The following commentary contains MODERATE SPOILERS from the proposed "Star Trek: The Beginning" feature film.

People are obsessed with death. It's plain and simple.

I thought maybe there was some type of explanation for it, maybe something in the water or the fact that it's Good Friday which celebrates the death of a guy more than 2,000 years ago. But it's not. People like death, plain and simple, and its evident in our literature, our television and our movies.

So I guess it's no surprise that when some of the first real news of the status of the proposed "Star Trek XI" film was released through Airlock Alpha this past week, that many people assumed that a project in limbo is equivalent to a project that's dead.

It simply isn't true. Is "Star Trek XI" in preproduction? No. But that doesn't mean it never will be. There are a lot of factors coming into play about how the future of Star Trek is handled, and a few of the big ones include constant shuffling at the top of Paramount since the Viacom split, as well as the fact that the last few Star Trek projects weren't exactly stellar successes.

Because of that, any new Star Trek project is going to be carefully considered. If it isn't done right, Paramount could lose more money, and it might be a fatal blow to the franchise, at least for the next decade or so. Should it come back as a television series? Should it come back as a movie? Should there be a waiting period somewhere? Should the old characters be included? Does the entire franchise need a reboot?

They're very important questions, and Paramount is keeping all of its options open. And that includes an already completed script part of a trilogy arc known as "Star Trek: The Beginning."

For the little we all know about the film and the trilogy itself, I feel it's as exciting as hell. New characters, a new story, filling canon gaps. I love it. Star Trek was so amazing in its time, but it has quickly become a product of its time with little hope of breaking out of that mold. Other shows like "Battlestar Galactica" have left it in the dust, and if Star Trek ever wants to become what it once was, it needs fresh ideas, fresh characters and a fresh start.

I was 11 years old when "Star Trek: The Next Generation" premiered in 1987, so I didn't quite understand all the hub-bub surrounding the new cast, the new direction, and what-not. But reviewing history, I can tell that people were much more resistant to resetting the Star Trek universe with Capt. Picard than they are now on resetting the universe with Tiberius Chase, a progenitor to Capt. James T. Kirk, who by far, is one of the greatest captains of all time.

Hollywood has a habit of letting scripts and concepts and such sit on shelves for years. They are never in a hurry to put something to screen, unless it's playing catchup to a competitor. And to be honest, there's no one trying to put out a new approach to science-fiction on the big screen, so what's the rush?

There are no guarantees that "Star Trek: The Beginning" will ever come to fruition, but there is one guarantee I can make right now as an industry observer: It ain't dead yet. And until it is, we as a fandom have to come together to tell Paramount that we want more Star Trek, and why not start with the script they already have in hand.

Michael Hinman is the news coordinator and founder of Airlock Alpha, writing out of Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at michael@airlockalpha.com.