Not so long ago, the idea of Quentin Tarantino making a Star Trek movie seemed as far out as a tribble one day captaining the starship Enterprise. Perhaps that’s why QT shelved his long-mooted “R-rated”, ultra-violent take on the Apollo-era optimism of Gene Roddenberry – or perhaps he just figured he had other projects worth prioritising.
Back in 2017, Tarantino publicly pitched the idea of a feature-length riff on the 1968 original series episode A Piece of the Action, which is set on an Earth-like planet where a 1930s gangster culture prevails. At the time, the space saga was in mainstream blockbuster mode on the big screen, thanks to the series of JJ Abrams-produced films, and was just beginning to find its feet once again on TV with the first series of Star Trek: Discovery. It was not a period in which the franchise seemed suited to Tarantino’s intense yet insouciantly loquacious, magpie-eye style.
