I may agree with the LA Times, but who in the Bush administration would give a flying fuck what the LA Times thinks.  Certainly not President Bush himself who seems to be under the demonic influence of Cheney.  Cheney could sleep his way through January, 2008, and I doubt the president would say a jack squat.

You can’t visit a sci-fi site these days without reading some story or comment on the "rediscovery" of Star Trek by Lost and Alias creator J. J. Abrams.  I read these articles with some trepidation because as a long-time Star Trek fan I’ve never thought that it needed to be "rediscovered" just invigorated with the some new ideas, and yes maybe some new blood.  The years of Star Trek under the control of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga nearly spelled the end of the franchise, so I don’t see a problem with them being removed from the process if that’s the case. However, after reading some of the articles about Erik Jendresen’s idea for a triology bridging the gap between the end of the very bad Enterprise and Star Trek: The Original Series featuring the Earth-Romulan War and an entirely new cast of characters was one of the best ideas to come along in a very, very long time.  Moreover, unlike Berman and Braga, Jendresen seemed to have a strong respect for accepted Star Trek mythology. 

Now comes the idea of a Starfleet Academy movie featuring the early days of Spock and Kirk.  Well, I have some problems with that.  First of all, Spock is many years older than Kirk as Vulcans tend to live a good century longer than humans.  They would not have been in the Starfleet Academy together.  Second, Spock served under the Enterprise’s original captain, Christopher Pike, so again he was not at Starfleet Academy with Kirk.  Granted, they may create a situation in which Kirk and Spock aren’t actually together but serving in different areas:  Kirk at the Academy, Spock on a ship prior to his Enterprise years, who knows. 

Granted, I like J. J. Abrams’ work, and maybe he’s a Trek fan, but right now I’m not all that excited by what I’m hearing.  However, the movie might be just what’s need to revive franchise.  Good or bad, people will most likely turn to see what Abrams does.  The Trek films have never been mega-box office smashes. According to Box Office Mojo, the highest grossing Star Trek film was for the fourth one to feature the original cast, The Voyage Home, which grossed nearly $110 million, the rest never made it to $100 million, and most of them barely grossed $75 million.  Granted, with overseas sales and DVD the movies are more than successful.  If Abrams can revive the franchise, bring in grosses that match or exceed the highest grosses of the previous films, it just may do the trick.  I’ll wait and see.