As a lifelong fan of star trek, I am now deeply upset and angry. Today I got wind that the thirteenth Star Trek film will be directed by justin Lin. I had never heard of him, but he apparently Directed a few Fast and Furious films and some tv shows I’d never heard of. Just when I thought Paramount couldn’t wreck my favourite franchise any further, they hire a hack who creates cartoonish, meaningless films about stealing cars to direct the next film. Do they have no respect for the franchise or it’s fans?

A few week ago my hopes were raised when I heard a rumour that Jonathan Frakes was going to direct: Frakes, of course, knows and understands Star trek. He directed arguably the best film of the series, First Contact; a film which I adore and describe my relationship with in my Masters. Frakes could have rescued the series from the car crash of the last two films, restored the proper timeline, put everything right. Was that too much to ask?

Yes, apparently. Instead I fear we trekkies have another insult to look forward to. Something which takes characters and themes we grew to love and totally distorts them from Gene Roddebery’s original conception. His vision was liberal and left wing; of an earth unified, working together as one people to explore the galaxy. I fear that, like so much hollywood output these days, it has been perverted into something crass and base, focussed on competition, greed and the self. I might be wrong, but my hunch is the next film will be a car crash based along those lines, saturated with lens-flairs and a derivative, greed-based plot. How I miss proper star trek, and how can they keep insulting Roddenbery’s vision?