Dave’s ALL SPOILERS Star Trek Thread

[Dave]

“As sure as day follows night, as sure as eggs is eggs and as sure as every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is shit…”

I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie, and given my current financial predicament I probably won’t get to see it soon.

So I’m offering up this thread for your various observations, reviews and spoilers, and maybe we can keep others threads spoiler free? I’d really appreciate it.

So boldly go nuts: Edith Keeler must die, I grok Spock, Robert Beltran is a twat

Topic

[p2p_productions]

I wrote a review, here:

http://p2pproductions.blogspot.com/2009/05/dammit-jim-its-reboot-not-sequel.html

[si]

I REALLY wanted to go and see this. Then I went and had another epileptic fit at the weekend, so now I’ve got to wait for the DVD. So I’m in two minds whether to read the reviews and spoilers or not.

[si]

Simon Pegg plays with himself

You get your own Scotty action figure, how cool was that?
I’ve seen it and it’s pretty cool actually. As a fan of those things as a kid, I had plenty of action figures. To actually be one is a great joy, well, it’s five – two Shaun of the Dead, a Doctor Who one and two Star Trek figures. Yes, I play with myself regularly.

Funny Simon Pegg interview here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8014919.stm

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Saw it last night.

It was soul-meltingly brilliant. Loved every second.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

It was awesome. Respuctful of old Trek, but all guns blazing for the future. It was fantastic!

But JJ Abrams cinematographer has a SERIOUS hard on for lens flare. Whew.

[Baz]

Anyone seen the remastered Classic ST? Came out on HD first, poor thing, but regular DVD is in the shops. Mike and I got to see the first one “The Menagerie/Cage” in the Shaftesbury Ave. Odeon.

Holy Zarquon it was good! The cleanup of the old visuals and soundtrack was a beautiful job, but the new FX work was stunning, made with so much respect to the original but doing what I’m sure the original FX guys would have loved to have been able to do. In the old version the Enterprise sorta just moves from left to right, or the occasional dwindle into distance. In the new one it soars! We got a preview of the upcoming stuff, including the “Doomsday Machine” episode and instead of the usual static shot with the phaser optical effect the Enterprise comes barrel-rolling out of space, swooping low over the Doom machine, guns blazing. Great stuff.

[pfm]

Bloody excellent. Get it the fuck seen. Classic Trek gets the update it’s needed for nigh on 20 years. Abrams and the writers have somehow nailed it in a huge way for a 2009 audience, and it doesn’t fuck things over for ‘purists’ at all. Any Trek ‘fan’ who doesn’t want to see it on principal is just being a child.

Pine, Quinto, Urban, Saldana, Pegg, Bana and Greenwood – all brilliant. I have very few complaints (and the movie’s pretty good too). None of them even worth mentioning, except perhaps the superhuman abilities of Kirk in a few scenes, but that’s so minor.

See it, for the love of Zoe Saldana’s fine arse.

[Squeaky Gibson]

>I REALLY wanted to go and see this. Then I went and had another epileptic fit at the weekend, so now I?ve got to wait for the DVD. So I?m in two minds whether to read the reviews and spoilers or not.

that’s my concern as well, after watching Revenge of the Sith, I felt pretty off, so i’m not sure if I should see this or not. if I do see it, i’ll make sure I take some one with me.

[JamesTC]

Go and see this at the weekend, first Trek film that I would watch in the cinema.
The only piece of Trek I have watched so close to its release was the original broadcast of ‘These are the voyages…” (Enterprise finale), the only episode I see on original broadcast and it is possibly the last ever!

[TheLeen]

Well, wasn’t that fun. Of sorts.

The lensflare kitsch really, really, REALLY got on my nerves 10 minutes into the film.

Other than that – big fun.

The characters were fine – the only one not to leave any emotional impression on me being Sulu. I’m not too sure about Scotty yet but will reserve final judgement until I’ve seen Simon Pegg with his original voice and all. Despite earlier skepticism, loved Karl Urban as McCoy. And Chekov was great. Leonard Nimoy did not feel out of place or forced into the story like Grampa Kirk back then in Generations.

I’ve liked Eric “Hot Hector” Bana before, so it comes as no surprise that I loved him as renegade Romulan. (“Story? What story? Sorry I was lost in Bana’s face there for a bit…”)

The thing that I loved most was Spock’s AWESOME MAGNET (or something) HOODIE. I want one.

The thing that was the most rubbish was Quinto’s Vulcan greeting fail. C’mon, anyone can learn that if they practise on a plain surface, like, I don’t know, the kitchen table.

So! Does this mean that my beloved ST:TNG will never exist now? … in that particular reality line? Whoa.

Okay. So on one hand side, all the nods and mentions and little references and all the… TRUE things that were in the script… on the ather hand side, this is, like, the furthest from feeling like “Star Trek”… ever. This leaves me with a bizarr queasy feeling in the stomach and the brain.

[JamesTC]

>?As sure as day follows night, as sure as eggs is eggs and as sure as every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is shit??

I actually disagree with this, the only Trek movie I didn’t like was Star Trek I and that was because it was 2 hours of shots of the ship and it was so tough to get through, I thought the other 9 were very good films.
I’m about to watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home also known as “the one with the whales”

[pfm]

> that was because it was 2 hours of shots of the ship

Abrams obviously thought this as well, seeing as there are very few ship glory shots in his film. Obviously a great intro for the Enterprise when they first board but after that you hardly ever see her in full view, the shots always feel more ‘practical’ and less about ‘oh look as we ponder this cool ship!’

They concentrated a lot more on the ship interiors, and kudos to them for not going greenscreen overload. The Narada bridge (Nero’s ship) is a HUGE practical set, and the various parts of the Enterprise felt REAL. You got the sense that Engineering really could work that ship. To say I was well impressed would be an understatement. You can even forgive the overly Apple-esque Enterprise bridge because of the way it was shot. Though I would like to see it get a little, I don’t know, worn as time goes on. It looks shiny and brand new because it fucking IS. Straight out of the blummin’ shipyard!

[hummingbird]

courtesy of The Onion http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film

[JamesTC]

Some is funny in that, some if fucking bull shit, to call Kilingon a made up language in that tone is just a fucking stupid thing really, all languages are made up.

[Squeaky Gibson]

I decided to risk it, as no one was baout last night. great film, the 2 hours flew by. agree that there were not enough shots of the Enterprise. must admit from some angles the new look worked. like the fact they did a close up in the front torpedo launceher ala ST II & III. very nice touch. 8/10

[pfm]

I loved the use of original series sound effects during the Kobayashi Maru scene. Spock’s face when Kirk passes the test is priceless. That’s when I knew Quinto was 100% right for the role. Nimoy could also convey so much with such a subtle look. Great casting.

[JamesTC]

He cheated!

[JamesTC]

Going to see Star Trek (2009) tomorrow.
Watching ‘A Taste of Armageddon’ now (TOS), what the fuck is a Vulcanian, is it something to do with volcanoes?

[Jawscvmcdia]

I’ve never watched Star Trek fully before and last night was the first time, err .. what just happened?

[Joey TORDFC]

I loved it. I thought the only thing Chris Pine could do was manage McFly in an amusing manner, but I was wrong.

[Joey TORDFC]

Additional: Never seen an episode of Trek in my life.

[TheLeen]

> He cheated!

Spock cheated first!

[JamesTC]

Going to see Star Trek (2009) in an hour, will it live up to ‘First Contact’ and ‘Wrath of Khan’ and ‘The Undiscovered Country’, I hope so!

[JamesTC]

The answer is no.
Not to say it wasn’t an utterly fantastic film that exeeded my expectations.
The casting was close to perfect, the only faults I see were Pike and Sulu, Pike should have been younger, Sulu was just, I don’t know, he seemed like he would play Harry Kim better than he could play Sulu. Everybody else was close to perfect with the guy who played young Spock getting top marks from me, he was just amazing in the roll.
The writing was wonderful with enough nice back refrences to keep any fan happy without alienating new viewers.
The moment I heard “pattern delta five” I knew I was watching a Star Trek film.
As for the changes in the ship interior and all the design changes well, I don’t fucking care, it was a brilliant film, besides Enterprise had already advanced technology beyond TOS (despite their best efforts to try make it look less advanced).

The bit were that woman in the seat behind me was talking about Night in the Museum 2 was a bit shit, can’t see why they put it in there.

First Contact > The Undiscovered Country > Wrath of Khan > Generations > The Voyage Home > Nemesis – Star Trek > Insurrection > Search for Spock > The Final Frontier > The Motion Picture
With TMP being the only one I didn’t like. I never believed that odd numbered curse.

[JamesTC]

Oh and I could not stop laughing at Wulcan, we need more words beginning with V for Chekov, Nuclear Wessels.

[pfm]

> Pike should have been younger

No he shouldn’t. He needed to be the Obi-Wan figure who knew Kirk’s dad, so he had to be that age. It works perfectly well.

> First Contact > The Undiscovered Country > Wrath of Khan > Generations > The Voyage Home > Nemesis – Star Trek > Insurrection > Search for Spock > The Final Frontier > The Motion Picture

Did you just place Nemesis above the new movie? And Insurrection above Search For Spock?? Fucking hell.

[JamesTC]

>Did you just place Nemesis above the new movie?
At the same level actually, I liked ‘Nemesis’, sure it was no classic but it had alot of stuff there I liked, had some nice comedy, some good action and a hell of alot of Romulans.

>And Insurrection above Search For Spock?? Fucking hell.
Well it is not like I dislike ‘Search for Spock’ because I think it is a great film. I just thought ‘Insurrection’ was a great film, not too overblown with a nice simple plot and some nice twists and turns.

[Nakrophile]

As fail as it is, I also kind of like Nemesis.

But the new film… I went in with zero expectations (well, actually they went up a bit after after watching all of Heroes and most of lost in the last few months, but they were still pretty minimal) and was not surprised.

It was alright. Mostly a liked the classic references. Character wise, mostly it was all okay; I liked the guy who played McCoy especially. Didn’t like whoever it was playing Uhura, but that she had virtually nothing to do may have had something to d with it. Also, a few of the early bits with Kirk were a bit shit. Actually, after the first battle,I didn’t think much of it until they leave the Academy.

Now wait, here’s some more stuff I thought was shit: the big creature that chased Kirk before he meets Nimoy, the space diving thing (Sulu’s fencing line was cool, but did we really need to have them sword fighting bald Romulan’s in the middle of the atmosphere?) and the pacing of the film in the last half an hour as it seemed to be in a massive rush to finish. I mean, Kirk and Spock beam on to the stupidly huge Romulan future ship, have a quick phaser fight and then suddenly Spock is off flying his ship and then the film ends. More or less.

However, the final bit was amazing. Probably the best bit of the whole film actually.

I thought it was okay, a bit too average with an unfortunate ratio of good bits against shit or okay bits.

That said, the sequel will probably be better.

Also, if actual Spock is now in this new universe/alternate past, then that is a bit silly.

[JamesTC]

>Also, if actual Spock is now in this new universe/alternate past, then that is a bit silly.

*ahem* Tasha Yar *ahem*

[Nakrophile]

Yeah but that’s not really the same.

Also, I just remembered another point I’d like to make: the music reminded me a lot of the score in Starship Troopers.

[p2p_productions]

>the music reminded me a lot of the score in Starship Troopers.

A lot of the film reminded me of Starship Troopers! The Academy costumes especially.

I heard the original idea for this flick was going to be more akin to Top Gun, and feature bookend cameos from Shatner and Nimoy. Apparently, two prospective titles were ‘Star Trek: The Academy Years’ and ‘Star Trek: The First Adventure’.

Personally, I’d have rather seen more of the film set at the Academy, and with less (or even better, none) of that time travel/alternate timeline business. It was just too distracting for me.

On the plus side, I thought Spock and Uhura’s romance was inspired.

[TheLeen]

> Didn?t like whoever it was playing Uhura, but that she had virtually nothing to do may have had something to d with it.

I thought she had a lot more to do than in most TOS eposides or films, and that was a good thing.

[pfm]

I’m so glad it wasn’t an Academy film. What scenes we did get of that were all that was needed. They quickly and easily got across that Kirk was a cocky but brilliant womanizing cadet. Any cadet ‘adventures’ should be for novels only.

I mean, it would be like doing a whole movie or series with Superman before he even becomes Superman. That would be so shit, like a bad Smallville ripoff or something.

[p2p_productions]

>I?m so glad it wasn?t an Academy film. What scenes we did get of that were all that was needed.

For this story, yes. The thing is, I just didn’t find the plot immersing, or interesting enough to justify a ‘3 years later’ caption card.

Creatively, there are just two ways to get Trek wrong, IMO. One is to be too reverential of what has come before, and tread over old ground. The other is to not be reverential enough… and tread over old ground.

For my taste, there were just too many unwittingly rehashed concepts, and aside from the retconning, and some other minor aesthetic choices, the film didn’t really have much else to offer in terms of freshness.

But most disappointingly for me, I didn’t really learn anything new about any of the main characters, which might have been different if we’d seen more of how they progressed from lowly cadets to revered Starfleet officers.

As far as modern-day movies go, there were some genuinely impressive moments, but overall, it’s only half-way up my list of the better films.

[J_Spaced]

I loved that film. I think because I’m not a Star Trek fan, but have seen enough to know the vague history, then I wasn’t too offended by the “etch-a-sketch” retcon. The plot of this film I think was pretty much incidental to the movie but that wasn’t to its detriment. It was flashes, bangs and setting up a new franchise. Do you need depth in a Star Trek film? What Star Trek films had depth?

I quite liked that Captain Pike was pretty gung-ho about shoving cadets out of an airlock. “You’re doing a space-jump”, without any room for argument.

I was wondering all through whether at some point they’d push the reset switch. I was fulling expecting Enterprise to slip through the singularity and rescue the Kelvin. I’m so glad they didn’t.

It’s clear here they’ve decided to do their own Star Trek, much like a fan fic could. A friend of mine at work says they should have just written a completely new franchise and left the Star Trek name alone but I think that would be to miss the point: that the characters are basically the same, no matter the situation or universe they are in.

Also I was wowed by the explosions, the CGI, the sets, the costumes. Everything said “reverential” without toadying. The film was exciting in a way that no other Star Trek film has been. The opposite end of the scale to Insurrection, for example (best cure for insomnia that I know of.)

Simon Pegg was brilliant, clinging by his fingertips to his Scottish (Welsh?) accent in some cases, but still managing to play the part well. Karl Urban is clearly a clone of DeForest Kelley (and he’s angry about it). Spock and Kirk were great. Thank goodness he didn’t mimic Shatner!

My only gripe is the insistence on shaky hand-held cameras and insane closeups. I like to see the sets they spent money on. I like to see actors without being up their left nostril. I like to see what the hell’s going on!

Definite thumbs up from me.

[pfm]

> Thank goodness he didn?t mimic Shatner!

Yeah that was the right decision, though he definitely does channel him in a few places, particularly in the Kobayashi Maru scene, but how deliberate that was I don’t know. Chris Pine’s performance was pitch perfect throughout IMO. I actually think he was the BEST piece of casting (I nearly put ‘piece of ass’ then I realised I’m not gay…) in a movie filled with great choices.

[TheLeen]

Do you need depth in a Star Trek film?

Do you need depth in a Batman film? Probably not, but it makes it so much more fun to watch.

What Star Trek films had depth?

Some episodes had.

[J_Spaced]

Batman should be deep. Or is that Angsty?

Yeah, good stuff from Chris Pine. I liked how the story established him as a self-destructive tearaway. It was very big on the concept of the father figure. Which is quite deep in of itself, if you buy into that.

Also, who else thought the colour coded phaser tips were genius? Blue just hurts. Red means you’re dead.

[pfm]

> It was very big on the concept of the father figure.

This is what happens when you get Lost crew involved. Unless, like everything else, it all stems from Star Wars.

[Nakrophile]

There were definitely Shatner moments in the last scene he was in when he came onto the bridge, before Nimoy’s voice-over.

[pfm]

Maybe my favourite moment in the whole film is McCoy’s face when Kirk says ‘buckle up!’

[Pete Part Three]

I wasn’t banking on seeing this in the cinema as very few of my mates are in any way interested in sci-fi, let alone Star Trek but I’m in Norway with work, finished early and decided to give it a go (yeah, on my own) before the CL final.

I had a great time with it. I wouldn’t call myself a fan of ST, but I found this nerdy yet very accessible. It never really got to top gear, but I suspect it will by the time of the inevitable sequel.

Not enough Pegg, but Karl Urban was really rather awesome as McCoy. Great to see Nimoy again, though thought it was a bit odd that he just wandered off to a colony rather than buggering off back to his own dimension/timeline. Presumably he’ll pop up again in Star Trek II : Khan Gets Mad Again.

It isn’t as good as First Contact or The Undiscovered Country. Probably better than all the rest of them. Especially the last TNG film. That was hideous.

I look forward to seeing it on Blu-ray without Norwegan subtitles though. Very distracting.

[Ben Paddon]

Great to see Nimoy again, though thought it was a bit odd that he just wandered off to a colony rather than buggering off back to his own dimension/timeline.

He can’t. If he travels back to the future he’ll only end up in the future of this timeline, not the future he came from.

[Pete Part Three]

Poor guy. Well, at least his mum died rather than marrying Biff.

I was actually kind of expecting him to fade out of existence JFK style after talking to young Spock.

[Ben Paddon]

Pfft. No. That would’ve been cheesy as Hell.

[Nakrophile]

I too think it is a bit shit that Nimoy isn’t actually in the proper Trek universe anymore. Eh.

Still, I’m sure if it isn’t addressed in the sequel (and frankly I doubt it will be) it will be dealt with in a novel.

[Ben Paddon]

Spock Prime is about a bajillion years old. Honestly, I don’t mind if he doesn’t make it back to the Prime universe.

[pfm]

What they did was infinitely better than us never seeing Spock again.

[Dave]

I have finally seen it.

I liked it.

It looks great, although the lens flares get old quickly. The casting is great, Simon Pegg isn’t as annoying as the clips I’d seen made him look, Quinto is great, Nimoy is better than expected.

There are some great moments: the reveal (in more ways than one) of the Orion slave girl, the funniest use of the word bullshit I can think of and Sulu’s realisation that has neglected to switch off the whatever Spock said.

The story has massive plot holes, young Kirk and old Spock bump into each other on Delta Vega? Nero destroys Vulcan rather than attempting to protect or evacuate Romulus? Kirk is reckless, fine. In Star Trek V this is shown via his climbing El Capitan without ropes, here it is the trashing of a car, I almost didn’t want him to get out.

The only references to other series I spotted were a Cardassian drink and Admiral Archer’s beagle, I’m sure there are more.

>what the fuck is a Vulcanian
A Vulcan, called Ian

>That said, the sequel will probably be better
But sadly probably Nimoyless

>Great to see Nimoy again, though thought it was a bit odd that he just wandered off to a colony rather than buggering off back to his own dimension/timeline.

Better that he stay in the new timeline, rather than make what Nero did completely inconsequential. If ‘our’ Spock went through a magic door back to the life he knew why should we give a shit about the characters we’ve just had to re-invest in?

[TheLeen]

Nero destroys Vulcan rather than attempting to protect or evacuate Romulus?

It was the original plan to save Romulus (Nero and Spock tried it together) but it has already been destroyed at this point in time. That is also how Nero got hold of that kind of superadvanced technology.

It’s explained in the comics that were released prior to the film.

[Author]

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