Shatner not the only possible link with the past for Star Trek 2

By now many readers will have run across the story reported in May that William Shatner, having been sort-of considered and ultimately rejected as a holographic James T. Kirk-of-the-future in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. A role for the original Kirk was an idea Roberto Orci and Alex Kurzman played with, and maybe it isn't totally dead. (It probably is.) But what other elements of the Star Trek past might conceivably crop up in future scripts?

The Temporal Cold War. The character known only as Daniels was an operative in the Temporal Cold Wars, featured in all four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise; he is from the 31st century and either he or his associates could appear. Briefly, future manipulators of time slug it out in the far future by manipulating the history of all time. The conflict occurs mainly in the 22nd century but includes events that occur throughout (and before) human history. Orci and Kurzman have stated at least a fledgling preference for a more complicated antagonist than a traditional Nero- or Khan-style villain, so a concept like the Temporal Cold War might work and have the added advantage of already existing in Star Trek canon.

Q. The omnipotent and supremely irritating entity who plagued Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, portrayed by a brilliantly tongue-in-cheek John de Lancie, appeared in eight episodes of The Next Generation, three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and one episode of Deep Space Nine. Q can be anywhere, anytime he likes, so he could easily pop in to the new Star Trek universe.

Guinan. Before she took charge of Ten Forward on the Enterprise-D, Guinan, played by Whoopi Goldberg in several seasons of The Next Generation, was a refugee, her civilization of "listeners" destroyed by the Borg. A member of a long-lived species, she was well up in years before Zefram Cochrane made his first baking soda rocket, so she can certainly make an appearance. It might be fun to see Whoopi again in Star Trek.

The Borg. Can Orci and Kurzman can resist the hive-minded, Collective-controlled Borg? The commentary the Borg provided on the humanity-destroying aspects of technology--whether or not you find that idea convincing--has genuine intellectual value, and the Borg was an exciting adversary in The Next Generation. The Borg may have been overdone, though; a big-screen Borg could look an awful lot like Nero's ship, and its impact as an adversary has been badly diluted by the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact. You don't want a cube that draws snickers instead of shivers. Still, the Borg is out there. And resistance...well, you know.

These possibilities for folding Star Trek canon into Star Trek reboot are not the only ones, but they are the elements most familiar to casual Star Trek fans. Time will tell.


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