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First Trek Film Footage Unveiled

Ostracus writes "Lost creator JJ Abrams has unveiled footage from his Star Trek prequel at a press event in London. The clips featured US actor Chris Pine as the young Captain Kirk, Heroes star Zachary Quinto as Mr Spock and Simon Pegg as Enterprise engineer Scotty. The audience also saw Leonard Nimoy reprise his role as the older Mr Spock in one of four excerpts from the film. In his introduction, Abrams said he wanted the film to be released in May 2009, to feel 'legitimate and real.' Speaking at London's Vue West End cinema on Tuesday morning, the film-maker admitted he had 'never really been a huge Star Trek fan.'" Note that the article doesn't actually contain the footage, just brief descriptions of it. The video clip included is just the old trailer that we saw many moons ago. But that won't stop me from lusting.

320 comments

  1. Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative

    The REAL trailer is coming out in another five days. (Per startrekmovie.com where you can watch the previous trailer in HD.) Perhaps it would have been better to wait before proclaiming it? Or at least give useful information on the release date of the footage?

    The real news at the moment is that a photo of the new Enterprise was released yesterday. I was expecting changes, but this awkward kitbash makes me very unhappy.

    The new bridge was also revealed about a month ago. Many refer to it as the "iBridge" because of its resemblance to Apple hardware. Personally, I'm mostly happy with the bridge design. It appears to be functional and otherwise looks nice.

    I just wish they hadn't made a parody out of the old girl. :-(

    "Let's make sure history never forgets the name, Enterprise."
    --Captain Picard (Yesterday's Enterprise)

    1. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait
      Speaking of parodies,

      Lost creator JJ Abrams has unveiled footage from his Star Trek prequel

      Ha! If the movie will be as ridiculous as Lost is then we can look forward to such silliness as a detached, renegade warp nacelle which will fire up on its own while sucking people into it* as well as trombone glissandi** in the soundtrack! Shows like Lost make me yearn for more realistic shows...say, Twin Peaks ;)

      * Remember the wreckage of the jet shortly after it crashed? It showed that one detached jet engine intermittently revving up by itself. What they tried to make creepy was just...funny. Again. At least the engine managed to suck someone into it before it finally exploded.

      ** Don't remember which part, but when something scary happens right before a break, 2 trombones a whole-tone apart play a descending parallel glissando. For you non-music types, think of what a trombone would play to accompany a clown falling off of a roof! It's entirely inappropriate for what should be "scary"!. My girlfriend, who is a rabid fan of the series, never understood why I always laughed at the same times that she jumped out of her seat in frightened surprise!

    2. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by cosmocain · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or at least give useful information [...]

      You must be new here.

    3. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Herkum01 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I looked at the picture of the Enterprise, the curves remind me of a 50's car. Less concern for functionality than for looking stylish.

      It is not like those curves are for aerodynamics!

    4. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Cornwallis · · Score: 1

      And I can't wait to hear the new Scotty telling the new Jim Kirk "Cap'n, you've got red on you".

    5. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by naz404 · · Score: 2, Funny

      It appears to be functional and otherwise looks nice.

      Hurrh? I still see no seatbelts... you'd think at the speeds they were going they'd be using crash seats and stuff...

      Expect the obligatory staggering about like drunken louts and bad camera shaking after the oblig hits to the Enterprise in ship-to-ship battles! :D

    6. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by bheer · · Score: 1

      @seatbelts:

      They apparently now have handrails to keep from falling.

    7. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by christurkel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't think it's a parody. Its sleek and modern looking yet instantly recognizable as the original. I like the design.

      --

      CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
    8. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Sloppy · · Score: 5, Funny

      It is not like those curves are for aerodynamics!

      The original Enterprise was so un-aerodynamic that you could even hear it whooshing by in space. So let's withhold judgment until we know whether or not the new ship whooshes.

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    9. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by bonch · · Score: 4, Funny

      *whoosh*

    10. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      It appears to be functional and otherwise looks nice.

      Hurrh? I still see no seatbelts... you'd think at the speeds they were going they'd be using crash seats and stuff...

      Expect the obligatory staggering about like drunken louts and bad camera shaking after the oblig hits to the Enterprise in ship-to-ship battles! :D

      What about fuses or circuit breakers or other circuit-protection devices? You know, something that'll keep panels from exploding in a shower of sparks whenever the ship takes a hit? Sure it won't eliminate all explosions, but surely they can go with that as a plot line too!

    11. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 1

      I always hear the ship, but never see it.

      --
      We are the Borg...
    12. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 1

      I once read that hard vacuum has about one atom per cubic meter, so if you are traveling at c the shape of your ship would be important.

      --
      We are the Borg...
    13. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Informative

      In the Star Trek universe, the Deflector Dish on the front of the ship projects force fields to sweep larger particles and objects away from the ship. (Think of it like a space-age cow-pusher.) The Bussard collectors then use their own fields to pull in the Stellar Hydrogen for fuel. On top of that, the Enterprise is actually traveling at a small fraction of c. The warp field magnifies the distance traveled by warping space. The end result is that particles colliding with the ship would hit with a force more in line with when the ship is under impulse power.

    14. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by rantingkitten · · Score: 1

      I'm not convinced that picture is supposed to be the bridge. I haven't seen anything that confirms that -- just the pictures and random fan commentary/assumptions. My first thought was that it was a training simulator or something; aren't these guys supposed to be in the Academy in this film?

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
    15. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by crawling_chaos · · Score: 2, Informative

      Little known fact: warships' electrical systems have a set of switches that bypass the breakers/fuses for use while in combat. The risk of explosion is deemed less serious than the potential loss of function due to a breaker or fuse going during combat at a surge less than that which would cause total loss of the systems.

      --
      You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
      -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
    16. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by rhyder128k · · Score: 1

      "Captian, sensors seem to indicate... My God... it's some sort of weird hatch!"

      --
      Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    17. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by DogDaySunrise · · Score: 2, Funny
      I'm waiting for Pegg to repeat his line from his tv series, "Spaced":

      "Sure as eggs is eggs, sure as night follows day, sure as every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is shit."

    18. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by theaveng · · Score: 1

      I understand where the matter comes from (hydrogen scooped from space, or refueling at the local spacestation), but where do they get the ANTImatter? I mean, it's not as though it's just laying-around waiting to be scooped up.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    19. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by compro01 · · Score: 1

      If you ask me, it looks a fair bit like the phase II enterprise.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    20. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by theaveng · · Score: 4, Informative

      False.

      I have designed multiple weapons systems for the Navy and Army, and they DO have circuit breakers, because we don't want a 440 volt surge going through a 3.3 volt Pentium, now do we? No. That would be bad. It would mean you couldn't fire your missiles or point-defense systems because its CPU is now a small circle of molten plastic.

      We want the weapons to be as immune to electrical surges, shock, and vibration as possible. Even after the USS Cole was "mined" by local terrorists, our VLS System still had the ability to counterattack.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    21. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Latinhypercube · · Score: 0

      oh dear. Someone needs a life.

    22. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by blahbooboo · · Score: 1

      In the Star Trek universe, the Deflector Dish on the front of the ship projects force fields to sweep larger particles and objects away from the ship. (Think of it like a space-age cow-pusher.) The Bussard collectors then use their own fields to pull in the Stellar Hydrogen for fuel. On top of that, the Enterprise is actually traveling at a small fraction of c. The warp field magnifies the distance traveled by warping space. The end result is that particles colliding with the ship would hit with a force more in line with when the ship is under impulse power.

      Wow, you just really scared me. :)

      You know, "It's just a TV show!"
        --- William Shatner

    23. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Guysmiley777 · · Score: 1

      You'd also have infinite mass... so there's that.

      --
      Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
    24. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      It is not like those curves are for aerodynamics!

      No, but it makes their ships look more advanced than their adversaries.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    25. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by dpilot · · Score: 1

      Last spring we took the family and went on a vacation to DC. One obvious stop was the Smithsonian Air and Space, but I was disappointed to see that the room that probably would have contained the Star Trek Enterprise was currently closed. Then near the end of the time there, I went into the basement of the gift shop. There was the 11-foot Enterprise model. Surprising thing was that only one side was painted - the other side was mostly blank. There were a few things painted on the other side, so it looks like they were doing the whole thing, ran out of time, and decided they never really needed to finish the job, anyway.

      Oh we also went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Dulles annex, and saw the "real" Enterprise - the drop-test article. (as well as a lot of other really neat stuff)

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    26. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by k_187 · · Score: 1

      Didn't number 10 screw that rule up? I haven't bothered with seeing it.

      --
      11 was a racehorse
      12 was 12
      1111 Race
      12112
    27. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Forrest+Kyle · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can tell you exactly where they get antimatter: the script.

    28. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Informative

      but where do they get the ANTImatter? I mean, it's not as though it's just laying-around waiting to be scooped up.

      Per the Next Gen Tech Manual, the antimatter is stored in large, magnetic bottle slush-tanks in the secondary hull. The Enterprise D is designed for refueling every 3 years. Some antimatter can be created out of stellar hydrogen with special equipment installed near the slush-tanks.

    29. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by DogDaySunrise · · Score: 1

      "Spaced" was first broadcast in 1999 if I remember right, although I'm pretty sure the line wasn't meant to exclude even-numbered ones - just to note the more obvious pattern ;o)

    30. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      Abrams confirmed it was the bridge. Kirk is in academy uniform while everyone else is in commissioned attire due to the twists and turns of the storyline. (Namely that he gets snuck aboard and eventually has to save the day.)

    31. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      Did you really expect them to keep the silly original design or even the squatty-looking 70's/80's film retooling? I'm just surprised they didn't make it look even MORE different. Aside from the nacelles, it looks pretty similar to the old film version.

      Are you mad that the new uniforms don't have the awful looking gold lamé piping on the cuffs too?

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    32. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

      It is not like those curves are for aerodynamics!

      According to the teaser, the "re-imagined" NCC-1701 was built on terra firma - So presumably it would make at least one atmospheric journey up into space.

    33. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

      On top of that, the Enterprise is actually traveling at a small fraction of c.

      I know this is the generally-agreed upon understanding of how "warp drive" works in the Star Trek world, but often the story lines don't bear this out. One example (of many) is Wrath of Khan, where Spock fixes the warp drive to make the Enterprise "go faster" to escape the Genesis effect. The visuals are very much one of the ship dramatically speeding up and 'screaming' out of the way once the warp drive is fired up.

    34. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Angostura · · Score: 1

      I think the original poster was asking where they get it from, not how they store it.

    35. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it would have been better to wait before proclaiming it?

      That would require editors with a reasonable attention span.

    36. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by westlake · · Score: 1
      I looked at the picture of the Enterprise, the curves remind me of a 50's car. Less concern for functionality than for looking stylish.

      and like any proper 50's car it has tail fins: constitution-reinmagined

    37. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      That's like watching the Fast and the Furious and asking where unleaded gasoline comes from. It doesn't matter. Antimatter is created at Starbases (ostensibly using solar power from a nearby star) and the Enterprise is refueled every few years. How the Starbases does it is of no real consequence.

      The on-board equipment to create small quantities of antimatter is explained in the Next Gen Tech Manual. I don't remember the details, but it sounded a bit like a particle accelerator. The manual glossed over the exact procedure a bit, and discounted it as "producing very little". I think the only reason for its existence was as a possible plot device in the future.

    38. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by dprovine · · Score: 1

      Many pieces of equipment have thermal shutoffs, so they don't overheat during general use. But the last thing you want is the radar screen to go black while you're flying and people are shooting at you, so at least some aircraft have "combat switches" which bypass the thermal shutoffs.

    39. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

      Not to mention needing to move out of their parents basement.

      Of course, we both are reading this thread...

      --
      This ain't rocket surgery.
    40. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      I don't see how Wrath of Khan conflicts. The deflectors, Bussard collectors, and warp field will do zip to stop a massive explosion capable of overloading the shields, much less protect against a device designed to reorganize matter at a molecular level. Having the warp drive online means that the Enterprise was able to twist the space around it, escaping the blast at an effective velocity of > c. Inside the field, particles might have moved at "real space" speed, but they wouldn't have made the Genesis wave any less deadly.

    41. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by Megane · · Score: 1

      And I can't wait to hear "future" Spock say "1.21 Jiggawatts"!

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    42. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by theaveng · · Score: 1

      >>>It doesn't matter.

      Of course it does. Star Trek is Science-based fiction; it's supposedly to be logical and believable. If the reality is that antimatter does not exist (or so rare that it's an impractical fuel source), then that means we cannot build warp engines and will never build a quadrant-spanning civilization. I would have preferred the Next Generation series did the same thing they did in the original - don't try to come-up with an explanation. Because the one they have now (fueled by matter/antimatter) makes absolutely no sense.

      Bringing this back to real-world:

      Everyone keeps talking about hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells & hydrogen cars & hydrogen power plants. Great. But where are we going to find these megatons of hydrogen??? It doesn't exist naturally, which means it's a really lousy source of power. Not practical.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    43. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by theaveng · · Score: 1

      We don't have anything like that. The system is designed to operate even when temperatures are 200 F (near-boiling).

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    44. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      If the reality is that antimatter does not exist

      How can it not exist when Fermilab churns out over 12.4E10 antiprotons per hour? I'll grant you that Fermilab is nowhere near productive enough to power a starship, but there is supposed to be a few hundred years separating today from Star Trek. I think it's okay to gloss over how they increased production.

      But where are we going to find these megatons of hydrogen??? It doesn't exist naturally

      You mean, other than all that hydrogen the sun spews out? Or the hydrogen that Jupiter is composed of? Or the large quantities of hydrogen produced when you get electricity near sea-water? Or the truly MASSIVE amounts of hydrogen floating through deep space?

      I mean, this isn't rocket science. (Well, save for when it is. :-P) Being the most common element in the universe, hydrogen is relatively easy to come by. If it wasn't, the space program wouldn't use Liquid Hydrogen/Oxygen engines. The only issue with using hydrogen to power cars and trucks is making hydrogen creation both economical and clean. Shifting the power-generation costs up to the grid definitely helps. If we then make the grid clean (e.g. nuclear power), our energy infrastructure will then be clean.

      Thus the fuel cycle of the Star Trek starships makes perfect sense: Use the largest fusion reactors in existence (i.e. stars) to power the antimatter creation equipment installed at fuel-production starbases. Transfer this antimatter to starships as they drop by for refueling.

      I'll leave the simple issue of how to collect gigawatts to terawatts of solar power as an exercise to the reader. That's already a solved engineering problem that we'd probably be using today if it weren't for the pesky dangers of long-range microwave transmissions.

    45. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by FourthLaw · · Score: 1

      Actually, I think the hydrogen was for the impulse engines...the matter/antimatter reactor was to generate enough power to energize the warp field. One of the old "Log" paperbacks even made a big deal that calling the warp nacelles "engines" was incorrect because they didn't have any motive power--they just created a warp field and the normal impulse engines moved the ship through it. This has obviously not been the take most of the writers had on the subject...

      --
      Skilled in differentiating ravens from a writing desks.
    46. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      Actually, I think the hydrogen was for the impulse engines.

      It may act as propellant for the impulse engines, but I don't recall the designs separating the storage of hydrogen by purpose. My understanding is that all hydrogen needed by the ship comes from the same tanks. (And thus the same tanks are recharged by the Bussard collectors.)

      the matter/antimatter reactor was to generate enough power to energize the warp field.

      Correct. The impulse engines are powered by on-board fusion reactors. Though it's never really made clear why power from the warp-core can't be used to power the impulse drive.

      One of the old "Log" paperbacks even made a big deal that calling the warp nacelles "engines" was incorrect because they didn't have any motive power--they just created a warp field and the normal impulse engines moved the ship through it.

      Weren't those the paperbacks that were based on the non-canon Animated Series? They were fun, but I wouldn't consider them to be gospel. Scotty regularly referred to "warp engines" (aka his "wee bairns") when discussing warp propulsion. Plus they do generate forward motion. Per the interviews in Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, the warp field is twisted at the back so that the "Enterprise rides it like a surfboard". Thus the velocity inside the field is irrelevant.

      Besides, I don't see any way in which they would not be considered engines. e.g. The engine in my car does not use propellant, yet we still consider it an engine.

    47. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by FourthLaw · · Score: 1

      Which is precisely why I said that most subsequent writers have not subscribed to that notion. :)

      I think most of the original logs were based upon TOS plots (maybe four episodes per book?). Although as the Log numbers climbed into the teens they may have gotten into the Animated Series.

      My thought is that the concept of warping space and then moving at a sub-light speed (relative) was too hard for the average viewer to understand, so they had to *become* engines... My main point simply being that a lot of the ST technical manual is fairly revisionistic.

      --
      Skilled in differentiating ravens from a writing desks.
    48. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      I think most of the original logs were based upon TOS plots (maybe four episodes per book?). Although as the Log numbers climbed into the teens they may have gotten into the Animated Series.

      Nope, they were all based on the Animated Series. It may have seemed like they related to original episodes because the stories tended to revisit planets and situations from TOS. (e.g. The R&R world was revisited.) Also, the series never made it to the teens.

      My thought is that the concept of warping space and then moving at a sub-light speed (relative) was too hard for the average viewer to understand, so they had to *become* engines...

      I don't understand why you think there's a dichotomy between the way that the warp drive works and the nacelle system being a pair of "engines". (Though more properly, they'd be part of one "engine" just as multiple cylinders are part of a single "engine".)

      Wikipedia defines engine as, "An engine is a mechanical device that produces some form of output from a given input." Dictionary.com lists it as, "a machine for converting thermal energy into mechanical energy or power to produce force and motion."

      Neither of those definitions preclude a warp drive from being an "engine". And again, the Logs are not canon, so don't pay too much attention to them. Back in those days authors got to take quite a bit of freedom in their writing.

      My main point simply being that a lot of the ST technical manual is fairly revisionistic.

      There's certainly been some revisionism going on, though I'd think of it more as "refinement". Gene's idea was pretty rough when he first proposed it. Besides Star Trek being one of the first media attempts to actually tackle the problem of FTL travel, the science simply wasn't there yet. Barely a handful of Antimatter particles had been observed, the Standard Model was still developing, Quantum Physics and Relativity were wrestling, and rocket engineering was still a strange and bizarre new field.

      Given what Roddenberry had to work with, he pulled off an impressive bit of SciFi for its time. By the time NextGen rolled around, they had worked out many of the details of the FTL concepts and made sure to write them down in the show's bible. (Which eventually lead to Okuda's tech manual.)

    49. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by FourthLaw · · Score: 1

      Nope, they were all based on the Animated Series. It may have seemed like they related to original episodes because the stories tended to revisit planets and situations from TOS. (e.g. The R&R world was revisited.) Also, the series never made it to the teens.

      You win.

      My thought is that the concept of warping space and then moving at a sub-light speed (relative) was too hard for the average viewer to understand, so they had to *become* engines...

      I don't understand why you think there's a dichotomy between the way that the warp drive works and the nacelle system being a pair of "engines".

      I don't understand why you think *I* think there's a dichotomy. *I* get how the ship supposedly works. I was ONLY trying to get across in my original post the notion that early on and even in later days there has been a bit of confusion about it between the various script writers.

      Given what Roddenberry had to work with, he pulled off an impressive bit of SciFi for its time. By the time NextGen rolled around, they had worked out many of the details of the FTL concepts and made sure to write them down in the show's bible. (Which eventually lead to Okuda's tech manual.)

      Seriously. I can't remember a time that I didn't watch and enjoy ST, even from my birth in '72. I even have a beaten up die-cast 1701 to prove it...

      I wish you luck with your continued efforts!

      --
      Skilled in differentiating ravens from a writing desks.
    50. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      I was ONLY trying to get across in my original post the notion that early on and even in later days there has been a bit of confusion about it between the various script writers.

      I guess I'm just confused about what you're trying to get at then. I don't recall the issue of the nacelles being engines or not engines ever coming up in the canon series. AFAIK, they were always engines. In result, I don't understand the point you are trying to make. So... just confuguled, I guess. :-)

      I even have a beaten up die-cast 1701 to prove it...

      I think I still have my Enterprise-D around somewhere. I'm too young to have seen the original series when it first aired, but I do remember sneakily hanging over the balcony to watch TOS and TNG rather than sleeping. (As I recall, Star Trek aired at midnight!) My mother must have been royally confused when I asked her for a die-cast Enterprise for Christmas. ;-)

    51. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      It is not like those curves are for aerodynamics!

      They're for maximizing warp flow efficiency. Obviously.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    52. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      What about fuses or circuit breakers or other circuit-protection devices? You know, something that'll keep panels from exploding in a shower of sparks whenever the ship takes a hit?

      Those things could operate entirely on fiber-optic connections, even with our current level of technology. Oh, you were expecting creative writing?

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    53. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      I was expecting changes, but this awkward kitbash makes me very unhappy.

      I like how the reflector dish has no shroud. Because... it's a _reflector dish_!

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    54. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Expect the obligatory staggering about like drunken louts and bad camera shaking after the oblig hits to the Enterprise in ship-to-ship battles! :D

      Supposedly they have inertial dampeners to prevent everybody being smooshed upon acceleration. But the obviously got built by the low-bidder because they don't work under attack.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    55. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by FourthLaw · · Score: 1

      Awesome on the D.

      My poorly-constructed main point was that, although it well-documented now, there didn't seem to be a consensus among the original writers as to the way warp worked. I tried to find some reference points, but I couldn't--which may simply mean that I'm mistaken. :)

      I do remember the big deal that was made of making a warp turn in "Balance of Terror" (I *think*) as though it were some crazy new thing...of course, that could just be because the Romulans didn't have warp capability. Anyway, my impression is that the concept started out very broadly and has been narrowed down over the years to a fairly "well-explained" set of rules.

      --
      Skilled in differentiating ravens from a writing desks.
    56. Re:Trailer Story FAIL by crawling_chaos · · Score: 1

      It may be different for the C&C circuits, but the mains are most certainly bypassed when in battle condition. Letting a surge through is far better than a total power loss. There's a big switch in the breaker rooms to bypass them: on older ships it looked like something out of a Frankenstein flick: a big bar that came down and bypassed all of the safety systems.

      --
      You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
      -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
  2. 'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good. The series has become a tired ass glorified fan flick from insiders.

    Fresh blood and a new outlook sounds good to me.

    1. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Yokaze · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >> 'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.'

      I may be mistaken, but I think I've heard a similar line from Rick Berman.

      > The series has become a tired ass glorified fan flick from insiders.

      On the contrary. Star Trek I to VI were at least glorified fan flicks from insiders, from then on they tried to appeal to a more general public: Now they even lost that bit of appeal.

      On that note: Guess, who was responsible for those films.

      > Fresh blood and a new outlook sounds good to me.

      That is something I can perfectly agree on.

      --
      "Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
    2. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by 0racle · · Score: 1

      That attitude brought the world DS9, Voyager and Enterprise and other crapfests like Transformers.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    3. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by falcon5768 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      knock DS9 and Voy all you want, but as a TOS fan who only really liked TOS and a few episodes of TNG here and there, I actually LIKED Enterprise. It had some issues the first two seasons but the last two where excellent.

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

    4. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Bemopolis · · Score: 1

      I may be mistaken, but I think I've heard a similar line from Rick Berman.

      Boy, he fucking proved that in spades. Especially with the help of Brannon Braga, whose Trek output was of a quality that, to this day, my circle of friends gladly use his surname to refer to the act of human solid elimination. (Unless it's a three-parter, in which case it is a 'Lucas').

      --
      "I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
    5. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by bitrex · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Whenever old material has been revived lately, "a new outlook" seems to have always translated to "An edgier, darker _____" which means "Make the cast younger, and ramp up the sexy and the violence."

    6. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by bbroerman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Personally, I liked all of them, with maybe the exception of Voyager. I did, however, miss a substantial portion of DS9, due to not having a UPN station when I moved to Cincinnati. I hear the final seasons sucked.

      Nonetheless, if you ignore the whole "temporal war" crap, Enterprise was OK. I liked the ship and the crew. Looked very reasonable for the era. Now, they did take liberties with the Klingons and Romulans. Neither were supposed to be warp capable as of yet. (non-cannon sources on Klingons along with some innuendo from ST-TNG) but I can give them a little wiggle room.

      This new Enterprise (the ship & bridge) look way too advanced. They should have made the exterior the same as TOS, but maybe modernized the bridge a *little*. Maybe somewhere between TOS and ST-TMP. I definitely think they went WAY too far.

      --
      Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
    7. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

      I liked them all to, DS9 and the last 3 seasons of TNG more then everything else.

      It is only natural for the bridge and ship designs to look more futuristic no matter where they are in the cannon because our ideas about what looks futuristic change. It's the general idea and themes of Star Trek that make Star Trek what it is, not the layout of the bridge.

    8. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by rhyder128k · · Score: 1

      "I've never really been a fan of the original series."

      "Oh, I'm sorry to have wasted your time. We're looking for someone who loved the original show."

      "Actually, that does make sense."

      "No problem. Thanks for coming in."

      "That's OK."

      Would that have been so difficult?

      --
      Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    9. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Hythlodaeus · · Score: 1

      Good. The series has become a tired ass glorified fan flick from insiders.
      Fresh blood and a new outlook sounds good to me.

      I'd say this is pretty much the opposite of the situation. They've been replacing imaginitive sci-fi with technobabble, exploration and peacemaking with unreasoning villains, and character development with breast development for well over a decade now all in the name of "expanding the audience". The old outlook and a focus on old fans is just what they need.

      --
      For great justice.
    10. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Rallion · · Score: 1

      I really shouldn't be posting this at all. I don't know nearly enough Trek lore. Anyway...

      Where is it stated that the Romulans lacked warp capability at the time that humans gained it? It makes sense that the Klingons could lack warp capability, I suppose, but I would assume that the Romulans would have needed warp technology to colonize space when they left Vulcan. Any sources that say they didn't are more than non-canon, they're nonsensical.

      Besides, contradicting non-canon sources is not 'taking liberties.' As far as the continuity goes you can't consider that non-canon sources even exist. That's what non-canon means.

    11. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Elemenope · · Score: 1

      On the contrary. Star Trek I to VI were at least glorified fan flicks from insiders, from then on they tried to appeal to a more general public: Now they even lost that bit of appeal.

      IV was pretty accessible on general principles, and VI was accessible to anyone who wasn't in a coma during the entirely of the Cold War.

      But otherwise, I get your point.

      --
      All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
    12. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      DS9 is widely considered to be the best Trek series, and the Transformers movie was adored by every single Transformers fan I've ever run across. Your examples are rather poor.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    13. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Phroggy · · Score: 1

      I was shocked by how good Enterprise was (except for the stupid time travel stuff, and the way they often used T'Pol as a sex symbol). I understand why it was cancelled, but I really wish it hadn't been; there was a lot more good stuff they could have done.

      (Don't get me wrong, I find Jolene Blalock quite attractive. However, scenes like this were gratuitous, and I believe the only reason she didn't get a Starfleet uniform when she joined Starfleet (fairly late in the series) is because the producers didn't think it would look sexy enough. On the other hand, I thought her romance with Trip was pretty well done, which is why I didn't think this was inappropriate - it made sense for her character.)

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    14. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      Star Trek 2 was most definitely NOT a "fan flick." Nicholas Meyer admitted that he wasn't a Star Trek fan when he got the job and it was that lack of fanboy corruption that let him take such a refreshingly clever approach to the dying franchise. When he went back and watched the cheesy original series, he basically decided to mock it by making the central story an attack on every cliche that plagued the old series (disposable characters who were promptly forgotten by the next episode, main characters who never died, ridiculously arrogant moves by the captain that never really cost him anything, etc.).

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    15. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by bbroerman · · Score: 1

      It was noted in TOS that they had a simple "jump" capability, not true warp drive. They could make a series of short jumps, and then the engine burns out. When I get the chance, I'll go back and find references.

      --
      Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
    16. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by LoveGoblin · · Score: 1

      I hear the final seasons [of DS9] sucked.

      Heresy. The final seasons of DS9 are among the best of Star Trek.

    17. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People that were not fans of the original source material typically make movies that make more money than people that fan over it too much (Jackson being an exception and he took some major liberties with LotR).

    18. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Falconhell · · Score: 1

      I have to agree, I have never understood the contempt for Enterprise. Any show with Jolene Blalock in a skin tigh outfit has got a head start!

    19. Re:'Never really been a huge Star Trek fan.' by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      Nemesis was purely a fan flick -- it regurgitated bits of plots from all the previous movies into one large mess. And Nemesis was written by a self-described Star Trek fan.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
  3. Why do so many Trek personel by joeflies · · Score: 3, Interesting

    make a point of saying "was never really a fan of the original show"? Maybe they really never saw it, but arent' they taking the fans for granted then? They don't know how important it is for us "TO NOT SCREW IT UP"?

    I understand a reboot of the series is sometimes necessary to make it fit contemporary audiences. But for every BSG, there are a hundred ruined series that chose to do something so out of character of the canon that it appeals to neither fans nor new audiences.

    1. Re:Why do so many Trek personel by mr_spatula · · Score: 1

      I would worry seriously about screwing it up - It's JJ Abrams. He was a writer for Armageddon. I do not see how that equates to anything beyond pure horror for Star Trek fans.

      As a side note, it's always fun to call Star Trek "Star Track" when you are talking to the more hardcore fans.

    2. Re:Why do so many Trek personel by bsharitt · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm personally expected Star Trek: The Phantom Menace.

    3. Re:Why do so many Trek personel by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      I'm personally expected Star Trek: The Phantom Menace.

      If Nemesis is any indication it won't be nearly that "good" :(

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    4. Re:Why do so many Trek personel by greyhueofdoubt · · Score: 1

      >>They don't know how important it is for us "TO NOT SCREW IT UP"?

      They don't know you, they don't care about you, and they don't care about the franchise as history or art. They don't care if they are true to the original series (or any series, really). They could care less what an auditorium's worth of trekkies think of this movie.

      I've come to face the hard truth that movie studios are not theater troupes or charities or societies for the arts. They are there to make money. If you don't believe me, go read any two Judd Apatow scripts, then go check the incomes of those two films, and then go cry.

      -b

      --
      No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
  4. Scotty is gay? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm really upset that they decided to make Scotty gay. Why do that? Other than the captain, mccoy and spock, no one else was getting any on the original show.

    1. Re:Scotty is gay? by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 1, Insightful

      My question is why the hell did they make Scotty but not Mr. Sulu a gay? I'm being serious since all die-hard trek fans know that George Takei is openly gay.

    2. Re:Scotty is gay? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and in that shot of spock, he looks totally angry! I'm shocked, tell you, SHOCKED!

      it's less than sarcasm and more than a get a life post.

    3. Re:Scotty is gay? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      Agree... one is like a slap in the face while the other is like an homage. (oh . there is such a bad joke in there that I realized as I finished that... but i'll leave it as an exercise to the reader.)

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    4. Re:Scotty is gay? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Why do that?

      Have you seen the uniforms? Clearly Starfleet has some entrance requirements.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  5. Nerd Alert? by MagusSlurpy · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Come on, this is slashdot. What we need now is the ability to mod tags as "-1: Redundant."

    --
    My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
  6. Cast is too young. by mlawrence · · Score: 1

    I never noticed it in the original series (I wonder why lol) but the characters are way too young to be taken seriously as astronauts, esp if you want this movie to be 'legitimate and real'. I'm not bashing young people of course, but we all gain experience as we get older.

    1. Re:Cast is too young. by tgd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You do know the average age of people in the US military, right?

      Our aircraft carriers and subs are all run by kids.

    2. Re:Cast is too young. by mlawrence · · Score: 1

      And the space shuttles?

    3. Re:Cast is too young. by CrazyTalk · · Score: 1

      I think people are just too used to the Star Trek Films, where the crew was composed of people in their 60s. Remember too, Kirk was supposedly the youngest Captain in Starfleet History

    4. Re:Cast is too young. by falcon5768 · · Score: 1

      You do realize the average age of Military officers is mid 20's right? My boss who is since retired was a destroyer commander at 25. The army has even had a general at 33.

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

    5. Re:Cast is too young. by Shakrai · · Score: 2, Informative

      Our aircraft carriers and subs are all run by kids.

      Umm, I think you mean manned by kids. There aren't a whole lot of O-5s and O-6s in their 20s in the US military......

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    6. Re:Cast is too young. by tgd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And the space shuttles?

      Not really relevant -- the astronaut system in the US is a very specialized thing these days. There's a minimum of people getting to do it and a huge pool of people wanting to. That'll always skew towards older people.

      Starfleet would be much more like the military in that regard. Its reasonable to assume that like any military force, ages will skew downwards.

    7. Re:Cast is too young. by eln · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure, and Kirk was also well into his 30s, as was just about everyone else on the ship except maybe Chekov, in the original series.

      I think the GP makes a good point in that you would expect a starship to be commanded by people at least in their 30s. Sure, the grunts on board can be kids, but the people on the bridge ought to look as if they've been in Starfleet for more than 5 minutes.

    8. Re:Cast is too young. by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 3, Informative

      I seem to recall from somewhere that Kirk was the youngest starship (by which I think they meant large capital ship) captain in Starfleet, at 34. I'm not sure this is canon.

      At one point on screen, Kirk asked Chekhov's age and was told '22, sir'.

    9. Re:Cast is too young. by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I talked to my dad about this the other day (He childhood was spent watching TOS, mine watching TNG). I complained about the 'kids' running the new ship, so he pulled out some photos of his friends when he was 30ish. They look way more 'grown up' than most of my 30ish friends. His 30ish friends already had houses, kids, and 10+ years on the same job. Many 30ishers from my generation are still in school part time, have changed jobs quite a few times, and have apartments and roommates. Most arn't married, few have children, and owning a house is the punchline of a joke. More of my generation spent their 20's mooching off mom and dad and bumming around Europe. I feel like making a "get off my lawn joke" now, but my dads point was that being young lasts longer than it once did.

      --
      We are the Borg...
    10. Re:Cast is too young. by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Informative

      At one point on screen, Kirk asked Chekhov's age and was told '22, sir'.

      Which is perfectly reasonable for someone with a rank of Ensign in a military structured like the US navy.

    11. Re:Cast is too young. by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You do know the average age of people in the US military, right?

      Our aircraft carriers and subs are all run by kids.

      The ratings and junior officers may all look like kids but the senior officers, certainly the captain and CAG, they're going to be older.

      And as far as setting goes, it all depends on the type of setting they're trying to convey. If the Enterprise is a brand new ship going out into the unknown and is a seriously important mission, they're going to ask for a captain whose been around the block. If they're in the middle of a war and are running short on experienced officers and the enterprise is portrayed as the equivalent of a destroyer, it's believable to have a very junior-grade officer as skipper. And if the Enterprise is a cushy flagship in peacetime, it would be just as believable to have a politically-connected captain in charge, a good old boy who might know very little about spacefaring and is relying heavily on his XO to keep the ship from running into the first asteroid they come across.

      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    12. Re:Cast is too young. by stuntpope · · Score: 1

      Not the Commanding Officers. I too was put off by how young Kirk looks - it turns out Chris Pine is 28, but he looks 22 in the photos. You can check out the COs of US carriers and subs online - they tend to be in their upper 30s or in their 40s (graduated or received commissions in early to mid 1980s).

    13. Re:Cast is too young. by cliffski · · Score: 1

      methinks trek is set in a future where the USA is not even in existence.

      --
      DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
    14. Re:Cast is too young. by spidercoz · · Score: 1

      but my dads point was that being young lasts longer than it once did.

      Someone mod this up, that's elegantly stated and brilliant.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
    15. Re:Cast is too young. by master_p · · Score: 1

      But the actors look young and vibrant because they have lived a good life, not because they are kids. The actors are all in their 30s.

    16. Re:Cast is too young. by pcolaman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It was my understanding early on when ST:XI was announced that Kirk and Spock were in the Academy. Couldn't the "bridge" scenes that we see primarily be simulators? All of the screens I've seen strike me as something you'd see akin to the episode of ST:Voy where all the young crewmen and women were the focus. I could most definitely be wrong, but it seems to me as if it's all just Starfleet Academy mockup simulators.

    17. Re:Cast is too young. by Guysmiley777 · · Score: 1

      Average enlisted or officer age? What's the average age of an aircraft carrier captain?

      Enlisted average age is I believe around 19. There are a TON more enlisted personnel on a ship than officers. Officers are older, COs even more so. This cast seems too young, way younger than the TOS cast.

      --
      Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
    18. Re:Cast is too young. by Guysmiley777 · · Score: 1

      ...it turns out Chris Pine is 28, but he looks 22 in the photos

      I think that's partly due to the fact that he has highlights. Ugh.

      Sir! The Klingons are attacking!
      Tell them to wait, I can't miss this salon appointment, damnit!

      --
      Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
    19. Re:Cast is too young. by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      I wonder where you are getting those numbers. Here's some numbers from the USAF a few years back. The average age of the Officer Force is 35 (probably about the same now) and the average age of the enlisted force is 29 (maybe slightly lower now, but this is after 5 years of post-9/11 recruitment). I know the numbers will vary based on service branch, but these are likely relatively indicative of the other services. A destroyer commander at 25 is rare but not impossible, and a general at 33 is definitely possible although also rare. Also keep in mind that there are far more officers who never make it past O-4 than there are officers who jet up to O-6 and beyond early in their careers. Note also in those stats that only close to 13% of officers in the USAF are under 26.

    20. Re:Cast is too young. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So? Look at any country and I think you will probably find a military where the recruits are primarily young. That's not a unique feature of the US military

    21. Re:Cast is too young. by CorporateSuit · · Score: 1

      The actors are in their low thirties. You're just too used to seeing 40-year olds playing teens in your favorite TV shows.

      --
      I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
    22. Re:Cast is too young. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People look younger as time goes on, this is set a few hundred years from now. Is it so unreasonable to believe that advances in medicine and health have created a world where people *look* younger?

    23. Re:Cast is too young. by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

      Sir! The Klingons are attacking!
      Tell them to wait, I can't miss this salon appointment, damnit!

      That would more be more likely to be coming from the new, gay Scotty, I think.

      --
      This ain't rocket surgery.
    24. Re:Cast is too young. by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1

      You do know the average age of people in the US military, right?

      Our aircraft carriers and subs are all run by kids.

      The kids that make up the crew of a carrier or sub are largely low ranking enlisted. The command staff of a naval vessel is all officers, generally of 0-4 grade and up. Tell me, how old is the guy playing Kirk supposed to be? THe actor playing him is twenty eight. How old is the captain of a sub or carrier? Bet your ass there isn't a single one under 35. It's ridiculous. They're making it Star Trek 90210.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    25. Re:Cast is too young. by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1

      You do realize the average age of Military officers is mid 20's right?

      When you average the ages of 1500 O-1 thru O-3's in their 20's and a dozen Colonels and Generals in their 50's, what else would the result be? It doesn't mean the "tweener" officers are commanding anything serious.

      My boss who is since retired was a destroyer commander at 25.

      Unlikely, unless he was a WW2 vet. Destroyers are commanded by people ranked Commander(O-5) or higher. It's exceedingly rare and a big deal when someone is promoted to Captain under the age of 40. Short of battlefield promotion in a big war like WW2, such a thing is unheard of.

      The army has even had a general at 33.

      Not in the last 60-odd years. George Custer was brevetted to general from lieutenant in the Civil War at the age of 23 by a pal of his who was a Major General, but that kind of bullshit happened a lot back then. The youngest promotion since WW2 to Brigadier General was 39, and the youngest currently on active duty was promoted at 44.

      Face it. JJ Abrams is an idiot. He cast a bunch of kids as senior ships' officers when no such thing would ever reasonably happen in real life.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    26. Re:Cast is too young. by cliffski · · Score: 1

      the enterprise wasn't a war ship its a science vessel. what's the average age of scientists?

      --
      DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
    27. Re:Cast is too young. by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1

      the enterprise wasn't a war ship its a science vessel. what's the average age of scientists?

      Probably higher than the average age of naval captains. How old are people when they finish their PhD's? You ever heard of a "scientist" without a PhD?

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  7. Zachary Quinto by arizwebfoot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Zachary Quinto is probably the most perfect person to play Spock in the prequel.

    If they do this right, there could be three, four, five, or six more movies to be made.

    If they do this right.

    --
    Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
    1. Re:Zachary Quinto by cosmocain · · Score: 4, Funny

      the most perfect? are you more surer or is he maybe even more perfectererer?

    2. Re:Zachary Quinto by eln · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If they wanted to start another Trek franchise as a prequel to the originals that they could go 5 or 6 movies with without bumping into the stuff that's already been made, they should have based it on Star Trek: Enterprise.

      I know that ST: Enterprise is almost Voyager-like in that a lot of people want to just forget it ever happened, but I thought it had a great deal of potential. Having movies based on it would be great. I thought the series really captured the naivete and hopefulness of a crew exploring far beyond what man was capable of before, and I think it would translate to the big screen very well.

      Maybe it's because I've been watching a lot of ST: Enterprise reruns on the SciFi channel lately, but I really think they gave up on that whole concept way too soon. Heck, the original series had one fewer season than ST: Enterprise did, and it got 6 (6.5 if you count Generations) movies!

    3. Re:Zachary Quinto by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      Judging by pictures alone (I've never seen any of these actors perform, so I have no idea if they can act), most of the cast looks perfect for their character... except Kirk. I have no idea how they fell flat on their face for the lead character, but he looks like a chump. It's awful.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    4. Re:Zachary Quinto by agoliveira · · Score: 1

      No, he's not. As a vulcan, he ages much slower than humans, so, he would look about the same as when he was at the enterprise, considering that he was at the academy at the same time as Kirk which, for starters, I find weird.

      --
      Scientia est Potentia
    5. Re:Zachary Quinto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... except Kirk. I have no idea how they fell flat on their face for the lead character, but he looks like a chump.

      So, have you ever watched Star Trek?

    6. Re:Zachary Quinto by master_p · · Score: 1

      Movies don't do justice to Star Trek, only series do. It's only in a series that we can experience the life on a Starship.

    7. Re:Zachary Quinto by arizwebfoot · · Score: 1

      I've watched him on Heroes and it's why I think he will make a great Spock. He truly is a good actor.

      --
      Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
    8. Re:Zachary Quinto by clem · · Score: 1

      the most perfect? are you more surer or is he maybe even more perfectererer?

      He just gets increasingly perfect. Any more perfect and he'll have to be kept in a hyperbolic chamber.

      --
      Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
    9. Re:Zachary Quinto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However the TNG cast did 7 seasons and only did 4 movies.

      IMHO I think bad writing and a decade and a half of TNG weathering on the actors did it in. I place more blame on the writers. I liked Generations and First Contact, however Insurrection got a "meh" and Nemesis was a WTFITS. The writing was really grasping ant strings and beating a dead horse.

      I think the Star Trek universe still has some potential. I was all for a DS9 movie with Sisko and Worf in the Defiant kicking ass and taking names. I think waiting a few years to bring about a revival of sorts, like what Star Wars did, and bringing in some new writing blood would be great. They just need to stop with the Rick Berman and Paramount asshatery.

    10. Re:Zachary Quinto by fractoid · · Score: 1

      Well, if he had become perfect then I guess you could say he was pluperfect. ;)

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
    11. Re:Zachary Quinto by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      I actually would've liked to see a new series based after TNG, DS9, and Voyager, and go in a completely different direction than those shows or Enterprise. I know, it's a pipe dream, but with new writers and instead of having to rewrite cannon, you can create new cannon that does not alter the past shows. Maybe something more along the lines of Firefly, where you focus on a rogue element rather than a part of the Federation.

      I think one of the things that happened to the franchise to cause it's spiral downward is too much sticking to the same formula. I am probably one of a very few who hated DS:9 and actually enjoyed Voyager simply because it tried to break away from the standard format and go in a brand new direction. In all of the older series (TOS not included of course), the featured ship pretty much always just went on various missions (or in the case of DS:9, was a hub around which various missions or events took place) or had your random "Holodeck goes nuts and safeties are locked out" or "Holodeck characters take over the ship" moments. Voyager always had an overarching goal, which was to find a way to get home. Almost every episode focused on this in some way, whereas there wasn't an overarching goal in most of TNG or DS9 (other than the Dominion Wars plot, which I feel was just created to bring in non-fans due to increased number of action scenes).

      In reality, DS9 had very little in the way of resemblance to old school trek, and was merely a darkish soap opera in space. Indeed, it felt more parts Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica than it did Star Trek, other than the familiar ships and uniforms. You could've probably swapped out those elements with those of BG or B5 and many people would not have noticed much of a difference.

      Despite the flaws in ST:Voy, it tried to branch out more from the standard Star Trek formula than any of the other shows post TOS other than perhaps ST: Enterprise, which IMO was a refreshing change in the ST universe but perhaps the writing just wasn't that good. I will say though, the one failing of ST:Voy was its reliance on the Borg as a story crutch in the second half of the series run. Seasons 1-3 were much more fresh feeling than the later seasons, and if seasons 4-7 were more in the vein of those first three seasons, I suspect there would be a lot more people who consider themselves fans of ST:Voy

    12. Re:Zachary Quinto by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      Cannot disagree with you more on Kirk. I had a hard time imagining them pulling a young Shatner-looking actor to play the role without making me smirk (and not in a good way), but I think Chris Pine totally looks the part. I will hold judgment on whether he acts the part until I at least see some footage of the movie.

    13. Re:Zachary Quinto by snuf23 · · Score: 1

      Except that every time he goes to mind meld I'm going to thin that he is about to suck someone's brains out.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    14. Re:Zachary Quinto by snuf23 · · Score: 1

      Extra weird considering he served with Captain Pike before Kirk.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    15. Re:Zachary Quinto by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

      I will hold judgment on whether he acts the part

      It shouldn't be too hard for him; all he has to do is overact and speak in sentences with unnecessary pauses and the emphasis on the wrong word: "We come...in peace!" From what little I've seen of Boston Legal, Shatner still does that sort of thing, although he's toned it down a bit. Better directors, maybe.

      NOTE: I've been a ST fan since TOS was still on the air.

      --
      This ain't rocket surgery.
    16. Re:Zachary Quinto by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      Or maybe Shatner is so senile now that in his head, the pauses are still really unnecessarily long with the emphasis on the wrong word, and the directors, seeing that he's toned down, tell him he's overdoing it on purpose so that he'll think it's just right and keep at it.

  8. I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by drummerboybac · · Score: 1

    What is the significance of May 2009?

    1. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by Andr+T. · · Score: 2, Funny

      May 2009 seems to me a perfect 'real and legitimate' date - opposed to February 30, 2009.

      --

      Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

    2. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by MikeDirnt69 · · Score: 1

      You just lost your card.

      --
      Am I eval()? - http://www.monst3r.com.br
    3. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by Evil+Closet+Monkey · · Score: 1

      In terms of the Star Trek time line, there is no significance to May 2009. It just happens to be the date the movie is coming out. =)

    4. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by leamanc · · Score: 3, Informative

      They just want to get it out in time for the Memorial Day holiday in the USA. It's one of the bigger box-office weekends of the year, and perfect for a release like the new Star Trek flick.

      --
      :q!
    5. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by hansamurai · · Score: 1

      Maybe not his geek card, but definitely his PATRIOT CARD.

    6. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by CrazyTalk · · Score: 1

      Bah, the first Star Trek movie was released Christmastime, and that was good enough back then!

    7. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      In the Star Trek timeline (at least as it was envisioned in the days of the original show), 2009 would have been a decade or more past WWIII and near-global devastation.

      That's one prediction I'm glad they got wrong.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    8. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by Poltras · · Score: 1

      May 2009 seems to me a perfect 'real and legitimate' date - opposed to February 30, 2009.

      Hush! Don't tell my fiancee.

    9. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by leamanc · · Score: 1

      I remember that. I was six years old and so looking forward to it, thinking it was going to be like Star Wars. I was totally bored the whole time. I've come to appreciate it on its own merits, but Start Trek: TMP is definitely not a film for six-year-olds.

      --
      :q!
    10. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by CrazyTalk · · Score: 1

      Yep - but I was 16 at the time, and really liked it - just to see the first new Star Trek of any kind since I was a little kid

    11. Re:I know I am risking my geek card here, but... by IL-CSIXTY4 · · Score: 1

      And we're ten years past when the Eugenics Wars were supposed to have happened. I know a lot of us grew up with Star Trek, and don't want anything to change. But, if it's going to continue on as a franchise, maybe now is a good time to "reboot", as reality is starting to overlap the timeline.

  9. Ridiculous post by Ron_Fitzgerald · · Score: 1

    If the post is about a new trailer, wouldn't it be a good idea to have the trailer for viewing?

    I hold this up there with the articles about images that don't even show the images. A WASTE OF TIME!

    --
    ~ Ron Fitzgerald
    1. Re:Ridiculous post by Zaatxe · · Score: 1

      Try using Firefox instead of Lynx.

      --
      So say we all
    2. Re:Ridiculous post by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      Actually, he should be modded as insightful and you as troll. There is no new trailer, as of yet (even though it appears likely that there will be one for the opening of the new Bond movie), but this article makes it appear as if there is a new trailer available. A better title for the article would have been "First New Trek Movie Footage Shown Behind Closed Doors."

    3. Re:Ridiculous post by Zaatxe · · Score: 1

      Hey, humour called and said it misses you.

      (Now modders have a good reason to mod me "troll")

      --
      So say we all
    4. Re:Ridiculous post by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      Oh I got the joke. Har har he said Lynx because it is a text-based browser, whereas Firefox would be able to show videos. Wow, omg, that was funny. Let me take a few minutes to recompose myself after that barrage of humor. *cough*...riiiight.

  10. JJ Abrams by Andr+T. · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ok, this may sound childish, but I fear I might hate Spock being locked in a planet with polar bears, killing smoke and never-ending nonsense.

    --

    Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

    1. Re:JJ Abrams by corbettw · · Score: 3, Funny

      Personally, I can't wait to see Spock point his index finger at someone slice their head open.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    2. Re:JJ Abrams by h4rdc0d3 · · Score: 1

      The problem is not having those things in the story, but never having them explained.

    3. Re:JJ Abrams by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      I'm shocked it took this long for a Sylar reference. Personally when I saw the pic of Spock choking Kirk, I was picturing him saying "I can fix you."

  11. Forward to the Past by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why do Star Trek producers keep going backward in time?

    We want the Next Next Generation, not a bunch of back story.

    1. Re:Forward to the Past by rossdee · · Score: 1

      I agree, something set after TNG, DS9 and Voyager. Oh and the ship doesnt have to be called Enterprise.

    2. Re:Forward to the Past by bheer · · Score: 1

      > Why do Star Trek producers keep going backward in time?

      Great question, pity it was posed by an AC -- I'd love to see a good discussion about this. I've heard theories about how we as a generation are not forward-looking (or starry eyed optimists) like the folks in the 60s or even the 90s. This may be true -- we have religious fundies of various stripes and a bad-ass economy to worry about.

      But my private theory is that the Trek universe simply ran out of room for exciting new storylines, making people care less about future Trek extrapolations.

      After all, TNG's morality plays and utopianism are nice, but they were not the main reason people saw Star Trek. The lifeblood of any series is dramatic conflict, and
      by the time Voyager and Nemesis ends, there's very little dramatic conflict left in the Trek universe. How many "Enterprise visits planet-of-the-week and gets into trouble" episodes can you then do?

    3. Re:Forward to the Past by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      But my private theory is that the Trek universe simply ran out of room for exciting new storylines, making people care less about future Trek extrapolations.

      What about Star Trek: Fall of the Federation?

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    4. Re:Forward to the Past by nschubach · · Score: 1

      I agree with you, but look how poorly Voyager did... Granted, I loved watching all the episodes after it was canceled, but when it was originally aired, it wasn't ST. The Defiant was a ship I was more interested in.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    5. Re:Forward to the Past by powerlord · · Score: 1

      That was the idea Gene Rodenberry had that ended up being used (after he died) for Andromeda.

      The original story idea (before it morphed into what it was), was someone in a far flung future of the Start Trek universe where things have all gone to heck in a hand-basket.

      This was combined with another idea he had of someone waking up after 500 years in suspended animation and exploring their new universe, and then the universe was switched to something that wasn't Star Trek since it was an independent enterprise (pun intended).

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    6. Re:Forward to the Past by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 1

      The original series seemed to have two main points. 1st the crew all gets along despite the fact that they are all ethnically different, so maybe the US could get over the segregation, slavery, and immigration issues. 2nd, the number of worlds that were JUST LIKE THE EARTH with something drastically wrong were meant to show us just how stupid the issues we are facing are. TNG didn't relay deal with the issues of life, maybe if Wesley was brooding and kept trying to steal shuttles, or if the crew hated Worf and he was the victim of hate crimes for the first few seasons. But it was just way to 'clean' to be relevant.

      --
      We are the Borg...
    7. Re:Forward to the Past by operagost · · Score: 1

      I think if they created a new series where Worf cruised around in the "Defiant" every week, beaming over to random ships and challenging the captain's honor in a UFC-style brawl, I would prefer that over this movie.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    8. Re:Forward to the Past by operagost · · Score: 1

      That's the first time I've seen someone blame Hollywood's poor writing on "religious fundies." We are officially in a state of anti-religious hysteria. When do we begin the pogroms?

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    9. Re:Forward to the Past by operagost · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about:
      - Whether Data is alive and entitled to human rights and dignity, or just a machine
      - Duty over personal relationships (Picard's girlfriend)
      - The meaning in a life well-lived (Picard's mind implanted with the memories of a man who lived on a long-dead planet)
      - The morality of war ("Best of Both Worlds")
      - The loss of self (the Borg in general)
      - The Prime Directive invoked about 80 times

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    10. Re:Forward to the Past by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      ST:Worf:UFC ftw. Everyone who was a TNG geek back in the day loved it when Worf layed the smackdown or Data showed how incredibly physically powerful he was even compared to Worf, in almost a whimsical "I'm not even trying and I can overpower you" sort of way. Worf versus Data (or in this case, B4) every week and I'll DVR it.

    11. Re:Forward to the Past by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      If the focus was taken away from "Elite-best of the fleet crew" then I think the series would get a little life back into it. I think even those of us who will always love TNG and the like get a little tired of Picard, Data, Worf, and the rest of the Star Trek Dream Team dominating everyone with their awesomeness. Let's see some flawed heroes for a change.

    12. Re:Forward to the Past by k_187 · · Score: 1

      They need to make a series based on Klingons is what they need to do. Cause that would be awesome.

      --
      11 was a racehorse
      12 was 12
      1111 Race
      12112
    13. Re:Forward to the Past by solios · · Score: 1

      My private theory also covers a good number of "holodeck episodes," which is one of the things I dislike about TNG and VOY (better handled in DS9 to a point but still there - maybe there's something about Starfleet-issue holodecks and hulls that sucks in the horrible as well as the "chronitons").

      Straight up : Earth-centric time travel and holodecks are an out for the writers. They can write anything they want, not have to piss around brushing up on details of the universe, etc, plug the Trek cast into it and GO!. Got what you think is a good Sherlock Holmes story you can't sell? Swap him out for Data, change a few details, instant episode. Want to parody Flash Gordon, but can't get a network interested? Holodeck episode. Think Star Trek IV would have been better with fewer whales and more Jewish comediennes? Rewrite, replace the TOS crew with the VOY crew. Two parter!

      Then there's the ENT temporal cold war. Thinking about it just now made me throw up a little in my mouth.

      Time travel - or the holodeck - lets a writer forego exploring the Trek universe in favor of a "reboot switch" episode, allowing them to focus on whatever it is they're actually interested in, do Big Crazy Things without having to worry about the consequences.... and oh yeah, kill the Borg with a force field shaped like a tommy gun,* when the Borg can walk through any other force field on the ship.

      Talk about layers upon layers of escapism.

      Oh, and let's not forget budgets. It's cheaper to throw in some time travel (or holodeck program or whatever) and go do a location shoot than it is to build sets.

      * I know the whole point of that scene was Picard working through some Locutus shit but please. :P

    14. Re:Forward to the Past by Roman+Coder · · Score: 1

      How about a Starfeet Security spy who is a shape shifter (old TOS version (insane Fleet Captain guy), not Odo type), working on the Romulan/Klingon homeworld, seeing the inside of the political structures of both races/governments.

      --
      "The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov
    15. Re:Forward to the Past by Roman+Coder · · Score: 1

      Damn, missed the typo on StarfLeet. My bad. That's what I get for posting from work.

      --
      "The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov
    16. Re:Forward to the Past by bheer · · Score: 1

      Is that the animated series? I've only seen TOS + the films, and bits of TNG, DS9 and VOY when I could catch them on TV.

  12. Inner Fanboy vs. Inner Normal Person by Chairboy · · Score: 1

    The new Enterprise looks neat, but the fanboy in me wishes the change to the secondary hull hadn't been so pronounced, because the part of my brain that can explain away the differences ("Obviously, they did another refit between when this was shot and when Pike was captain, yeah, that's it!") would have trouble understanding why the entire shape of that secondary hull is so different.

    But then again, I don't want to be one of those sad Battlestar Galactica fans who still hate the new series because they DARED to change things from the original one.

    Blast! Different nerds are fighting it out in my head, and the only constant is the martial trek 'fight music' that's playing right now.

    1. Re:Inner Fanboy vs. Inner Normal Person by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      but the fanboy in me wishes the change to the secondary hull hadn't been so pronounced

      The fanboy in me wishes that they had stopped at "All Good Things...", and that Voyager and Enterprise had never happened.

      Oh well. It can't possibly suck as much as the new Babylon 5 offering did.... Who would have thought that JMS would stomp all over his universe for a cheap vomit joke.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  13. first link to the bbc new website by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is that grant from myth-busters in the background?

  14. just the standard disclaimer by Shivetya · · Score: 1

    Just like any MMORPG franchise that claims they aren't trying to be or beat World of Warcraft.

    In other words, get in and apologize before it hits the fan then point back to the statement and date as somehow providing you cover.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
  15. Continuity problems already by viridari · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Kirk is subsequently seen being smuggled on board the Starship Enterprise on its maiden voyage by doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy, played by Karl Urban.

    McCoy isn't the original ship's surgeon on the Enterprise. I guess nobody who worked on the film ever saw The Cage.

    And as others have mentioned in comments to previous stories here, Chekov wasn't on the Enterprise until later on well after Kirk took command. He really doesn't fit into this movie.

    And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

    1. Re:Continuity problems already by Main+Gauche · · Score: 1

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF?

      Yeah, they've never done something like that before.

    2. Re:Continuity problems already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      OMG!! STARBUCK IS A GIRL!!!!! WTF!?!

      Because that is what you sound like you pissy little Trekkie. This is a reboot things are going to be different. Canon is nothing but a guide here.

      "Chekov wasn't on the Enterprise until later on well after Kirk took command"

      Someone didn't see fit to inform the writers of "Wrath of Khan" of this either. Do you bitch about that too?

      "Chekov wasn't on the Enterprise until later on well after Kirk took command"

      And they have an Englishman playing a Scotsman too! Those swines!

      Fuck I hate fanboys.

    3. Re:Continuity problems already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sulu was never meant to be Japanese. In fact, Roddenberry did NOT want a specific nationality for him (Sulu is not a Japanese surname in any case). According to "canon", Sulu is half-Japanese half-Filipino... and was born in San Francisco.

      Given Roddenberry's original intentions it seems quite appropriate to have a Korean play the character.

    4. Re:Continuity problems already by Chairboy · · Score: 5, Funny

      > And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF?

      I know! And I heard that the guy who's playing Spock isn't even a real alien!

    5. Re:Continuity problems already by HertzaHaeon · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that would be like having a Brit playing an American. Preposterous!

      Also, "Sulu" isn't a very Japanese name, AFAIK.

    6. Re:Continuity problems already by ruiner13 · · Score: 1

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

      Picard was an English Frenchman. They're just continuing the storyline...

      --

      today is spelling optional day.

    7. Re:Continuity problems already by Kozz · · Score: 5, Informative

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

      No kidding. It'd be as silly as an Irish Canadian playing a Scotsman, an Englishman playing a Frenchman, an American playing a Russian. ;)

      --
      I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
    8. Re:Continuity problems already by STrinity · · Score: 1

      Not only haven't they seen the Cage, they apparently haven't seen Where No Man Has Gone Before, where the Enterprise had a completely different CMO even with Kirk in command. There also hasn't been any reference to Gary Mitchell, who's another key figure who should be aboard for Kirk's first mission.

      --
      Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
    9. Re:Continuity problems already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And with the roomer that Scottie is gay, is in conflict with the series. ("The Lights of Zetar", "Mudd's Women", "Wolf in the Fold")

    10. Re:Continuity problems already by cliffski · · Score: 1

      take a chill pill.

      --
      DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
    11. Re:Continuity problems already by prelelat · · Score: 1

      You do know that they are trying to reboot the series like BSG did right? I mean starbuck wasn't a chick originally in that series either. They are setting out to change the cannon of the franchise a little bit and frankly I think it needs it. There hasn't been a really good ship and crew story since TNG (voyager was good but it was different than the ship and crew in starfleet).

      So yeah they can pretty much do what ever they want, McCoy wasn't on the ship when the TOS started kirk wasn't in the pilot either(kirk and spock both look way too young at this point). Does it bother me, well no, this isn't TOS this is something new it's a remake of the characters and setting with a new plot. It's a reboot think of it like that and let it roll and see if it's a good movie that Roddenberry wouldn't roller over in his grave seeing produced.

    12. Re:Continuity problems already by raddan · · Score: 1

      wrt, Chekov-- Chekov was not in TOS episode "Space Seed", and yet, here he is at the beginning of The Wrath of Khan "remembering" the Enterprise's encounter with Khan. So the continuity has already been fucked-up there. It has simply been assumed that Chekov was on the Enterprise but not a major player at the time. I am OK with this.

      I am less OK with the new-old Enterprise. WHY? Seriously, all you're doing is begging the real fans to hate your movie. But I am excited about Zachary Quinto and Simon Pegg.

      OK, I am putting the 12 year old me back into hibernation now so I can function as a normal human. If people only knew how much Trek shit I have...

    13. Re:Continuity problems already by hardburn · · Score: 1

      Do you also complain about a Canadian playing a Scottsman? Or an American playing a Russian? I don't really see the problem with someone from the same basic ethnic group playing someone from the same group, even if two different cultures are involved.

      --
      Not a typewriter
    14. Re:Continuity problems already by Atriqus · · Score: 1

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

      That old craker who said what's the difference was George Takei when he approved of the pick.

      --
      Hey, look! It's Bono's brother.
    15. Re:Continuity problems already by rantingkitten · · Score: 1

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

      Seriously! They just didn't learn from their mistake in the series of casting an American to play a Russian character. When will the madness end?

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
    16. Re:Continuity problems already by Rogerborg · · Score: 1

      You do know that they are trying to reboot the series like BSG did right?

      Yes, we're clear on what they're trying to do. The concern is whether that's wise, given that much of the core fanbase are... well... kind of nuts.

      Just for example, I am seriously wondering how in the hell you can have two Kirks in one universe. Who would win in a fight between Lemmy and God? KIRK! No, wait, I mean NEWKIRK!

      Doesn't work, does it? Do you see what they are up against?

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    17. Re:Continuity problems already by Eil · · Score: 1

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

      In effect, he did. I can't find the reference now, but George Takei has gone on record saying that he sees no problem with the new Sulu actor being Korean because Sulu was meant to symbolize all Asian cultures.

      Unfortunately, the person who's opinion matters the most died midway through The Next Generation series. This is the one casting and plot decision in the new film that Gene Roddenberry probably would have agreed with.

    18. Re:Continuity problems already by Zakabog · · Score: 1

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

      Or it could be that Sulu wasn't meant to be from any specific Asian country.

      From Wikipedia -

      George Takei recalled Gene Roddenberry wanted the character to represent all of Asia, which symbolized the peace of the Trek universe in spite of the numerous wars in the continent. Roddenberry did not want a nationally specific surname, so he looked at a map and saw the Sulu Sea. "He thought, 'Ah, the waters of that sea touch all shores'," the actor recalled, "and that's how my character came to have the name Sulu."

      Yes, they do go on to say that Sulu was half Japanese half Filipino, well why not criticize the original Star Trek series for hiring a Japanese actor to play a character that's supposed to be half Japanese half Filipino?

    19. Re:Continuity problems already by Lord+Ender · · Score: 1

      why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF?

      They are acting. It doesn't matter what country they are from, just what they look like. Because Asians share similar genetic heritage, they look similar regardless of their country or culture.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    20. Re:Continuity problems already by prelelat · · Score: 1

      well theres already 2 spocks in the current cannon(parallel dictator spock) why not just say it's a splinter off like the ultimate series of Marvel comics. As long as theres not 50 different universes playing out I think people will be fine.

    21. Re:Continuity problems already by Haoie · · Score: 1

      It's not like he's going to speak Japanese in the movie, is it?

      --
      If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
    22. Re:Continuity problems already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

      No kidding. It'd be as silly as an Irish Canadian playing a Scotsman, an Englishman playing a Frenchman, an American playing a Russian. ;)

      Yea, Sulu was the only one they got right: a Japanese American playing an American of Japanese decent. That's why they have to change the actor.

    23. Re:Continuity problems already by Mr.+McGibby · · Score: 1

      How do you know McCoy wasn't the original ship's surgeon?

      Just because Chekov doesn't appear in an episode doesn't mean he wasn't on the ship.

      --
      Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
    24. Re:Continuity problems already by pluther · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't mind a reboot, BSG style.

      Even in Enterprise, I would have put up with all the violation of "canon" that they did if that was the only problem.

      The original series, and to some degree Next Generation had a lot of engaging stories, explorations of interesting ideas, and a few blatant morality plays taking a firm stand on controversial issues of their times.

      In the newer series, they went back and explored the same ideas, the same stories, and even the same popular issues of the 1960's.

      It was bold when Kirk stood firmly against racial segregation. But it's become such an accepted part of our culture now that for Archer to take the same stand just looks silly.

      And then when they try to distract us from the thin writing and lack of original ideas with blatantly gratuitous scenes of the Hot Vulcan Chick's nipples, it was just insulting. Yes, the gee-whiz technology and the scantily-clad females of the original were always enjoyable, but they were never the primary reason most of us watched the show. That's what Berman and Paramount never understood, and is the reason why I don't have high hopes for this new series of movies.

      I might go see it if it turns out to be good enough that a lot of people are raving about it. But this is the first Star Trek movie that I won't bother seeing on opening day.

      --
      If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
    25. Re:Continuity problems already by Phroggy · · Score: 1

      Someone didn't see fit to inform the writers of "Wrath of Khan" of this either. Do you bitch about that too?

      Of course. :-D

      And they have an Englishman playing a Scotsman too! Those swines!

      Don't forget about Jean-Luc Picard...

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    26. Re:Continuity problems already by writermike · · Score: 1

      And as others have mentioned in comments to previous stories here, Chekov wasn't on the Enterprise until later on well after Kirk took command. He really doesn't fit into this movie.

      True. But, then again, why did Kahn recognize him in ST2? I recall reading somewhere the explanation that Chekov wasn't a bridge officer during Space Seed. Well, ah, whatever.

      --
      If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
    27. Re:Continuity problems already by Keebler71 · · Score: 1
      They're just continuing the storyline...

      This is a prequel so wouldn't Picard be continuing *this* storyline?

      --
      "It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
    28. Re:Continuity problems already by trytoguess · · Score: 1

      I haven't heard too many complaints about Voyager when they used a Chinese guy to (very badly imo) play a Korean. And of course lets not forget Heroes with it's... Korean playing a Japanese character. But it does make me wonder why there seems to be more Korean American actors than Japanese.

  16. Don't read these unless you want the storyline by bigbigbison · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are a couple other sites that give a lot more detail on the clips that were shown. From the description it seems easy to piece together the overall storyline of the film. If you don't want to know what the storyline is then don't read these links

    http://denofgeek.com/movies/144620/star_trek_four_full_scenes_and_new_trailer_reviewed.html http://www.empireonline.com/empireblog/Post.asp?id=313

    --
    http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
    1. Re:Don't read these unless you want the storyline by kindbud · · Score: 1

      I've read fanfic with better ideas that that stinking pile. Good grief! Even a parody of bad Star Trek plots has to have some humor and imagination. This lacks any of that.

      --
      Edith Keeler Must Die
  17. Hey JJ.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get to the Dark Tower movies already!

  18. Release date by incripshin · · Score: 1

    I thought this movie was supposed to come out this Christmas season. Now I see on the Star Trek movie website 'Summer 09'. Am I imagining things?

    1. Re:Release date by chfriley · · Score: 1

      It was supposed to be out then, but they thought they'd make more money with a summer release (per EW iirc) and they also wanted time to have Abrams and others out there talking about why it is a mainstream movie and not just more of the same (per EW iirc too - was reading it at the dr's office this morning). In other words they wanted more time to have them out and about talking about its optimistic vision of the future vs things like Batman etc in order to attract a wide audience that includes more than just the regular Trek fan base.

    2. Re:Release date by TrekkieTechie · · Score: 1

      Apparently, once studio execs had a chance to look at dailies and storyboards and so forth, they realized the film had an excellent chance of attracting a broader audience than just Trek fans. They pushed the release date to May '09 so it wouldn't have to compete with other Christmas releases for general audience attention; a May release also gives it the chance to become a runaway summer blockbuster hit. (I'll believe it when I see it.) Abrams decided this was a good thing after all, because it would give him the opportunity to make sure everything (including the all-important special effects) are as good as they can possibly be.

      What this means for Trek fans, myself included, is that the film better be damn good if they got an extra four months to work on it. Personally, I'm expecting it to be a fairly lukewarm experience -- but then again, there are always possibilities...

    3. Re:Release date by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

      I thought this movie was supposed to come out this Christmas season. Now I see on the Star Trek movie website 'Summer 09'. Am I imagining things?

      The word is that they decided this picture was worthy of a summer release. The release date did change.

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
    4. Re:Release date by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

      Well there is also Star Trek Online that is in development. Apperently all they have to do to get that game out is create content and beta test it (they already had a engine ready to go before they got the license). It may be rushed but I think the perfect time to release a new MMO is when a movie with the same name is released.

      I'm not saying they will, I have no clue how much dev work needs to be done but it is a possibility.

  19. Too young? by Shivetya · · Score: 1

    Look back a hundred years and more and tell me how old you had to be to something dangerous, to lead, or raise a family. Look back to the recent Veteran's day and tell me that some of them were to young to be thrust in a world war.

    Do we know how old the people in the show are supposed to be? Do we know if in the future that older people will look a lot younger simply because of better medical care or environments?

    Do not apply visual cues to determine true age. It doesn't work anymore. Not with advances in medical science. Considering its the future as long as they look like they passed puberty I'm fine with it.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
  20. Anybody else wish .... by phoxix · · Score: 1
    ... producers would stop obsessing about the original series, and make like ... an updated Star Trek movie ??

    Maybe with the casts of TNG and DS9 ??

    I wouldn't be surprised if there were many other trekkies who love the newer stuff, but don't give a damn about the old material ...

    *raises hand*

    Its interesting because in the Slashdot poll of Which Trek is Best, the original series actually lost to DS9. If Slashdot isn't a place to guage this sorta thing ... you couldn't do it anywhere else.

    1. Re:Anybody else wish .... by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      Its interesting because in the Slashdot poll of Which Trek is Best, the original series actually lost to DS9. If Slashdot isn't a place to guage this sorta thing ... you couldn't do it anywhere else.

      The fact that most people voted for DS9 over any of the other series tells me it was unlikely that many involved in the vote were true Star Trek fans. The whole point of the Star Trek Universe was to boldly go where no man had gone before, not sit your ass in a space station waiting for someone to sleep with someone else or the fucking Dominion to pour in through a wormhole and try to enslave everybody. It still boggles my mind that people even say DS9 in the same vein as other Star Trek shows. It's been charged that DS9 was a direct ripoff of Babylon 5 (the creator of B5 accused Paramount of taking his concept, which he pitched to Paramount, and using it to create the first season of DS9). And really, when you watch DS9 and then watch TNG or TOS, or even the later ST:Voy, DS9 doesn't seem to really fit in with any of them. I'm not saying that DS9 sucks or anything like that, but it's a stretch to even call it Star Trek other than the familiar uniforms and appearances by ships that are ST Canon. Replace the familiar ST resources with those of Babylon 5, and you probably couldn't tell much of a difference.

  21. Many things you cannot change... changed. by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The real news at the moment is that a photo of the new Enterprise was released yesterday. I was expecting changes, but this awkward kitbash makes me very unhappy.

    From TFA:
    "If you're going to do Star Trek, there are many things you cannot change. The Enterprise is a visual touchstone for so many people."

    And so, naturally, they changed it. :D

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  22. Aerodynamic space ships by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

    I looked at the picture of the Enterprise, the curves remind me of a 50's car. Less concern for functionality than for looking stylish.

    It is not like those curves are for aerodynamics!

    What, you never read "Lensman"?

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  23. Soaring Heights by speroni · · Score: 2, Funny

    This really brings "News for Nerds" to a whole new level....

    --
    Eschew Obfuscation
  24. construction of the enterprise by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I liked how the original trailer looked like a Rammstein video, iron workers constructing the ship by hand on a planetbound spacedock.

    Strangely enough, our modern warships are essentially built by hand because the volumes aren't large enough to warrant assembly lines with robots. The ships are built in large assemblies that are joined together, huge machines moving the parts but humans inspecting every piece as they go together. But trying to model the construction of a futuristic starship after a modern-day navy vessel is about as silly as modeling space combat tactics after WWII....ok, yeah, they do it but it's still silly! Though I did dearly love the depth-charging scene from the Wing Commander movie, especially the part about the crew having to remain silent so the Kilrathi couldn't hear them, presumably on space sonar. :)

    But aside from the issue of how the pieces would be put together on a starship, there's the question of where it would be built. Trek has always had a thing for spacedocks in space. I remember asking my dad questions when we were watching Trek and was amazed when he told me the ship could never land. It blew my mind to think of a ship built in space, always in space, never landing.

    Anyway, I wonder just how awful this movie will end up being. Is it considered an even or odd-numbered film?

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:construction of the enterprise by bitrex · · Score: 3, Informative

      Another thing that got glossed over in the TNG films is just how long it supposedly took to construct a Galaxy-class starship. A long time ago I owned a copy of the Star Trek Technical Manual, and it had a timeline of the construction process for the Enterprise D. If I'm remembering correctly it took the better part of 40 years to complete a Galaxy class ship. Building a single one would be a huge multi-generational task, which is why it's understandable the Federation Council would have been pretty pissed at Kirk after Star Trek 3. In the TNG movies it seems like they blow one up every installment.

    2. Re:construction of the enterprise by bbroerman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If I remember the tech manual correctly, though, most of that time was in research and design of the new engines and systems. The Enterprise D was a big departure from previous ships in its engineering, and internal structure... even if the exterior did look a lot alike.

      --
      Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
    3. Re:construction of the enterprise by bbroerman · · Score: 1

      In "A Flag Full of Stars," the saucer section of the Enterprise was being overhauled, for a portion of time, on Earth... on the ground. But, according to most sources, the ship was built in Earth orbit, and the initial and final stages of the refit were also in orbit.

      --
      Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
    4. Re:construction of the enterprise by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

      Anyway, I wonder just how awful this movie will end up being. Is it considered an even or odd-numbered film?

      First Contact was the last even-numbered film.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    5. Re:construction of the enterprise by Knara · · Score: 1

      Nitpick, but the original NCC-1701 Enterprise was a Constitution and then a Constellation class starship, not a Galaxy class. The NCC-1701-A was, structurally, just an update of a type that had been in production ( I think I remember there being 12+ other Constitution class starships in TOS, much less by the time period of ST3 )for decades with retrofits.

      There were lots of reasons for Starfleet to be pissed at Kirk, though.

    6. Re:construction of the enterprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ya, iirc the actual construction took less then 10 years for the Enterprise, however the Enterprise was not the first Galaxy class, the USS Galaxy was. I think they also made major components for several Galaxy class ships (warp drives, computer cores, etc.) so they could build more then one at the same time after all the bugs got worked out of the prototype.

    7. Re:construction of the enterprise by ChrisA90278 · · Score: 1

      ">>>modeling space combat tactics after WWII.......the part about the crew having to remain silent so the Kilrathi couldn't hear them, presumably on space sonar. :)"

      I've read in a few places the reason they try and model space whats after WWII aircraft carrier battles is because people need to be able to understand the battle and what's happening. If you take a big leap you loose the viewers

      Oh and about the sonar: If you bounce a laser of a window any singal you put on the beam will be dopper modulated by the vibrations on the glass. You can listen to sounds inside from miles away. This would actually work better in space then in air and it's not "science fiction" Microwaves work too. there have been cases where this was done 20+ years ago.

    8. Re:construction of the enterprise by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

      Actually there were 2 more movies. Nemesis was Star Trek 10, so this new movie will in fact be a odd-numbered film. For anyone wondering why that was a question, even-numbered films appear to be liked by the Fans and do better at the box office.

    9. Re:construction of the enterprise by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      I don't think you got my meaning there. :)

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    10. Re:construction of the enterprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone said something which appears on its surface to be obviously incorrect! I will, rather than considering possible alternatives based on information I already know, show off how smart I am by correcting that person! This'll get me marks with the other real Star Trek fans who know how many movies there have been for sure! I couldn't possibly be showing myself to be a needlessly opportunistic wanking asshat who doesn't even understand the post he's replying to!

    11. Re:construction of the enterprise by bbroerman · · Score: 1

      I vaguely remember in the TNG tech manual that several spaceframes were left in mothballs in case they needed them. They had basic systems but no habitable modules. The D was a modular ship, with the spaceframe, hull, and critical structural and mechanical systems built separately, and then other items like habitable space were attached (or more like 'docked' inside. At launch, the D only had 40% or so of it's internal volume filled with modules. As the manual was written by Okuda and others on the Next Gen design team, I would take it as cannon.

      --
      Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
    12. Re:construction of the enterprise by Apotsy · · Score: 1

      Oh and about the sonar: If you bounce a laser of a window any singal you put on the beam will be dopper modulated by the vibrations on the glass. You can listen to sounds inside from miles away. This would actually work better in space then in air and it's not "science fiction" Microwaves work too. there have been cases where this was done 20+ years ago.

      I was about to post that. But then I thought "aw, let's not ruin the armchair skeptic's fun". :-)

      99% of the time when people try to pick apart the physics of a movie they just end up making themselves look dumb.

    13. Re:construction of the enterprise by zolaar · · Score: 1

      Star Trek: Nemesis => Stank. Reset me, sir.

      --
      One man's constant is another man's variable.
    14. Re:construction of the enterprise by cmdr_klarg · · Score: 1

      The original Enterprise from the TV show was a Constitution class.

      The refit Enterprise from movies 1-3 was the Enterprise class, as was the 1701-A from 4-6. I believe the Constellation class would be the what the Stargazer (Picard's first ship) from STTNG.

      B was an Excelsior class (ST:Generations).

      C was an Ambassador class (STTNG: Yesterday's Enterprise).

      D is the Galaxy class.

      E is the Sovereign class.

      --
      THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
    15. Re:construction of the enterprise by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

      Apparently I did not, care to elaborate.

    16. Re:construction of the enterprise by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      Well, imagine that everything you said I already knew, in particular the part about how the even-numbered ones are considered better than the odd-numbered, and I was assuming the reader knew this as well.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    17. Re:construction of the enterprise by Roman+Coder · · Score: 1

      They also reused the saucer section design of Enterprise D, for a space station orbiting Jupiter, for a Star Trek Voyager episode, where the Voyager doctor travels to Jupiter to save the human who invented him.

      --
      "The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov
    18. Re:construction of the enterprise by celle · · Score: 1

      "Anyway, I wonder just how awful this movie will end up being. Is it considered an even or odd-numbered film?"

      If you go by the numbers it's Star Trek XI. In other words it's eleven. I doubt I'll waste my time seeing it.

    19. Re:construction of the enterprise by FiveLights · · Score: 1

      I always like the idea of the movie Enterprise being Enterprise class, having read that in Mr. Scott's Guide To The Enterprise (I think) but it was actually still a Constitution class ship. This is verified in Star Trek VI when Scotty is looking at a plan view of the Enterprise (on paper) in the observation room. It is clearly marked "Constitution Class."

    20. Re:construction of the enterprise by Knara · · Score: 1

      I always liked the idea of Scotty still using physical blueprints, for some reason.

  25. I hope that Star Trek learned from Star Wars by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 1

    in that they make the Prequels better than the Original films.

    Otherwise it will become another Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and mess up some of the continuity in the original films and TV series, and have a plot that does not make sense, and acting that was not as good as the originals as they are using new actors and actresses that hardly anyone heard of before and have not yet fully learned the art of acting.

    At least make the Prequel better than the Star Wreck parody. I am sorry to say but Even Stark trek fan based films seem to be better than the original most recent Star Trek films, since Gene Roddenberry passed away. Maybe they should hire some of the Star Trek fans who made those films to help make the Prequels, if the current Star Trek film bombs? When Gene Roddenberry was alive, he was able to write or at least inspire the writers to have a good plot that follows logic and inspire the actors to act better, and have better combat and drama and more Sci Fi than Space Opera. I got a bad felling that this Prequel will end up more Space Opera than Sci Fi and deal more with relationships and personal issues between the characters than the Sci Fi story it should be. I hope it does not become, gasp, "Broke Back Starfleet Academy" or something. ;)

    --
    Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
    1. Re:I hope that Star Trek learned from Star Wars by hal2814 · · Score: 1

      "and acting that was not as good as the originals as they are using new actors and actresses that hardly anyone heard of before and have not yet fully learned the art of acting."

      I was going to write a snarky comment about how little experience the original series actors had before Star Trek but blimey if all of the main characters (Nimoy, Shatner, Kelley, and Doohan) all had a significant number of roles under their belts by then. But then I checked the new and old actors' profiles on the IMDB. Chris Pine probably has the weakest resume of the new main characters but he's not exactly wet behind the ears.

      At the very least, they're already one step ahead of the Star Wars prequel. They put someone in charge who knows how to write dialogue.

    2. Re:I hope that Star Trek learned from Star Wars by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 1

      Shatner had Twilight Zone experience (There is a monster on the wing of this plane!), Nimoy played Sherlock Holmes in a movie (Spock is logical deducer like Holmes so it was easy for him to adapt to playing a Vulcan that uses logic over emotions), and others had prior experience as well.

      But they got Gene Roddenberry training and guidance to help them fit into those roles.

      Star Trek the original series had wooden acting, cheesy special effects, cheap props and backgrounds (When Kirk fought the Lizardman they were obviously fake rocks made out of paper), and the combat was faked and the same ship combat scenes got played over and over again and the uniforms were basically jogging sweat suits with a badge and rank insignia put on them. But it turned into a cult clasic, even if the original series was canceled for bad ratings, it got good ratings in syndication on third party stations.

      But by the time the first few Star Trek movies got made, the acting was better, the special effects was better, the plots were better, and the combat wasn't looking so fake but more realistic. Just that Odd numbered Star Trek films are awful, but even numbered Star Trek films are much better. Like Star Trek: The Motion Picture wasn't so good, but Star Trek II: The Wraith of Khan was a smash hit at the box office.

      --
      Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
  26. Re:Continuity "problems" by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Kirk is subsequently seen being smuggled on board the Starship Enterprise on its maiden voyage by doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy, played by Karl Urban.

    McCoy isn't the original ship's surgeon on the Enterprise. I guess nobody who worked on the film ever saw The Cage.

    They're not following canon at all, they're re-booting the series.

    The canonization of the 20 year history of the Enterprise before Kirk took command was mainly just a way to recycle the pilot episode that used a different cast and FX model. I wouldn't say it's necessarily the best thing for the story to keep that around in a reboot.

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  27. They've run into a problem of power by CFD339 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The constant push of limits on the supposed speed of the craft, capabilities of the ships, and expanded population of the available area took away too many plot devices.

    In the original series, they were kind of out there on their own without help available. By the time the big war with the Borg came around in TNG, they got to the point where anything that was a threat could wipe them out entirely, and anything else was easily dealt with.

    Both DS9 and Voyager were attempts to revive the sense of frontier self reliance. DS9 was more of a city, and a sort of 'futuristic cop show' was the original goal. Voyager was to be an attempt to get back to the spirit of the original series.

    Going forward you have a more urban setting with the known region pretty much all settled and all the borders drawn.

    Going backward just gives you more room to work in.

    --
    The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
    1. Re:They've run into a problem of power by master_p · · Score: 1

      Not really. If you show space for what it is, i.e. empty, and everything being very far away, then the main ship is truly alone.

      Furthermore, at the time of TNG, only 19% of the galaxy has been mapped (mentioned somewhere in season 2 of TNG).

      the Star Trek saga can be continued simply from the point it stopped, i.e. after the war with the Founders and the return of Voyager. It can continue with new galactic mapping expeditions, in directions previously unmapped.

    2. Re:They've run into a problem of power by compro01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'd sooner have them take Riker's new ship out and get back to doing Real Exploring.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    3. Re:They've run into a problem of power by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      I stated this in a previous post, but I'd love to see something more in a Firefly-like vein, set further in the ST future, where a rogue element that has no support from a big collective force such as the Federation is featured. You could bring elements of traditional ST into it (like encounters with Federation ships, Klingons, etc) but really make it more Frontier-like than even ST:Enterprise.

    4. Re:They've run into a problem of power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And they cannae give you Warp factor 5 for 30 minutes!

    5. Re:They've run into a problem of power by FreqShow · · Score: 1

      DS9 was more of a city, and a sort of 'futuristic cop show' was the original goal. Voyager was to be an attempt to get back to the spirit of the original series.

      IIRC, Roddenberry's original pitch to the studio for ST:TOS was "Wagon Train to the stars". DS9 was "Gunsmoke". For Voyager, see Homer's Odyssey.

  28. International Space Station anyone by Xerolooper · · Score: 1

    The original enterprise from tos is more like what real space gear looks like. ie. no need for aerodynamics and clean lines/utilitarianism that don't waste precious living space. That is why the sweeping aerodynamic design is just stupid and insulting. Having said that I would rather have a wacky low IQ starship and still keep the dream alive than have no dreams at all.

    --
    "The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." -Thomas Szasz
    1. Re:International Space Station anyone by He+Who+Waits · · Score: 1
      Actually, the primary hull (usually a saucer, sometimes a sphere or wedge shape) was always meant to be aerodynamic.

      That way it could be jettisoned and serve as a lifeboat in a last-resort attempt at planetfall on a planet with an atmosphere.

    2. Re:International Space Station anyone by Knara · · Score: 1

      Stylization of starships in Star Trek has been pretty consistent (even in TOS the Romulans were painting large bird wings on the bottoms of their hulls). The stylization is intended to project a "feeling" to the audience, not to be ultra-realistic. It's the visual equivalent of stylized names in literature.

    3. Re:International Space Station anyone by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      IIRC, the aerodynamic designs were, in ST Science, said to improve the ships cruising warp speeds. I do remember an episode of ST:Voy where it was explained that the ship could maintain a high lvl of warp speed because of the way the nacelles scooped up during warp flight and the shape of the ship in general. Someone who is more geeky than me when it comes to all things Trek is free to refute this if they have knowledge to the contrary.

    4. Re:International Space Station anyone by bbroerman · · Score: 1

      There were items in the various ST tech manuals saying that there was a type of streamlining that had to be done to make the transition into warp easier, and to maintain a properly configured warp field. Specifically, a saucer section with an even number of warp nacelles.

      --
      Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
    5. Re:International Space Station anyone by Xerolooper · · Score: 1

      Your are right of course. My point was just that when they take the fantasy part of Sci-fi Fantasy to far it ruins it for some of us. Plus for some of us older geeks TOS is Star Trek and the movies and later series pale in comparison to the impact TOS made on us. Times were different then. Now get off my lawn!

      --
      "The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." -Thomas Szasz
  29. Re:Continuity "problems" by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They're not following canon at all, they're re-booting the series.

    Except that the official line is that they are NOT rebooting the series. Which is rather two-faced when you think about it. On one hand you're telling the fans that you're not rebooting the series (at a time when fans are probably most receptive to a reboot) then you go and reboot it anyway.

    With PR management like that, is it any wonder that fans are upset?

  30. Star Trek by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Star Trek has always been a predictable mirror image of what Hollywood multicultural world-government pseudo-Marxists would like the universe to be. They hope if they push enough of this thinly veiled propaganda through films and the Talmudvision it might actually come true.

  31. Here we go again by DesScorp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "I was expecting changes, but this awkward kitbash makes me very unhappy."

    Younger fans that don't give a crap about the franchise will love the new iLook, in all probability. But those of us that have been fans all our lives aren't going to like this very much. Most of us are, frankly, sick of the retconning in the cannon. We fought for years to get Rick Berman kicked out of the franchise for precisely this kind of garbage. "Canon? Fuck that! If we can eke out another Nielson's point or two, lets do yet another time travel story and totally screw the franchise history up! It'll be Die Hard on a Starship!"

    You'd expect some minor touchups to take advantage of current technology, but this is a complete retooling of the classic series, a reboot. Real longtime fans would probably be happier with Jim Cawley's New Voyages/Phase II. How ironic that an Elvis impersonator has more love and respect for the series than the current movie's creative team does.

    --
    Life is hard, and the world is cruel
    1. Re:Here we go again by khellendros1984 · · Score: 1

      I've been a Star Trek fan all my life...granted, I was raised on Next Generation, not the original series. Berman did screw up pretty badly (really? Borg before 1701-D met up with them?? pshaw). I guess that's the reason I'm cautiously optimistic to see a new take on Roddenberry's creation. Instead of pretending to follow canon, create a completely new one based on the same themes. Roddenberry had some good ideas, but I'm not averse to seeing what someone else can do with his ideas while not being tied down to what has been done before.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    2. Re:Here we go again by master_p · · Score: 1

      I don't understand. What's in the new movie that has hurt your feelings?

      It's not a reboot, because the story does not change. It's a re-imaging, a re-make. New actors, new designs for the old characters and old features.

    3. Re:Here we go again by Ifandbut · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Original Series bridge looked like something strait out of the 70's, not sci-fi at all. It was just a bunch of shiny buttons that you have no clue what the purpose was.

      In the Next Generation the computers actually looked like computers that could function with the user knowing what they were doing. There is actually a LCARS Standards Development Board (however the site Wikipedia links to is off line). Heck, there is a trending and monitoring program we use at my work that has a LCARS style interface.

      Personally, the bridge and ship should be updated for every series because our view of what is futuristic changes every 5 years or less. Thats why you go from having monitors in large cases on Voyager and DS9 to having flat screen monitors everywhere in Enterprise, because when DS9 and Voyager were in production LCD monitors were some fancy new toy that were very expensive but when Enterprise came out everyone had LCD monitors. It is just natural for the bridge design look more high-tech no matter where it falls in cannon.

    4. Re:Here we go again by theaveng · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why not just make an entirely new show then? Call it "Space Journey". There's no need to ruin the current history (or make Scotty gay).

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    5. Re:Here we go again by theaveng · · Score: 2, Informative

      >>>The Original Series bridge looked like something strait out of the 70's...

      That's amazing considering it was made in 1965. Huh. Maybe Gene had a time travel device that let him peak into the disco era and copy it. /end sarcasm. THIS new movie ship will look like it was made somewhere around... 2010. And it will look very aged come 2020 or 2030.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    6. Re:Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1701-E is the indirect cause of those Borg showing up; They ended up on earth during First Contact. Which really makes me wish that this movie was "what would Star Trek look like if it started with Enterprise?" rather than a complete re imaging without even that weak excuse.

      Oh well, the scriptwriters missed an opportunity, it happens.

    7. Re:Here we go again by Latinhypercube · · Score: 0

      Don't kid yourself. Young fans are going to laugh their asses off at this dinosaur.

    8. Re:Here we go again by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      It'll be Die Hard on a Starship!

      To be honest, Starship Mine was a pretty good episode.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    9. Re:Here we go again by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      Per Abrams, it's not a reboot. This is supposed to maintain continuity with the series.

    10. Re:Here we go again by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      I still think Voyager was when Star Trek jumped the shark. They leaned on technology to much to resolve the plot. Granted they did this some time before in the other Star Treks, but it was their only way out 99% of the time. Also Voyager with Star Trek First Contact made the Borg to easy to get along with and sociable, quite easy to kill, Where before they were just pure evil monsters nearly unstoppable. Then with Enterprise they were kinda to a good start then they just got lazy and decided well lets upgrade the ship and come up with "new" technology that all the other Star Trek shows had in common. I liked it when Enterprise has their asses handed to them. But later on they were just as tough as anyone else. And I was hoping for a Romulan War.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    11. Re:Here we go again by rob1980 · · Score: 1

      And it will look very aged come 2020 or 2030.

      And we'll all say, "Dammit boy, when I was your age all we had were touchscreens, and WE LIKED THEM!"

    12. Re:Here we go again by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

      >>>The Original Series bridge looked like something strait out of the 70's...

      That's amazing considering it was made in 1965. Huh. Maybe Gene had a time travel device that let him peak into the disco era and copy it. /end sarcasm. THIS new movie ship will look like it was made somewhere around... 2010. And it will look very aged come 2020 or 2030.

      Ok, maybe I should turn in my geek card, I thought Star Trek was early 70's. Anything from 1960-1980 basicaly looks the same to me.

      And yes, it will look aged come 2020 and that was the point I was trying to make.

    13. Re:Here we go again by jayp00001 · · Score: 1

      But those of us that have been fans all our lives aren't going to like this very much. Most of us are, frankly, sick of the retconning in the cannon

      No kidding, but do you honestly think paramount is ever going to pay attention to actual Neilson numbers, or give 2 seconds thought to any future movies? Hollywood has the silly idea that if you get an a-list actor and an a-list director, the story and/or plot in and of itself is irrelevant. In this case however they have the idea that because it says "star trek" there is a guaranteed number of viewers (and that's true) so they can get by with b-list actors (nothing against the actors in the movie but none of their names are household icons) as long as they have an a-list director. Paramount didn't tell abrams "go revitalize the franchise" they said "go ahead and make a new franchise- but call it star trek". If you want to see how little paramount cares about star trek, see if you can find a copy of Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier. In particular watch when braga has to answer a question about what a tricorder is. Note that all the actors can answer the question but braga looks bewildered and finally calls it a plot device- and this guy wrote episodes!

  32. Legitimate and Real? by sharkey · · Score: 1

    In his introduction, Abrams said he wanted the film to be released in May 2009, to feel 'legitimate and real.'

    So, films not released in May of 2009 do not feel "legitimate and real"?

    --

    --
    "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
    1. Re:Legitimate and Real? by bbroerman · · Score: 1

      I believe the "legitimate and real" was referring to the movie, and not to the choice in date... Bad placement of punctuation...

      --
      Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
  33. What makes you think they give a rip? by DesScorp · · Score: 1

    What makes you think they care about continuity? As much as JJ Abrams is hyped to be a great sci-fi writer, it's obvious he didn't know and didn't care about the history of the series. And in Star Trek, the history of the series... the canon, if you will, is very, very important to Trek fans.

    I think this movie will appeal to teenagers who don't know and don't care about Star Trek. But it's looking like it'll absolutely horrify the rest of us with it's typical Hollywoodish "who gives a fuck about the details?" attitude. If it's turning out how I think it will, I hope it crashes and burns and Paramount refuses to make another Trek movie for 10 years. Then at least it'll be another ten years before they fuck things up again.

    --
    Life is hard, and the world is cruel
    1. Re:What makes you think they give a rip? by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      As a serious Trek fan, I personally think people are getting too worked up over all this. Sometimes it's nice to get a fresh take on old stories. As long as they don't end up like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

  34. As A Cracker I Take Offense At Your Remark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And why have a Korean play a Japanese character (Sulu)? WTF? I guess they are depending on the old cracker saying "what's the difference?"

    Crackers do too know the difference: Korean food hot and spicy, Japanese food cold and slimy.

    Please stop stereotyping us as ignorant backwoods rednecks.

    Thanks y'all.

    1. Re:As A Cracker I Take Offense At Your Remark by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      I'd mod you as insightful just on the basis that I live in the Southeastern US and the mock you did is actually pretty accurate of most rednecks who live down here.

  35. New Enterprise... by bbroerman · · Score: 1

    This new Enterprise (the ship & bridge) look way too advanced. They should have made the exterior the same as TOS, but maybe modernized the bridge a *little*. Maybe somewhere between TOS and ST-TMP. I definitely think they went WAY too far.

    Now, if they wanted to acknowledge that the "old" consoles, etc. are just because of our real-life tech limitations, then I could go with touchscreens like TNG on the bridge, but the Enterprise was also a warship, and they wouldn't use the latest and greatest tech on it. They would rely on older "more proven" technologies for critical systems.

    Also, if you look at the novels (as Abrams supposidly did) you'd learn the control systems of the Enterprise was designed by an Alpha Centauran, and they are aesthetic minimalists.

    --
    Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
    1. Re:New Enterprise... by BarneyL · · Score: 1

      Now, if they wanted to acknowledge that the "old" consoles, etc. are just because of our real-life tech limitations, then I could go with touchscreens like TNG on the bridge, but the Enterprise was also a warship, and they wouldn't use the latest and greatest tech on it. They would rely on older "more proven" technologies for critical systems.

      Surely 300 years in the future touchscreens will be old, proven technology.

    2. Re:New Enterprise... by Knara · · Score: 1

      Well, you have to also focus on the fact that in the 1960's, the cinematic and technical portrayal of Star Trek *was* cutting edge.

      Star Trek is an American future-mythology (like Star Wars), and as such, its visual depiction will advance as our culture's "state of the art" advances.

    3. Re:New Enterprise... by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      What I'd like to know is how did they keep the touchscreens so clean? My G1 has to be cleaned constantly, and I'm sure in 300 years Humans did not lose their ability to produce oils from their pores. I don't remember any episodes of TNG where someone walked around with a bottle of Windex and some non-static wipes.

    4. Re:New Enterprise... by solios · · Score: 1

      Surely 300 years in the future touchscreens will be old, proven technology

      ... while manual buttons, levers, and switches will be older and even more proven.

      And tactile.

      On a smoke-filled bridge, it helps if you can feel that you're pulling the lever for the fire control system, as opposed to having accidentally fumbled your way into the other fire control system and launched a torpedo at your tailpipe.

      LCARS may be pretty, but if you can't actually see what you're doing, it's completely useless. Manual controls, you can still feel around for what you need with one hand while you're fumbling around for your eyeballs with the other.

  36. In the other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    new, clean energy source discovered: Gene rotating in this grave :-(

  37. I agree but with one exception by seeker_1us · · Score: 1
    I don't think a reboot of classic trek is needed at all.

    I don't think reboots of classic series are needed.

    It stifles creativity. People need to come up with new things like Babylon 5 and Firefly.

    If the current "reboot" fad was the mentality in the sixties, we wouldn't have Star Trek at all, we would have Buck Rogers reboot (wait, we had that in the seventies... and it was NOT the quality of Star Trek).

    Reboots are about selling product, not creating art.

  38. Re:Continuity "problems" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no... it's "is it any wonder that HARDCORE fans are upset.

  39. Re:Scotty is gay? - My geek quotient overflows... by mykepredko · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, Scotty fall in love in "The Lights of Zetar" to Lieutenant Mira Romaine.

    Then of course there's "Wolf in the Fold" in which Scotty tries to pick up a dancer and she ends up dying and Scotty has her blood on his hands.

    myke

  40. Re:the ship could never land by twmcneil · · Score: 1

    Actually a Star Ship can land, but only once and only in the San Francisco Bay.

    --
    "The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
  41. Reboot, Schmeboot by Marnok · · Score: 0

    You all are aware this is a work of fiction, right?

  42. Can I get an "AMEN", brother! by khasim · · Score: 1

    It stifles creativity. People need to come up with new things like Babylon 5 and Firefly.

    Or not! Look at how many novels there are, written by hard core fans, set in the Star Trek universe. And almost all of them stick to established canon.

    Any GOOD writer can take an existing universe and create ORIGINAL stories in it.

    Any BAD writer can take an existing universe and "reboot" it.

    This is about bad writers and bad producers trying to wring a hit movie out of a dedicated fan base.

    1. Re:Can I get an "AMEN", brother! by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      Any GOOD writer can take an existing universe and create ORIGINAL stories in it.

      Any BAD writer can take an existing universe and "reboot" it.

      And? Any bad writer can add original stories to an existing universe as well (examples too numerous to list here), and any good writer can "reboot" an existing universe as well (BSG is an outstanding example). Your claim is trivial, and says nothing.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
  43. Those spacedocks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trek has always had a thing for spacedocks in space.

    As opposed to the spacedocks built underwater?

  44. We had that... by denzacar · · Score: 1

    It was called "Enterprise".

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  45. Re:Scotty is gay? - My geek quotient overflows... by theaveng · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's true! Scotty liked the ladies, he was just more focused on a long-term commitment.

    Abrahms Star Trek I think will be as different from the original series, as was Battlestar Galactica Reboot to its original 1978-79 series. They are taking continuity and throwing it out the window, which means everything we've seen between 1966 and 2001 (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY inclusively) will be shitcanned.

    --
    FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
  46. Re:Many things you cannot change... changed. by theaveng · · Score: 1

    MORE: "Abrams wanted to take the original TV-series Enterprise and the movie-franchise Enterprise and fuse them together."

    He has no concept of continuity. The Enterprise didn't just suddenly change. It had an original design, and then it was upgraded with new nacelles and internal systems. It was a logical, consistent process of military upgrades. Abrams is a fucking idiot to just suddenly decide to "morph" the two designs together; how does that make any logical sense?!?!? And you know what? His show Alias sucked after the first season, Lost is slow & boring, and I don't recall anything else Abrams has done that was worthwhile.

    I'm just starting to think Abrams is the worst thing to happen to Trek since Ron "I never watched Star Trek" Berman. Why don't they had the reins to someone who actually cares about the franchise like Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski? Or even Joss Whedon. I'm sure he'd do a better job than Abrams.

    "I'll fuse the TV ship with the movie ship" - stupid twit.

    --
    FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
  47. The Problem For Me is The Story by Vortran · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Good entertainment has always been about the story, but I believe Star Trek also has to be futuristic in a high-minded sort of way.

    As a lifetime fan (been watching since NBC carried ToS), I am interested in seeing some of the intrigue pan out.

    Specifically:
          What about the Crystalline Entity? Other members of this species. Where is it now?
          Speaking of species, how about Species 8472?
          What ever happened to Wesley and the traveller? Where are they now?
          Data/Lore? Dare I mention the Borg?
          Q? I sure have missed John de Lancie.
          What about Warp 10 and Tom Paris' ground-breaking work there?
          What about the time-traveling Federation that gave 'The Doctor' his portable holo-emitter? I sure would like to see THAT Federation!!

    The point is that there is so much fodder for a good story - something that could easily by filled in for newcomers, that I don't understand why all this is being ignored (example: Nemesis and this new one which I don't think I even want to see).

    What I've seen since 'First Contact' has been just plain depressing.

    Vortran out

    --
    Knowledge is like ignorance.. too much can be just as bad as not enough.
    1. Re:The Problem For Me is The Story by Daimanta · · Score: 1

      "What ever happened to Wesley and the traveller? Where are they now?"

      Some place very very very far away. I hope.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    2. Re:The Problem For Me is The Story by Xerolooper · · Score: 1

      All good points. The right people have to be interested in pursuing those tracks. Otherwise they will never be made. Obviously they know that they can pretty much count on making money on Star Trek they just have to decide how much they want to make.
      You could always right a screenplay and start making some phone calls.

      --
      "The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." -Thomas Szasz
  48. Re:the ship could never land by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

    I think you were being funny however you were sorta correct. All the Enterprise ships had the ability to separate the saucer section and land on a planet, however I believe it was not until the Galaxy class that the saucer section had enough power to take off again (that did not work in Generations because the ship crash landed due to damage).

  49. Movie Cliffhanger *SPOILER* by lordnabob · · Score: 1

    The film finishes with black smoke chasing a polar bear chasing the crew,
    which will have no choice but to hide in the Enterprise's mysterious "hatch".

    Sneak Peek for sequel:
    Turns out the hatch is where the only toilet is.

  50. Cupcakes had the Enterprise insignia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Reporters were treated to cupcakes bearing the Starfleet insignia" ... not the Starfleet insignia.

    1. Re:Cupcakes had the Enterprise insignia by LionMage · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, the Enterprise insignia eventually became the Starfleet insignia, and this is well documented in many of the reference books that came out... circa TNG, I believe. You'll notice that by the time of TNG, everybody was wearing the same insignia -- there were no separate emblems for different ships in the fleet. As for the films, the Reliant and Enterprise crews had the same insignia in Star Trek II, so we can extrapolate about the approximate time when this transition happened inside the Trek universe.

      I'm interested to see if, since this new film takes place during TOS time period, there are Starfleet personnel walking around with different symbols pinned to their chests. But I suspect they will have done away with that bit of canon from TOS. I guess we'll see when the new movie actually is released.

  51. Yet another time travel? by 9gezegen · · Score: 1

    From the article: "The audience also saw Leonard Nimoy reprise his role as the older Mr Spock in one of four excerpts from the film. .... In his scene, meanwhile, Nimoy's Mr Spock is seen delivering the Star Trek legend: "Live long and prosper." Lets just hope that this scene refers to what our heros will become and not they are talking to Spock in the future.

    1. Re:Yet another time travel? by Taibhsear · · Score: 1

      He's the narrator, IIRC, recalling his tales to others. No time travel AFAIK. (gods I hope I'm right)

  52. Nouveau Retro by dpilot · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of Asimov's Foundation novels.

    In the original Foundation Trilogy, starships were essentially modeled after naval ships. They were big, and had crews of hundreds or thousands, full of heavy machinery. When he started the new Foundation stories, after 500 years of Foundation progress, they discovered (Queue Dr. Evil) "miniaturization." The new ship where most of the action took place was automated to the point where one person could run it, though it could carry a few passengers. In addition, this new small ship could out-run and out-shoot the 500 year old battleship of the original Foundation Trilogy. 500 years of Foundation progress managed to mimic 40 years of Earth progress. It seems that the future is always ahead of the present, and as the present moves, so does the future. Kind of obvious, but it seems to even work that way even when the fictional future is 1000 years from now.

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    1. Re:Nouveau Retro by theaveng · · Score: 1

      You need to re-read the Foundation Trilogy and Foundation's Edge. Asimov didn't "discover" miniaturization. He was describing two separate civilizations, each with a different philosophy:

      - The Galactic Empire did everything gradiose, with mega-ships, but that lack of innovation led to decay and destabilization.

      - The Foundation, located on the edge of space, had limited resources so they were forced by circumstances to do things in a small way. They innovated.

      Two different civilizations; two different approaches.

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    2. Re:Nouveau Retro by dpilot · · Score: 1

      I think you're reading more into Dr. A. than was there. The Foundation Trilogy was written in the WWII era, when the current rage was big, hulking assemblies of steel with lots of organic (men) moving parts. When he started up again, the new rage was miniaturization.

      He was just writing in his culture, advancing it as necessary for the future.

      One book I read had a starship that was a flat plate. Period. The extruded stuff out of it as necessary for chairs, tables, etc. The plate moved itself, the people stood on the plate, the substance of the plate adapted to the needs of the people.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  53. Sony/Toshiba Prototype Warp Drives by andrewd18 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    after all the bugs got worked out of the prototype

    Sony and Toshiba Corp are issuing a recall for all warp drives produced between June 2149 and March 2151. The drives are defective and may explode, even when the ship is running under impulse power. All ships equipped with such warp drives are encouraged to dock at their nearest Federation spacedock for a free refit.

  54. Cannon by RudeIota · · Score: 1

    instead of having to rewrite cannon, you can create new cannon

    So, are we talking photon cannons or did you mean the kind of canon that doesn't blow things up? ;)

    I don't like playing Grammar Gestapo, but you used it twice and while it probably won't impact your life in any significant way... you never know. :)

    --
    Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
    1. Re:Cannon by pcolaman · · Score: 1

      Both at once. They are Duo Can(n)ons, kind of like the Core 2 Duo.

  55. Re:Many things you cannot change... changed. by snuf23 · · Score: 1

    "reboot the franchise"
    "re-imagine"

    Terms like this mean that what they are after is not doing fan service but rather attempting to expand the appeal of the franchise to new audiences.
    I agree, it will probably suck but I believe it is obvious that there intention is to grow the audience rather than appeal to hardcore fans who are notorious for being hard to please.

    --
    Sometimes my arms bend back.
  56. J.J Abrams cares very little for canon by RudeIota · · Score: 3, Interesting
    http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20007719,00.html

    After his panel at the New York Times' 6th Annual Arts & Leisure Weekend, EW sat down with Mission: Impossible III helmer and Lost creator J.J. Abrams to get an inside look at his new enterprise: a Star Trek movie. While it isn't clear when we can expect to see the film, which will be the 11th in the series, he confirmed a draft of the script is done, and it will be trimmed sometime soon.

    So what, exactly, will be the plot? Early reports (like this one in Variety) said that it will focus on the young, post-Starfleet Academy days of James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, but Abrams wouldn't specify. Still, he assured us it's a story that even non-Trekkers can enjoy. ''On the one hand, for people who love Star Trek, the fix that they will get will be really satisfying,'' he says. ''For people who've never seen it or know it vaguely, I think they will enjoy it equally, because the movie does not require you to know anything about Star Trek. I would actually prefer [that] people don't know the series, because I feel like they will come to it with an open mind.''

    --
    Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
  57. USS Titan by SpekkioMofW · · Score: 2, Informative

    The "Titan" books have been pretty good, if too infrequent for my tastes. I wonder if Frakes, Sirtis, Russ, etc, would be willing to reprise their characters? http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek:_Titan

    --
    Spekkio Master of War
    1. Re:USS Titan by compro01 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I've been reading the books also, which is why I very much think it should be the next series. As Picard said "Does anyone remember when we were explorers?".

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  58. Re:the ship could never land by bbroerman · · Score: 1

    True. According to all of the tech manuals, the older Enterprises could separate. The Constitution class could use either the saucer section or the engineering section as a lifeboat, depending on what was damaged. On the Enterprise and later classes, it was determined that the engineering hull was never used as a lifeboat, and had the largest possibility of being damaged, so that capability was taken out during the refit. This also allowed for additional stores spaces, the botany section, and an expanded shuttle deck and engineering deck. This design stuck on all ships afterwards. Once separated, it took a spacedock to put the parts back together. That was, until the Galaxy class. I don't know if the Sovereign class has this capability or not, as no tech manuals, official blueprints, etc. have been released. The "Okudagram" in the sketch book from Generations and First Contact don't show anything in the way of the separation mechanics.

    --
    Logic is the beginning of reason, not the end of it.
  59. Waiting for the video.. by StikyPad · · Score: 1

    I really hope he doesn't "JJ up" Star Trek. Honestly, Alias was one of the worst spy-genre series ever, and Fringe is simply atrocious. I have nothing against taking liberties with what is scientifically possible, but there's a vast difference between taking liberties, and completely making shit up that has no basis in either fact or logical speculation. Every single episode of the above series has left me in a catatonic state, rocking back and forth like an Autistic child who can't reconcile what he's just seen with any version of reality that he knows. God only knows how the actors can get "in character" for his roles, because the characters themselves bear no resemblance to anyone with a personality, let alone someone with a brain. They make stupid mistakes left and right, and in the end of each episode, make some huge leap of logic which is itself a complete non-sequitur -- just one that happens to be right in the context of the show. "Computers are powered by magic and explosions only leave scratches, therefore my fiancee is not really dead, but he is an alien, and there is a shadow government controlling everything."

    His choice of actors leaves much to be desired as well. From the Mick Jagger look-alike, Jennifer Garner, supposedly playing the role of a femme fatale, to placing the Muppet known as Janice in the leading role in Fringe, it's as if he's actually challenging the audience to believe anything on the screen.

    Honestly, his best work is "Lost," and even that only worked when he refrained from trying to explain anything whatsoever. Now even Lost has lost its way, and as much as I'd like to like it, I have a feeling JJ will work his anti-magic on the last 2 seasons to bring it to a screeching train wreck of an ending. I would've much rather seen someone like Joss Whedon on Star Trek, but I guess compelling characters and congruent plot lines are out of style these days.

  60. How bad could it be. . ? by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought, "Oh please. How can they screw it up. It's the Enterprise."

    Aieee! That thing stinks of Hollywood's idea of cool; non-creative execs trying to cash in on the latest trend rather than allowing the real creative team to follow its natural instincts. That design has subtle alien qualities about it which spook me. And in any other film, that'd be fine. Sure. Whatever. But we already KNOW what the Enterprise looks like. That's why people want to watch it.

    Abrams is a first-rate ass. "Lost" is messed up broken garbage which teaches viewers the poorest social imperatives, illustrating reality as a place where you can't trust anybody and communication must always be choked down to the barest minimum channel needed for survival. And "Alias" was just one big apologist's argument for torture. --That they put this J.J. clown in charge of Star Trek is nothing short of evil. Star Trek is supposed to stand for communication and human dignity. Abrams is nothing but a flashy pimp intent on the degradation of the human spirit.

    Abrams, I hope you die very, very soon. Seriously. And I'm not saying that in passion. I just think the world would be better off without your presence and influence.

    -FL

  61. Attention Star Trekker-Trekkies by mmwithpeanuts · · Score: 1

    Put your phasers on. I have a feeling this is going to be good enough to revive the franchise. I remember submitting a speck script for the Next Generation called, "Boat Of Souls". They supposedly didn't do it, and hopefully didn't rip any of my story elements for a later show, as I had given up watching the series, after it began to fall apart. Anyway, this new one is probably going to be good. I don't know much about it, but have seen the trailer. Apple will probably be coming out with a new iphone called the Trekker.

  62. But it doesn't matter... by _2Karl · · Score: 1

    ...Because all you Trek fans who a screaming blue murder will STILL go out and spend your 6 quid to watch the film, despite you knowing you won't enjoy it.

    If you're so sure that it's going to be an afront to all you hold holy then just ignore it; don't support the people making it by handing over your cash. don't even bother downloading it, just pretend it doesn't exist.

    I get sick and tired of people who moan incessantly about things like this and yet STILL bow down to the almighty Marketing God because they're addicted, or weak minded or just plain stupid. It's the same with computer games. All those people complaining about Spore's DRM and yet the STILL go out and buy it, or download it, whatever. If it offends you that much, just IGNORE it. don't even give them the numbers for pirated downloads.

    I don't care about the new look enterprise because this new movie is just a rehash of the same old thing. It's YET ANOTHER Remake. What's the point in a remake? It's a chance for a bunch of people to rake in cash without actually doing anything original. I mean god forbid anyone should take a risk on something NEW for once. And don't bother telling me "there's only 5 basic storylines" I don't care. I'd rather have a fresh new take on one of the 5 than a stale boring take on something that already came out however many years ago.

    So in summary: "Double Dumb-ass on YOU!"