J.J. can keep his lens flare, the gratuitous nudity, and Sherlock playing superman. The classic Star Trek universe is about to return with the new project Star Trek: Renegades, from the producers who shaped the miniseries Of Gods and Men. After three crowdfunding campaigns, Renegades finally has an official trailer, and with Walter Koenig at the helm, several actors are returning to their original roles.
The reboot of Star Trek had a budget of $150 million. Its sequel raised that to $185 million. With $850 million in accumulated earnings, the third film under J.J. Abrams is a certainty, and I imagine Paramount will stretch the franchise as much as it can. Some interesting details about Star Trek 3 have leaked, but we'll have to wait until mid-2016 to see if the new universe can keep going.
Meanwhile, we have news from the old universe, or rather, the original timeline. Production on Star Trek: Renegades began in 2012, with a first Kickstarter campaign and two additional visits to Indiegogo. The delay was longer than we would have liked, but at last we can see an official trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/OjeX5drV9msThe Plot
The plot of Star Trek: Renegades has been published on the official site for a while now, so there's no way we can call it a spoiler: It has been ten years since Voyager returned to Earth, and the Federation keeps gaining enemies. Dilithium crystal distributors are disappearing, and a series of artificial space-time distortions have isolated several planets. Admiral Pavel Chekov (143 years old, not bad!), number one of Starfleet Intelligence, decides to invoke the skills of Commander Tuvok, in charge of Section 31. The problem is that the Federation isn't in a position to do anything, so Tuvok's solution is to assemble a crew with the worst of the worst, criminals, felons, and fugitives, to undo this new threat... before his chosen ones kill each other, of course.
The Cast
Walter Koenig (Chekov), Tim Russ (Tuvok), the beautiful Adrienne Wilkinson (descendant of Khan!), Robert Picardo (Lewis Zimmerman), Sean Young (I imagine you remember her from Blade Runner and Dune), Gary Graham (Alien Nation), Richard Herd (Admiral Paris), and Manu Intiraymi (Icheb) are just some of the names participating in Star Trek: Renegades. Granted: the uniforms leave much to be desired, the makeup looks somewhat basic, and I expected something else in terms of sound, but still I want Renegades to do well. I'm among the first to admit that the classic universe had stalled with Voyager, however, J.J.'s vision isn't exactly brilliant either. Fortunately, independent Star Trek productions tend to add up.
Release? "Summer 2015".
