Blasphemy! a New James T. Kirk!

Paramount has apparently admitted it has cast an actor to play Captain James T. Kirk in its upcoming Star Trek prequel. They have given the nod to none other than 27-year-old Chris Pine, best known for....well, that's just it, I have no idea. He was in the movie "Smokin' Aces", but other than that I haven't a clue who Chris Pine is. I'm sure he's a nice guy and everything, but is he really Kirk-worthy? At least William Shatner had Sci-Fi street cred from his appearances on "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" before he took the helm of the Starship Enterprise.

Star Trek XI, as it is currently called, will be about the early days of Kirk, Spock and McCoy shortly after they report aboard the Enterprise. A new slate of young actors will play all of the main characters. To me, this smacks of "Young Guns", combined with Star Trek, but I guess it could make an interesting movie, if it's done right. I'm crossing my fingers and kissing my lucky rabbits foot in hopes that the movie will in no way resemble the truly awful TV series "Enterprise", which starred Scott Bakula.

Perhaps Pine can fill the shoes of the intergalactic man-whore that is Captain Kirk. We'll have to wait and see. To me, there were plenty of other actors who would have been terrific choices to play James T. Kirk:

Matt Damon - He has already proven that he can kick ass and score the hot babes in movies such as The Bourne Identity and its sequels. He kind of has that Kirk vibe about him. I can picture Damon beaming down to a strange planet and nailing some hot green chick. Who cares if she's green, Spock...she's a HOT green chick.

Ron Livingston - To me, best known as Peter from "Office Space", but he's got some dramatic acting chops from HBO's "Band of Brothers" mini-series. I'll bet he could pull off that whole William Shatner-esque overacting thing really well.

Michael Chiklis - Maybe he's too old to play the part in this particular Star Trek movie, but I just love total a-hole bad cop character he plays on FX's "The Shield". He could totally play Captain Kirk.