Star Trek Meets 'Battlestar Galactica' In Proposed Sequel

The world was starting to become a different place in 1991 when "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" was released.

Not only were fans reeling from the 1989 disaster that was "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," but the collapse of the Soviet Union created the possibility that enemies didn't have to be enemies forever.

That mindset was brilliantly expressed by the writing team of Leonard Nimoy, Nicholas Meyer, Denny Martin Flinn (and we guess a little by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, something that has been historically disputed by Nimoy) with the Federation, and especially Capt. Kirk, having to explore the possibility that if the Klingons could not be friends, they could at least be the annoying in-laws we all have to tolerate from time to time.

Tackling real-world issues is what made the original "Star Trek" so poignant, and what attracted director J.J. Abrams into doing the 2009 movie. Now, with the setup film under his belt, there's a possibility the two writers tasked with making a followup to the blockbuster that has grossed nearly $400 million at the box office will get a chance to hit some hot-button topics in "Star Trek XII."

"The ambition for a sequel to 'Star Trek' is to make a movie that's worthy of the audience and not just another movie ... just a second movie that feels tacked on," Abrams told Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times. "The first movie was so concerned with just setting up the characers -- their meeting each other and galvanizing the family -- that in many ways, a sequel will have a very different mission."

That mission will be more like what creator Gene Roddenberry put together with his 1960s

outing that included allegories to then current issues of racism, the Vietnam War and the threat of a nuclear holocaust.

"It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant," Abrams said. "It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story."

It had been a while since science-fiction used its role as a canvas to discuss controversial events in a non-controversial way, that is until Syfy's "Battlestar Galactica" arrived. Now it has become more important than ever for the genre to re-establish its responsibility to give future-looking

pictures of what could happen today.

"We got a lot of fan response from the first [film] and a considerable amount of critical response, and one of the things we heard was, 'Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues,'" said Roberto Orci, who wrote the most recent Trek film with Alex Kurtzman, and who has both been tasked to scribe the sequel.

"We're trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what's going on today as possible," he said. "So that's one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today."

There is still very little to report about the next Trek movie except to say it's in development, but Paramount likely is eyeing a 2011 release.