So I’ll be the first to admit that since, oh, Season 2 of "Star Trek: Enterprise,” I have been a pretty bad fan. I remember my earlier days where I literally lived and breathed Star Trek.

Okay, maybe not that bad, but you get the point.

I still have several containers of paraphernalia in storage — ranging from collector’s cards to toys to books and everything in between — that I still can’t seem to part with, but after those thousands of hours and dollars devoted to the franchise, I think I was a little burnt out.

For me, “Enterprise” was an OK television show, but it was no Star Trek, at least my vision of Star Trek. It lacked the heart, the edge, the humanity that previous incarnations had so beautifully captured for me. "Star Trek: Voyager" had it at times, but in reality, I haven’t felt the true spirit of the franchise in full force since the days of “Star Trek: First Contact” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” it’s just that I was too much of a fanboy to admit it until now.

It has been two years since we last saw anything new come from the Star Trek universe and now the talks of a 2008 release for the 11th film are heating up and it seems that J.J. Abrams and crew are taking that popular movie route of doing a reboot and I am just not sure how I feel about that, not yet at least.

The first movie that comes to mind when I hear “franchise reboot” is the latest incarnation of Batman. Now while I admit I am not a huge comic/superhero fan, this reboot seemed to work. It got back to some of the feel of the original story and seemed to get people interested in the franchise again, which is exactly what Star Trek needs. But here is the catch, Star Trek isn’t Batman.

We are all used to seeing various people play superheroes, especially Batman where in five movies we saw four different actors play the title role, not to mention the various television incarnations — both live action and animated — where the entire feel of the franchise was constantly remolded, but this has never happened with Star Trek, and I’m not sure that it should.

Everyone has their favorite Batman, but there is only one James T. Kirk. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and the late (and great) DeForest Kelley made those characters, and to have anyone else play them, younger or not, is extremely risky for a number of reasons. Not only do they risk placing a large blemish on the legacy of such iconic characters, but they are getting away from something that has been so pivotal to Star Trek, the unknown.

We all pretty much know how the story of this great trifecta goes, and in trying to retell the story in a new way with new actors risks ruining something great. Now don’t get me wrong, come 2008 I’ll go see this movie, as I am sure many will, but I am not sure if it will be enough. If this isn’t done perfectly — and I mean perfectly — the franchise may never get back up off the ground.

The old fanboy in me would be trying to strangle me as I say this, but perhaps they should wait a bit longer. I don’t know exactly why, but this still feels too soon and I am afraid of what it could do to the franchise I hold so dear. Maybe a reboot is the answer, but I think they should stick to what made the original idea so great, that idea of exploring strange, new worlds and ultimately, seeking out the unknown.

Brian Meskimen is a columnist for SyFy Portal writing out of Minnesota. He can be reached at bmeskimen@syfyportal.com.

"The Trek Within" is a feature column on Roddenberry.com and SyFyPortal.com.