Redeemed #2: Star Trek
The years previous to and surrounding the death of Star Trek: The Next Generation had not been especially kind to Star Trek fans. Though The Next Generation had proven to be a success within the group of people who cared about that sort of thing, the continuation of Star Trek as a film phenomenon was questionable at best. With Deep Space Nine premiering only a year previously, Paramount Pictures decided to hedge their bets for the next film and shoehorned in William Shatner. Star Trek: Generations was dismal at best. And though the next film, First Contact would give fans hope, Insurrection and Nemesis would doom the Star Trek film franchise to development hell. It would spend 7 years toiling in the fanfiction mines, occasionally popping its head up only to be shoved back down again and told to get back to television. And then in 2009, something magical happened. Paramount released Star Trek. While alienating the fans, it managed to appeal to a much wider audience. As such, it was deemed to be "not bad." Eventually it went on to gross $325 million dollars which is
literally the box office from the last three Star Trek movies. More recently, we've seen the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, a film which slavishly "pays homage" to Star Trek: Wrath of Khan by pitting James T. Kirk against his most dangerous foe: Starfleet regulations. Also, Kirk runs into the engine room and dies for no reason other than to have Spock yell "KHAN!" It is a film that while flawed, remains an entertaining piece of popcorn sci-fi cinema. More importantly it has made Star Trek relevant to audiences again.