....well, they can go three ways with this "new-old" crew of "new Kirk" and "new Co." the way I see it.

First, they CAN'T:

-Make the next one not about the new crew, they're under contract and the film as a hit and was great for the franchise: Chris Pine and Zachary Quinot are now Kirk and Spock permanently in the movies from here on out.

-Use time travel as a device again; they just had a BIG time travel story in the last film, so using it again would be stale. This is Trek, not Doctor Who- time travel occasionally, not all the time.

-Use Romulans again. The last two films have had Romulan villians, and neither of the villians were that great.



So, saying what they CAN'T do, the four ways I see them taking this:

-Crossover with another crew; the Old Spock thing worked out great, made the Trekkies (a clear-up: I call fans of Trek Trekkers and the nerds who sit in their basement howling about discrepencies in Enterprise specs or worshipping Shatner Trekkies) and mainstream fans and non-fans alike all happy. Kirk and Spock are almost always the focus of the stories, and they certianly were here; this last film leaned towards Spock, so maybe make the next one Kirk's film and come up with an excuse to bring Shatner-Kirk back......? Or if that doesn't work, TNG got a so-so send off with Trek X. Maybe all three, and you can then have the punchline to the age old joke "so two Kirks and a Picard walk onto a bridge..." ;)

-Keep going with the Vulcan saga. I must say that the plot of the last film wasn't it's strong point, the characters were, by design- this was the into movie, where Trekkers and non-fans alike all see the formation of the storied crew, and the plot's just an excuse for that- sort of like if you were to make a movie about the Beatles coming together and hitting it big, and just threw together a sub-plot to justify it. But one thing in the film that was a HUGE curveball to many, myself included, was Vulcan/most the Vulcan race being destroyed, and no reset button. Was it logical? Not really.... but it DID shock the audience, and most in a good way, it's always good to have that feeling that anything can happen as opposed to "they can't kill him/her, it'll wreck continuity/he/she's a main character." If they want to go for a sort of trilogy here, the Vulcans could be the story arc. What do they do to try and survive? Who stands in their way? How does Spock figure into this (and I mean new Spock mostly.)

-A straight adventure/romance movie. No real villian, not as much action- just Kirk and Crew meeting a new race/entity, some romantic intrigue (Kirk NEEDS a girlfriend this time around, a girl competing with Uhura for Spock's attention might be interesting- or maybe go a more humorous route and give Chekov or Scotty a gal for a change?) the crew boldly going where no one has gone before, and something to impede their path to their goal (maybe even for a bit of an Indiana Jones flavor, Kirk and Crew go looking for some sort of "legendary" space artifact that will be dangerous in the wrong hands...?)

-Klingons. It has been FAR too long since we've had a good old-fashioned Klingon war; the Civil War on TNG in the '90s was 15-20 years ago, the last time they fought the Federation (Enterprise the show does NOT count) was even longer. Spock had the Romulan Nero threatening Vulcan, maybe Kirk has a Klingo adversary threatening Earth? Or maybe the Klingons-Federation are on the edge of war and being puppeted (a bit like ST VI; some new outsider this time, or, if you want the nostalgia factor, Q from TNG or even, dare I scream it, KHHHHHHAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!)


Those are the four ways I can see them taking this; myself, I like the last two ideas best (Indiana Kirk and the Quest for the Galactic Whatever or Khan/Q/New Guy sets up Klingon-Federation war.)

My personal wish list:

+More Kirk-Spock-McCoy moments: We didn't get enough of that trio in this movie; Kirk and Spock were, albeit wonderfully, butting heads, and there wasn't enough room for the Old Country Doctor.

+More Scotty and Chekov: I liked the entire crew, but these guys (and McCoy) nearly stole the show for me. Plus, Chekov's my favorite character. ;)

+Give Sulu some damn lines this time: The poor guy barely got to speak...

+EXTERNAL love interest: Uhura needed to be the love interest in the last movie- there was just no one else that fit well. She was great, but now that Kirk and Spock have cooled their heads, I think it's time she cooled just a bit, and let the millions of intergalactic space women have their shot at Kirk's SpaceBalls. (Bad pun, but you get the point....)

+Badly damaged Enterprise: Maybe it's a wierd wish of mine, but I'd really like to see that ship get a fe good cracks. It seems it's always either in pristine condition, has a few holes or burns where decks have been hit, or is just blown up. We have the CGI- let's have some BIG damage to the ship in a HUGE fire-fight: and have every Trekkie-collector nerd's nightmare happen and see a nacelle snap. ;)

+Klingons: I want them in. We've had enough Romulans, the Borg belong to TNG, and somehow just inventing a new race wouldn't be as cool...

+Keep the humor, but BE CAREFUL: The light feel of the crew was great, one of the biggest reason the last film worked. But the jokes about "old" Trek need to stop in this film: they were GREAT, but keep repeating the same comedy and it gets stale. And the crew is young, and can be more immature than the oldies, but this can't turn into 90210 Trek....



So my ultimate idea: Star Trek XII is Kirk and Crew exploring an unknown reach of space, pick up reading of huge power coming from a planet, Kirk-Spock-McCoy go play Indiana Jones with the love interest girl to try and recover a dangerous artifact before the Klingon adersary does, lest that Klingon use it for evil; meanwhile Scotty and Chekov and Crew give him support from the Enterprise, beam up and down to help him, somone gets critically injured, big battle at the end, Crew wins but ship is too damaged to leave the area where they are- the crew is stranded in space until Star Trek XIII.

Ideas? (And yes, that wa a LOT of geek just coming out, but my knees got SCORCHED at the beach, so I can't much walk, have all the time in the world to be nerdy...) ;)