Star Trek writer Melinda Snodgrass, who wrote a number of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes including “The Measure of Man,” recently detailed her criticism of the Star Trek Kelvin Timeline films, which began with J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek film.
Speaking with YouTube channel Midnight’s Edge, Snodgrass begins her criticisms of Abrams’ Star Trek film jokingly saying, “Hopefully, someday I’ll get a job again.”
Star Trek
She then went on to discuss Abrams’ film:
“The first one had the right feel and the cast was amazing. And I forgave it because my understanding was that they had to shoot a very early draft of the script because again we had a writer’s strike. This one I got to march in because I was actually a member of the guild. But I kept watching it and going, ‘This doesn’t make any sense. Why is the apex predator on the snow planet red? Which is like a stupid minor thing.”
She adds:
“But then my other problem was I kept wanting to say to the pissed off Romulans, ‘Why don’t you all just go home and tell everybody the star is going to blow?’ Why are you running around after old Spock? I mean it was just baffling.”
Star Trek Into Darkness
Snodgrass then shares her opinions on Star Trek Into Darkness.
“The second one I thought was just a mess, bluntly. Again you have a terrific cast. I mean you got Benedict Cumberbatch for God’s sake, but he’s not Khan…. I would have been much more interested if it would have been about a disaffected Starfleet officer who blew up headquarters. You know, who is that guy?”
She continues:
“That one I kept laughing through most of it especially when Khan revealed his cunning plan to hide his crew in missiles. I kept thinking I have a lot of friends in the military, and inevitably some supply sergeant is going to go, ‘You know we have all these old missiles over here, why don’t we use them for some target practice out in sector 7, you know.’ It just was like that does not strike me as genius… That one was eh.”
Star Trek Beyond
Snodgrass then gives her criticisms for Star Trek Beyond.
“The third one I wasn’t certain I was going to see, but when I saw that Simon Pegg had written the script and he is so wonderful, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, you know, I thought I’m going to go. And indeed the script did have a levity and a joy to it that I think has been missing so often in Trek. And I liked all of that.”
She concludes:
“But I was disappointed in the end because to be true Star Trek, Kirk should have brought his antagonist back to the light. You know, back to understanding and forgiveness. So that felt off to me that the man died. The thing about Trek is that redemption is possible. I was disappointed in that aspect of it. I did like the third film better than the previous two.”
Snodgrass talks about a wide variety of subjects including her reaction to Star Trek: Picard and how it uses her episode “The Measure of a Man” as its base as well as her original character Bruce Maddox. She also details how Star Wars inspired her to become a writer and provides her reaction to the recent Disney Star Wars films.
Snodgrass recently released her book Wild Cards X: Double Solitaire that was edited by Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin back in December. She’s also currently working on her space opera series. She has three books completed in her Imperials Saga, The High Ground, In Evil Times, and The Hidden World.
What do you make of Melinda Snodgrass’s comments regarding the Kevlin timeline of Star Trek films? Do you agree with her?