Are you looking forward to the new Star Trek movie? What about the Caprica story set before Battlestar Galactica? We are, but not every prequel is welcome - here blogger Steven Gaythorpe discusses phenomenon:

The Problem with Prequels

I cannot be the only person who shudders at the announcement of a new TV series or movie that's a prequel to a much loved classic.

I blame George Lucas, but then I blame him for a lot of things.

Prequels are the new sequels. For decades we were beset with a slew of pointless and painful sequels - X Men: The Last Stand plus The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions are three that disgrace my DVD collection.

In my opinion prequels are worse than sequels because they pervert the narrative journey of a character. The narrative journey is how characters get from the beginning of their story to the end. When you create a story you are supposed to select the most significant and interesting event in a characters life and write about that. So a prequel is just a story the writer didn’t think was interesting enough tell the first time.

When a TV series or movie has narrative closure, you may think this would only negate the need for a sequel, but I believe it ends the need for a prequel.

I love Battlestar Galactica, but I feel that Caprica could be kind of Pointless: how can you build up a relationship with characters you know are going to die! Okay, everyone dies eventually - but with fictional characters you hope that at the end of the story they will live happily ever after… then die later. OK not realistic for something from the BSG stable. Maybe I’m put off by the fact that the images I have seen so far make it look a bit LA Law!

JJ Abrams' reboot of Star Trek is a prequel that proves the rule, although we have seen various members of the crew die, live on, or reappear in peculiar transporter accidents, the story of the Enterprise never really ended; we never, as an audience, achieved closure, we never had a collective climax. So it’s not a prequel in the true sense, more of a “here’s one I made earlier”.

And in closing, two things: I Am Legend Prequel, The Thing Prequel. I rest my case.

This is a personal article by Steven Gaythorpe, one of our new bloggers. Read more about our volunteer contributors in the next issue of SFX, on sale Wednesday 11 March.

Let the world know how you feel about reboots, reimagingins and prequels in the comments thread below! What's the worst example you can think of?