Would Somebody Please Tell Tom Cruise to Stop Messing With My Myths?

It all started when I heard Tom Cruise was going to make a movie version of Mission:Impossible way back in the 90's.

I grew up watching that show. Loved it. Still do.

"Oh," I thought. "Tom's going to play Jim Phelps, pick up the mantle of Peter Graves, and make a rockin' series of movies."

Then came word that Tom wasn't going to play Mr. Phelps, but be a member of of Mr. Phelps team. Not only that - Mr. Phelps was going to be the bad guy to be killed by Tom's character.

Haven't gotten over that one - yet.

Well M:I 2 came out - not a great movie - tried to do too much - too much focus on Tom's character and not enough on the team - which is the whole point of Mission:Impossible - team.

Last year came M:I 3. Stay with me, I have a point - maybe a point that only I get - but since this is my little corner - you get what you get.

The latest movie was really quite good. It was hampered, of course, by the growing weirdo factor of Scientology boy (and knowing that those folks scan the "internets" for mentions of their, uh, movement - let me welcome you to the party).

JJ Abrams directed the film. He and a couple of his buddies wrote the screenplay. JJ's work as creator of "Alias" and "Lost," were intriguing - but his commitment to M:I canon came through big time on the screen. It is the best of the three M:I movies, in no small part, due to the respect given what had come before.

Now - here's where I start to tremble.

JJ Abrams and crew start filming "Star Trek," in November. The film is a prequel going back to the beginning of the relationship between Kirk and Spock.

Recent internet rumors have JJ asking Tom to play a role in the film - namely, Christopher Pike. If you don't know who that is - don't worry about it.

I have a growing respect for JJ's talent and anticipate the film being a much needed reboot of the mythology - something that is cyclical in any mythology in which very finite beings can no longer live into the timeless characters they portray.

But Tom Cruise in a Trek film? - Say it ain't so.

Now, I'm no convention going Trekker - but like, M:I, Star Trek (interestingly enough, both series were produced on the same lot back in the 60's) is a part of my childhood - a part that is good.

Violence was done to one side of that equation by what happened to M:I.

Do that to Trek at your own peril.