There is a curiosity about how John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein will handle the next Star Trek film entrusted to them by Paramount: comedy specialists, they have shown they can unleash a certain originality when working with prestigious brands, as demonstrated by the underrated Dungeons & Dragons – Honor Among Thieves. For this reason it is intriguing to read what they stated, as guests on Playlist’s The Discourse podcast, clarifying better what attitude they are maintaining toward Star Trek… and citing two films that are guiding their inspiration.
Star Trek, the next film draws on Red Alert and Training Day, say the authors
John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein have fairly clear ideas about the direction to take Star Trek on the big screen, an undertaking Paramount has not attempted since Star Trek Beyond, which is now ten years old. The first step is to avoid addressing a tight-knit club of insiders: “We care less about questions like: which continuity are we in? Which timeline? Rather, we care about how we can bring this world to an audience that may not consider itself ‘trekkie’. What can we do that has never been done before?” To explain what they mean, the directors cite two feature films that aren’t even science fiction: “Our stance is to ask: what is this institution, Starfleet, at the heart of Star Trek? What would happen if things didn’t work within that institution? As a cinematic reference we think of Training Day [a corrupt cop paired with a rookie who plays by the rules].” According to Daley, the other reference is Red Alert by Tony Scott: in the thick of the Cold War, a captain and a lieutenant on an American submarine clash over what to do in the face of an atomic threat. The crew fractures, with mutiny. Daley and Goldstein are using these two films as “spiritual touchstones.”
How will Trek fans react to this external gaze on the saga? One thing can be said: it seems to us that the ethical dilemma has always been at the heart of Star Trek’s best stories, and since the two films cited revolve around that kind of situation, the two authors could have a solid experience to bring to the fandom, which at the moment finds comfort in the series Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
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