Fans of both Quentin Tarantino and Star Trek were surprised when it was announced that Quentin Tarantino had pitched an R-rated Star Trek movie and it was actually going to get made. The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith is writing the script, so it won’t be a true Tarantino movie, but as long as he’s pulling the strings behind the scenes, we’ll surely see his unmistakable stamp on the film.
One of the most exciting prospects about this unusual project is the chance to see a bunch of classic Star Trek characters in their Tarantino-ized form. Maybe this can even be a new form of rebooting: a director with a distinctive style offering their take on well-known characters. Here are 10 Characters We Want To See In Quentin Tarantino’s R-Rated Star Trek Movie.
Scotty
Scotty has always been the comic relief in the Star Trek universe – from his original portrayal by James Doohan to his faithful translation in the reboots by Simon Pegg – and Quentin Tarantino tends to make movies that are really funny without being comedies. So, a character like Scotty will be invaluable in setting his specific creative tone.
There’s an opportunity to give a dark take on Scotty who swears a lot and makes mistakes beaming people in and out of the transporter. Whatever Tarantino’s take on the Scotty character turns out to be, it’ll probably be a lot of fun.
Christopher Pike
In the Star Trek universe, Christopher Pike is the ultimate tragic hero. He’s remembered for his bold actions and heroism, but that heroism left him paralyzed, scarred, mute, and confined to a wheelchair after he was exposed to delta ray radiation on a rescue mission.
In J.J. Abrams’ reboot, Pike was the one who inspired Kirk to follow in his father’s footsteps. In Tarantino’s movie, he could play a different role in the plot, just as long as he makes an appearance, because his characterization and the timeline of his tragedy have always been one of the most interesting things to explore in Star Trek stories.
Chekov
Anton Yelchin, who unfortunately passed away right before the release of Star Trek Beyond, has left some pretty big shoes to fill with the role of Pavel Chekov. Someone else playing Chekhov in a Star Trek movie after Yelchin died is akin to someone else playing the Joker after Heath Ledger died.
Their performance will inevitably be compared to their predecessor’s performance and they’ll never be able to live up to it. But it wouldn’t really feel like Star Trek without Chekov, and Tarantino has always done a great job of casting actors from world cinema in a multinational ensemble cast.
Sulu
In the Kelvin Timeline reboots, Sulu was recharacterized as gay, and fans probably wouldn’t object if this was kept a part of the character for Tarantino’s R-rated Star Trek movie, because it was an important milestone for representation.
In the TV series, Sulu was shown to have a number of hobbies that the more recent movies haven’t explored, such as fencing and gymnastics, while Gene Roddenberry initially conceived the character as a symbol of peace on Earth. So, there’s a lot to dig into with this character that Tarantino could take advantage of where the previous Star Trek filmmakers haven’t.
Christine Chapel
Christine Chapel, the on-hand nurse on the U.S.S. Enterprise, was initially unpopular among fans of the TV series. She was never really developed as a character and her romantic feelings for Spock only ever served to highlight Spock’s emotionless nature.
However, in the months leading up to the 2009 reboot movie, some fans expressed interest in seeing Chapel return. She was mentioned by name in the movie and was the subject of an anecdote in the 2013 sequel, but she never appeared in the Kelvin Timeline. Maybe Quentin Tarantino, who is known for writing strong female roles, can make the character great again.
Bones
As long as Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie is going to be R-rated and filled with his usual graphic violence, let’s see some gnarly space-age surgery courtesy of Dr. Bones McCoy.
We’ve seen grisly amputations with hacksaws on the battlefield in shows like Game of Thrones, but we haven’t seen what operations look like in the distant future, usually because inflated sci-fi blockbuster budgets don’t allow for graphic violence as the studio strives for a safe PG-13 rating. But in this case, Paramount is handing such a budget to Quentin Tarantino for a sweary, violent, R-rated movie, so it could happen.
Khan
Benedict Cumberbatch’s rendition of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness – a reveal that the producers tried and failed to keep a secret from fans – underwhelmed Trekkies and paled in comparison to Ricardo Montalbán’s original portrayal of the character.
However, Quentin Tarantino has always done a fantastic job of depicting chilling, unforgettable villains, from Zed to Hans Landa to Calvin Candie, so he would surely do something truly brilliant with the Khan character. He can’t just be a generic villain; he has to be the Joker to Kirk’s Batman. And if anyone can pull that off in a movie, it’s Quentin Tarantino.
Uhura
Quentin Tarantino’s movies have always been known for their strong female characters, so it would be a no-brainer for Uhura to appear in his Star Trek project. The Pulp Fiction director could reinvent Uhura as a fierce, cunning, no-nonsense badass in the mold of the Bride or Jackie Brown.
Uhura is the communications officer, and as Arrival has shown us, there’s a way to make decrypting alien languages work on the big screen. Zoe Saldana has been doing a fantastic job of portraying a younger version of Uhura in the Kelvin Timeline reboot series, so it would be great if there’s a chance she could reprise the role.
Spock
Mr. Spock is arguably the most iconic character in the Star Trek universe. Even people who aren’t familiar with the franchise are familiar with Spock. And there’s a good reason for that: he’s a great character. His need to put everything into logical terms from his Vulcan side is constantly at odds with the emotions from his human side.
We’ve seen a few new versions of Spock in recent franchise history – with the new and old versions meeting in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot and an entirely new version cropping up in Star Trek: Discovery – but there’s no doubt that Quentin Tarantino could come up with a whole new take on Spock to keep things interesting.
Kirk
James T. Kirk is the ideal hero. He sometimes lets his emotions get in the way of reason, which is where his right-hand man Spock comes in to tell him the logical way, but on the whole, he is a level-headed captain who is leading his crew through the depths of space to discover new planets and lifeforms.
Whenever they come across a dangerous situation with a militant force or an ominous extra-terrestrial threat, Kirk can always figure out a strategy to come out on top. Tarantino rarely gives us clear-cut heroes. From Vincent Vega to Aldo Raine, Tarantino’s protagonists tend to have antagonistic qualities. It’ll be interesting to see his interpretation of Kirk.
