With word out confirming Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the core writing & producing team behind the 2009 reboot of Star Trek and its sequel, Into Darkness, will be back for a third installment, the question immediately comes up for filmgoers: is this really a good thing? I may be in the minority here, but I’m not sure this is entirely just that unless they really double down on new adventures for Star Trek as they originally started out, moving past “needed” re-inventions of what…has…gone…before…

While Trek 2009 delivered a truly enjoyable movie, balancing old & new Trek, and capturing the energy everyone wanted to see propel the Trek-franchise forward from its moribund state (credit to all those who caught the warp reaction analogy-!), Into Darkness simply didn’t capture the “something” that is the hallmark of “good Trek”, or move at the same speed as its 2009 predecessor or even its original source material. This wasn’t just because of what amounted to a sorta/kinda re-do and twist of the Khan story (and there are any number of issues in that), but the reality that the script wasn’t nearly as “tight” as that of the first installment, acknowledged by Into Darkness writer Damon Lindelof. The story was simply too heavily laden with the burden of trying to top, yet somehow at the same time also stay true AND reinvent, the most well-known and celebrated of the original Trek films.

Into Darkness is not a bad film, but it left a tremendous amount on the table (including blowing a dialogue exchange opportunity between Bones and Sulu the writers perfectly laid the groundwork for that exemplifies so much of what could have been*), and didn’t have the inventive quality that the first film demonstrated. No, Trek 2009 wasn’t a PERFECT film (and I’m still wondering what gripping scene of powerful acting it was in which Eric Bana supposedly passed out during one take…), but it was thoroughly fun and didn’t lack for emotion, drama, humor, or action. And it did so all while making the old familiar pieces of Trek look new again.

Looking to the horizon of what Trek 3 might offer, Orci and Kurtzman say they want to bring in a third writer again to help them. This is a smart move — it should again allow for greater collaboration and idea development — but THE STORY must be fully developed before writing commences, and it’s essential that they re-balance their formula to tilt toward their first installment. A safe presumption to start from is that Trek fans, no matter how dedicated, want to see something more of 2009 Trek, new adventures that tie into established Trekverse (if for nothing else so more passive fans don’t get lost any more than what is unavoidable in the inevitable ensuing historical analyses…), and not re-takes on what already exists and has become so much a part of Trek lore. If fans want to see classic Trek, it’s…already…there. To be fair, many argue that new Trek had to address Khan. That may be, but Into Darkness was not the way to go about it, and certainly not in the second new Trek film.

Virtually everyone who knows their Trek, and possibly general pop culture film history, can recite a variation of the mantra about the original Trek films: II, IV, VI are great! One and Three are necessary; number five we do not speak of! And of the three “evens” that are celebrated, almost all claim Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as the best and most compelling, with a nod to The Voyage Home as the most accessible and enjoyable film for non-Trek fans.

So for the writers to take on that burden so early in the renewed franchise, wherein they somewhat heavily address the touchstones from TWOK everyone knows, was a questionable move. And if the word out there is true insofar as John Harrison (if you’re reading this and you don’t know about Harrison’s relationship to Khan, you should stop reading NOW…) and how the character evolved from being a unique villain into Khan once Cumberbatch signed on, then it’s fair to ask what the story could have been had it been properly developed to be either the Khan-take from the beginning, or a wholly new (and I would argue, better suited) villain to challenge the new crew of the Enterprise. Better to have “saved Khan” for later.

No, instead of trying to invert something that went before, with Trek 3 give us some Harry Mudd, some Klingons In Space (!), some real intrigue with Section 31 (that was a very nice touch to those who know their Trek but was quickly discarded) and maybe the natives on Nibru, the planet in the beginning of Into Darkness where Kirk went criminally in violation of the Prime Directive because no one thought to work AT NIGHT to plant the cold fusion device, some Gorn with updated creature effects, and throw in a seemingly unimportant brief encounter with Spock talking about artificial intelligence with Brent Spiner playing Data/Noonien Soong’s grandfather — which if you really know your Trek could be shoehorned and nicely tied into what exists in the Enterprise television series accounting of the Soong family legacy, Khan, the Eugenics War, AND the Klingons! — and then move on to how this plays with the current crew in their adventures.

Bring in writer-three, but make that person’s qualifications a bright-line test: a fan of what WAS, but wants to see what COULD BE; someone who knows their Trek, but wants to see new adventures for the crew; someone who will write the characters “truer” to how they would be in the new timeline, but with an eye toward where they come from, and not spinning what has gone before; someone who will call out when something just doesn’t work or is forced.

These are supposed to be the continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise in a branched-off timeline. Let’s have it then! Don’t set-up Trek 3 to be about the Borg, or Mirror-Mirror permutations, the Doomsday Device, or Klingon “Glasnost”, as Trek VI was framed, but now with an eye to current world events. Too soon. Too familiar. Too burdened now with Into Darkness. Hit the familiarity button, and then give us the new stuff (if we see another ham-fisted thing like the tribble, or a huge jump like Transwarp Drive, it will kill off the spark Trek 2009 captured everyone with). Emphasize more tight dialogue, where the characters re-capture what they had in the first installment and was the hallmark of the best of Classic Trek (and was nicely done on the shuttle in the descent to retrieve Khan), and less forced plot machinations.

The news about Orci and Kurtman of course suggests the early rumors that JJ Abrams will come back to direct or at least produce the third Trek could still happen, despite his immediate commitment to Star Wars Episode VII. And if you’re going to have the team that brought 2009 Trek once again at the helm (!) then something new, and not new-like or silly/gimmicky, plays to their strength in creativity and ability to surprise the audience. That’s what fans want for Star Trek.

And for the love of all, in my best Robert Duvall: Charlie [and the USS Enterprise] DON’T SURF!!

*Star Trek writers have for whatever reason always seemed to work the game of poker into the mix at some point (you can bet the other side of that coin, tri-level chess is coming), and Into Darkness knowingly or unknowingly continued the legacy with Doctor McCoy’s analogy to Kirk with Sulu at the helm when pursuing Khan: You just sat that man down at a high stakes poker game with no cards and told him to bluff.

Excellent tee-up, BUT the follow-thru didn’t capitalize and was emblematic of the Into Darkness writing always being a little short of the end-zone: after Sulu delivers his powerful ultimatum to Khan to surrender/cooperate or be obliterated despite the (false) implication he’d fire on his crewmates, McCoy, without looking down, comments: Mr. Sulu, remind me never to piss you off.

Funny, sure; amusing, yes, but with respect to the writing team, if you’re going to have McCoy set that poker analogy up, and in proper McCoy-like fashion not quite listen to Kirk’s casual order “no more metaphors”, McCoy’s more McCoy-like observation when Sulu finishes his statement would properly (and SCREAMS OUT TO) be a deadpanned: Mr. Sulu, remind me never to play poker with you…