J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Reboot “Starting Over Was Brilliant,” Says Popular TNG & DS9 Writer

J.J. Abrams’ 2009 movie reboot of Star Trek had an early supporter in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine writer Ronald D. Moore. After leaving Star Trek, Moore masterminded his own lauded reboot of Battlestar Galactica, and he is an executive producer of Apple TV+’s For All Mankind, which can be seen as a pseudo-prequel and origin story of Star Trek. Moore also co-wrote the feature films Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact and he was excited about the idea of J.J. Abrams shedding decades of established canon and starting over with a new, younger version of the Star Trek: The Original Series actors.

In the Star Trek oral history “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years” by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Ronald D. Moore shared his enthusiasm at the idea of J.J. Abrams rebooting the original Star Trek characters, and he explained the advantages of breaking away from canon. Read his quote below:

I liked the idea of this “reboot” as soon as I heard it, and it was something I was vocal about. I said that the idea of going back to the original and recasting and starting over was brilliant. When I left the show, I felt like there had been so much Star Trek and it was so much continuity and so many things to keep track of, that it was hard to come up with new stories. You’d be in the writers room pitching stories and you’d have to stop and go, “But does that contradict episode twenty-five?” It was a burden. All the backstories of Romulans and the Klingons and Starfleet and the history and all the franchises … It was just an enormous burden and I really felt like it was becoming impenetrable to the audience. Especially if you weren’t a completely dyed-in-the-wool fan who watched every episode and knew the stuff backward and forward.

Will Star Trek 4 Be Another Reboot Movie?

It’s unclear whether Chris Pine and his Enterprise cast will return for Star Trek 4.

The long-delayed fourth Star Trek movie produced by J.J. Abrams is reportedly back in development at Paramount Pictures. When the Writer’s Guild strike was resolved, a Variety report indicated a new Star Trek movie became a “priority” at Paramount, but the verbiage also called the new project a “reboot.” Many years of “creative difficulties” that failed to deliver a workable story for Star Trek 4 led to the departure of high-profile filmmakers attached to the film like Quentin Tarantino, Noah Hawley, S.J. Clarkson, and Matt Shakman, despite the willingness of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and the rest of Abrams’ Star Trek cast to return to their roles aboard the Starship Enterprise.

Variety‘s claim that Star Trek 4 could be a reboot hasn’t been verified, and there’s been no update on the creative direction of the next potential film. Nor is it clear what another Star Trek reboot could be about, whether it could be set on another starship with a new crew, or in what era. Star Trek is thriving on Paramount+ with hit series like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks, but there would definitely be interest in seeing a new Star Trek theatrical movie, perhaps even more so if J.J. Abrams’ cast led by Chris Pine returned to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

Star Trek (2009) is available to stream on Paramount+.