Author Topic: The New Star Trek Movie  (Read 39747 times)

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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The New Star Trek Movie
« on: April 08, 2009, 02:15:34 am »





http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/
Star Trek  (2009)
Director: J. J. Abrams

Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin), James Kirk (Chris Pine),
Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg), Bones McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho)
and Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana).



Description:
A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members

SYNOPSIS:
The young crew onboard for the maiden voyage of the most advanced starship ever created, the U.S.S. Enterprise, must find a way to stop the evil Nero (Eric Bana), whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind. But the fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals born worlds apart. One, James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy, a natural-born leader in search of a cause. The other, Spock (Zachary Quinto), grows up on the planet Vulcan, an outcast due to his half-human background, which makes him susceptible to the volatile emotions that Vulcans have long lived without, and yet an ingenious, determined student, who will become the first of his kind accepted into the Starfleet Academy. The crew is led by Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Joining him are the ship's Medical Officer Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban); the man who will become the ship's Chief Engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (Simon Pegg); Communications Officer Uhura (Zoë Saldana); experienced Helmsman Sulu (John Cho); and the 17-year-old whiz kid Chekov (Anton Yelchin). All will face a harrowing first test.


Star Trek Trailer
(includes Leonard Nimoy as Old Spock) (2:15)

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puXPozd-kuc&feature=related[/youtube]


Star Trek Trailer (2:16)
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xaCB2nLS0&NR=1[/youtube]


IMDB Trailers

Star Trek: Final Theatrical Trailer (includes young Uhura) (2:05)
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1761608473/



Star Trek: Final Theatrical Trailer (Variation) (2:16)
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2198471449/


Star Trek: Trailer #2 (2:12)
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3484418841/



Star Trek: Trailer (Variation) (2:10)
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2159346457/


All eleven IMDB Star Trek 2009 trailers:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/trailers



And:


Star Trek’s first stop - the Sydney Opera House

http://trekmovie.com/2009/03/19/star-trek-gala-world-premiere-to-be-in-australia-april-7th-kicks-off-world-tour/

Star Trek World Tour kicks off in Australia
Paramount Pictures Australia sent out a release on Thursday night (their Friday afternoon) announcing that Paramount will be holding the gala world premiere for Star Trek at the famous Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday April 7th. In attendance will be director JJ Abrams who will be joined by Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) along with Australian Eric Bana (Nero) and New Zealander Karl Urban (McCoy).

In a statement, Mike Selwyn, Managing Director of Paramount Pictures Australia., said:

Not only are we honored to have J.J. Abrams and the cast here in Sydney for the World Premiere of the stunning new Star Trek, we are also very excited to present this event at one of Australia’s—and the world’s—most famous locations, Sydney Opera House.


Related:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20233502_8,00.html

http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/10/16/new-star-trek-photos-revealed/

http://www.aintitcool.com/
(Spoilers)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40683
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40675
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2009, 03:11:18 am »


http://screenrant.com/star-trek-red-carpet-event-pictures-sydney-brusimm-6586/







Fans await the stars at the World Premiere of J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek XI




Chris Pine arrives at the World Premiere of
J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek at the Sydney Opera House on April 7, 2009
in Sydney, Australia
and spends time with the fans, as did all the actors.





Eric Bana with friends




Actor Zachary Quinto, who plays Mr Spock, and Director J.J. Abrams
arrive at the World Premiere of J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek  at the Sydney Opera House
on April 7, 2009 in Sydney, Australia.





Cast and crew (L-R)
Zachary Quinto, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Eric Bana
and John Cho arrive at the World Premiere of J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek


"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2009, 03:59:54 am »


http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/

Stars trek to Sydney

More than 1500 people filled the Opera House last night for the
world premiere of Star Trek, a month before its release.



From the Sydney Morning Herald: The first review ("It's phenomenal!") Audio (4:30)
http://media.smh.com.au/entertainment/pick-of-the-flicks/first-star-trek-review-467031.html



Photo Gallery:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/photogallery/entertainment/film/a-sneak-peek-at-the-new-star-trek/2009/04/07/1238869963864.html











"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Meryl

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2009, 04:51:39 pm »
WOWIE!  Makes my little Trekker heart go pitapat!  Must. see. it.  8)  8)  8)
Ich bin ein Brokie...

Offline delalluvia

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2009, 06:35:51 pm »

[/center]

James T. Kirk?  Going where no one has gone before?

I think not.  ;D

Can't wait to see this.

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2009, 05:04:46 pm »


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/movies/26itzk.html?8dpc=&pagewanted=all


Film
New Team Retrofits the Old Starship



From left, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Chris Pine as Kirk, Simon Pegg as Scotty, Karl Urban as McCoy,
John Cho as Sulu and Zoë Saldana as Uhura.



Zachary Quinto as Spock.



The team behind the new “Star Trek” movie: from left, Bryan Burk, Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams,
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.


By DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: April 23, 2009
LOS ANGELES


ENGAGE J. J. Abrams in conversation for even a few minutes and he will gladly confess the role that “Star Trek” played in his cultural coming of age. “I was not a fan,” he said recently.

Though Mr. Abrams would eventually become a creator of the television shows “Lost,” “Alias” and “Fringe” — series that owe their existence to boyhoods fueled by syndicated television and second-run movies — when he grew up in the 1970s and ’80s he had no interest in the hoary voyages of the Starship Enterprise and its crew.

Not that Mr. Abrams, now 42, had anything against science fiction; he just preferred “The Twilight Zone” and its supernatural morality plays. Whereas “Star Trek” seemed closed off to newcomers — “It always presumed you cared about this group of characters,” he said — “The Twilight Zone” was inviting, offering a self-contained origin story in each episode.


J. J. Abrams, right, on the set.


This would not be an especially remarkable revelation except that Mr. Abrams happens to be the director of “Star Trek,” the coming feature film (opening May 8) that is Paramount’s $150 million attempt to rejuvenate the decades-old space adventure franchise, the first movie to provide an official origin story for Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise team.

Mr. Abrams’s admission, made offhandedly in the lunchtime company of his “Star Trek” collaborators, didn’t raise a single eyebrow around the table. From Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who created “Fringe” with Mr. Abrams and wrote the “Transformers” films) to Damon Lindelof (a creator and producer of “Lost”) and Bryan Burk (Mr. Abrams’s producing partner), they’ve all heard his pronouncements on “Trek” before.

But the remark is emblematic of why this particular team, comprising broad sci-fi fans and a couple of “Trek” aficionados, has been handed control of a fantasy franchise that is one of the most recognizable in entertainment yet was in serious disrepair, a victim of diminished expectations and waning enthusiasm.

Mr. Abrams and his partners are guys with mainstream pop-culture aspirations; their forte is taking on genres with finite but dedicated fan bases — science fiction, fantasy and horror — and making them accessible to wider audiences. And what they had in mind for their “Star Trek” movie is a film that is consistent with 43 years of series history but not beholden to it.

Despite their collective reverence for “Star Trek” — and “Star Wars,” and Indiana Jones, and X-Men, and other cultural artifacts of their awkward adolescence — none of them are total “Trek” completists (not even Mr. Orci, who once owned a telephone shaped like the Enterprise). They say that makes them the ideal candidates to upgrade Gene Roddenberry’s creation for 21st-century audiences.

“There’s just too much stuff out there to be loyal to everything,” Mr. Lindelof said. “Someone will find 50 ways to tell us we’re idiots, and it wouldn’t be ‘Trek’ if they didn’t.” At the same time they appreciate the perils of chiseling away at a cultural touchstone whose influence has remained enormous even as its reputation has varied wildly over the years.

If “Star Trek” fails, Mr. Kurtzman said, “it’ll be the biggest personal failure we’ve ever had, because we will have actually violated something that means a lot to us.”

Their “Trek” movie puts them simultaneously on a new trajectory and right in the heart of the series’s mythology. It tells the story of a reckless 23rd-century youth named James T. Kirk (played by Chris Pine) who enrolls in the Starfleet Academy, driven in part by the death of his father, a starship officer who sacrificed his life for his crew. He is drawn into a band of talented cadets, clashing with the half-Earthling, half-alien Spock (Zachary Quinto of the television series “Heroes”).

For the “Trek” faithful there are plenty of nods to past television episodes and movies, familiar catchphrases and Kirk’s notorious solution to a supposedly unwinnable mission simulation. But there is also a conscious effort to inscribe this “Trek” in the storytelling traditions popularized by Joseph Campbell, in which heroes must suffer loss and abandonment before they rise to the occasion.

The filmmakers admit that this is a deliberate homage to their favorite films, like “Superman,” “Star Wars” and “The Godfather Part II”: epic movies that, by the way, did pretty well at the box office.

Perhaps more audaciously, this “Star Trek” also has a time-travel story line that essentially gives those on its creative team license to amend internal “Trek” history as they need to, and they aren’t timid about exercising it. (For example the villains of the movie are Romulans, even though the Enterprise’s first encounter with this alien race occurs in a well-known original “Trek” episode.)

Though their revisions may be contentious, the filmmakers said they were necessary; the “Star Trek” empire entrusted to them has been in dire straits.

Under the stewardship of Mr. Roddenberry and his appointed successor, Rick Berman, a creator of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the franchise had yielded four live-action television spinoffs and 10 feature films. But the 2002 movie “Star Trek: Nemesis” was a box-office disappointment, bringing in just $43 million (less than every other film in the series), and by 2005 the UPN show “Star Trek: Enterprise” was about to be canceled. Any heat left in the “Trek” universe had dissipated, and many of its talented writers (like Ronald D. Moore, who rejuvenated the television series “Battlestar Galactica”) had moved on.

That year, the corporate behemoth Viacom, which owned “Star Trek,” was splitting itself in two, divorcing its CBS studio (which made the “Trek” shows) from its Paramount studio (which made the films). “Trek” was likely to go to CBS, where another television show might eventually be developed. Gail Berman, then the president of Paramount, convinced Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, to allow her one more chance at a “Trek” film; he gave her 18 months to get the cameras rolling or lose the property. (Under the arrangement CBS retained the “Star Trek” merchandising rights.)

Mr. Kurtzman and Mr. Orci were among the first to learn that “Star Trek” was seeking new management. Then, they were former “Alias” producers writing the screenplay for “Mission: Impossible III” (which Mr. Abrams directed). Paramount executives began quizzing them about “Trek.”

The studio wanted “a very specific kind of thinking,” Mr. Kurtzman said.

“You had to love genre at your core in every possible way,” he said. “And yet you had to separate it from what ‘Trek’ had been, to make it feel fresh.”

In postproduction on “Mission: Impossible III” Mr. Abrams was approached by Ms. Berman to produce the new “Trek.” He did not immediately jump at the opportunity, but the more he thought about a project that could involve Mr. Orci and Mr. Kurtzman, as well as Mr. Lindelof and Mr. Burk, the more enthusiastic he became.

“Our references were all the same,” Mr. Abrams said. He added, “There’s this crazy sense of having all grown up together.”

Outwardly this particular Hollywood entourage is no different from any other group of guys who bust one another’s chops. (When Mr. Burk noted that he’d worked as a pool boy at the hotel where this interview was conducted, Mr. Abrams replied, “You’ll be pool boy here again.”)

But deep down they are children of the pre-Internet era, the last generation whose members could not instantaneously connect to like-minded fans and had to seek them out at swap meets and video stores and in the pages of magazines with names like Starlog and Fangoria.

“When we come into contact with each other, there’s an ‘Oh, it’s you’ quality,” Mr. Lindelof said. “It’s like bumping into someone at a Dungeons & Dragons convention.” Even though this “Star Trek” has been reworked to resemble contemporary summer blockbusters like “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” (as well as planned offerings like “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Terminator Salvation”), it is also set apart by a tone that is more hopeful — and even utopian — than its competitors.

What ultimately inspired him about “Star Trek,” Mr. Abrams said, was that in contrast to a science-fiction saga like “Star Wars” — whose images of youthful swashbucklers traversing the cosmos in beat-up vehicles clearly influenced his movie — “Trek” was not set a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away; it was a hopeful vision of what this planet’s future could be.

“We’ve become so familiar with the idea of space travel because of so many movies and TV shows that it’s lost its adventure and its possibility, its sense of wonder,” Mr. Abrams said. “Forty-three years ago it was not a boring idea.”

What remains to be seen is whether the patient, thoughtful and deeply philosophical tradition of “Star Trek” is compatible with a “Star Trek” movie that is variously flashy, frenetic, dirty, slapsticky and sufficiently steeped in popular culture to accommodate both the Beastie Boys song “Sabotage” and a cameo by Tyler Perry.

Mr. Abrams said that throughout the production process Mr. Orci and Mr. Lindelof, both acolytes of “Trek” history, were there to keep an eye on him. The filmmakers also received the blessing of Leonard Nimoy, who created the role of Spock and agreed to reprise the character in the film as a wizened old man.

“Any fan who would think that it’s not ‘Trek’ has to say that to Leonard Nimoy’s face,” Mr. Orci said. “Don’t talk to me, talk to Spock.”

But Mr. Abrams has a mixed history when it comes to reinventing film franchises. Around 2002 he wrote a script for a possible new “Superman” movie that was criticized for the extensive revisions it made to that comic-book hero’s history. (In Mr. Abrams’s story, for example, the villain Lex Luthor turned out to be from Superman’s home planet of Krypton.)

Today, Mr. Abrams said, he understands the mistakes he made with his “Superman” screenplay. “It’s tantamount to doing a story about Santa Claus and saying that he’s from Kansas,” he said.

Nonetheless Mr. Abrams said his responsibility was not to the “Trek” loyalists, but “to create a movie that would be for moviegoers who love an adventure, and movies that are funny and scary and exciting — not ‘Star Trek’ fans, necessarily, but not to exclude them either.”

But after immersing himself in the rich characters and boundless universe of a once unfamiliar space epic (and having committed himself to producing, with Mr. Burk, a “Star Trek” sequel that Mr. Kurtzman, Mr. Orci and Mr. Lindelof will write), Mr. Abrams was ready to make another confession to his team.

“I now consider myself a Trekkie,” he declared, “which I literally could not have ever imagined saying to anyone.”

Mr. Burk feigned a cough and, under his breath, said a single word. It sounded like “nerd.”
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2009, 09:18:40 pm »


If you care about this universe (and I do, damn it), you won’t sit passively through J.J. Abrams’s restart Trek. You’ll marvel at the smarts and wince at the senselessness. You’ll nitpick it to death and thrill to it anyway.

http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/56428/

The Next Generation
J.J. Abrams restarts Star Trek, with mostly thrilling results.



Photo: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

By David Edelstein
Published May 1, 2009


There are moments in the furious new Star Trek iteration in which the young actors who play Kirk, Spock, Bones, and the rest resemble Baby Looney Toons doing old shtick in disconcertingly high voices. Yet there are other, transcendent moments—time-benders. Suddenly, I found myself back in the days when I (and you?) enacted Star Trek in the basement: “Phasers on stun.” “Mr. Scott, we need that warp drive.” “I’m a doctor, not an escalator!” If you care about this universe (and I do, damn it), you won’t sit passively through J.J. Abrams’s restart Trek. You’ll marvel at the smarts and wince at the senselessness. You’ll nitpick it to death and thrill to it anyway.

Because, in the end, what choice is there? The first generation of Trekkers is elderly or gone to that most final of frontiers, the next generation is up in years, and the most memorable thing about the generation after that was the Borg with big breasts whose distaste for sex clubs helped elect Barack Obama. Either we accept this “reboot” or watch The Wrath of Khan  for the thirty-eighth time. And Abrams and his writers (Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) have come up with a way to make you dig the souped-up new scenery while pining for the familiar—a good thing. When Kirk gets bumped from the captain’s chair and trades insults with Spock, it’s funny and surprising and wrong wrong wrong. Which is the point. We’re rooting for Abrams to be less original—to give us back our Kirk and Spock.

The gimmick is a black hole, one of those handy time-travel-enabling anomalies with which we sci-fi fans have a love-hate relationship. A spiky black behemoth from the future hurtles through said hole carrying a vengeful Romulan driller-killer called Nero (Eric Bana)—whereupon, presto, history is altered. In this alternate-universe, James T. Kirk’s father is dead, and Kirk (Chris Pine) grows up a daredevil ne’er-do-well. He doesn’t want to go to Starfleet Academy and abide by pesky rules until he’s shamed by Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood)—the captain in the series’ first, failed pilot, now reborn as the authority figure who tells Kirk, “If you’re half the man your father was …” Pike defines Starfleet as a “peacekeeping and humanitarian armada”—four of the weightiest words ever spoken in a sci-fi picture. The original Trek gave us mixed-race, sexually active Cold Warriors (it was the Marshall Plan in space, with Klingons standing in for Soviets); the next generation was mostly Clintonesque policy wonks and technocrats (plus an unhappy post-Soviet/Klingon). What political assumptions prop up the newest armada?

Hard to say, since the focus is more on mismatched buddies: Young rule-breaker Kirk and young by-the-book Spock loathe each other on sight and spend much of the film as antagonists. We’re always on Kirk’s side, though. Behind those impudent baby blues, young Pine mugs like mad, but there’s wit in the way he seizes the space: He seems to be both channeling and poking fun at William Shatner’s mighty ego. He leads with his appetites. On the other hand, Zachary Quinto plays the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock as the kind of know-it-all even geeks want to slam into a locker. The problem might be as basic as Quinto’s physiognomy. Where Leonard Nimoy adopted a semi-scrutable (vaguely Eastern) mask, Quinto’s features settle into a sneer. Nimoy’s Spock would tell his colleagues, “I have no feelings to hurt,” and we knew it was a lie because Nimoy’s impassivity was so pregnant. But Quinto’s face telegraphs disdain. He’s Kirk’s competitor—which might be more realistic but which utterly changes the Star Trek dynamic. Kirk is no longer the virile leader trying to find a balance between coolly dispassionate logic (Spock) and urgent humanist emotion (Dr. McCoy). He’s hardly even a plausible leader. (How does he end up in the captain’s chair?) The doggone kids really have seized the Enterprise.

In fairness, it’s too soon to tell where the revamped Star Trek will go, since a lot of this first installment is foreplay: Get ’em grown up (out of Iowa, off Vulcan), get ’em out of school (bring on the final exam—the Kobayashi Maru!), get ’em onboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, and bring on the bad guy and space battles. The fights and photon-torpedoings are rousingly done, and since the self-inflating Shatner famously had scripts rewritten to make the other crew members ciphers, there’s room for actors to bring new stuff to the party. Is she (Zoe Saldana) Uhura? Yowza. Hey, look at that—Starfleet women in boots and miniskirts again! What’s Harold doing on the Enterprise without Kumar? Oh, he’s Sulu! Way to go, John Cho! Is the new Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) actually Russian? That seems odd, somehow. Why does the disheveled hipster McCoy (Karl Urban) talk like Owen Wilson, and would you want him treating your wounds? Is that Winona Ryder as Spock’s mom—with, like, three lines? Who’s this “Olsen” guy parachuting down to disarm the villain’s super-weapon with Kirk and Sulu? Oh, that’s right, he’s the guy who’s going to immediately get killed. (“Olsen is gone, sir.”) Where’s Scotty?

Scotty (the crackerjack comic actor Simon Pegg, of Shaun of the Dead ) shows up an hour into the film, some time after Leonard Nimoy delivers the screen’s first exposition-via-mind-meld. That clarifies Nero’s motives, which turn out to be awfully thin. (It’s weird how Star Trek villains think nothing of blowing up planets to avenge their wives.) Nimoy, meanwhile, looks very old and happier than he has in years: He has finally decided he is Spock, and not even Zachary Quinto can deny him. So it’s in with the old and the new, and let’s give this crew another voyage.

IN BRIEF: Gael García Bernal reteams with Diego Luna from Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También  in Cuarón’s brother Carlos’s Rudo y Cursi,  an insipid but bearable parable of soccer-playing brothers turned rivals done in by their own celebrity. The morality play would be easier to take if the soccer were better … It’s unfair to call Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control  the emptiest movie ever made, but I wrote that in my notebook as I struggled to stay awake. Even more ponderous than his first film, Permanent Vacation,  the film follows robotic Isaach de Bankolé on some kind of diamond-smuggling mission through Spain not reacting to eccentrics Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Bernal, and oft-naked Paz de la Huerta. Finally, Bill Murray shows up as a Dick Cheney type and Bankolé turns out to be a supernatural avenger. I look forward to reading the rave reviews—I love science fiction.
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2009, 10:26:27 am »


It's a blockbuster for the Obama age, when smarts and idealism are cool again. In fact, can't you picture our president—levelheaded, biracial, implacably smart—on the bridge in a blue shirt and pointy ears?


http://www.slate.com/id/2217854/

Go See Star Trek
It's logical.
By Dana Stevens
Posted Wednesday, May 6, 2009, at 9:52 PM ET


J.J. Abrams' Star Trek  (Paramount Pictures) is a gift to those of us who loved the original series, that brainy, wonky, idealistic body of work that aired to almost no commercial success between 1966-69 and has since become a science fiction archetype and object of cult adoration. For fans who grew up watching the show in ubiquitous after-school reruns and who commandeered the La-Z-Boy as an impromptu captain's chair, Star Trek  is neither a franchise nor a property. It's a world. Abrams' cannily constructed prequel respects (for the most part) the rules of that world and, more importantly, retains the original Star Trek's spirit of optimism, curiosity, and humor.

The near-universal enthusiasm for Abrams' film (it currently has a critical rating of 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) may partly spring from sheer relief that it isn't awful. The idea of "rebooting" Star Trek seemed ill-augured, not only because the 40-year-old show has been through so many big- and small-screen recyclings already, but because—well, how do you "reboot" something that's so thoroughly analog? The very charm of the old Star Trek  was its low-tech rendering of a high-tech world, with futuristic medical implements represented by salt shakers and aliens fashioned from nothing but green body paint or a glued-on pair of ears.

Star Trek 's vision of the future, as guided by creator Gene Roddenberry, was also a relic of its time, the age of NASA and the Cold War and Kruschev pounding his shoe on a podium at the United States. The show's faith in diplomacy and technology as tools for not just global but universal peace might seem touchingly dated in our post-9/11 age of stateless jihad, loose nukes, and omnipresent danger. Yet in a weird way, Star Trek 's cheerfully square naiveté makes it the perfect film for our first summer of (slimly) renewed hope. It's a blockbuster for the Obama age, when smarts and idealism are cool again. In fact, can't you picture our president—levelheaded, biracial, implacably smart—on the bridge in a blue shirt and pointy ears?

Abrams faced two huge challenges in taking on this world. The first was the casting of the archetypal characters—particularly, I'd argue, that of James T. Kirk. As rich a part as the repressed half-alien, half-human Spock is, it's not hard to imagine a contemporary actor suited to play it—after all, Spock's cooler, more contained style somehow fits with the buttoned-up action heroes currently in fashion. (Matt Damon's Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig's Bond both share a Spock-like reserve.) But it's just too galling to imagine William Shatner's creation—that expansive, randy, faintly ridiculous, and yet supremely capable leader of men, Falstaffian in his love of life and largeness of spirit—replaced by a 21st-century-style comic book hero, some glowering brooder with daddy issues.

So Abrams did well to eschew celebrity casting and scour the galaxy to find Chris Pine, a relatively unknown young actor (he appeared in the 2006 crime drama Smokin’ Aces  and last year's Bottle Shock ) who understands and channels Shatner's loopy appeal without ever impersonating him. (And what actor is more easily impersonatable than Shatner, with that trademark staccato delivery?) Pine is a jewel, but his performance couldn't work without the right ensemble cast. It takes a while for the gang to get fully assembled on the bridge—Simon Pegg's juicily comic Scotty, in particular, comes on the scene too late in the movie. But by the time they do, even Trekkie loyalists will have accepted Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as communications specialist Uhura (now upgraded from space secretary to "xenolinguist" and equipped with a disconcerting crush on her Vulcan co-worker), Karl Urban as the ship's irascible doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Urban's performance, while enjoyable, comes the closest to straight-up impersonation), and John Cho and Anton Yelchin as the young navigators Sulu and Chekhov.

Come to think of it, the Kirk of Abrams' Star Trek  does have a daddy issue of sorts, though it's dispatched with early in this brisk 126-minute movie. James' father, Capt. George Kirk, is killed in a collision with a Romulan ship at the same moment that his mother gives birth to their son in a shuttle escaping the blast. The captain of the Romulan vessel, the unsubtly named Nero (Eric Bana) has traveled back in time in order to take revenge for the destruction of his planet, for which he blames Spock … the Spock of the future.

Abrams' creation of a time-travel loop was a demonically clever way to reinvent the Star Trek  universe without violating the original 79-episode canon. Hey, he can say to potential detractors at ComicCon, all that stuff that happened on the series still happened; it's just that this alternate reality existed alongside it. Complete bullshit, yes, but oddly in keeping with the original show's love for mind-blowing narrative reversals, and it does silence the nitpickers (not that I would know any or be one myself).

In this alternate reality loop, then, Kirk, a bright but delinquent farm boy in Iowa, is convinced by a Federation officer, Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), to enroll at the Starfleet Academy. Meanwhile on Vulcan, Spock (played as a child by Jacob Kogan) is tormented by Vulcan schoolmates for his half-human ancestry. (The pleasure these boys take in bullying seems human enough to me, but never mind.) As an adult, Spock (now played by Quinto with a few degrees more chill than Leonard Nimoy brought to the role) is offered entry to the elite Vulcan Science Academy—sort of the MIT of space—but chooses to enroll at Earth's Starfleet instead. At the academy, Spock's by-the-book style leads him to clash with the hotheaded and swaggering Kirk. Soon, though, the reappearance of the villainous Nero, now intent on methodically destroying every planet in the Federation, will force the two men to work together on the newly built Enterprise under the command of Capt. Pike (who, more-than-casual fans will note, was the ship's first captain in the series as well). Along the way they will cross paths with the future Spock, played by the present-day Nimoy in a part that's both longer and more crucial to the story than a mere nostalgic cameo.

To say more would be to give too much away, but allowing for a few bad choices (the 37-year-old Winona Ryder as Spock's aged mother? Really?), you couldn't ask for a less ponderous, more rollicking time. The action sequences are grand in scale but staged with a sense for character—it actually matters who's slugging whom atop a hovering Romulan space-drill and why. The score by Michael Giacchino has a hummably ominous hook (only under the closing credits do we finally hear the familiar Alexander Courage theme), and the costumes and sets were designed with a careful eye to detail. Abrams' inspiration was to treat his source material neither as jokey camp nor as sacred scripture, but as a text rich enough to be lovingly retranslated.
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2009, 09:03:55 am »



Also posted in the Current Events thread, 'Obama = Spock': http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,35813.0.html


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/weekinreview/10itzkoff.html?ref=weekinreview


The Two Sides of ‘Star Trek’



By DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: May 9, 2009


It takes a certain mix of optimism and frustration to contemplate the possibility of space travel. To dream of navigating the cosmos is to assume that man has the resources and the know-how to propel himself into the heavens, but also some compelling reasons to exchange his home planet for the cold vast unknown.

It was these seemingly contradictory impulses that shaped “Star Trek,”  the supremely influential science-fiction television series whose three-season run yielded 40 years of sequels and spinoffs including a new feature film about the origins of Kirk and Spock that opened on Friday. Yes, the series is at heart a geeky space epic, but it is also one with a political and historical context.

When it was created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966, “Star Trek”  was meant to expand the notions of what a unified world could achieve — a mission that was deeply complicated by the turmoil of the era. And the newest incarnation of “Star Trek”  arrives at a moment when the country again finds itself teetering between limitless potential and peril, yearning to boldly go in all directions but potentially stuck in neutral.

The original “Star Trek”  imagined the futuristic fulfillment of John F. Kennedy’s inspirational oratory, in which his New Frontier became “the final frontier.” The budget surpluses and budding space program of the early 1960s gave rise, in the 23rd century, to the utopian United Federation of Planets. On the Starship Enterprise, men and women, blacks and whites, Americans, Russians and Asians — with names like Uhura, Chekov and Sulu — worked side by side, reflecting Mr. Roddenberry’s belief that “when human beings get over the silly little problems of racism and war, then we can tackle the big problems of exploring the universe,” said David Gerrold, a writer for the original “Star Trek”  series.

But events during its brief original run — the race riots of Newark and Detroit; the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the nation’s ever-deepening commitment to the Vietnam War — inevitably affected the tone of the show. By the second season, episodes like “A Private Little War”  (in which Captain Kirk attempts to balance an arms race between two extraterrestrial tribes) were commenting on America’s intervention in Indochina.

As Richard M. Nixon was entering the Oval Office on an anodyne platform of peace, “Star Trek”  was blunter with its audience. In the episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”  that aired in January 1969, Kirk was giving dire warnings to aliens — and by extension, to viewers — that they would “end up dead if you don’t stop hating.”

Forty years later, as “Star Trek”  is returning to its past so is America: the country is again gripped by anxieties about entanglements abroad, compounded by the fear that the economy could collapse at warp speed. A cautious optimism has emerged in the afterglow of the election of President Obama (whose Vulcan-like composure has invited frequent comparisons to Mr. Spock), but a surge of foreign violence, a swine flu outbreak or any number of other events could easily dampen that mood.

Under President Obama, “we’re starting the era of the 1960s in 1967,” said H. Bruce Franklin, a professor of English and American studies at Rutgers University who was the guest curator of the National Air and Space Museum’s “Star Trek and the Sixties”  exhibition in the early 1990s. “Culturally we’re reinventing the ’60s, but economically we’re reinventing the ’30s.”

In recent decades, Mr. Franklin said, “Star Trek”  ceded its position as America’s dominant science-fiction mythology to “Star Wars”  — both the Reagan-era missile defense program and the George Lucas movies (which in turn were influenced by Depression-era serials and World War II dogfights).

Roberto Orci, who wrote the new “Star Trek” movie with Alex Kurtzman, acknowledged that its retro vision of an Earth at peace was meant as a tonic for an era when people wonder if perpetual war is becoming the norm. “We’re smack-dab in the middle of that very debate,” he said, pointing to the growing American military presence in Afghanistan and an increasingly worrisome situation in Pakistan. “It couldn’t be more stark now.”

The new film has plenty of modern-day angst to address too: the efficacy of torture is touched upon (though only the film’s villains employ it); an entire planet central to “Star Trek”  lore is destroyed, intended by the writers as an amplified metaphor for the 9/11 attacks.

And a scene in which an aged version of Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) converses with his younger self (played by Zachary Quinto) becomes a platform for the regret that the grown-up children of the 1960s feel for letting down the youth of today, just as they might have felt they were let down by their leaders. “It’s kind of a baby boomer apology for where we are,” Mr. Orci said. “Not that I’m asking for the baby boomers to apologize.”

But at least one person closely identified with “Star Trek”  argues that for all the ways in which the franchise has been affected by current events, its optimistic vision has persisted .

“A lot of science-fiction is nihilistic and dark and dreadful about the future, and ‘Star Trek’  is the opposite,” Mr. Nimoy said. “We need that kind of hope, we need that kind of confidence in the future. I think that’s what ‘Star Trek’  offers. I have to believe that — I’m the glass-half-full kind of guy.”
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and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2009, 11:05:28 am »


OK, I am not now, nor have I ever been (nor am I likely to become) a Trekkie, but I still find it vaguely disturbing that this photo appears to give the world a James T. Kirk so young that he still has a bad case of acne. ...  :P
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2009, 12:39:54 pm »
OK, I am not now, nor have I ever been (nor am I likely to become) a Trekkie, but I still find it vaguely disturbing that this photo appears to give the world a James T. Kirk so young that he still has a bad case of acne. ...  :P

No, that's just injuries from having been in a fight earlier.

I saw the movie last night. I'm a pretty big fan of ST, but only the original series. I thought the movie was pretty good, though I couldn't follow parts of the plot, and there was at least one too many scenes of James T. Kirk hanging over a precipice. But they did a good job of casting plausible younger versions, of matching the backstory up with the regular story, and of faintly echoing the series here and there without belaboring it. And I loved seeing Leonard Nimoy. Next installment, I want William Shatner!






Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #11 on: May 11, 2009, 01:16:59 pm »
No, that's just injuries from having been in a fight earlier.

Whew! That's a relief to know!

Chris Pine comes from good acting stock, but based on the photo of him in this morning's paper, I'm afraid he's one of those actors I'll never be able to take too seriously because he's just so improbably handsome.  :-\
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #12 on: May 12, 2009, 11:19:15 am »

Whew! That's a relief to know!
Chris Pine comes from good acting stock, but based on the photo of him in this morning's paper, I'm afraid he's one of those actors I'll never be able to take too seriously because he's just so improbably handsome.  :-\


 




 ;D
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and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #13 on: May 12, 2009, 12:27:33 pm »
Sorry, John, but I don't get it. Are you suggesting that Chris Pine resembles the Arrow Shirt Man? Or that he appeals to comfort-loving manly men?  ???  ;D
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #14 on: May 12, 2009, 01:15:03 pm »
I liked the new Star Trek movie, but I think they should have got Betty White to play Spock's mother.  ;)
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #15 on: May 12, 2009, 01:24:54 pm »
I liked the new Star Trek movie, but I think they should have got Betty White to play Spock's mother.  ;)

Rose Nyland or Sue Anne Nivens?
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline southendmd

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #16 on: May 12, 2009, 01:33:00 pm »
I liked the new Star Trek movie, but I think they should have got Betty White to play Spock's mother.  ;)


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Offline Kd5000

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #17 on: May 12, 2009, 05:46:57 pm »
STAR TREK was a bit darker then I was hoping it to be. The director said he wanted to set a more optimistic tone for the last year of the decade as compared with THE DARK KNIGHT, i.e. the self described zeitgeist film of a dark decade.  I though this STAR TREK had some pretty heavy casualty counts.  It's got the (potential) new franchise off to an ominous start.   I guess it's going to be a tangent Star Trek universe.   A more optimistic view of humanity?  I don't know about that.

Of course, other scienc fiction action films has some 9/11 reference point. The post pandemic apocalypse I AM LEGEND (set in NYC) was quite popular  The recent remake of WAR OF THE WORLDS had "Is it the terrorist?" angle as well.  :-\

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #18 on: May 14, 2009, 08:53:15 am »


Sorry, John, but I don't get it. Are you suggesting that Chris Pine resembles the Arrow Shirt Man? Or that he appeals to comfort-loving manly men?  ???  ;D


It was your comment ("improbably handsome") that did it!
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #20 on: May 14, 2009, 09:55:10 am »


It was your comment ("improbably handsome") that did it!

I guess the Arrow Shirt Man was improbably handsome, wasn't he?

In my choice of words I was channeling an early review I had read of Brokeback that described Heath and Jake as "improbably handsome" as Ennis and Jack.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #21 on: May 14, 2009, 10:10:58 am »

"Why didn't I think of that?!"

Deffinatly Betty White, in the Rose Nyland character, "Oh now Spock, you'll catch your death!"
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #22 on: May 14, 2009, 10:13:22 am »
In my choice of words I was channeling an early review I had read of Brokeback that described Heath and Jake as "improbably handsome" as Ennis and Jack.

They were. More improbable as Wyoming ranch hands than Chris Pine as Kirk. Starship captains usually are handsome.

BTW Jeff, why do you say he comes from "good acting stock"? Is he related to someone?


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #23 on: May 14, 2009, 10:27:44 am »
They were. More improbable as Wyoming ranch hands than Chris Pine as Kirk. Starship captains usually are handsome.

BTW Jeff, why do you say he comes from "good acting stock"? Is he related to someone?



I've never had the pleasure of meeting a starship captain, so I wouldn't know about that.  ;D

Chris Pine's father is Robert Pine, who I would say has never been a "star," really, but you might consider him a "yeoman actor" who's been working in the business for probably something like 40 years. To me Robert Pine is most memorable for having played Sgt. Getraer, Ponch and Jon's boss on CHiPs on TV more years ago than I care to remember. I looked him up on IMdB last week. The Pine name made me curious to know if they are related.

Added: Here's a link to Robert Pine's entry at IMdB:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0683986/bio
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #24 on: May 14, 2009, 10:38:20 am »
Added: Here's a link to Robert Pine's entry at IMdB:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0683986/bio

Thanks, Jeff.

It's funny that the profile doesn't provide a list of his acting credits. Is IMDb phasing those out in order to get people to go IMDbPro? Or is Robert Pine just a bit too obscure to warrant anyone compiling them, or what?



Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #25 on: May 14, 2009, 12:05:15 pm »
Thanks, Jeff.

It's funny that the profile doesn't provide a list of his acting credits. Is IMDb phasing those out in order to get people to go IMDbPro? Or is Robert Pine just a bit too obscure to warrant anyone compiling them, or what?

Oops, somehow it appears I linked to the mini biography and not to the main page of the Robert Pine entry. His filmography is still there. If you go to the link I posted and then click on his name, in little type in the upper left corner, that's a link back to the main entry, which lists his credits.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #26 on: May 14, 2009, 12:13:40 pm »
Oh, OK. And here, for the record, is a picture of the guy, since IMDb doesn't provide one:




Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #27 on: May 19, 2009, 02:18:27 pm »


http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/real-live-astronauts-are-watching-star-trek-in-outer-space-right-now/?hp


 
Real Live Astronauts are Watching
‘Star Trek’   in Outer Space - Right Now



Paramount Pictures
The bridge of the Enterprise in the new “Star Trek”  film

By Rebecca Cathcart
May 15, 2009, 6:52 pm


Right about now in outer space, three men are crouched in a node of the International Space Station, watching J.J. Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek”  on a laptop. They chose the node, said NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier, because it was “dark and quiet” and would be “a good spot” for three “Star Trek”  fans to hunker down for the ultimate viewing experience.

“They just ended their crew day,” said Ms. Cloutier, “so they’re watching it now, or just finishing it up. They can go all day without seeing each other, so this is a good chance to get together.”

Michael Barratt, the American astronaut, requested the film before boarding a space-bound shuttle in March, said Ms. Cloutier. He told NASA officials that he was a lifelong admirer of the TV series and did not want to miss this latest big-screen installment while off-planet. It was beamed up to them - really - after being reformatted by NASA technicians in a five-hour procedure Thursday night and beamed up Friday morning.

Mr. Barratt, 50, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, 50, and Koichi Wakata, 46, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency settled into the node, named “Unity,” after dinner and secured their feet with floor straps to keep from floating during the screening, she said.

They are the 19th crew since 2000 to put in time at the International Space Station, which is a series of large modules connected by smaller nodes. Getting together for a “movie night,” she added, was a tradition on the station.

Mr. Barrat said in a press release that the original series inspired him to become an astronaut and would be a perfect film selection for the space station.

‘Star Trek’  blended adventure, discovery, intelligence and storytelling that assumes a positive future for humanity,” he said. “The International Space Station is a real step in that direction, with many nations sharing in an adventure the world can be proud of.”
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
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Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
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Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #28 on: May 19, 2009, 08:10:51 pm »

OK, I am not now, nor have I ever been (nor am I likely to become) a Trekkie, but I still find it vaguely disturbing that this photo appears to give the world a James T. Kirk so young that he still has a bad case of acne. ...  Tongue
-------------------------------------------------



     The marks you have on his face, is not acne, but the results of a fight with about five guys by himself.



     Beautiful mind

Offline Monika

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #29 on: May 19, 2009, 08:13:16 pm »
When I first heard about this movie, I went "WTF". I really hated the idea of them trying to replace Nimoy, Shatner etc with younger actors. But I went to see it after I'd read a very positive review that peaked my interest.

I must say I was very pleasantly surprised. I'm very glad that the director focuses on the Kirk/Spock relationship, because to me, that has always been the glue that bound the the original series together. I also really was impressed with the often dark tone cause it felt like the director really wanted to do Star Trek for real, not just some phony copy of it. After only a few minutes into the movie I already found myself fully accepting the new actors as younger versions of Spock and Kirk. It's like the guy playing Spock was born to do it.
Nimoys appearance was of course a gigantic crowd-pleaser and lent the movie a kind of epic Star Wars feel to it.
I didn't especially miss Shatner, because Spock has in my mind always been the most interesting character. But I wouldn't mind see the Nimoy/Shatner meet again on the silver screen. But I doubt we'll ever see that; is the director really willing to take the chance that they completely steal the movie? He might, but I doubt it.

The one thing that went through my mind as I left the IMAX theater was: Star Trek is back! Hallelujah!

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #30 on: May 19, 2009, 10:01:32 pm »
I think William Shatner at this point would have a hard time being convincing as Kirk. He has become a good-natured buffoonish caricature of himself over the years, and although I like that about him it would be hard to be as take him seriously. But if he would give it a try I'd buy a ticket.



Offline MaineWriter

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #31 on: May 20, 2009, 08:28:20 pm »
So this is the blog about the movie that is making its way around the blogosphere. Twinks vs. Bears in Star Trek, the gayest movie ever. I think it is pretty funny.

http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-gay-martians-have-right-to-marry.html

L
Taming Groomzilla<-- support equality for same-sex marriage in Maine by clicking this link!

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #32 on: May 20, 2009, 08:36:21 pm »
OK, I've now got a picture of Chris Pine (without the silly dye job) hanging right next to a picture of Jake Gyllenhaal.

Now, there's a "slash" coupling I'd like to see. ...  8)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Meryl

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #33 on: May 22, 2009, 02:22:50 pm »
LOVED it!  8)

Went to see it Wednesday with Mikaela at the IMAX on 42nd Street (Whatta ripoff!  The screen isn't nearly big enough.  Stick to SONY Lincoln Center's IMAX if you go.)

I had stayed away from reviews and background articles, so it was a big, fast, pleasing rush of nostalgia, emotion, shock, WTF and yahoo!  Great job by everyone concerned, especially the director, J.J. Abrams.  I was even willing to forgive him for ripping a huge hole in the old Trek canon.  Couldn't follow all the time-travel plot stuff, but I had a roaring good time.  Highly recommended.  8)  8)  8)
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #34 on: May 22, 2009, 02:27:32 pm »
I was even willing to forgive him for ripping a huge hole in the old Trek canon.

What's the huge hole? Was it Spock and Uhura? Because that's not how Vulcans are supposed to mate.


Offline shortfiction

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #35 on: May 22, 2009, 03:30:22 pm »
****SPOILER ALERT****







I believe the huge hole was that the planet Vulcan was destroyed (if I have that right--time travel paradoxes mix me up), rendering many events of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and the movies impossible.

Also, if Kirk had a brother, Sam, where was he?  Is he a stepbrother?





« Last Edit: May 22, 2009, 03:49:38 pm by Meryl »
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Offline Meryl

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #36 on: May 22, 2009, 03:48:14 pm »
Yep, shortfiction nailed the main event I was thinking of, among others.  (Hope you don't mind my adding the spoiler alert, sf, since others reading the thread may have not seen the movie yet.)

I kept waiting for them to "fix" it by another time-traveling trick, but they just left us in that other universe.  Bold as brass, those writers!  :P
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #37 on: May 22, 2009, 03:51:36 pm »
I believe the huge hole was that the planet Vulcan was destroyed (if I have that right--time travel paradoxes mix me up), rendering many events of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and the movies impossible.

Oh, right.

But also the mating thing. Whatever happened to being overcome with strange urges once every seven years, compelling one to return to Vulcan for an elaborate ritual that might culminate in mortal combat with one's best friend and superior officer? (Or something like that -- it's been a while since I saw that episode.)

I don't remember any mention of casual hookups at the Federation Academy (for Spock anyway -- for Kirk, they go without saying).




Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #38 on: May 22, 2009, 04:00:44 pm »



I think you might  enjoy this!


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKDw6ZiSalU&feature=related[/youtube]
click if unabled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKDw6ZiSalU&feature=related



[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjcHsnbZQ7A&NR=1[/youtube]



And for the Double  Slash fans
(Kirk/Spock/Socialist Swedish Pop Quartets)

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh_fKqDShXY&feature=related[/youtube]
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #39 on: May 22, 2009, 04:07:57 pm »


What's the huge hole? Was it Spock and Uhura? Because that's not how Vulcans are supposed to mate.



Oh, right.

But also the mating thing. Whatever happened to being overcome with strange urges once every seven years, compelling one to return to Vulcan for an elaborate ritual that might culminate in mortal combat with one's best friend and superior officer? (Or something like that -- it's been a while since I saw that episode.)

I don't remember any mention of casual hookups at the Federation Academy (for Spock anyway -- for Kirk, they go without saying).



You thought maybe Wikipedia didn't include (science fictional) mating rituals? Au contraire!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pon_farr

Pon farr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Pon farr is an element of the fictional Star Trek universe that occurs both in the canonical TV series and in fan fiction based upon the series. In Star Trek, Vulcan males and females go into heat every seven years, going into a blood fever, becoming violent, and finally dying if they do not mate with someone with whom they are empathically bonded.




In canon
It was introduced in the original series episode "Amok Time",  written by Theodore Sturgeon, which depicts Mr. Spock going into pon farr and being returned to Vulcan by Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy in order to undergo the mating ritual and save his life.[1]

Pon farr  has occurred as a female Vulcan cycle in the character of T'Pol from the final Star Trek  series, Enterprise.

Spock experienced an accelerated version of pon farr  due to the Genesis planet's influence in Star Trek III, as a young man. He was aided by fellow half-Vulcan, Saavik.

In Voyager,  Tuvok experienced pon farr  while the vessel was trapped far away from any other Vulcans, so he was unable to mate with his wife. Initially he claimed that he had Tarkalean flu to the crew to spare the embarrassment of discussing his actual condition. He attempted to control the pon farr  through meditation and drugs, but was not ultimately successful until he met with his wife in a holodeck program.

Star Trek  DC comics 7 and 8 in 1984. Saavik went into a fever, Pon Farr  and attacked the Enterprise. When Saavik crash lands on a Romulan controlled planet; her mate, Xon, explains she is going through Pon Farr.  And, issue 8 the comic emphasized she mated with him to help her through Pon Farr  since Xon was her mate.

In fan fiction
Pon farr  also occurs, and has been extensively elaborated from what is canon, in fan fiction. One such fan fiction story is "The Ring of Soshern",  which was probably written before 1976, and circulated as samizdat until 1987, when it was formally published in the anthology Alien Brothers.  The story is denoted as a "K/S" story — the designation for fan fiction stories that feature an explicitly sexual relationship between Kirk and Spock. (See slash fiction.) In the story, Kirk and Spock beam down to an unexplored planet, and are marooned there when the Enterprise is forced away by an ion storm. [1]

One element of pon farr  in fan fiction that is typified by "The Ring of Soshern"  is that Spock is unwilling to engage in sexual intercourse even when in the full throes of pon farr.  This plot device allows stories to include many more occasions for erotic couplings. Other such elements include "plak tow"  as the name for the blood fever; the fact that Kirk, because of his empathic bond with Spock, can sense when Spock is about to go into pon farr,  and even suffers some of its symptoms himself; and "lingering death" as the name for the death of a Vulcan male in pon farr  who is unable to claim a mate.[1][2][3]

Interpretation
Pon farr  stories are so popular with slash story fans that at least one fanzine, Fever,  is devoted to containing only pon farr  stories. Constance Penley believes that part of the stories' popularity rests in the idea of men being subject to a hormonal cycle, observing that in slash fiction the symptoms of pon farr  are "wickedly and humorously made to parallel those of PMS and menstruation, in a playful and transgressive levelling of the biological playing field".[2]

Pon farr  is perceived by many female fans of Star Trek  fan fiction as a symbol of human sexuality in American males, who, like Vulcans, are trained not to express their feelings. The fan fiction stories are guides for readers in how to handle sexual encounters with human men, who are just as "alien" as Vulcans to women, being equally as unpredictable and uncontrolled.[4]

Contrast
Pon farr  in canon and pon farr  in fan fiction are presented very differently. In the TV series, sex is an intrusion into the world of work and male companionship. Vulcan males find pon farr  to be embarrassing. It is uncontrollable, physical, and frightening. In fan fiction, in contrast, pon farr  reveals male emotions in a controlled manner, making them available to the female partner, who controls the male's less controllable physical urges via the telepathic contact that married Vulcans share. [4]

Fan fiction stories embodying this are the "Night of the Twin Moons"  series by Jean Lorrah, in which Amanda teaches Sarek and then other Vulcan couples to enjoy pon farr  and to accept their physical and emotional natures.[4]




And even more hilariously:


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03zrxTiWzN4[/youtube]
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #40 on: May 22, 2009, 04:52:47 pm »
Ah yes, good old pon farr. Thanks for the elaboration, John!


Offline Mikaela

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #41 on: May 22, 2009, 04:54:34 pm »
 :laugh:

John, you're a treasure!

The ONLY thing I knew about ST before seeing the film with Meryl, and I mean the ONLY thing, was that the Kirk / Spock combo initiated the genre of slash fiction writing and set off slash fics on a long and enduring and ever-inventive (and pornish, as Ms Proulx would say) path through the fandoms. (I didn't even know who K&S were, just their names). Those music vids were the perfect light-hearted intro to the two and the dynamics of their relationship. I mean, the subtext of the dynamics, of course.  ;)

And as for the whole "Pon Farr" thing - with actual canon plot lines like that, how could anyone *not* expect slash fiction not to follow happily where canon opened the door?


---


I liked the current film very much, it was entertaining and fast-paced and fun and with riveting actors. I had fun till the end although the actual plot lost me about 2/3rds into the story, because of the ease with which the past could be changed without seemingly impacting the future. I couldn't follow what was going on with all the time-travelling. Wouldn't there be repercussions and utter chaos to follow if characters kept going back and forth in time and altering their life and its events? Wouldn't the whole fabric of being or whatever be ripped asunder?

When the "old" Spock in this film meets the new one and says that it would be self-serving to tell him to "live long and prosper", I realized that in fact, the old one has no idea what will happen to the new. Fundamental things have now changed in his past that are certain to mean the new Spock won't follow/can't follow the original and same path in life. The new one might take a step out the door, have a meteor land on his head and be killed tomorrow. The old one is standing right there and yet he doesn't know if he'll be standing right there. And yet they are the same person.  ???

Same issue goes for planets being destroyed or not being destroyed at any point in time, and the engineer who was told his own invention of moving people from one place to the other many years before he apparently came up with the ide a- because they didn't have time to wait. Only certain thing is that he'll never come up with the idea on his own in this reality *now*, so everything has changed about his life too.

I don't understand how the film intended this whole changing the past/changing the future premise to work and yet for there to be coherent storylines of the characters, timelines and plots. Are they all disintegrating into multiple alternate reality alternate timeline fragments of themselves,-  who can nevertheless meet up and talk without any repercussions?  ???

Perhaps all that is to be addressed in the sure-to-be sequel?


PS: I didn't know the old Kirk and Spock but I sure liked the two new ones, and I bet there'll hardly be less slash written about *them*. Just a hunch.  ;D

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #42 on: May 25, 2009, 08:14:07 am »
I guess the Arrow Shirt Man was improbably handsome, wasn't he?



Yes, he was. I like the guy on the right.

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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #43 on: May 25, 2009, 08:17:14 am »
I went and saw Star Trek yesterday and I'm with Roger Ebert...2 1/2 stars. It just didn't send me into orbit. And I thought Spock's nose was too big.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090506/REVIEWS/905069997

L
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #44 on: May 25, 2009, 09:43:27 am »
Yes, he was. I like the guy on the right.



Until I noticed that I had to scroll to see the whole picture, I thought you meant the collie. ...  :P  :laugh:
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Kerry

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #45 on: May 25, 2009, 10:48:19 am »
I'm not a great fan of sci-fi in general, not Star Trek in particular. I think the last sci-fi film I ever really enjoyed was 2001: A Space Odyssey, and that was back in the 1960s! I haven't seen any of the previous Star Trek movies. This was my first Star Trek, which I say here in Sydney yesterday, and I absolutely loved it! If I was forced to find something wrong with the film, it would have to be the silly way James Kirk was portrayed as a  vacuous skirt-chaser, literally salivating over every woman in sight. I could have done without that. Otherwise, top marks from me! Wonderfully entertaining. It's been a long time since I heard cheering and applause in a movie theatre, but that's exactly what happened yesterday.
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #46 on: May 27, 2009, 10:03:41 pm »
My daughter insisted that I go see this movie. She is completely over the moon about Zachary Quinto as Spock, and I'm wondering (with apologies to our TOTW crew) what's the attraction?
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #47 on: May 27, 2009, 10:13:00 pm »
My daughter insisted that I go see this movie. She is completely over the moon about Zachary Quinto as Spock, and I'm wondering (with apologies to our TOTW crew) what's the attraction?

I like the old Spock better, but I'm guessing your daughter wouldn't be over the moon about Leonard Nimoy at 78.

OT, but I remember going into the restroom after seeing a Dennis Quaid movie and hearing a young woman say, "He's kind of cute -- for an old guy." Much as I disapprove of the "cute -- for that age" kind of comment, it's at least more novel when applied to a man.


Offline southendmd

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #48 on: May 27, 2009, 10:23:23 pm »
I was never much of a Trekkie, but I found the new film a real lost potential.

It was pretty superficial, all special effects and "nostalgic sound bites" rather than actual, interesting character development. 

FWIW, my friend Joey, with whom I saw it, recalled dancing with Leonard Nimoy back in Cambridge in the early 70s, at a benefit for Mike Dukakis.  She's very, very short and he's very, very tall.  She admits she kept staring at his ears. 

Offline Meryl

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #49 on: May 27, 2009, 10:28:23 pm »
FWIW, my friend Joey, with whom I saw it, recalled dancing with Leonard Nimoy back in Cambridge in the early 70s, at a benefit for Mike Dukakis.  She's very, very short and he's very, very tall.  She admits she kept staring at his ears. 

 :o

I would have given my right arm to dance with Spock at that time.  ;D
Ich bin ein Brokie...

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #50 on: May 27, 2009, 10:32:25 pm »
My daughter insisted that I go see this movie. She is completely over the moon about Zachary Quinto as Spock, and I'm wondering (with apologies to our TOTW crew) what's the attraction?

I think he's kinda hot, in a slightly dangerous-looking way. FWIW.  ;D
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #51 on: May 27, 2009, 10:51:08 pm »
:o

I would have given my right arm to dance with Spock at that time.  ;D

Not me. My right ear, maybe.


Offline Monika

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #52 on: May 27, 2009, 10:56:05 pm »
I think he's kinda hot, in a slightly dangerous-looking way. FWIW.  ;D

Oh, I agree.

Offline CoyotePiper

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #53 on: May 30, 2009, 09:32:03 pm »
Big SF buff here and closet trekkie. I thought it was a good reboot of the ST franchise. Perhaps a few too many contrivances but still a decent SF adventure film. Loved the new villain introduced of Nero,  and thought his ship design was novel and refreshing. I don't know if thought provoking, allegorical SF will play anymore in Peoria. The original was from a different era and I don't think that level of literacy exists in todays America.

Nonetheless, there is nothing wrong with a SF  adventure romp, and us geeks love them. I gotta say some of the plot holes are big enough to fly a Klingon (Romulan?) Bird of Prey through. They made the interior of the Enterprise like a working scow in some shots with unpainted railings of iron? And I don't understand all the water pipes in the engine room. Aren't starships powered by anti-matter and dilithium,  not steam?

Some of the new characters are dead ringers for the originals. Perfect Dr McCoy, (they tossed in the origin of the "bones' nickname, cool.) Good Scotty, and Sulu, decent Uhuru. Totally miscast Chekov though with impossible accent.

One last thing, does Chris Pine fill out a pair of briefs or what? Hot!


Offline oilgun

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #54 on: June 05, 2009, 04:42:42 pm »
Just saw it and quite enjoyed it even though I'm not a big fan of the franchise.  I love the alternate reality premise and I thought the casting was excellent.  Zachary Quinto does an amazing job as Spock and Chris Pine is bang on as Kirk, because I hate him already.  ;)

Offline Meryl

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #55 on: June 05, 2009, 10:28:56 pm »
Just saw it and quite enjoyed it even though I'm not a big fan of the franchise.  I love the alternate reality premise and I thought the casting was excellent.  Zachary Quinto does an amazing job as Spock and Chris Pine is bang on as Kirk, because I hate him already.  ;)

I'm glad you saw it at last, Gil.  That reminds me, I want to go back again and see it at the good IMAX at Lincoln Center.  8)
Ich bin ein Brokie...

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #56 on: June 05, 2009, 10:41:56 pm »
One last thing, does Chris Pine fill out a pair of briefs or what? Hot!

Heh. I haven't the slightest interest in the film, but there is now a 3x5 of Chris Pine hanging on my refrigerator. ...  ;D

Unfortunately not in his underwear. ...  :-\

Or out of his underwear. ...  :-\

(It's just a head shot.)

(No, not that head.  ;D )
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #57 on: June 05, 2009, 11:05:57 pm »
My review:

Lots of fun.  Lots of injokes and references for Trekkers.  The last time we will probably hear Majel Barrett Roddenberry's voice as the computer.  :(  Cute to know Uhura's first name.

Very cartoon-y comic-book-y and over-the-top.  The bad guy's story is teeeny tiny (and only important in one crucial aspect which explains how all future Star Trek movies are going to deviate from the canon) in the middle of all the strum and drang.

The producers have a lot of story to tell in a short amount of time, so everything happens extremely fast - so fast, you're going "yeah right".

Anyway, lots of fun.  You see how everything is set up for a sequel.  But not epic by a long shot and yes, they lost the heart of Star Trek - there is no "moral to the story" as were all the Star Treks before.  J.J. Abrams sold out Star Trek in favor of fast ships, young beautiful people and cool special effects.  :P

Offline oilgun

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #58 on: June 06, 2009, 03:56:55 am »
I'm glad you saw it at last, Gil.  That reminds me, I want to go back again and see it at the good IMAX at Lincoln Center.  8)

One thing that did grate on my nerves a lot was the relentless score, I hated it!  Well, up until the very end when the familiar theme is played.


Offline ZK

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #59 on: June 06, 2009, 07:24:37 am »
I've seen it twice now and loved it. Am contemplating seeing it a third time rather than wait for the DVD and see it on a small screen. I would love to see it in an IMAX theatre!!

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #60 on: June 06, 2009, 09:24:01 am »
I think he's kinda hot, in a slightly dangerous-looking way. FWIW.  ;D

Yes, but I don't want her to be attracted to highly logical people! But then again, I guess it's better than being attracted to cowboys like Kirk!

Great to see you here coyote! Been back to Wyoming at all?
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Offline CoyotePiper

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #61 on: June 06, 2009, 02:23:10 pm »


Great to see you here coyote! Been back to Wyoming at all?


I get out there just about every winter to go snowboarding in Jackson or Grand Targhee. I need to get out there in the summer though to get out to Lightning Flat. That goat path to LF (rockypoint rd) is not passable unless snowfree and dry. Easy to get stuck in the mud and stranded with no phone service. I got within a couple of miles last year but was afraid of getting the rental car stuck.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #62 on: June 06, 2009, 02:27:11 pm »
:o

I would have given my right arm to dance with Spock at that time.  ;D

That doesn't seem very logical, acquiescing in the loss of a useful body part for a few minutes on a dancefloor. ...  ;)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Meryl

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #63 on: June 06, 2009, 04:55:52 pm »
That doesn't seem very logical, acquiescing in the loss of a useful body part for a few minutes on a dancefloor. ...  ;)

Are you channeling Spock?  ;D
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #64 on: June 06, 2009, 05:03:13 pm »
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The New Star Trek Movie
« Reply #65 on: June 06, 2009, 09:02:41 pm »

I get out there just about every winter to go snowboarding in Jackson or Grand Targhee. I need to get out there in the summer though to get out to Lightning Flat. That goat path to LF (rockypoint rd) is not passable unless snowfree and dry. Easy to get stuck in the mud and stranded with no phone service. I got within a couple of miles last year but was afraid of getting the rental car stuck.

I've been on the road going north from Devil's Tower to LF in January and also the road coming into LF from Montana in February. Believe it or not, it was easier going than last year at this time when the roadtrippers encountered tons of mud and poor U/L Flyer got a flat in Lightning Flat (he had lots of help changing it, though!).
"chewing gum and duct tape"