The Star Trek franchise reached an interesting juncture when J.J. Abrams took over the director’s chair to helm a reboot of Star Trek: The Original Series. Abrams’ 2009 film was a massive success at the box office and spawned two sequels to constitute the reboot trilogy. However, it is interesting to note that despite being commercially and critically successful, many hardcore Trekkies believe that the director could not handle the reboot very well.
J.J. Abrams is among the rarest directors who got to try his hands on both Star Trek and Star Wars. But the Trekkies assert that the director’s reboot lacked the signature Star Trek flavor, that was present in the earlier series and films. A Redditor took the example of a particular scene from the 2009 Chris Pine film to explain how the director never cared enough about the franchise’s lore.
How did the Kobayashi Maru test prove the flaws in 2009’s Star Trek?
The Kobayashi Maru is a training program in the Gene Roddenberry franchise conducted to test the Starfleet Academy cadets in an impossible scenario. It was first introduced in William Shatner’s 1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and has been a recurring element in the franchise since then.
It was only mentioned in the 1982 film that Shatner’s James T. Kirk reprogrammed the simulated test to be the only individual ever to beat the test. Although it was not fair, the Starfleet was impressed by his out-of-the-box thinking. But after 27 years when the fans got another version of the scene in the J.J. Abrams film, it played out very differently.
Similar to William Shatner, Chris Pine‘s version of James T. Kirk also cheated on the exam. However, his method was very different and the consequence was more severe. In this version of the test, James T. Kirk blatantly cheats so that the Klingon shields fail and their ships are destroyed. For this action, Pine’s character faced suspension and a tribunal. Now, a Redditor @HalxQuixotic has stated that Abrams went too far to include the hearing scene.
In Star Trek (2009), Starfleet Academy putting Kirk on trial for cheating is completely overblown and unnecessary.
byu/HalxQuixotic instartrek
It must be kept in mind that Kobayashi Maru was a no-win scenario that was conducted to primarily determine the thought process of the cadets. Even in the Star Trek novel, The Kobayashi Maru, it was revealed that the Prime Kirk (from the Original Series) reprogrammed the scenario in a way where the Klingons recognize him as a respectable foe and surrender without any action.
According to many, J.J. Abrams’ take on the alternate Kirk’s handling of the situation was poor. While the Prime Kirk devised a doable scenario, Chris Pine’s Kirk from the Kelvin Timeline mocked the test. Even the scene of him munching his apple and pointing his finger gun on the screen was not well received by the Trekkies.
The Redditor rightfully admitted that such an action on Kirk’s part did not need an entire hearing to be solved. Interestingly, this also paints a picture of how Star Trek: The Next Generation was a better reimagination of the iconic series than J.J. Abrams’ films. It is widely believed that Abrams’ films never respected the lore. They were commendable, but nothing more than generic sci-fi action ventures, with some Trek characters.
Will we get more of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek saga?
The success of Star Trek (2009) led J.J. Abrams to direct its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness and produce the Justin Lin-directed threequel, Star Trek Beyond. It was first reported in 2016 that the reboot cast would also return for a fourth film. Nevertheless, we did not get any fruitful update on the project till 2022.
In 2022, we witnessed a major dispute between the cast and the makers after it was announced that the fourth film would be made for a December 2023 release. Reportedly, the cast did not anything about a fourth film beforehand and was taken aback by the studio’s decision to not include them in the discussion before the announcement.
Now, earlier this year, Deadline reported that Paramount is moving forward with a prequel film to the 2009 Chris Pine film. Very interestingly, they have brought another Star Wars director, precisely the main director of Andor, Toby Haynes to lead this film. Besides this, the makers also surprised the fans by adding that even after so much, Star Trek 4 is also in development.
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