The writer’s strike is over with and the Hollywood machine is grinding along again. Suddenly we have announcements of what shows are surviving, which aren’t, and which will see more episodes this season. It’s grand. Unfortunately not all of the news coming along is equally as fantastic.

Variety has broken the news that J.J. Abrams Star Trek picture has been shifted away from its December release date after a major reshuffling in DreamWorks’ release calendar. The new release date: May 8th, 2009 – over four months (and a whole other movie season) than Trekkies were looking forward to. I knew the new movie’s plot dealt with time travel, but this isn’t what I thought they had in mind.

Right now that puts Star Trek in a competition free release date, although it only gives Fox’s Wolverine one week to enjoy the geek audience before Star Trek is released, putting pressure on the mutant hero to deliver quickly.

Although the change isn’t specifically attributed to the end of the strike, the expectation is that, with writers now available to revise scripts, most studios will be making similar changes in their schedules. Hints from Abrams even indicated that Star Trek might be undergoing some reshoots once writers were available to make some tweaks to the script, so this delay may wind up benefiting the movie, even if it means a longer wait for the newest journey to the final frontier to arrive.