Be Excellent To Each Other

Man, depressing times eh? Global, insoluble problems everywhere, a whole bundle of comic book films being dark and gritty and pessimistic and scowling with eyes slitted in suspicion. Where's the love, huh? Where's the hope? Hmm, who's that in the corner over there...? Oh, Star Trek. What are you doing Star Trek? A picture? In crayon? It's very nice... yes, it's positively charming!

Star Trek is coming out soon. Now, I'm not a Trekkie. I only really bothered with the Next Generation, which was part of a holy trinity for me sandwiched as it was after High School with Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Quantum Leap. A Yorkshire Captain from my home town of Huddersfield? I'm there! (Shut up France.) Deep Space 9 never really grabbed me, I was too into Babylon 5 at the time. Voyager? Well, I liked the ship's Doctor played superbly by the ever brilliant Robert Picardo, but it wasn't nearly enough to compensate for dull, old storylines, a completely bland and safe atmosphere and a plodding arc that was barely curved. Enterprise? Scoff!

I'd seen a few episodes of the original series, sure. And I liked them. I also liked the even numbered original cast movies too. Especially Khan and the one with the whales. But I never really bothered to seek them out. Not sure why, I guess my time was gobbled up by other exciting TV series, games and books to spare space for the original series... or indeed any Star Trek by the point I left college.

So along comes the new film and I'm mildly intrigued. I start watching trailers and... well... actually it looks pretty amazing. The look is beautiful. It has a really strong concept design, offering up colour and style where recent adventure films offer only desaturation and grit. The cast seem charismatic, I engage with them in the space of a few two minute trailers. The ship looks zippy. The effects truly excellent and the drive so far removed from the stateliness (read inertialess) of what the series had become that it feels fresh and new all over again. And I find myself falling in love with something I haven't really even seen yet.

And why? Well, it looks to me that they've got what it should be about. Trek had become smothered in its own continuity, with writers unable to pen any sort of story before they could lift a huge Trek encyclopedia off the shelf and smuggle the script past the watching three headed Cerebus - story editor, 'franchise guardians' and obsessive anally retentive fans. Trek isn't about the aliens - though they can be cool - it's about the crew dynamic. It's about the archetypes on a cool zippy ship bickering and enjoying each other's company and solving big bastard problems in space while going, "Oooh! Look the fuck at that fucker!". I don't know how the franchise had managed to make the following boring, but they did it somehow...

Big huge moon sized mushroom space stations.

Cool primary colour uniforms in pop-art spaceships.

A massive armada belonging to a hopelessly optimistic 'can do' federation who want to make friends but are very capable of fucking yo' shit up if you cross them.

Vulcans, they used to be delightfully weird once, y'know.

Big colourful ego driven characters chafing against each other, in the best setting Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

Monster/problem of the week being imaginative - and if not, then delightfully stupid.

But no. They fucked it up. It became all about time-travel and covoluted tangled webs of increasingly yawnsome reheated plots with writers and directors terrified about stepping out of a perceived Trek style that had become completely airless and mueseum like. It had become content to merely coast and survive on brand name, and the twin failures of the wretched Enterprise and Nemesis forced Paramount to put a merciful bullet in its head. And even then the fans whined, unable to see what a monumental bore Trek had become.

I didn't mind so much. I had Battlestar. But man, much as I love that show, it can get you down. There is hope and intelligence and awe in Battlestar, but unfortunately there's also a tendancy to drag any character who looks like he or she's becoming sympathetic into a toxic, convoluted relationship that doesn't always make any sense. I was ready to quit the show when it looked like Tigh and Adama might fuck each other over hideously and fall out for alway - fortunately they made something precious instead. Phew.

So yes, with Battlestar I didn't mind that much for a while. But I find I need glorious, huge, running around adventure sci-fi with helpless grins, split-infinitives and bickering / back-slapping space-comrades. I need new Trek.

Please deliver, new Trek. Please. Be what the show should be. And from what the newspapers say, it has done. Five stars from The Times! Glowing reviews from the Independent and Guardian and Telegraph! Could it be... could it actually be ace? Could it be what Trek on the big screen desperately fucking needs to be - not a TV movie writ large but a confident, massive, 'come with me if you want to live', Star Wars epicness, prequel-thrashing, amazing experience that transports you far, far out there? (The Times says it is, and that it thrashes the new Star Wars. Hurrah, eh?)

Anyway. Gosh, well, find out in four days, I guess...

[Here are the trailers. These are square brackets because this is about sci-fi and teh future.]

Trailer 3:



Trailer 2:



And of course the classic Brokeback Trek:



So, um, yeah. Be great Trek, be great.

I'm so looking forward to the new movie it's untrue - already got tickets to a midnight showing on Thursday, plus tickets to see it at the IMAX at the end of the month. Speaking as someone who followed Trek diligently until the end of DS9, I'm going against the Trekkie grain and believe wholeheartedly that if Trek is to have a future, it doesn't need another bland identikit series, it needs re-inventing and re-imaginaning for modern times and fuck the old continuity if needs be. This new film looks like the perfect place to start!

I liked Star Trek and hated everything else in the series. Babylon 5 showed how to do a space drama properly. And Firefly of course which is even more outstanding but in a different way to B5.

I'm not particularly looking forward to this new film but I'll go see it anyway. I think it will be just another hollow rapidly edited hollywood piece of trash.

I'm not worried, I normally disagree with you Nirejhenge and I reckon it'll be great! (Although perversely you are indeed correct about Firefly and Babylon 5. Hmm.)

I think i'll go and see it as a fancy a romping yarn, set in space.

It looks stunning, but also like it may suffer from BSG syndrome and Star Wars 1-3 a bit as well.

What's the BSG syndrome? A tendency to make things a bit too dark?

As for it being Star Wars 1-3, as far as I can tell this has no shitty political scenes, no crap comedy slapstick sidekicks, no terrible prophecy guff, no appalling 'She's lost the will to live' style script and no complete lack of tension by knowing pretty much how things are going to turn out.

And no beshitted romance. Phew. And The Times (or one of the broadsheets) said that it shits over the prequels from a great height, so I'm reassured.

Simon Pegg, for all that I'm a big fan of his, had better be understated and as true to the original as the rest look, else it'll all go to shit.

I liked the one where they saved the Whales. The rest of it was shit.

That is all.

I'm sure I read somewhere that he doesn't have that big a part in it, but what he does is meant to be very respectful to the original character and all that.

I'm really fucking looking forward to this movie, did I mention that?

I am... TREDPIDATIOUS!* about this film.

Yes, having them back in the funny old sweatshirt-and-tight pants uniforms is cool. And having them all just starting out is cool.

BUT! Why have they all got college angst? Is this Star Trek or The fucking Hills? And yes, while it's cool to see how the Enterprise was built on Earth, was it really built (as the trailer seems to suggest) in the middle of a field in Arsehole, USA? So that REBELLIOUS ANGST-FILLED COLLEGE-O-KIRK can ride past it on his REBEL 5000 HOVERBIKE and make some epic 'One day, that ship will be mine!' comment?

I get the horrible feeling that the premise might turn out better than the film. Enterpise was cool - not because of the actual series, but because of seeing the very first days of the 'Earth Starfleet' when they're all a bunch of confused soldiers on a ship they barely comprehend, flying by the seat of their pants, and answering to a commander in a suit and tie who says 'dammit!' a lot.

We'll see. Cause I've got FAITH! OF THE HEAR-R-RT!

*which would be a good name for a starship design to run away.

I suspect that the starship being built in the fields isn't the Enterprise, because they'd have to finish it in an awful rush if it is. Also, J.J (God, I hate the guy for making me call him by initials) said in an interview that the 'built on Earth' thing had an explanation. Mainly I just love those cool looking towers on the Iowa plains.

My theory from the trailers:

Kirk is a drifter, but a clever one, lashing out and hellraising 'cos he's no direction in life.

Kirk has paternal figure who guides him into Star Fleet after bar-fight, and Kirk realises that he ain't challenged on Earth, is stagnating, and has wanderlust. Also, he wants green women.

Kirk joins academy. Kirk graduates, becomes a probationary officer. Some unlikely turbolift accident* involving all the senior staff places him in command on the ship.

*Or villainous intervention. But I never trusted those turbolifts.

Free pint from me for MetalAngel if he does actually say, "One day that ship will be mine," or a variation in that scene.

I'm right looking forward to this. Not particularly because it's Star Trek as I've never been a huge fan (though equally I've never really hated it or anything), but because it's a sci-fi film with big spaceships, explosions, aliens, a decent cast and some good reviews and there haven't been very many of those lately.

It was built on Earth but assembled in space, I thought. Which makes the image in my mind from the trailer a bit off, I didn't think the majority of starships could really survive landing on a planet in any sort of state, never mind take off from one.



The trailer seems to suggest he has to satisfy himself with a brown one, at least for now.



Perhaps the stagehands were off trying to out-relax the teamsters, and therefore weren't there to pull the doors open(Simpsons reference overload critical, abandon thread!)



Variants to include but not limited to, "Gotta get me one of those", "Hell/Fuck/Oh Hells Yeah", "Whoa/Dude/Sweet/Daaaaamn/Gee willickers", or anything involving his 'destiny'. Final decision to Mr N. Ervous Pete.

I like the look of this as it doesn't look like a Star Trek film.

It's been said before, but it deserves repeating - this forum needs more NervyPete posts.

I'm not much of a Trek fan (the original series was camp fun, Next Gen is largely meh, DS9 was poor man's B5 and featured the most wooden commanding officer in Trek history, The only thing that made Voyager worth watching was the doctor, because he seemed to hate everyone else in the crew as much as I did and Enterprise was pretty much Godawful) but we're off on a family outing to see the film on Thursday. As markg said, flashy and fun space-operas are sufficiently few and far between that the opportunity to see one needs grabbing with both hands.

I haven't watched any Trek since Enterprise appeared on our screens, I just couldn't seem to get settled with Broken Bow. I'm intrigued as to this film though simply from what Pete has said. I Pete's posts too Rod.

So has anyone seen it yet? Due to a cockup on my part, I managed to miss everything in the movie before they graduate from the Academy (not sure how much that is) - but what I did see was chuffing amazing! Going again tonight so I can see the whole thing.

Bit of a controversial plot for the diehard Trekkies though!

Going Tuesday.

My agents in the states say it's brilliant.

Saw it last night. I thought it was great, and suprisingly good to casual fans.

Review to come in an hour and a bit, folks!

Pete informs me he DOESN'T owe me a pint, as Kirk doesn't say anything while watching the starship being built in a field. Dammit!

Ha ha! Glee!

(However I do owe you one for helping me out with the Windows CD, so there you go.)

The film does get bonus points for:



For those that are worried, Simon Pegg does play Scotty in a comedy way, but it's a nice, charming comedy way, aptly demonstrating the young Montgomery Scott's brilliance and enthusiasm for his work. Well, I liked it anyway.

In fact the only performance that didn't entirely work for me was the guy who played Chechov.

Does he not wope wat womeone will welp wour wessel?

Simon Pegg was ok, although he does have a comedy sidekick

Phew, finally my review. Bit busy today - had to sneak this one in:


It's hard to know where to start really, I'm still grinning from the fun I had last night. Best to start at the beginning, as the film wisely does. Within seconds Star Trek shoves its mission statement in your face. I'm not talking about the phasers lancing out, shredding and melting armour, no that comes soon enough, but first we get a simple shot of a Federation starship dwarfed as it approaches a giant menacing unknown craft emerging from a black hole. And what do we hear? A dozen crew members and a voice link with a distant command, talking fast, urgently, cutting in on each other, appraising, fearing, enquiring, demanding answers, demanding action. Just in hearing these voices cast about, we already have a kineticism way above the original stately pace of the old Star Trek. There's excitement, there's urgency.

This is the future. Excitement, urgency. It's Kirk's life, even as a child. He's rebellious, directionless - not so much an angry young man as a bored one. And yet he's clever and more than that, impulsive, risk taking and cunning. Captain Pike runs into the boy in an Iowa bar-fight, and gauging his qualities judges him (in a sly nod to the state of the franchise) to be the shot in the arm the increasingly stolid starfleet needs. Spock treads a different path, one of frustration twinned with self-confidence, two deep running emotions that will take him from the staid life of his emotionless home planet and to the altogether more dynamic Starfleet Academy - a place that better serves his human half.

And there the two meet, and initially despise each other. It's no surprise that by the end of the film they are firm friends, but the journey they take - beginning with a cadet-wide call up thanks to a major distress call - is one both thrilling in its action but also surprisingly deep in the way the each set-piece propels their relationship forward. It's almost never action for action's sake, there's never any padding. This fast paced story is very much a rolling stone, starting with just Kirk and Spock, and then collecting the rest of the cast along the way. You're having so much fun following it that it comes as a shock when you realise that the gang indeed is all here.

The cast acquit themselves well, indeed Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock inhabit their characters so well that you sort of guiltily forget about the Shat and Nimoy. Spock reads his character in an uncanny Nimoyesque way yet with his own new quirks. Pine ditches nearly all the Shatner in his Kirk, aside from some physical mannerisms - including a brilliant macho slouch on the chair. (Crushingly he never does the double-fist on back smack-down though.) Karl Urban is brilliant as McCoy, nailing the voice dead on. The rest of the crew are well cast too, with additional plaudits to Anton Yelchin as a hilarious word-mangling Checkov. Pegg is very good, however he is something of a flaw, as he's so recognisable that it's hard to see Scotty - only Pegg doing very well honed comedy routines, or Pegg shouldering the action hero mode with aplomb. It's a regretable weak link, though not really anybody's fault.

The imagery is pretty beautiful at times as well. Giant monolithic and solitary towers loom on the faded distant horizon in Iowa like Mega City blocks. A fleet of shuttles silhouetted against a sun. The monochromatic warp tunnels. The only niggle is that the shots are over too soon: the film is nothing but pacy, and moments that could aspire to a beautiful grandeur are sometimes lost. Likewise the jaw-dropping "I can't believe they just did that" moment mid-film that defines and sharpens the edge of Trek's 'reboot' mission is dwelt on but never quite fleshed out enough for it to become truly mythic.

Still, this is a wonderful action ride, and surprisingly funny too. There's a highly amusing red-shirt bit, living up tradition, and lots of in-jokes for those up on their lore. The plot is a little too streamlined at times, a couple of things need a little more explaining or a little confusing (did we really need the reference to the destroyed Klingon armarda?) but overall the thing blessedly makes logical sense, and is a world away from the turgid plodding of the majority of the old Trek movies. The villains are pretty good too, their ship is especially, and though Eric Bana isn't given quite enough to do as the Big-Bad, he does it pretty well with a muscular single-mindedness. I would argue that things are perhaps a little too easy for the uber-team of Kirk and Spock at the end, but I enjoyed every minute of the film and the climax was adventure in the high-style.

So, that's another franchise successfully rebooted, and mercifully not in a gritty, darker fashion. JJ Abrams has clocked exactly what we need - warp speed, epic, pop-art, silly, dramatic fun. God Speed Starfleet!

4.5/5

Actually, there is a decent in-joke at Chechov's inability to pronounce his 'V's.

I'm seeing this on Tuesday, and now I can't wait.

I am looking forwad to seeing it...

Nice review. Consider me psyched. We're off to see it next Thursday.

It's really very good indeed. The drama's interesting and moving, the action sequences are incredibly exciting and the funny bits are actually funny. Even my wife love it and she's never loved Trek before.

(For the record, I'm a bit of a lapsed fan of Trek. I love the original series, Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, but Voyager tested my love and then the woeful first season of Enterprise broke it.)

Fuck yeah! I loved this
I especially liked the new warp and transport effects, and And I loved the way they explained the reboot about a quarter of the way in. And Uhuraaaaaaagh
And phasers that actually do stuff! And "Get out of the chair." And the guy in red! And Spock! And Bones, holy shit, the Bones guy was good. And "Fencing"

But what happened to Captain Archer?

What he said.

I am going tonight with one of my Father in Laws.... I can't wait..

MR. CONFUSED FACE.

MrsC parents got divorced and then both married other people. So I get confused with what terminology I should use for her Mother's Husband or her Dad's Wife.

B'oh! Beaten to it!

Yeah, but Pike was captain in this film, in which the Enterprise made her maiden voyage.

It was the maiden voyage of that Enterprise, which is probably the second or third ship to have the name.

Although I deliberately looked, and the ship had no letter designation.

As did I. Also it had numberplates that were apparently switch-off-and-on-able.

I am most impressed with the film...

I might see it again at some point

Not sure I follow... the Enterprise in this film is clearly marked 'NCC 1701'.

For the sake of those not quite as sad as me...

Captain Archer's ship is the USS Enterprise NX-01, a prototype exploration vessel from the pre-Federation Starfleet.

Captain Pike's ship is the USS Enterprise NCC 1701, a Constitution-class starship and flagship of the Federation, named after Archer's ship.

This gets blown up in Star Trek III, so another Constitution-class ship gets renamed USS Enterprise NCC 1701-A to replace it at the end of Star Trek IV.

The A gets retired at the end of Star Trek VI and is replaced with the Excelsior-class Enterprise NCC 1701-B in Star Trek Generations. Dunno what happens to that, but it eventually gets replaced by the Ambassador-class Enterprise NCC 1701-C which appears in one episode of Next Generation, where it also gets destroyed in battle.

So then we get the Galaxy-class Enterprise NCC 1701-D, which is Picard's ship in Next Generation. That gets destroyed in Star Trek Generations and is replaced by the Sovereign-class Enterprise NCC 1701-E.

Of course, now the franchise is rebooted, none of this may have happened.

Did I mention I love this film? I love this film!

Want to see it. Now.

I would... I think it is the best Star Trek film to date.

12.30 showing.

*gets shoes*