And there's a reason it's hard to sympathize with non-bearded Riker in that episode with his transporter twin. He was really being a whiny little jerk.
I still want to know what the heck Gene had in mind for Guinan. I mean, what was up with that episode where Q was terrified of her and she took some weird defensive pose like she could actually protect herself from him? Well we won't find out now I guess.
This whole reboot idea is interesting, especially since the reboot was actually woven into the main continuity.
I liked the movie, I thought it was pretty good, but I'll post what I posted at another forum.
I will say this, in future movies in this new series, I'd try to focus more plots on quiestionable moral choices. While they did a good job showing timeline issues, I'd also try for a few more accurate science things. I was surprised at the start when they actually showed "silence in space", but they didn't keep to that for the rest of the movie. That's a sort of acceptable thing though.
The joy riding scene helped explain the sort of life Kirk has lead due to his changed history. The biggest issue I have is the Nokia phone plug. That doesn't make any sense in a post-scarcity economy, and it's fairly well established that every single company that's a "lasting name" in our world is dead and gone by the time of Star Trek. That, and it's a product placement which is naturally annoying and really ruined other sci-fi movies like "I, Robot" (well, that had a lot of other things going against it from the start too). Fortunatly it's the only one I saw in the entire movie, but it makes me wonder why they couldn't go one step further and scrap that one too. The only way it makes sense is if that thing itself is also a relic from a bygone age stuck to that old car as a sort of mismatched naustalgia thing.
Other than that, the whole brain slug thing never amounted to anything did it? I mean what was the point of that scene? I know he was torturing Pike for information, but there's other easier to get ahold of and more brutal ways of going about it.
The black hole as time warp thing was also a bit off, as a black hole can't be used as a portal to another dimension. Heck the ship was destroyed in a black hole at the end of the movie, torn completely apart in the process, why didn't it get torn up in the first one? The black hole that killed him was a far more realistic one with tidal forces ripping apart the ship and warp speed not quite enough to escape since they were in the event horizon. They even went as far as to depict the inside of the horizon as not completely black, with visible stars and no real way to visibly tell. Bravo to that, but there's no explanation of how the first black hole became a worm hole or why the second did not behave that way. Only thing I can figure is that during the first incident the black hole by sheer chance hit a topological defect in space that connected to another black hole in the past and connected the two points, in Star Trek those bizarre things happen all the time so that would have done as an explanation. It'd take about 15 seconds to explain too. Of course Spock went in right afterwards and ended up a lot later, so I guess the time distortion in a black hole, namely the second one, is to blame. Eh there's a lot of scientific issues with that explanation, but heck that's the way with warp speed anyway and I'd accept that as just enough technobabble for me to ignore the rest.
The only other thing is the first meeting between Kirk and Spock Prime (as the credits named him). Firstly, the planet there immediatly made me think "are we sure he's not on Hoth?", just before some beast attacked him, followed by ANOTHER beast that, having caught the large first beast, threw it away and immediatly chased after the smaller unfamiliar meal of Kirk, and it roared and ran awkwardly and chased it down a frickin' hill it couldn't get down properly, in a fine example of the sort of behavior that I can't possibly see as successful in any life form. I mean, what the hell sort of idiot creature was that? Also even though it was not the least bit intimidated by a massive fall or a bizarre life form, apparently a small fire shooed it away, wielded by Obi Wan, er, Spock.
Anyway, at first I was thinking "This is by far the most unlikely thing ever.", especially when Spock and Kirk both revealed they weren't expecting the other. However, after thinking about it, it was actually pretty dang likely they'd end up near each other. That planet is probably the only M class planet in that star system aside from Vulcan and Romulus, or at least the one closest to Vulcan. As such, it'd be the first pick for both a vengeful baddie wanting Spock to watch Vulcan die and a starship captain who was deployed in that system and couldn't stop the planet from being destroyed to emotionally kick a rebelious passanger. There's apparently only one Federation outpost on the whole planet, not surprising considering it's frickin' Hoth, so in both cases since both of them wanted the person they were ditching there to survive, they'd ditch them within walking distance of that base. That's still a large circle, but it is a far more likely scenario than I had first thought.
I think that the theme of this alternate timeline's probably going to be "how do the people with the philosophy of the Federation handle far grittier scenarios and keep that philosophy intact?".
Dark Jaguar, once you started whinging about the black hole I gave up on your nerd rage.
Fiction. Do you undestand that word? Have a few more: Suspension of Disbelief.
I finally went and saw it this weekend, and I loved seeing Paul McGillion and Amanda Bowman in the background. They did a good job with making the alien races not just 'weird foreheads', too, except for the green-skinned cadet. They phoned that one in, I admit.
That is all.
9 comments:
No it wasn't!
Okay, I'm actually just being contrary and I haven't actually watched it. Or, for that matter, any of the TV shows.
Sweet. I'm hoping to see it later this week.
KoF: You've never seen Star Trek? How did you manage that?
Bronze Dog: Having seen the movie today I am compelled with your assessment.
Pretty easily. I saw a few episodes of Star Trek: TNG when we got it off Netflix, and then got like 2 discs behind everyone else and went "meh."
Just to note: The first season of Next Gen was rather poor. It doesn't get worthwhile until after Riker Grows The Beard.
The apathy is strong in this one.
Oh, and Bronze Dog's right, there's a reason TV Tropes uses the term "grow the beard" as the opposite of "jump the shark".
And there's a reason it's hard to sympathize with non-bearded Riker in that episode with his transporter twin. He was really being a whiny little jerk.
I still want to know what the heck Gene had in mind for Guinan. I mean, what was up with that episode where Q was terrified of her and she took some weird defensive pose like she could actually protect herself from him? Well we won't find out now I guess.
This whole reboot idea is interesting, especially since the reboot was actually woven into the main continuity.
I liked the movie, I thought it was pretty good, but I'll post what I posted at another forum.
I will say this, in future movies in this new series, I'd try to focus more plots on quiestionable moral choices. While they did a good job showing timeline issues, I'd also try for a few more accurate science things. I was surprised at the start when they actually showed "silence in space", but they didn't keep to that for the rest of the movie. That's a sort of acceptable thing though.
The joy riding scene helped explain the sort of life Kirk has lead due to his changed history. The biggest issue I have is the Nokia phone plug. That doesn't make any sense in a post-scarcity economy, and it's fairly well established that every single company that's a "lasting name" in our world is dead and gone by the time of Star Trek. That, and it's a product placement which is naturally annoying and really ruined other sci-fi movies like "I, Robot" (well, that had a lot of other things going against it from the start too). Fortunatly it's the only one I saw in the entire movie, but it makes me wonder why they couldn't go one step further and scrap that one too. The only way it makes sense is if that thing itself is also a relic from a bygone age stuck to that old car as a sort of mismatched naustalgia thing.
Other than that, the whole brain slug thing never amounted to anything did it? I mean what was the point of that scene? I know he was torturing Pike for information, but there's other easier to get ahold of and more brutal ways of going about it.
The black hole as time warp thing was also a bit off, as a black hole can't be used as a portal to another dimension. Heck the ship was destroyed in a black hole at the end of the movie, torn completely apart in the process, why didn't it get torn up in the first one? The black hole that killed him was a far more realistic one with tidal forces ripping apart the ship and warp speed not quite enough to escape since they were in the event horizon. They even went as far as to depict the inside of the horizon as not completely black, with visible stars and no real way to visibly tell. Bravo to that, but there's no explanation of how the first black hole became a worm hole or why the second did not behave that way. Only thing I can figure is that during the first incident the black hole by sheer chance hit a topological defect in space that connected to another black hole in the past and connected the two points, in Star Trek those bizarre things happen all the time so that would have done as an explanation. It'd take about 15 seconds to explain too. Of course Spock went in right afterwards and ended up a lot later, so I guess the time distortion in a black hole, namely the second one, is to blame. Eh there's a lot of scientific issues with that explanation, but heck that's the way with warp speed anyway and I'd accept that as just enough technobabble for me to ignore the rest.
The only other thing is the first meeting between Kirk and Spock Prime (as the credits named him). Firstly, the planet there immediatly made me think "are we sure he's not on Hoth?", just before some beast attacked him, followed by ANOTHER beast that, having caught the large first beast, threw it away and immediatly chased after the smaller unfamiliar meal of Kirk, and it roared and ran awkwardly and chased it down a frickin' hill it couldn't get down properly, in a fine example of the sort of behavior that I can't possibly see as successful in any life form. I mean, what the hell sort of idiot creature was that? Also even though it was not the least bit intimidated by a massive fall or a bizarre life form, apparently a small fire shooed it away, wielded by Obi Wan, er, Spock.
Anyway, at first I was thinking "This is by far the most unlikely thing ever.", especially when Spock and Kirk both revealed they weren't expecting the other. However, after thinking about it, it was actually pretty dang likely they'd end up near each other. That planet is probably the only M class planet in that star system aside from Vulcan and Romulus, or at least the one closest to Vulcan. As such, it'd be the first pick for both a vengeful baddie wanting Spock to watch Vulcan die and a starship captain who was deployed in that system and couldn't stop the planet from being destroyed to emotionally kick a rebelious passanger. There's apparently only one Federation outpost on the whole planet, not surprising considering it's frickin' Hoth, so in both cases since both of them wanted the person they were ditching there to survive, they'd ditch them within walking distance of that base. That's still a large circle, but it is a far more likely scenario than I had first thought.
I think that the theme of this alternate timeline's probably going to be "how do the people with the philosophy of the Federation handle far grittier scenarios and keep that philosophy intact?".
Dark Jaguar, once you started whinging about the black hole I gave up on your nerd rage.
Fiction. Do you undestand that word? Have a few more: Suspension of Disbelief.
I finally went and saw it this weekend, and I loved seeing Paul McGillion and Amanda Bowman in the background. They did a good job with making the alien races not just 'weird foreheads', too, except for the green-skinned cadet. They phoned that one in, I admit.
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