...with Beyonce Knowles as Lt. Uhura

Posted by Philip Barron at 12:12 PM on March 2, 2007.

I have two ZIP disks (no, I haven't made the jump to flash drives yet). One of them is named Nomad. The other is named Defiant. It's fair to say that Star Trek is an abiding cultural touchstone for me, as it is for many others, Trekkies* or no. The idea of a Smallville-style reimagining of the roots of the concept - that is, TOS, the mother lode, the sacred origin, Kirk and Spock and McCoy and an Enterprise with no bloody A, B, C, or D in its designation - is troubling. Additionally, what I've seen from wunderkind J.J. Abrams has, in my opinion, sucked. But my opinion doesn't count, apparently. Reworking old stories to fit new times and audiences is the way of things these days, and there's not much to be done about it.

I have some small concerns based on the casting speculation for Star Trek Ex-Eye (sounds like we're talking about the Super Bowl). Matt Damon as Kirk? Adrian Brody as Spock? Gary Sinise as McCoy? Well, okay...if you say so, Captain...

Isn't it kind of early for all this, though? Couldn't Paramount wait until, you know, the next generation before digging up old, uh, bones?

Tagged as: star trek

Philip Barron is a St. Louis writer and author of the blog Waveflux.