Yeah, more Star Trek stuff. Sorry.
I should point out that Tom of Comics Ate My Brain posted his own thoughts on Star Trek‘s future a couple days ago. As to the likely resistance to recasting the original trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy that Tom mentions…my idea of a new animated series could probably get around that, casting voice-a-likes should any theoretical animated series go in that direction. (Ideally, the cartoon I’m sorta envisioning would go in an entirely new direction, with new characters, in an attempt to give the franchise a fresh start.) The hardcore Trek fans would probably object, but as has been noted by others in the past, those are the people you need to ignore in order to kickstart the franchise again with a potentially wider audience.
Oh, and to clear things up a bit since, as Rick correctly notes, I didn’t exactly pin down my feelings about First Contact: I think it’s great. It’s fast-paced, a lot of fun, and has a more natural sense of humor (as opposed to some of the forced humor of the later films). In fact, the DVD is on “pause” right now in the other room while I take a short break to type up this post.
In fact, I like all the Trek movies (yes, even this one)…I’m just a big ol’ Trek nerd at heart. I’ve been buying these “collector’s edition” DVDs as they’ve been coming out, and they really are something else…the text commentaries that run in conjunction with the films are a particular favorite feature of these new releases.
I’ve been avoiding the season releases of the multiple TV series as those are a bottomless pit I’d just as soon not fall into…especially since there’s about a five minute gap between each new set arriving on the shelves. I may someday get the Classic series, since there are only three sets of those, and really, Trek never got much better than its original incarnation. I like the other series, but I don’t need to own every single episode…maybe once they perfect the “DVD on Demand” technology, so I can buy only the episodes I want on individually-manufactured discs, I’ll start picking up some of those Next Generations I really liked.
Okay, that’s enough nerd talk…I’m back to comics tomorrow, I promise! (“…He said with absolutely no ironic self-awareness whatsoever.”)