10 Times Star Trek Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted

Star Trek fans are a fickle bunch and this writer is counting himself very much included. Star Trek itself is older than the online forums that run rampant with theorizing and calls for add this and add that, yet the discourse around Trek has been raging for decades. Vocal fans have called for plot twists or out and out revivals and occasionally, they have been successful.

With the advent of the internet, this particularly vocal group of fans have been able to gain quick access to the filmmakers and producers in a way that they never could before. This has caused some excellent additions to the series and unfortunately some rather misguided choices to appear on screen as well. There are numerous examples dotted through the more recent Trek offerings of be careful what you wish for.

However, this list will highlight more of the positive additions to the franchise that came from the fans clamouring for more, calling for either plots to be added (or removed) and for characters to meet up and have daring new adventures together. Klingons arriving on Deep Space Nine, Borg assimilating supporting roles or old favourites returning for new adventures - this list has it all. Whether or not they were all positive creative choices, you can't say the producers didn't listen!

When news broke that Star Trek was finally coming back to theatres in 2009, fans rejoiced. Star Trek Nemesis had left a somewhat sour taste in the mouths of fandom and Enterprise had failed to win over the audiences to keep it from cancellation. However, here was a sexy new vision of Roddenberry's future. First question: how does it tie in with the old one?

So, when Leonard Nimoy was confirmed to be appearing in the film, the collective fanbase were delighted. There is something in the gravitas that Nimoy delivered every one of his lines that lent legitimacy to the film. Added to that, the film was a success. J.J. Abrams, while certainly bringing his own vision of the future to bear, managed to do so in a way that was both respectful and inclusive of the past.

And then Into Darkness came along.

While it is not a bad film and there are many fine examples of acting all around it, much like the very hamfisted Nimoy cameo, just felt unnecessary. Rather than driving the franchise off into new directions, it fell back and became a soft-remake of the Wrath of Khan. While Benedict Cumberbatch chews all of the scenery that isn't nailed down, he is a far cry from Ricardo Montalban's definitive superman.

The fans may have asked for Khan and they may have asked for more from the past to be brought back but Into Darkness serves as a cautionary tale of be careful what you wish for.