No shit. I've been saying this for nearly two years now. Here's a thread of mine circa November 2001 saying basiclly the exact same thing:


"I want to see Paramount continue the prequel concept onto the silver screen...and produce Harve Bennett's original screenplay for Trek 6.

It was a movie about how Kirk, Spock, and the 30 year old McCoy met one another at "Starfleet Academy" (which would have also been the movie's title), and tells the story of their first adventure together.

Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Rand, and Chapel were of course NOT included in picture, but Carol Marcus and Gary Mitchell were. Bennett said that we would have seen the relationship between Kirk and Carol and the time Kirk re-programmed the Kobyashi Maru training simiulation, to name only a few of the story points.

He also said that the opening segment of the film would feature Kirk anxiously awaiting acceptance to the Academy while riding horses on the family farm in Iowa, the moment Spock and Sarek "blew up" at each other when Spock left for the Academy, and we'd see Dr. McCoy attending his father's funeral.

My pics for the lead roles: Jared Leto ("Fight Club", "American Psycho") as Kirk, Wes Bently ("American Beauty") as Spock and Christian Slater as Bones.

Harve Bennett would get story credit of course, but bring in Nick Meyer as screenwriter and director, Ralph Winter as producer, and Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as Executive Producers (who would also probably contribute to the story...they're advice will be invaluble).

Dedicate the picture to DeForrest Kelly, market the hell out of it...and you've got the biggest hit since TVH. :)"

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"Rock and roll's a prostitute. It should be tarted up, perfomed."

--"Maxwell Demon" (Brian Slade)

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Wouldn't it be cool to have an Alias like Star Trek show? You could have your Section 31 competing against the Tal Shiar and whoever else to find some secret of the universe, kinda like that one next generation episode with the dna from various races. Speacial appearances by Garak and Dr. Bashir... What makes Alias so good (and the final season of DS9 for that matter) is that one episode leads to the next. That's what hooked me in and kept me watching. Sure it may hurt the reruns, but it would help season dvd sales i bet.

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You know, they really stopped using the racism theme after season 1 on ENT with humans/Vulcans. I'd like to see some of that come back. I mean, Bones was still racist 100 years later.

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"Unless we learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] we will die together as fools." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

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old people can't let the past go. There is a reason they passed on this idea, it sucks. Great, Dawson's Creek.....IN SPACE!!!!!!! I'm not saying Ent is shakespeare but, damn, let TOS die already. Shesh, it wasn't even that good to begin with.....innovative yes, but good....a little. Now, a Starfleet show set in TNG might work.....why can't people be happy with what they have? I think everyone is still mad cause Berman killed kirk off. Ent is a pretty good show, deal with it.

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The premise for the story is this: Kirk is forced to live with his Aunt and Uncle (who don't like him much) after his parents are mysteriously killed. For most of his young years he is forced to live in a cupboard until a red shirt security officer begins bringing letters to the home inviting him to the academy. Finally the Uncle lets him go to the academy after Q turns his only boy into a donkey. The fun picks up soon after as each week Kirk solves mystery after mystery at the spooky academy.

Kilroy

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For starters, Kirk, Spock and McCoy WERE NOT AT THE ACADEMY TOGETHER!!! Go back and watch TOS for crying out loud! Spock was serving with Captain Pike when Kirk was at the Academy -- at the very least. McCoy is clearly older than Kirk so even those two wouldn't have been at the academy together.

The STARFLEET ACADEMY idea just stinks. Stinks on ice. I've always hated the idea of it.



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"Quotes suck"

-- Cinepixel

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I really don't want to see Kirk as portrayed by anyone but Shatner, and I'm tired of prequel and younger versions of everything (no Smallville for me). I do think it would be nice to revisit TOS by revisiting Kirk and Spock, but I think it should be Shatner and Nimoy in the post-TOS movie era, perhaps even post-Generations era (and as a mini-series or TV movie, not a series).

I guess the Star Trek Chronology does place them at the Academy at the same time, with Spock starting a year before Kirk, but I never got the impression that they actually knew each other before serving on Enterprise. In the "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Kirk obviously knows Gary Mitchell well, but seems to be just getting to know Spock. If I remember correctly so-called "Extended Universe" stuff like the novel Enterprise: The First Adventure and the DC Comics run also assume that Kirk and Spock did not know each other at the academy.

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...like there's this recurring idea to go back to TOS in one way or another. Walter Koenig floated the idea last month of re-doing TOS with new actors in the old roles. Shatner is trying to get his idea for a series going (5 bucks says he wants to star in it). Now Harve Bennett is reintroducing his old idea, which would work better as a one-shot film/TV movie. My question is, WHY? The complaint with ENT is that it cheapens, dissrepects, and throws out all that TOS did forty years ago. Why would you want to go back? Wouldn't what people fear is going on with ENT come true with a new TOS?

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I really don't like the idea of "Academy Years". It sounds way to sappy. I think it was a good idea to pass on it. They also should of passed on ENT as well.



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As much as ENTERPRISE has had difficulty in finding it's way, a Kirk and Spock show would cheapen the franchise immeasurably. We've had one installment of Kirk and Spock as well as a few movies, we don't need any more.

Is there really such a poverty of ideas that they should have to resort to dusting off old characters? As much as I like TOS, they would need to be very careful about how they handle the franchise when dealing with pre-TOS elements.

In general, anything having to do with Starfleet Academy would be a mistake. I'm actually shocked that Harve Bennet pitched this idea. It would have been more of a disaster than ENTERPRISE, and Paramount went with B&B's shaky ENTERPRISE premise as being the lesser of two evils.

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Chicken egg foo young is a mother and child reunion.

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This was a bad idea when he tried bringing it up in the 80's and it's a bad idea now.

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