Star Trek – SPOILER DISCUSSION

WARNING! This thread is for the discussion of a movie already seen by members. DO NOT READ FURTHER if you have not already seen this movie. WARNING!

[edit on 5/24/2009 by Dave Rabbit]

Dave Rabbit Review

Let’s talk about the time travel issue with Nero screwing up the time line and creating a new set of outcomes from what we have all grown accustomed to. Obviously, there are several key factors that lead to this story line. Here are some of the items we can discuss and debate..... but I will only address one to start.

1. The destruction of the Kelvin.
2. The destruction of Vulcan.
3. The old and new Spock meeting.
4. The romance between Spock & Uhura.

Spock & Uhura

Honestly, this wasn’t as shocking to me as some of the old die hard Trekkies that I know. In fact, the majority of my Trekkie friends actually love the story line and the potential expansion of this relationship on future sequels, and believe me, the writers are already in heavy pre-production for the first one in, what I hope, is a long series of sequels. Even dating back to the original series, Leonard Nimoy, by his own admission in interviews, stated that there was always an underlying affection by Uhura towards Spock. Although, albeit, very subtle. And when asked in a recent interview what he thought about this story line concept his reply was ”I Love It”.

I guess, for me, I enjoy the bold new way that the series can now evolve. The casting is tremendous and has the same magic between them of the original and STNG casting. The fact that Spock is half human and given his background for his mother’s untimely death, which brings about his tremendous upheaval of inner turmoil and emotion, it seems logical to me that, like his father, he would also fall in love.

I really enjoy this and think as it progresses, that it will make for some interesting movie magic.

Let’s Hear YOU!

Dave

Perhaps this sudden change in the time line is the real reason best buy is selling ALL Star Trek T.V season DVD's for 39 buck , considering there all obsolete now

In all seriousness though , I loved the movie and think that there idea was a brilliant one indeed .

I would also agree that Spocks romance with Uhura was a great idea and perhaps in some what helped Spock deal with his mothers death .

As for The destruction of the Kelvin , I found myself fighting back the tears as the Kelvin was facing destruction , as baby Jim was emerging into the world .

I have to say I enjoyed the movie A LOT. There are a few points I want to discuss though.

The bad guys: Looked way to much like ST:Nemesis.

Spoke Prime: Oh man he made me giggle with his comment about Scotty when he first saw him. Anyone else notice him say "Interesting!"

The new look: Love it, want it, gimme more!

I really liked this movie. The new time line idea for me is a breath of fresh air. The absolute scrutiny of Star Trek fans to errors in the original time line bible makes it rather difficult to expand a franchise.

I do agree with Tenticles that the miners in the film did look way too much like ST:Nemesis. I also didn't like the enemy ship Narada. To me it was illogical in form to meet function.

www.ncc1701shipyard.com...

The plot of the movie follows that the Narada is a mining ship. The design is far too foreboding to be a mining ship. It doesn't even flow with traditional Romulan designs. It's frankly a big huge spiked crab claw with a chain drill.

Overall however I give this movie a 8 out of 10. It is good that Star Trek is able to break free from it's cage and it's able to expand its horizons without that pesky time line to live up to.

Because in the end it is Science Fiction after all. It's supposed to be fun.

I mentioned earlier about Leonard Nimoy's comments regarding the original series.... but the other thing to consider is how far, yet we could go much further, the stigmas attached to inter-racial, albeit, inter-species relationships are generally accepted. Had Spock and Uhura originally paired up in the original series, there would have been such an uproar that it would have been on the same magnitude of Sammy Davis and Mae Brit. The ignorance of that time would not have seen Vulcan and Human, but black and white.

Now a days, interracial relationships are commonplace which makes for a much better world and more enjoyable movie watching atmosphere.

Remember Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? I can remember seeing that in a movie theater with my Mom and hearing the Oohs and Ahhs when Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton kissed on screen. Talk about brave film making for it's time. But today, it stands as one of the most provocative and hopeful movies of it's time.

Dave

reply to post by Dave Rabbit


Well it does help that Uhura was played by the lovely Zoe Saldana which in my opinion is much hotter than Nichelle Nichols. It's just logical that Spock would want to tap that.

Romulan miners are some smart cookies, lemme tell ya.
The way they figured out exactly where to be and when to intercept Spock Prime...GENIUS!
Spock Prime's ship was quite nifty and I really liked the humor. It was like the really figured out how to replicate(forgive the pun) and enhance the chemistry hinted at in the original Start Trek series for more contemporary appeal. There were some pretty funny moments in the movie that made it more fun to watch, I thought. Soo many funny but sorta geeky jokes.
Future ship's voice recognition of past Spock and Kirk's "Hrm, that's weird" comment...LOL-ed.
By far the most hilarious and I'm glad they stuck it in there was Chekov's inability to pronounce v correctly. Comedy gold...great call-back to Star Trek IV and just annihilated the "nuclear wessels" scene with the original Chekov(sorry buddy).

[edit on 24-5-2009 by 4N6310]

I have a semi off topic question.

Was the logo used in the current film the same as it has always been?

I was able to find different ones when I searched for images and was wondering if that elongated star in the center of the logo has always been there.

At the start of the latest film the camera zooms through the STAR TREK logo, what tipped my spidey sense was that it (camera) went directly through the equilateral triangle at the bottom of the elongated star. So for a second, there was a giant triangle on the screen, totally occupying it.

reply to post by depth om


J. J. Abrams created new logos for the newest franchise release.

New Star Trek Logo

Dave

Well i have to say i loved it......

1. The destruction of the Kelvin......now that kirk knows, early on in his career, that time travel is possible, could he seek out this technology to go back and save his father? now that they've played with time to the point that all the other movies and spin offs happened in a different timeline the possibilities are endless again......


2. The destruction of Vulcan....Vulcan will now develop a very intimate relationship with earth, now being refugees they will rely on the federation to start over.....


3. The old and new Spock meeting....Well, this really screws with time, spock (prime) cant go back to his own time, and he cant be used as a prophet as the timelines changed..he'll become a yoda type character living a quiet life guiding the new nation from the background...


4. The romance between Spock & Uhura....I remember recently seeing the original actress giving an interview in which she said it was supposed to be spock she kissed in the series but as you pointed out dave the time wasn't right. So now we get what was originally planned....

The best line in the film "who was that pointy eared bastard", straight out of a b movie western, I love it lol

During one of the original Star Trek episodes aliens force Kirk and Uhura to kiss. Anyone remember that episode? It was either Plato's Stepchildren or Bread and Circuses. It was the one that had a Roman-type civilization, and the god-like aliens that controlled everything made Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Nurse Chapel dress up in togas, pair off, and kiss. I think the Kirk-Uhura kiss may have been American TV's first interracial kiss. Gene Roddenberry was always pushing the envelope.

I have been a Star Trek fan for 30 years, and I loved the new Star Trek movie. It had its flaws, but overall I'm very happy with it. Abrams managed to take all the things I loved about the original Trek and breathe new life into it. Does anyone else here think Karl Urban was fantastic as McCoy?

reply to post by whatukno


The plot of the movie follows that the Narada is a mining ship. The design is far too foreboding to be a mining ship. It doesn't even flow with traditional Romulan designs. It's frankly a big huge spiked crab claw with a chain drill.

I completely understand what you mean. But in this instance it helps to be a comic book fan as well as a Trekkie. IDW Publishing released a four issue miniseries in the lead up to the release of the new film. The story? It shows the events leading up to the film, including how Nero and his simple mining ship were transformed into a super-duper planet-killing machine. It also shows the logic behind 'red matter', and where it comes from. I saw the film on Saturday, and, knowing the backstory, the one thing I was wondering through the first half was 'How are they going to explain this?' I loved the movie, don't get me wrong, but the backstory as to how this all came about wasn't done justice by Spock Prime's short flashback. The four issue miniseries was great, being set in the future that Nero came from, in the primary (is that a relevant term now?) Star Trek universe. If you want a more thorough understanding of the events leading up to Nero running rampant in an alternate 'past', I heartily recommend picking up the trade paperback.

I loved the new direction that the film took. The destruction of Vulcan really shocked me. Being that Vulcan was so prominent in the primary ST universe in the Federation, it'll be interesting to see the direction the Federation will take in any subsequent sequels.

In regard to Kirk maybe utilising time travel to save his father, I think that the fact that Spock is there in a 'yoda type character' position (nicely put, whoswatchinwho ) to warn of the timeline/alternate reality implications (he's stranded, his timeline essentially no longer exists), time travel would be even more stringently policed, which is cool, because they could bring in the Temporal Enforcement Guys. I loved those guys, they should have done a series based around them.

The Spock/Uhura relationship was well done, and frankly, I think that the Uhura role would have been a bit of a nothing role without it.

I really enjoyed this film, much more than the last two TNG films. Also, Nero and his crew didn't really remind me of the Remans from Nemesis. Nero et al were just bald, tattooed Romulans (the comics explain the tattoos, as well). The Remans looked like rejected auditions from Nosferatu.

[edit on 25/5/2009 by Batmanatee]

Originally posted by Charis
Does anyone else here think Karl Urban was fantastic as McCoy?

Not only do I think he was fantastic, I thought Simon Pegg was an absolute stroke of genius as Scotty. Even though I thought Anton Yelchin and his version of Chekov, might be viewed by some as a little overdone, I thought he was also perfectly cast. I loved his struggle with V's.

Of course, as I said in my original assessment some weeks ago with my Star Trek Review. Chris Pine as Kirk was also sheer genius.

And, since we are on the topic of no brainers....... Zachary Quinto as the revised Spock couldn't have been more perfectly casted. I can think of no other actor that I have seen in this age category that could have done a better job.

Dave

I laughed. I cried. I laughed. Anyone familiar with the original series will see many of the same character nuisances presented within the brilliant reacting of these beloved characters.

The relationship between Spock & Uhura has many significant suggestions. Not only will this be a huge hurdle for humans in the future if and when we engage and begin cohabitating with an intelligent alien species. Look how long it has taken for tolerance of interracial intimate relationships. Can you imagine the prejudice towards inter-species relationships?

Secondly, not only does this assist in easing the burden of Spocks loss but I also see it as Spocks further embracing his human side. His emotions. In the beginning of the movie, while drawn to her he indeed seemed to shun Uhura and still be resistant to any type of acceptance of his humanity. After the loss of his mother and the instigated fight with Kirk, he recognized his humanity as an asset. Only then did Spock begin to embrace humanity and his relationship with Uhura.

Simon Peggs casting as Scotty is fantastic. I’m dating myself a bit here but Pegg is my new Don Knotts. As a child, when Don Knotts simply appeared on the screen I would howl in laughter. Simon Pegg has that effect on me now as an adult.

Wonderful discussion Mr. Rabbit and I will follow with interest. I am unable to view podcasts as I live in Bedrock but I do follow your text postings. Thanks for this thread!

The problem NextGen had with the original series was a split between viewers. However, this new Star Trek has the best of both worlds bringing all of the Trekies together in an alternate timeline / fresh version of the original that can be added to or advanced very quickly since time travel and dependent Vulcan’s are thrown into the mix...

Endless possibilities...

[edit on 25-5-2009 by StingrayCrazy]

[edit on 25-5-2009 by StingrayCrazy]

i dont think the science was very good in the movie, i think it was pritty crap for star trek a goddam black hole machine sucking in planets lol, the writers didn't have even a basic understanding of black holes.

there so strong thay suck in light, and time is even affected spock who was on the planet and the ship in orbit would have been on way way different timezones lol.

that close to a black hole thay all would be frozen in time to an observer. pretty weak for some of the very good timeline and theoretical science storys star trek has came up with.

thay should have stuck with some real theoretical science tng had a gogdame team of theoretical scientist tyeps trowing them bones. Old gean woulnt have let that one slide, he wouldnt even let them make a ship unless it had all the theoretical components, particle deflectors and so on lol

[edit on 25-5-2009 by candy coated clown]

ohh and while im on the subject the director loved his extreme face close up shots lol standing in a multi-million doller set with two cameras about a inch from the actors faces in nearly every seen (trying for emotional effect lol). and any time it showed the action it was from a skewed angle.

reply to post by candy coated clown


Don't Candy Coat It, tell us how you really feel. Seriously though, although I can understand those that may have physics and science educational backgrounds picking the movie apart.... but let's get real here, it is a movie and it's purpose is entertainment. If factuality is what one is looking for, then Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury and others surely were wasting their time.

As for the camera angels and close ups, J. J. Abrams vision was to make this an extremely personal and up close experience. With a whopping 96.2% approval rating by critics and movie goers worldwide, as well as a $238,475,266.00 Worldwide & Climbing gross gate receipt take through Memorial Day..... I'd say your opinion is in the extreme minority.

Thanks for your opinions however.

Dave

[edit on 5/26/2009 by Dave Rabbit]

Originally posted by Max_TO

As for The destruction of the Kelvin , I found myself fighting back the tears as the Kelvin was facing destruction , as baby Jim was emerging into the world .

I'm not ashamed as a man to say I lost the battle .

I thought the movie was simply AWESOME. The casting was brilliant, especially "Sylar" as Spock. It's amazing how much alike they look with the make-up on . As for Uhura, Zoe is waaaayy to skinny for my liking. Nichelle was quite sturdy and way sexier . Chekov had us rolling in the aisles

I agree with the Rabbit man about the science part. 99% of movie goers are not highly trained physicists/astrogeologists/whatever so if anything was not quite "correct" few people noticed or cared.

I got a bit confused with the time travelling, but other than that it was utterly enjoyable. 9 out of 10 for me