Like most of us, I am greatly enjoying Strange New Worlds. One of the small benefits of the series, in my mind, is that it has finally broken one of the strangest of fan habits – the insistence on literalism for TOS visuals, especially on things like ship designs and controls. Is there anyone still holding out for a “refit” of the beautiful SNW Enterprise so that it “really” looks like a set from the late 1960s? The updated look is a big part of what makes the TOS world seem relevant and alive for contemporary viewers, instead of just a nostalgia trip (as it was in the tribute episodes that showed TOS sets within a TNG/DS9 context).
Given that they have made the biggest remaining move of recasting Kirk, the idea of continuing past SNW into Kirk’s Five-Year Mission seems unavoidable. Given that Paramount seems to be contracting their streaming footprint, it is admittedly unlikely that anything like this would ever get made. But something like the Kelvin Timeline tie-in comics where they redo TOS stories and intersperse them with new ones could actually be a good format – reintroducing new viewers to classic stories while retrospectively granting more cohesion to TOS.
Obviously there would be drawbacks to redoing the old episodes. Fans would howl at any changes to the scripts, and of course there would be questions about whether any of this was worth anyone’s time or talents. And maybe it wouldn’t be! But redoing the most stone-cold classics of TOS in a more modern style could literally be the only way some new fans would engage with those stories. Young people are very intolerant of entertainment that seems old or outdated. Looking back at my childhood, I never liked TOS in large part simply because it looked too old and the acting style felt weird. If we really think that these stories are classics that deserve to endure for the long haul, a remake could be a way to inject new life into them.
What do you think? [UPDATE: You all have convinced me this is a bad idea. I will keep that in mind if I ever become head of Paramount.]
I personally doubt that they would. It goes against the philosophy behind the revival of Trek, where it’s meant to be “A Trek for everyone”. Your modern remake of TOS is SNW, and if you want something more cinematic and action-focused, that’s what the Kelvin Timeline movies are for. If you just want the older shows, you have the older shows for that.
From a practical standpoint, it would be something of a legal nightmare to dig up those scripts and start redoing them after all this time, both due to the age of the script, and the CBS/Paramount split-merger. They would have to check with the writers, or the estates of those writers if they’re no longer around, which adds quite a bit of a headache that they wouldn’t have wanted to deal with, not when they have a writing team that might do new scripts. The only exception to that that I could see is them trying to use it to get around the writer strike, but even then, that’s an unlikely prospect.