1/27/2008 - Star Trek Movie Mistakes Part 1

Feature films that were adapted from a TV series using the same cast have largely been successful. There's a built-in audience and fanbase for the TV shows who have watched them for free for many years. They are usually eager to see either the continuation of the storyline or just want that big-screen experience. The most recent example of this was The Simpsons Movie which did extremely well in the box-office.

One of the longest-running franchises that has had TV to movie crossovers is Star Trek. Originally intended to be a five-year or more series, the original Star Trek television show only lasted two years, but got such a huge following that it led to the production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. While it only did respectably at the box-office, its follow-up, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a huge hit, and brought many new fans to the series because it was such a great movie (one of my personal favorites). In fact, its success led the producers to develop a new Star Trek series on TV, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Its run on the air would be in parallel to the continuation of the stories of the old generation on the big-screen.

The writers of these stories of the big-screen and small really do make an attempt not to contradict each other in terms of continuity, but with so many storylines and throwaway technical jargon, it would have been impossible to be consistent. After all, nobody can claim to know every line of dialog to every Star Trek story or would have the time to research them while writing the plot. They would also use different writers for the feature films than the television show(s). Of course, the hardcore fans of the series would pick up on little inconsistencies between the TV shows and the movies. And in the case of Star Trek, these hardcore fans are nerds (I use that term lovingly). So what mistakes have they come up with? Well, watch and see...