Young Kirk n Spock + Lost = new Star Trek movie

you eat one bean and you're stuffed!#@

great

I am up to Undiscovered Country in my obligated catchup - clunky, but well-meaning, and obv. way more watchable than V, which was a total clusterfuck. On to the Stewart years...

saw this with mom. for mother's day. which made a lot of sense -- I remember watching this series in the early 80's with my grandmother, who would tell me that in 1966, as a social studies 7th/8th grade teacher she'd tell her catholic school students to go home and watch this amazing new morality play called 'Star Trek'

so I was totally entertained & misty-eyed at the characterizations which they really nailed, Bones & Scotty in particular but young conflicted Spock also made sense to me -- like a vote of confidence in the franchise, I could not help but love this

so much that I could even overlook the fairly stupid plot. I hear Morbs on this -- the idea of a crazed villain whose resentment is born from the Federation over-promising to save his people from a natural disaster is... well, I'd almost hear that, but the military solution is a little gleeful. the original show was so expert at displaying complexities -- this new film has the fun characterization & an unbelievably cool cast, but... Federation Utopia is getting tougher and tougher to posit, and this new film doesn't even try

I can't remember a single thing about any next generation movie except for the bit with kirk dying. I must have not even seen the last one or two.

& also yeah the whole alternative-timeline thing is maddening. I'm so much more of a fan of Asimov / McCaffrey in attempting to build a consistent 4th dimension, if people are travelling through time, they're travelling through a fixed vector god damn it, do not be lazy with your scripting -- I'm sad that if they move forward with this, they have basically invalidated the concrete history of the last 40 years of ST films / episodes, that is fucking selfish of them

xpost I missed the last one, the one before that was like a bad TNG episode, and the one before that had Alice Kriege as the Borg Queen and a Ronald D. Moore script and it was all right (though it also suffered from alternative timeline tension, they resolved it before film-end like Ellison)

I'm so much more of a fan of Asimov / McCaffrey in attempting to build a consistent 4th dimension

But those are individual authors versus what has now long been a collective/committee effort, to put it mildly. The impulse to go ahead and put a new stamp on it from newer members of the same team is (dare I say) logical.

FWIW, on the commentary he and Braga did for First Contact about four years back, both Moore and Braga expressed their hope that the franchise would reboot in some way or fashion, precisely because of how the issues of overarching continuity had become increasingly overwhelming.

Meanwhile the whole principle of alternate universes/timelines/etc has been a part of Trek since the original series. If that's the hook that Abrams et al have used then go back and blame Roddenberry et al for creating it to start with.

I don't mind alternative universes, I love "Mirror, Mirror" and all the followup episodes (some of the only DS9 episodes I could take featured sado-Kira). Those allow for consistency. Alternative timeline nonsense bugs me more than watching people parachute from space through the atmospheric layer.

Perhaps it is time, though. Perhaps it is time for Spock / Uhura love episodes. I'll loosen up and stay positive in that they really did find an amazing cast for the reboot.

x10 awesome

The Mirror Universe was first introduced in the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror". In the Terran Empire, officers were promoted for assassinating their superiors and order was kept by use of the "Agonizer" pain-giving devices. In some serious cases, the "Agony Booth" could also be used. Aesthetic differences included: the Mirror-crew's uniforms were flamboyant and somewhat robe-like, with ceremonial daggers for the officers; Mirror-Sulu was a Gestapo-like political officer with a disfiguring facial scar; Mirror-Spock had a goatee (which has led to a number of pop culture references of people from "evil alternate universes" having goatees, whereas the regular character does not); the "United Nations" emblem of the Federation was replaced in the Terran Empire symbol, which was a vertical sword of conquest savagely thrust through the Earth.

http://board.mdc2.org/albums/annoy/startrek.gif

I think everyone in the universe can agree that this is better than any of the movies with Next Generation cast.

There's nothing in this movie nearly as ridiculous as anything in Star Trek V.

Not even a beady-eyed space dwarf who likes sitting on top of things as if it gives him a sexual thrill?

nah that was dope

maybe the product placement, that was rather arrrggghh

Also how did the little dude get board the Enterprise?

*on board*, natch.

lol

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1329/keenseranderin.jpg

Simon, any "obligated catchup" should deal principally w/ the original TV episodes.

I'm sad that if they move forward with this, they have basically invalidated the concrete history of the last 40 years of ST films / episodes

Not for those of us who are quitting the Abrams version right now... Plus that other history still exists over dere in the real universe. The plot of this thing was like a Star Wars prequel.

Chuckled at whatever critic called Pine "Dawson's Kirk." (apparently Joshua Jackson audititioned, so it coulda been much worse)

"There's nothing in this movie nearly as ridiculous as anything in Star Trek V."

Kirk bumping his head is homage to lame Scotty head bump in V. Also Uhura romance. Kirk's thrill-seeking stunts with natural rock formations. All tributes!

Is that picture above of the animated insurance commercial girl?

& also yeah the whole alternative-timeline thing is maddening. I'm so much more of a fan of Asimov / McCaffrey in attempting to build a consistent 4th dimension, if people are travelling through time, they're travelling through a fixed vector god damn it, do not be lazy with your scripting -- I'm sad that if they move forward with this, they have basically invalidated the concrete history of the last 40 years of ST films / episodes, that is fucking selfish of them

i think this is so, so acceptable. like morbs said, the other shows/movies still EXIST. i'm fine with them wanting to do whatever they want w/o being beholden to stupid continuity/fanboyism. all sorts of genre movies in the past few years have been totally ruined by being weighed down by all this elaborate backstory. i say let 'em go lean and mean.

Not for those of us who are quitting the Abrams version right now... Plus that other history still exists over dere in the real universe. The plot of this thing was like a Star Wars prequel.

Chuckled at whatever critic called Pine "Dawson's Kirk." (apparently Joshua Jackson audititioned, so it coulda been much worse)

― Dr Morbius, Sunday, May 10, 2009 8:52 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

but really, this movie, which you admit to liking, is enough for you to get off the star trek ship, but not "star trek V" or any of the lame TNG ones?

i'm fine with them wanting to do whatever they want w/o being beholden to stupid continuity/fanboyism. all sorts of genre movies in the past few years have been totally ruined by being weighed down by all this elaborate backstory. i say let 'em go lean and mean.

There was a telling moment in the First Contact commentary by Ron Moore and Brannon Braga -- recorded in 2005 I think -- where both of them pretty much said just this, albeit more politely. Of course Moore had already figured out how to do that with BSG but considering Braga had worked on things up through the Enterprise series I'm not surprised he felt especially peeved. And both of them grew up with the whole sense of the continuing story and history and details, especially Moore, so it's to their credit they realized it had become a potential shackle. (Also Straczynski had proposed his reboot in 2004 and I suspect both of them were well aware of it.)

so I saw this yesterday, really enjoyed it, even managed to get a few jokes since I started watching the original series for the first time to "prep," but I have a feeling that the sequel (I'm sure there will be one) will be better. There will be more time for a better villain, the expository stuff can be dropped and the crew characters will have room to breathe a bit.

Yeah, agreed, and hopefully -- crossed fingers -- it'll allow for more development of the core characters beyond Kirk and Spock (and arguably Uhura). Arguably Pegg and to an extent Yelchin just have to keep being effective comic relief tech wonks but Cho didn't have too much to do and frankly I *really* want to see more of Urban.

Arguably it's arugable, and arugula. Anyway.

This is not a "lean and mean" movie. Every scene that wasn't (or maybe even including) beastie boys was a knowing fanboy tribute to the series, previous movies, including the crappiest of the TNG movies (Star Trek: Generations, with Nimoy taking Shatner's place as "implausibly old dude from original series pitches in through time-magic to help the young'uns", blue-collar Romulan nemesis from Star Trek: Nemesis) This is excellent fanfiction.

this was dece. a few glitches. not as good as cloverfield.

earth had pretty shitty defences? like the enterprise was the only thing between the bad guys' ship and total destruction.

as with 'lost', found the time travel paradox a bit annoying but ehhh. i liked the time travel, just not pegg being given the compass he gave to alpert kind of thing.

i've never seen another star trek movie, and can't remember seeing any star trek on tv though i know i did once or twice.

earth had pretty shitty defences?

For some reason, Earth has always had this problem in Trek. Poor little planet.

heh. well remember this is meant to be a romulan ship from the far future. as in, TNG-future.

"as with 'lost', found the time travel paradox a bit annoying but ehhh. i liked the time travel, just not pegg being given the compass he gave to alpert kind of thing."
this is direct reference to star trek IV, where scotty pulls the same trick on an industrial plastics nerd with a macintosh. Go see it. IV is great.

re: shitty earth defences
watch the TNG episode Best of Both Worlds. They have exactly THREE shuttlecraft defending Earth. This is a great episode. Watch it.

And then you have V'ger and then you have the whaleship and then you have...

this is not quite as good fanfiction:

The villain is bit better though.

Yeah that was okay, just watchable for the various Trek stars. New Voyages was better in general.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/05/10/opinion/10dowdlarge.jpg

"now that vulcan is out of the way, jj abrams and i are free to pursue our militaristic dreams!"

Something I didn't know until mucking about on imdb just now: Uhura's green-skinned roommate is played by Rachel Nichols, who's also Scarlet in the new GI Joe flick.

It's weird, I totally didn't recognize Nichols when I was watching it (the green skin and underwear probably distracted me from her face) since I was a fan of The Inside and watched part of that final season of Alias she was in - been waiting for her to show up again in something good.

s1ocki, I was not "on the ship" for any TNG movies cept the one where they killed Kirk. I never saw the TNG series more than twice, I think, and the only reason I saw this film was to review it. I just have no interest in future installments of something I grew up with, done on a relatively humble scale, being mega-loud and "young."

ageist

i came out thinking the dumbest thing was Nimoy just finding Kirk like that (+ lol how do they get anything done with those female uniforms and now it's not the 60s) but enjoyed it overall.

loved Bana's original message to the Enterprise ("Hi Christopher...")

s1ocki, I was not "on the ship" for any TNG movies cept the one where they killed Kirk. I never saw the TNG series more than twice, I think, and the only reason I saw this film was to review it. I just have no interest in future installments of something I grew up with, done on a relatively humble scale, being mega-loud and "young."

― Dr Morbius, Sunday, May 10, 2009 9:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you know TNG is pretty awesome tho right!!

spock obama is now my new desktop image.

Being 11 years old when TNG debuted means that TNG is pretty much the central ST for me.

That, and eps like the one with Paul Winfield, where they have to fight a cloaked Predator.

i liked this, but nimoy totally reminded me of his appearance on the monorail episode of the simpsons.

"My work here is done."
"But you didn't do anything!"
"Didn't I?"

The cosmic ballet...goes on

Wanted to like it but couldn't handle smug dick Kirk, scenes w him getting sonned by Spock in fights/over Uhura were ok

had no real problems with Kirk at all (not that i'm a big ST fan...hey maybe you could make a portmanteau out of that). Pegg was also OK (cutting him some slack for the occasional accent lapses).

think they overdid Chekhov accent lols tho - but he was wonderfully played anyway. i'd be cool with a sequel just so the likes of him could get a bit more time and action (and really there was very little time for ladies in this, which felt as throwback as keeping their short skirts).

I thought the kirk guy was surprisingly good! was ready to hate on him bc of his frat boy stylee, but I really liked how he didn't play it exactly like shatner, but some shatner-isms definitely came out here-and-there. (the part where he slaps spock on the back comes to mind.)

and if we're going to get into original:reboot smug dick ratios, I had way more of a problem w/spock. kirk was always really smug! if not quite this smug, yeah.