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J.J. Abrams offers scoops about the new Star Trek movie
by Allison Waldman, posted Nov 19th 2008 8:38AM
I went to see Quantum of Solace over the weekend anxious to see the second Daniel Craig iteration as James Bond, and had the chance to see the big screen full trailer for J.J. Abrams' re-imagining of Star Trek. Of the latter, I'd be very skeptical. After reading many of Abrams comments --like "I've never been a fan of Star Trek" -- my Trekkie (not Trekker) heart fears that the Lost/Alias creator had bungled the ST that I know so well. So, now that I've seen the trailer, I'm even more concerned. Oy vey, what has Abrams done to the Trek universe? The trailer looked more generic sci-fi that ST to me. And where was the iconic music? Why was Kirk using his middle name; I don't think he ever did that on the TV series!
J.J. addressed the media and shared some clips and information -- but no photos -- of the feature which won't be hitting theaters till May 8, 2009. I'm a little more relieved by the description of the scenes. Here's the gist of what they're about:
-- In Iowa, where Kirk was born, 23-year-old James Tiberius is shown drinking a beer in a bar, trying to pick up a Starfleet cadet name Uhura, fighting with four MPs, and meeting Captain Christopher Pike. Pike challenges Kirk to be a better Starfleet officer than his father, daring him to join the service. All this is consistent with ST lore, although why all these folks are in Iowa is weird...unless there's a Starfleet Academy in the corn fields. (If you build a starship, they will come?)
-- Dr. McCoy sneaks Jim onto the Enterprise by giving him an injection that makes Kirk exhibit the symptoms of a rare disease. Suffering the effects, Kirk tries to make the crew aware of a Romulan threat. Young Mr. Spock has a scene with his mother Amanda, now played by Winona Ryder. Eric Bana is Nero, a nefarious Romulan. I like the idea of the Romulans being part of the story; they were always more interesting adversaries than the Klingons because they were more like the Vulcans.
-- Kirk, Sulu and another Starfleet rookie are dropped via parachute to Vulcan where they have to disable a giant drill that could destroy the planet. Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, Spock has to figure out how to save his home world from becoming a black hole.
-- In the strangest, and perhaps the most controversial scene -- or so it seems -- the future Spock (Leonard Nimoy) encounters Kirk and Scotty on a remote, frozen planet where he teaches Scotty how to teleport beings at warp speed. That sounds like the creation of the transporter to me, but I guess we'll have to wait and see it in Abrams' version.
So, I'm going to try to remain hopeful about Star Trek. Maybe the next trailer will have the Alexander Courage theme. Maybe there'll be one shot of the Enterprise that looks recognizable.
I can't help but flashback to last night's Big Bang Theory; Sheldon and Koothrappali got into an ongoing debate about the best/worst Star Trek feature films. Heaven help us if J.J. Abrams' Star Trek is like either ST1 or ST5!
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