Star Trek (XI): This universe should be left unvisited
Those words were spoken by Sarek in the new Star Trek movie released on 8 May 2009, simply titled Star Trek. For sake of clarity, I will mostly use Star Trek XI.
The words that he said are true, not only for the alternate Spock but for Star Trek itself, and its fans. For the record, I will state two things:
1. I have not seen the movie. This is not a real film review. Rather, it is my impression of it to date made public on this blog.
2. I am a Trekkie/Trekker (Roddenberry prefers Trekkie), so I have a different point of view than a person coming in with no knowledge of the franchise, or someone that has no regard for logic or canon.
Firstly, I must say that the Star Trek action movies, including Wrath of Khan, First Contact, and now Star Trek XI, don't feel... for lack of a better term, Trekky. Action and battle is not what Star Trek is about. Star Trek is about exploring new worlds, new civilizations, exploring the edges of physics, and exploring the human condition. It is also, first and foremost, optimistic about the future, future technology, and future achievement. This movie is for the most part devoid of this, or at the very least, it did not matter to the creators of it. Its body may be Star Trek, but its spirit is alien to the body. That spirit is JJ Abrams and his writers, Orci and Kurtzman.
The basic thing about this movie is that it is a partial reboot of Star Trek, effected by a temporal incursion, leaving only Enterprise and the basics of the original series the elements left in this new canon. The new canon, however, is done in a decidedly Trekky way. Orci has explained in an interview that this new canon is in fact a parallel universe that has diverged from our own at the time of Nero's incursion in 2233. Therefore, there are now two Star Trek universes: the Roddenberry-Berman timeline and the Abrams timeline.
However, the explanation does not match precisely with the reality. The one thing I noticed first from the pictures is Kirk's eye color. Notice this comparison:
Chris Pine's big blue eyes don't match up to William Shatner's brownish eyes. Keep in mind that Kirk's genes were created 10 months before the incursion, therefore they couldn't have been affected. This was easily correctable, by giving Chris Pine brownish contact lenses. There are also a few other inconsistencies, notably Kirk being lost and having a lot of barfights. I grant that he may be less stable due to the absence of his father, but not that different. It is not in his personality to become an alchoholic or to turn to drugs when he is in a period of distress.
There is also the Enterprise.
The Enterprise is arguably the most plausible aspect of the film, because the changes in it can easily be explained by the temporal incursion, contaminating the era with new technology, and having the Federation be focused more on military development. However, the new Enterprise, bridge, and interior look... ugly. The new sets just don't look good, and it doesn't really match up with any other design, nor is it a new iteration of the Star Trek: Enterprise-style bridge.
There are also some other issues with the film.
- The Enterprise, according to Gene Roddenberry and accepted by most fans, was constructed in 2245. In this film, it is launched in 2258. There is not a good explanation for this massive delay, and even in established canon, the Enterprise was active in 2254.
- Pavel Chekov was born in 2245. In 2258, he would be 13. In the film, he is 17. There is no real reason why he would be born earlier, although it is certainly possible.
- The Vulcans are much more emotional, and Spock has too much conflict between his two halves. The Vulcans are also pretty racist, taunting Spock because he is half-human.
- Nyota Uhura was born in 2239. In 2258, she would be 19. A plausible age to be in Stafleet Academy, but not to serve as communications officer, provided she recieved a 4 or 5 year course and some prior experience. She also has a love interest in Spock, when we all know it is Kirk who had an interest with her.
- There are now two planets named Delta Vega, one, the "real" Delta Vega, is a desert planet beyond the Galactic Barrier. In this movie, there is now another Delta Vega in the Vulcan system that is an ice planet.
- Spock banishes Kirk to Delta Vega for mutiny. Why banish him to such a deathly place? Why not put him into the brig? Of course, I can forgive this one because it is integral to the plot.
- Scotty is working on some equations for "transwarp beaming". Not only does the very term make no sense, as transwarp technology was not even tried until 2285 (27 years later), but I don't believe that Scotty is a theoretical physicist (which is what you would need to develop equations like that).
There are also the other things about the film, such as the destruction of Vulcan, but that fits with the alternate timeline.
In conclusion, as a movie, I so far do not have a favorable impression of it, and it does not sound like the kind of movie I would like, and as a Star Trek movie, it is devoid of the underlying spirit that has underlined all of good Star Trek. The redeeming quality of this film is that it is in a parallel universe, and we can ignore all but some facts in our, "prime universe". Star Trek is now the child of two timelines, and fans must now choose which path they will follow and consider their prime universe: Roddenberry or Abrams. This is not only a question for fans, it is a question for every viewer of this movie that intends to follow the franchise. Time will tell.
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I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't comment on much else yet.. hope to soon!
Imagine if Sarek had said to Kirk or Picard that "everybody's Vulcan", I believe that they would have found that insulting, even though they're not racist.
- In most Star Trek movies/episodes, the scenes in space are pretty noisy (which is unrealistic, because there is noting that can transfer the sound). In this Star Trek movie, the space scenes are almost dead silent. Almost, because obviously J.J. Abrams wanted some sound in the movie. Pitty.
- They could not beam people up while they are moving. As long as I know, this was never been a problem.
- Mind melts go very quick in this movie. Remember what Tuvok says every time he mind-melts? Spock doesn't say a word when he mind-melts.
- The old Spock tells Kirk (well, he actually mind-melts) that there's a supernova occurring near Romulus, 129 years in the future. I've been calculating if this is should be noticed in any other Star Trek movie or series. 2254 + 129 = 2383, so that's about five years after the arrival of the USS Voyager, so it should happen just after Star Trek: Nemesis. And there, they don't know a thing about a possible supernova, while the old Spock says that they know it would happen! How can you explain that?
- The supernova itself is also unrealistic. It's just a small yellow star, just like ours, and that kind of star will NEVER explode in a supernova. The star must be a lot bigger to get a supernova explosion. a star like ours should first grow until it is a red giant, and then it would loose it's outer layers. This would happen in millions of years, and that doesn't look like an explosion.
- Using a black hole to save a solar system from an explosion? What a silly idea. I think the whole solar system would dissappear into the black hole. Not a good rescue mission.
And I do not agree that action doesn't fit in Star Trek. There are always people that are abusing their power and use it for evil, non-pleasant purposes. How else could you explain the Borg and other violent species? But when I read this blog, I agree that there are some errors in the storyline.
By the way, I did spot another error in the movie. As far as I know, all Star Trek ships are build in a spacedock, even the Enterprise NX-01. In this movie, the Enterprise is build ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE! Why would you do that? The ship looks to heavy for me to lift itself from the ground and send itself out of orbit.
- Ones personality is heavily influenced by their environment and experiences. I don't think it's a huge leap to think that Kirk could become a distressed young man without a strong father figure to idolize and learn from.
- Personally, I would have been more annoyed if they kept the same look to the bridge. If they're doing an obvious reboot of a series, they should update the look. Why would the ships interior look like something from 1960 with all manual switches and buttons if it's set in the 2200's?
- I'm also sorta ok with the "delay" in the Enterprise construction and Chekov's birth. Pollution of the timeline and all that. No explanation of the delay in the ships construction if it's not relevant to the story.
- I thought Uhura was still a cadet, but like all the others were advanced into positions aboard starships...? I had no issues with her eventually serving on the bridge. And Kirk did have an obvious interest in her. Uhura just wasn't interested.
- I've got nothing for Delta Vega. :P
- Trans means "Across" or "Through".. so Through-Warp beaming. Makes sense to me as that is basically what they were doing.
Overall I didn't have many glaring issues with the movie.. but to each his own I suppose. ;)
As far as the inconsistencies between the prime universe and the universe Nero arrives in when he travels back through time are concerned, there may be a way to explain them. Perhaps when Nero arrives in the past, he arrives in a parallel dimension (similar to the "Mirror, Mirror" universe) and not in the prime universe at all. That would account for the inconsistencies.
It doesn't matter if "the explanation doesn't match with the reality". There is no reality. None of this, in whatever incarnation, ever happened.
So what if Chris Pine's eyes are a different color from William Shatner's? My eyes are a different color from my sister's. The roll of the genetic dice can easily result in a different outcome.
One problem with alternate timelines is that anything can be different, or not. Which is why some people object to them. If you object to time travel and it's alternate timeline results, you will find this movie to be very strange in some places. But you might want to see it first before you decide.
My recommendation: Sit back and enjoy the ride. It's a lot of fun.
I was referring to reality in the Star Trek universe, which I thought would be understood, since this is about errors in the movie that an alternate timeline with a point of divergence at that time cannot account for, such as Kirk having blue eyes.
There were many "easter eggs" that made me smile. There were many lines and references that would have gone over the head of someone who was not familiar with the series and movies.
Getting back to your statement "Star Trek is now the child of two timelines, and fans must now choose which path they will follow and consider their prime universe: Roddenberry or Abrams." Why do I have to chose which path to follow? I never chose between Star Trek and Star Wars; I enjoy them both.
But I can understand where you are coming from. When they started ST:TNG, I was wondering what the heck they were doing. but I found it to be much better than the original.
You might enjoy the movie if you watch it.
How Scotty's history, and (the young) Spock's, as shown in the movie, could result from the timeline breach by Nero is more problematic. Just what was Scott doing on that ice planet? Had he ever been a Starfleet cadet? It was a Starfleet base he was in (isn't that what the elder Spock said?), so perhaps Scott did have some connection with Starfleet already, but he certainly didn't seem like an officer. (BTW, is everyone in Starfleet an "officer", no "enlisted personnel"? Has this ever been addressed?)
So Spock spent four years prior to the movie at Starfleet Academy, in a position of responsibility which included running or maintaining the Kobayashi Maru test? I suppose there is some way that this could result from the timeline breach, but it is hard to see how. It makes him notably older than Kirk and the others, but since Vulcans apparently age slower (as evidenced by the original-timeline Spock still being alive 137 years later) that's OK.
Probably the most non-credible aspect of the new film is the way Kirk, not even a cadet in good standing, takes it on himself to sit in the captain's chair when Spock resigns the captaincy, and everyone just accepts him as captain. It makes NO sense at all. OK, the result is what the elder Spock wanted. It was necessary for the plot that Jim become captain, but shouldn't someone in authority have given him the position?
Kirk was given the first officer position by Pine. He was the next in line.
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