds dumb now that I’ve typed it out.
Also, from what I gather, because of time travel affecting the course of history, the story in this new film will occur in a separate timeline so that the show’s original 40 year history is still intact. This, I think, will allow more films to be made that would normally contradict the show’s continuity, but would also ensure that “Spock’s Brain” never happened.
I still have reservations about the idea of recasting an entire cast for a franchise but it’s not without precedent – the Bond films have been doing it for decades. Still, my preference would have been something in a time period after the Picard years but who knows? Maybe if the movie is a hit, there could be a TV series.
The movie is to be released in May which will come at an interesting time for sci-fi. Battlestar Galactica will have just finished its series and, if the series thus far is anything to go by, it’ll be bleak. Watchmen, with its dark take on the superhero genre will have been released in March and at Christmas, the adaptation of the post-apocalyptic The Road will hit theatres. That’s a lot of downer material right there.
I wonder if a throwback to the optimistic age of sci-fi will be a hit. I hope so. I don’t think it’s necessarily naive to think, or at least hope, that the future will be better than our present.
October 19, 2008 at 10:16 am
I’m a geek, so naturally I’m looking forward to this flick, but having young Chekov in it would seem to send any continuity with the original out the nearest airlock.
October 19, 2008 at 1:47 pm
ST has always had continuity issues: In ST: II, Khan recognises Chekov, even though he wasn’t part of the cast when ‘Space Seed’ aired. So many episodes and movies are bound to create contradictions in the overall sequence of events so it’s probably best not to worry about continuity.
That said, I get the idea that whatever happens here will be in a separate timeline from TOS and the movies, which leads me to wonder if they’ll be recasting Geordi LaForge in twenty years.
It must be weird, however, for an actor to take on a role that’s been played by someone else for 40 years. I’m not sure how one creates a character when part of the direction is to be more like Nimoy.
But, oh yeah, I’ll see it.
October 22, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Wait….in the background. Is this Harold and Kumar boldly go where no man has gone before?
October 24, 2008 at 11:29 am
That is indeed Harold of “…and Kumar” fame. He’s playing Sulu. No role for Kumar but they did get Shaun from Shaun of the Dead to play Scotty.
October 24, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Simon Pegg cast as Scottie is genius.
I very much hope to ridicule his accent.
Which will probably be flawless.