Okay, so movie #11 is out, the curse is broken, the money’s being made…I guess it’s time now, to look forward.

A lot has been said about what to do next with this new cast in the movies, from bringing in The Borg (what a copout) to bringing in Shatner, but there’s one idea that has been unfortunately ignored.

The current storyline is essentially a resetting of the original series. While I agree with Abrams in that the rules of The Original series were restrictive, there are some really good stories in the span of all the Trek that’s been told so far on TV, books, comics, and movies.

What if Abrams took one of the best and most beloved stories of them all and told it, in an extended form, the way it was originally intended?

What if Star Trek 12 was “City On The Edge of Forever”? For $100M (or so), you could tell one of the best Star Trek stories ever written. The original “City On The Edge Of Forever was written by Harlan Ellison, one of the few leading and living masters of science fiction. His original story was a lot larger in scale, and because of politics, technology, and TV formatting (time limits, etc), the story was watered down considerably. Update the story a LITTLE ( just a little, to compensate for facts we know now) and you have one hell of a show. Giving the total screenplay credit to Harlan Ellison also corrects one of the biggest wrongs in Star Trek — it would get Harlan the money he’s allegedly owed from Paramount.

I don’t think it maters much who directs it. I’d love the job, of course, but I think this is something JJ could do, and his not being attached to the source material could work well for everyone!