Thoughts on JJ Abrams' Star Trek

First, let me apologize for my lack of updates this week, my novel has been kicking my ass. But I've been kicking back these last few nights and have finally made enough headway to get on here and make some posts.

Second, let me put this out there. If you don't like it, stop reading this blog, because it'll probably be something you'll see a lot of.

I'm a huge Star Trek fan. I even have this lovely white ringer t-shirt that simply says "trekkie" across the chest (Thanks goes to my sister on that one).

That being said, it's time to dive into my opinions on the upcoming Star Trek film. The re-pre-sequel-imagining-boot is directed by JJ Abrams (Mission: Impossible III, TV's Lost, Alias & Fringe) and will be released in theaters May 9th, 2009.
There are really two main camps within the Trek community when it comes to JJ's upcoming film. One faction is eagerly anticipating it and think a fresh take on Star Trek is welcome and needed if the 41-year-old franchise is going to endure. The other is claiming that this film constitutes heresy, because recasting the original Star Trek crew and re-imagining all of the series aesthetics, not to mention bringing the characters together chronologically before the original series goes against the story canon established in the franchise.
I fall more in with the first group. I've recognized that I'm a hell of a lot younger than the majority of Trek fans and that that group isn't going to last forever. I also recognize that it is the older fans who more frequently beat on the bible-that-is-canon and whose lack of support due to supposed "canon violations" caused the most recent Trek series, Enterprise (which had become an excellent series by the time it was canceled in its fourth season).
Plus, canon junkies should be satisfied that the writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, are such huge fans that they even went the extra mile of trying not to negate the storylines of the Star Trek novels published by Pocket Books. They're even canonizing some of the stuff from the books, like that Kirk's mother's name is Winona.
But because of insatiable canon junkies, Star Trek needs an infusion of fresh blood. The reason the original series has endured these forty years were because of its characters and the daring story lines. This was the series that featured the first televised interracial kiss. This was the series that had a black woman and a Russian as regular characters during the heights of the Civil Rights movement and the Cold War. It dared to challenge hatred and champion humanity in trying times. Hell, it was even reported to be one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s favorite television shows. And right now, with America on the cusp of trying to decide where its society will take itself and the world watching in baited breath as we try to deal with economic and social problems that ultimately affect the entire world, we need Star Trek almost as badly as we did in the late 1960's.
I don't have high hopes that this film will be a riveting allegory on today's social problems and vices. If it is, I'll be vastly impressed and incredibly thankful that JJ Abrams could stay so close to the spirit of Trek. I imagine this will at least be a fun film and will hopefully be on par with the better Trek movies (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn is widely considered to be one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, not just the best Trek movie).
My main hope for this film is that, with its big name stars (and hopefully excellent writing from Orci and Kurtzman), it will attract enough uninitiated film goers to the theaters that it can spark new life for Star Trek as a television series. I'm not looking for the cast of this movie to be in some kind of "New Adventures of Old Star Trek," since there's no way they could even get all these people to be regulars, not to mention that would negate canon and I'd prefer to see it preserved if possible, after watching hundreds of episodes from the different series. What I am looking for is something to carry the torch. If it were me, I'd create a new show, set in the 23rd century (Kirk's era), with the same design aesthetics as the film but with a new crew on a different ship. That way, it would be similar enough for new fans, who will hopefully be brought in by the movie, to feel comfortable with it. Plus it would open the possibility of guest roles by the actors from the film as their characters. Even better, the characters on this new ship can make references to the "current" adventures of Kirk and company here and there by mentioning events that happened in various Original Series episodes to create a more cohesive sense of canon for older fans. The best thing is, Bryan Fuller, one of the most underutilized writers to work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise and also the creator of ABC's hit Pushing Daisies has been adamantly talking about wanting to create a new series very similar to this idea. I hope somebody at CBS-Paramount listens.

Now that I'm done talking about all that drivel, on to my reactions to some of the stills from the film that CBS-Paramount released last week.

First up, the most important of them - the crew on the bridge:

Okay, so this one I'm kind of ambivalent on. I don't really mind so much that they redesigned the bridge. In fact, they'd been warning us that they would. However, cast members and set visitors who happened to be big fans of the Original Series all kept saying how wonderful and true this set design is to the original. My immediate reaction was that this looks more like the bridge of the Apple iNterprise. But, on closer inspection, I saw that pretty much everything is where it's supposed to be, even the red railing, but most of it just has been covered in white, chrome and blue. Someone said it looked like someone barfed iPod on the bridge, and that's not completely inaccurate. However, that yeoman's station was not in the Original Series and is a blatant change in design. Here's hoping it sees the classic Exploding Console duty and is gone by the end of the movie.
The actors, on the other hand, look fantastic in this. I still have my doubts about Chris Pine (Bottle Shock) as Captain James Tiberius Kirk, but I admit, he definitely looks like he got into the character, just judging by the way he's sitting in that admittedly awesome-looking captain's chair. I have hope for him. Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings, Doom) was another big question mark, especially as a fairly young New Zealander playing the grizzled Southerner: Doctor Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy. But in this image, it's like he's channelling DeForest Kelley, and I feel my doubts slipping away. I also took note that Kirk and Sulu - John Cho of Harold & Kumar fame - have shiners. Did they have a bar fight with some rowdy aliens? Or each other? I never had any doubts about Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as Spock, and he still looks great here.


Okay, so here we've got the entire Original Series crew, sans Spock. Again, Pine seems to have a bit of that Kirk groove to him, and Urban keeps looking better and better. I love Zoe Saldanya as Uhura - she's beautiful but still looks like she could make you feel like an elementary school kid with her smarts and charm. Uhura is supposed to be a strong female character, despite her relatively light duties in the Original Series, and I hope JJ's given her her due. Cho looks decent. I'm still pretty iffy on Anton Yelchin (Charlie Bartlett) as Pavel Chekov. For one, the kid is younger than me, which doesn't seem right in the slightest, and he looks nothing like Walter Koenig. They didn't even bother to straighten the curls out of his hair. Simon Pegg, on the other hand, looks like he's going to be fantastic. Standing there in the background, the look on his face just screams "Ach, no. I cannae do it, Cap'n. It'll cause too much harm to me wee baerns!" Other than his hairline being a little too high, I'm sure Pegg is going to be an excellent Montgomery "Scotty" Scott.

So this is our villain, Nero, played by Eric Bana (Munich, Troy). This dude appears to be some kind of Romulan renegade. It was with this picture that we got some story details (which everyone already knew anyone, but hadn't had confirmed). Nero is apparently from the 24th century, not long after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, which left the Romulan political structure in ruins. If Orci & Kurtzman were looking to the novels, the Romulan Empire is even split into two seperate states by this point. Apparently, Nero and his cronies have a plot to go back in time to kill Kirk, which causes 24th century Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy from the Original Series, to go back in time to stop them.
I gotta say, he looks pretty bad ass. And anybody who has seen Munich nows that Eric Bana's got some serious acting chops. Here's hoping this is aTrek villain on par with Ricardo Montalban's Kahn Noonien Singh or Christopher Plummer's General Chang.


WTF? No, seriously, what's going on? Spock is choking Kirk? Most illogical. Zachary Quinto has said that Spock is not as in control of his emotions at this point though, so I guess this is a glimpse. I'm glad they included the subtle green tint to his skin. And apparently, this is public, cause that looks like the bridge. It also looks like the top of McCoy's head there by Kirk's chin. He has witnesses, so maybe Kirk should file charges?

This is the USS Kelvin (an in-joke JJ Abrams puts in his movies, since his grandfather's name was Kelvin). Though not the Enterprise, it is a Starfleet ship and should give us an idea of what to expect from the full view of the Big E. It's very reminiscent of the Original Series, but it has sharper detail that reminds me of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I'm satisfied.

And that's it for my Star Trek ramblings. I felt those were the pictures really worth commenting on, so there you go.

I'll try to get you guys my weekly recommendations tomorrow.

Live Long and Prosper, for my fellow Trekkies.