EDITORIAL
August 1st 2007
Sometimes I look at the latest Star Trek news, and I note that the more things change the more they remain the same.
Take the casting news for Star Trek XI, for example. This past weekend, they've released the news that Leonard Nimoy will indeed reprise his role as Spock for the movie and that Zachary Quinto, who plays the villain on the NBC series Heroes, will portray the younger Spock. William Shatner has not been signed (and may not be, at this rate), and the part of James T. Kirk has not been casted yet.
Abrams said, "And, y'know, William Shatner, with whom — I've met him a number of times, and he's, you know, the greatest — and we're desperately trying to figure out a way to put him in this movie. The truth is, it needs to be worthy of him, it needs to be worthy of you, it needs to be worthy of the movie. We can't just shove him in, it would be a disaster. You would hate it, he wouldn't like it, it would be bad. So we're on that. And we're looking for a Kirk. Because that's tough too, so um — Kirks?"
I seem to recall almost the same sort of thing happening as Star Trek: Phase II and Star Trek: The Motion Picture were being developed, except then it was Leonard Nimoy who was being cast aside by Gene Roddenberry for Decker/Ilia/Xon characters. The real reason then, as revealed by Shatner in his album, was the licensing fees that Leonard Nimoy wasn't receiving for the likeness of Spock appearing on all sorts of products (including the infamous Heineken billboard). It wasn't until Nimoy went to a New York convention and gave his "my heart is broken because they're doing a Star Trek movie without me" that Paramount relented and signed Nimoy.
Shatner's tuning up his vocal cords, to be sure, and fandom should get ready for a new Shatner-esque version of the "my heart is broken" speech. Yep, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
The question is whether or not the "Modern Trek" fans of today will care...or even remember their history...
Randy
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