Star Trek Magazine – July 2019

Michael Clark: Bunny, I can’t

believe it’s been 10 years since Star

Trek (2009) was released. It only seems

like yesterday that Star Trek fandom

was debating – quite strongly, I should

note – whether it was right to have

new actors play the characters of Kirk,

Spock, and McCoy. While I’m a big fan

of the fi lm and the two that followed,

I can’t help but believe that the Kelvin

filmsheldStarTrekbackoverall.

BunnySummers:Ten

yearshavepassedreally

quickly.I remember

beingveryexcitedfor

this“new”iteration

ofTr e k. I gotintothe

franchisequitelate

comparedtomany

otherfans;aftera

smatteringofStarTrek:

The NextGeneration

episodes,thefirstshow

I reallywatchedwasStarTrek:Voyager.

I washappythatVoyagerembraced

womeninpositionsofpower– unlike

TNG, whereI feltat timesthatthe

femalecharactersweresimplyan

additionortheretolookpretty.I was

veryeagertosupporttheKelvinfilms,

as I wasnevera fanoftheoriginal

seriesortheoriginalKirk– andthese

moviesdidn’tdisappointme.

MC:StarTrekthrivesonthesmall

screen.We’vehadhundredsof episodes

whichhavecapturedourimaginations,

characterswhosestorieshaveresonated

withus,whicha two-hourfilmcan’t

deliver.Filmsmustcaptureyouwithin

minutes;theyneedtomovethestory

alongquickly,andwithinthatthey

needtobeas accessibleas possibleto

a wider audience. Th e Star Trek fi lms

did that, but I feel they lost something;

a piece of Star Trek that only being on

TV can have, and that’s the “soul” of

Tr e k. For me, Star Trek is an exploration

of ourselves, not just about space battles

and special eff ects.

BS: While you may think Star Trek

thrives on the small screen, it’s also

hada runof successful fi lms with the

original series and Next

Generation casts. A

film hadn’t graced the

cinema since 2002;

the franchise was very

tired, and I suspect new

fans felt overwhelmed

with how to get into

the franchise, while

old fans were getting

bored. Star Trek (2009)

came at the perfect

time to reinvigorate

thefranchise.With the new cast

portrayingthecharacters we loved, and

oldermentorslike Nimoy on board,

I thoughtit wasa very exciting time

tobea Trekkie.Th e fi lm was gripping

fromtheoutsetand made a tired

franchisefeelshiny and new again.

MC:StarTrek(2009) is a space action

film;it’snon-stop fun, accessible

forall,andyes,it created new fans.

ButthethreeKelvin fi lms spanned a

decade:wehadsix hours of new Star

Tr e kin 10 years, whereas if Tr e k had

returnedtothesmall screen, we could

havehad 178 hours of new Star Trek

forallofustoenjoy (based on a seven-

yearrun).

Inthreefilms, how much

characterdevelopment was there?

WHEREOPINIONSCOLLIDE

T H ETHE NEUTRAL ZONEN E U T R A L Z O N E

In The Neutral Zone, we present a pair of expert Star Trek fans with

an aspect of Tre k lore to debate, and then get them to pick sides!

THE KELVIN

CONVERSION

This issue, we ask our

deliberating duo the

following question:

Did Star Trek (2009)

reinvigorate the franchise,

leading to what some are

calling “a new golden age

of Tre k,” or did the Kelvin

Timeline fi lms hold Star

Tre kbackfor 10 years?

Finewith’09:

BUNNYSUMMERS

’09wasmalign:

MICHAELCLARK

HeadtoTheNeutralZoneto

addyouropiniontothedebate.

Follow@StarTrekMagon

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#STMTheNeutralZone

The film was

gripping from the

outset and made

a tired franchise

feel shiny and

new again.