Recent Trek Movie Question (Minor Spoiler Warning)

[drwayne]

Watched the DVD last night...

It seems to me that this movie has kicked off a timeline that differs in some significant
ways from the existing TV timeline. Vulcan is gone, Kirk has the Enterprise, but it looks
like this happens earlier in his career than the TV timeline. (his Farragut service is
not happening, it almost looks like he takes command during some of Pike's command
time)

Is this what y'all see?

Do you think this timeline offers more or less potential that the timeline we know?

 

[docm]

Yes and Yes.

In this timeline not only is Vulcan gone but so is Romulus (that's what got Nero so ticked off) and Pike is also first captain of the Enterprise, totally bypassing Robert April. Also missing is Pike's female "Number One" 2nd officer from The Menagerie.

Somehow I don't think she would have put up with either Kirk/Spock's fight or being bypassed in the line of succession

April only appeared in the animated series and in novels. His original first officer was Commander George Kirk, James Kirk's father. The Star Trek movie also changes this, putting George Kirk on the USS Kelvin as first officer to Captain Richard Pierre Robau (Cuban).

Personally I hope Paramount keeps good relations with Faran Tahir, the Pakistani-American actor who played Robau. I think a series based in the Kelvin and Captain Robau would be very cool because in the time Tahir had on screen he totally sold me that he was a very smart, and tough, Starfleet Captain.

You might also know him as the terrorist leader Raza in Iron Man.

 

[drwayne]

They seemed to want to change Uhura quite a bit too. The relationship with Spock
seemed contrived to be different than "our" timeline.

Pike seemed to be different, but given that when we saw him in the Cage, he had been
Captain for quite a while, it may be a natural reverse progression.

 

[yevaud]

In this timeline not only is Vulcan gone but so is Romulus

Well, no. Romulus was destroyed in the original timeline, many years from "now." In this Timeline, it's decades prior to the event that destroyed Romulus, so it must defacto still exist. Which makes me wonder why Nero didn't just head straight for Romulus, and offer them technology many decades advanced for them? He screwed up royally there; he could have made the Romulans the pre-eminent power in the sector, but was so caught up in his vendetta...

I, for one, am still well and truly put out that they would assign Kirk as Captain of the Enterprise. He's fresh out of the academy, for gosh sakes! I don't care if he saved the universe, he's still far too inexperienced.

Still...I like most of the re-imagined characters. Scotty and Bones particularly. They have "game."

 

[drwayne]

"I, for one, am still well and truly put out that they would assign Kirk as Captain of the Enterprise. He's fresh out of the academy, for gosh sakes! I don't care if he saved the universe, he's still far too inexperienced."

Agreed, in the extreme. My only hope is that Kirk gained something more substantial from his mind-meld
with the old Spock - perhaps some of the old Kirk's experience.

The time angle struck me as a "clever" way to free themselves of the legacy stories and start fresh
with similar characters under new boundary conditions.

 

[StarRider1701]

The time angle struck me as a "clever" way to free themselves of the legacy stories and start fresh
with similar characters under new boundary conditions.

Yes, it was a way to take some of the old characters and put them into a new Trek Universe where many things have changed. I am disappointed that Kirk's new way of solving Spock's puzzle amounted to hacking into the computers and cheating. Sets a very bad example for our newest Star Trek fans...

I am a bit puzzled... The Romulan ship was some kind of mining vessel, not a war ship at all. Why would it carry so much military hardware and weapons...?

 

[docm]

You said it yourself "The Romulan ship....". Romulus was a military dictatorship and prone to not just have defensive weapons, plus the drill was just that - a mining tool not unlike our tunnel borers but on steroids. Nero just adapted it to a new use.

 

[StarRider1701]

You said it yourself "The Romulan ship....". Romulus was a military dictatorship and prone to not just have defensive weapons, plus the drill was just that - a mining tool not unlike our tunnel borers but on steroids. Nero just adapted it to a new use.

Yeah, but most military dictatorships like to keep the weapons for the military only. Wouldn't want just any civillian to get other ideas and have weapons too!

One thing I noticed and wondered about during the movie, not one ship attacking the mining vessel even tried to shoot the long chain holding the borer beam. That would have been my first shot... but then the movie would have ended quickly. And Vulcan would not have fallen so easily. Where were the Vulcan ground defences? Hell, WE would have put up more of a fight with some high altitude fighters and a Genie nuclear tipped missle or two attacking the borer itsef. It was well inside the atmosphere.

I liked the movie, but there are alway goofy details...

 

[drwayne]

I found it disturbing that the "new" Kirk comes across as -- I'm not sure this is the term
I want - but "shallower" that Shatner's Kirk.

Wayne

 

[docm]

Younger = shallower, what's not to understand?

 

[drwayne]

Younger = shallower, what's not to understand?

Yes, but I am old and shallow....ooops

 

[rubicondsrv]

Yeah, but most military dictatorships like to keep the weapons for the military only. Wouldn't want just any civillian to get other ideas and have weapons too! .

one word: pirates

 

[yevaud]

Younger = shallower, what's not to understand?

Yes, but I am old and shallow....ooops

New broom makes a clean sweep, but old broom knows where all of the dirt is.

 

[bdewoody]

I just thought of something. What happened to the temporal police? Aren't they supposed to prevent mad scientists or hostile aliens from going back in time and changibg history? Don't get me wrong, I think the previous producers of the various Star Trek Franchises over played that card, especially in the Enterprise series. I guess the new version of Star Trek won't be using that plot line very much.

 

[docm]

Sounds like an old Jean-Claude Van Damme movie

 

[doom_shepherd]

They seemed to want to change Uhura quite a bit too. The relationship with Spock
seemed contrived to be different than "our" timeline.

Maybe. There's an interesting semi-flirtation between Uhura and Spock in one of the earliest TOS episodes, "Charlie X." She even sings a song about Spock that suggests hidden depths.

 

[doom_shepherd]

I found it disturbing that the "new" Kirk comes across as -- I'm not sure this is the term
I want - but "shallower" that Shatner's Kirk.

Wayne

Kirk grew up without his father in the "new" timeline. This would no doubt cause his personality to differ (and if you watch the deleted scenes on the DVD, you learn that Kirk's "stepdad" he grew up with was kind of a douche.

 

[doom_shepherd]

Which makes me wonder why Nero didn't just head straight for Romulus, and offer them technology many decades advanced for them? He screwed up royally there; he could have made the Romulans the pre-eminent power in the sector, but was so caught up in his vendetta...

When the Kelvin rammed Nero's ship, it was disabled. It was then (see deleted scenes and comic book tie-ins) captured by Klingons and Nero & his crew were imprisoned on Rura Penthe for 25 years before escaping, which happened right before the film (that's what destroys the 47 Klingon ships in Uhura's transmission.)

I, for one, am still well and truly put out that they would assign Kirk as Captain of the Enterprise. He's fresh out of the academy, for gosh sakes! I don't care if he saved the universe, he's still far too inexperienced.

Save the Earth, get a "Do whatever I want and get away with it" card. Good to know, for the future.

Still...I like most of the re-imagined characters. Scotty and Bones particularly. They have "game."[/quote] Bones was spot-on, except for not having blue eyes. My gf has a fetish for McCoy (and De Kelley) and she loved him.

 

[doom_shepherd]

I am a bit puzzled... The Romulan ship was some kind of mining vessel, not a war ship at all. Why would it carry so much military hardware and weapons...?

Again, from the tie-in Comic "Countdown"...

Nero's ship USED to be a simple mining ship. After Romulus was destroyed, it was refitted with captured Borg technology at a Tal Shiar (Romulan KGB, for those of you who are not Trek-nuts) starbase. It "grew" several magnitudes in size and developed those tentacle things. That's also why it looked so unlike any other Romulan ship ever seen.

 

[drwayne]

They seemed to want to change Uhura quite a bit too. The relationship with Spock
seemed contrived to be different than "our" timeline.

Maybe. There's an interesting semi-flirtation between Uhura and Spock in one of the earliest TOS episodes, "Charlie X." She even sings a song about Spock that suggests hidden depths.

Interesting. I have tended to interpret that sort of thing as "messing with Spock", I think Kirk
established an atmosphere among the bridge staff that was not entirely healthy with respect
to Spock, that encouraged a certain degree of (mostly harmless) humorous fault finding.

But it i has been proven that I am weird in the way I look at these things...

 

[Eman_3]

Additionally, the Romulan mining ship was from the future, and it was implied that their level of technology had grown a lot in the intervening years.

So not only was it a Romulan mining/warship on steroids, it's level of technology was far advanced against the opponents it faced when it travelled back in time.

I'm not offended that some of the original Trek plot lines were altered .. fundamentally the movie was quite true to the Star Trek franchise and it sure had a heck of a lot more action than the original Star trek movie..

One thing that has been played to death is the many and various times that Spock pops up in various Trek shows and movies. I believe it's about time they killed him off. That could be a good sub-plot in the next trek movie.

 

[bdewoody]

Kill Spock. You are a heretic!! I'll bet nobody thought he would be the last of the original cast to have a role in Star Trek movies.

 

[drwayne]

I find Nimoy's presentation of old Spock - fascinating.

 

[youngmiki13]

Yeah, it was indeed fascinating. I really appreciated the new movie.
Dentist Bradenton | Dentist Largo

 

[doom_shepherd]

Kill Spock. You are a heretic!! I'll bet nobody thought he would be the last of the original cast to have a role in Star Trek movies.

Besides, they already killed Spock off in "The Wrath of Khan." But like Jesus, Kenny McCormick, and Superman, he just won't stay dead.