Star Trek Kelvin
In 2009 Paramount relaunched the Star Trek movie series with director JJ Abrams at the helm. Abrams had created a terrific Mission Impossible film for Paramount in 2006 and been a showrunner on Lost and Alias which had loyal viewers. Abrams agreed with the condition that he could use the characters from the original series. The opening sequence of the first film has an event that changes the timeline from the date of James Kirk's birth which freed Abrams and his writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to reference situations from the old TV show and movies without being beholden to them. Abrams also has the job of recasting the iconic characters. He wisely avoided trying to replicate the look of the original cast and instead selected mostly unknown performers who could give their own interpretations of the characters. Chris Pine looks more like a young Harrison Ford than William Shatner but this allows us to see Kirk without picturing Shatner. Kirk is still recognizable with