More Trek Talk

Not much to say about the strip this week, so I'll use this opportunity to rant about a subject near and dear to my geeky little heart: Star Trek.
In the face of overwhelmingly positive reviews and 79 million dollars at the opening weekend box office (respectable by any standard and more than double the 30 million of the previous highest grossing Trek flick, First Contact), the continuation of the newly revived Star Trek saga is a foregone conclusion, and speculation as to where the next voyage of the USS Enterprise will take James Tiberius Kirk and crew has already begun. Among the names being bandied about, most notably by the writers of the latest Trek film, is that of Khan Noonien Singh, a once all but forgotten minor villain from a relatively mediocre episode of the original series catapulted to legendary status as "the guy who killed Spock" by 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, considered by many to be the best Trek film until now. There's even speculation going on as to who might play Khan, and I now humbly offer my suggestion.
Noboby.
That's who should portray Khan. No one.
While comparisons of the new Enterprise crew to their forebears have generally been positive, anyone stepping into Ricardo Montalban's sandals is begging for a buttload of grief. Not to mention that both the new film and the last one, Nemesis, recycle many ideas from Khan. Nemesis recreates ST II's ending, while the current film not only features a brain sucking parasite ala Khan, it lifts several lines of dialogue verbatim from that film and even ends, as Wrath of Khan did, with Leonard Nimoy reciting the TV show's opening narration. Sure, Wrath of Khan is a great film, but how many times do you have to remake it?
Forget Khan, avoid V'Ger, ignore Dr. Tolian Soran,leave the Borg off in their little corner of the galaxy, and give the Klingons and Romulans a rest.(Especially the Romulans, as the last two Trek movies have focused on them.) The makers of the new movie went to a lot of trouble to give themselves a clean slate by setting up an alternate reality with a future as yet unwritten, and now they should use that opportunity to boldly go where no man or Trek film has gone before.

- Posted by wastedpotential on 17 May 2009 09:37 am    -   0 comments