Star Trek (11)
May. 10th, 2009 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyes... The scenes with the Enterprise in Titan's atmosphere showed Titan at the wrong inclination angle with respect to the rings. Titan orbits in the ring plane, so they'd not get the visuals. If they wanted a moon that had a good view, Iapetus would be my choice (plus, you could do a 2001 reference).
So, the movie was cool. I'm even told that there's a prequel comic that makes the science actually make sense, and gives Nero some backstory beyond 'crazy old Romulan with a mad-on for Spock'.
I liked all the nods to classic Trek, from fencing-Sulu to Pike-in-a-wheelchair. The 11-verse crew was adorable, and I could believe that they were Kirk and Co. Bones, especially. The Enterprise looked like the Enterprise, but modern and sleek, which is hard to do. Wasn't too fond of the two product-placements I saw, though. And, Classic-Trek be damned, I might have given the female crew/cadets leggings, while keeping the dress-tunics. It would maintain the look of the original uniforms, but make it look a bit more modern.
The plot was a decent one, though I might have liked a throw-away scene with Nero actually warning the 23rd century Romulans about the star that will blow up in a century. Sure he can't do anything until he gets Spock-Prime and the red matter, but this way, if Spock-Prime doesn't show up in time, there's at least a chance that there will be an evacuation, or they can get some scientists on the problem. (Also, Nero? Maybe you should have solved the problem first, then got your revenge on Spock-Prime and the Federation for not being in time. Maybe it happened off-screen...)
Anyway, my friend Ryan noted that the movie was a bit less grand in that it doesn't show off the Trek universe much, but I think it works, because the secondary bit was focusing in on Kirk and Spock. IMO, an installment of a franchise (A TV episode, a movie, or a book) should both tell a good stand-alone story, and second add something to the universe. However, that something need not be worldbuilding. Here we get 'who are Kirk and Spock'. Next movie (or tie-ins, or fandom) can flesh out the rest of the cast a bit more and do things like give us more Klingons and Romulans and so on.
Also, they blew up Vulcan, and, despite the time-travel element to the movie, kept it blown up. I wasn't expecting that. I thought for sure, they'd fix that. I'm glad they didn't, though -- one of the Trek weaknesses when doing time-travel plots is to let it serve as a cosmic 'undo' button.
On a fandom side, I think 11-Spock has moved into my head, so expect fanfiction on Invoking Urania. I also have been enjoying a familiar-yet-different world to play in. Also Spock-Prime and 11-Scotty just introduced transwarp transporters. That's going to have Ramifications.
In a bit of coolness, the movie's science advisor was Carolyn Porco. For those of you who don't keep track of these things, she's the head scientist for the Cassini Imaging Team. In other words I know her -- we've only spoken twice, but my advisor knows her pretty well, since he's head of one of the spectrometer teams, and both he and Carolyn are scientists who work on rings.
So, the movie was cool. I'm even told that there's a prequel comic that makes the science actually make sense, and gives Nero some backstory beyond 'crazy old Romulan with a mad-on for Spock'.
I liked all the nods to classic Trek, from fencing-Sulu to Pike-in-a-wheelchair. The 11-verse crew was adorable, and I could believe that they were Kirk and Co. Bones, especially. The Enterprise looked like the Enterprise, but modern and sleek, which is hard to do. Wasn't too fond of the two product-placements I saw, though. And, Classic-Trek be damned, I might have given the female crew/cadets leggings, while keeping the dress-tunics. It would maintain the look of the original uniforms, but make it look a bit more modern.
The plot was a decent one, though I might have liked a throw-away scene with Nero actually warning the 23rd century Romulans about the star that will blow up in a century. Sure he can't do anything until he gets Spock-Prime and the red matter, but this way, if Spock-Prime doesn't show up in time, there's at least a chance that there will be an evacuation, or they can get some scientists on the problem. (Also, Nero? Maybe you should have solved the problem first, then got your revenge on Spock-Prime and the Federation for not being in time. Maybe it happened off-screen...)
Anyway, my friend Ryan noted that the movie was a bit less grand in that it doesn't show off the Trek universe much, but I think it works, because the secondary bit was focusing in on Kirk and Spock. IMO, an installment of a franchise (A TV episode, a movie, or a book) should both tell a good stand-alone story, and second add something to the universe. However, that something need not be worldbuilding. Here we get 'who are Kirk and Spock'. Next movie (or tie-ins, or fandom) can flesh out the rest of the cast a bit more and do things like give us more Klingons and Romulans and so on.
Also, they blew up Vulcan, and, despite the time-travel element to the movie, kept it blown up. I wasn't expecting that. I thought for sure, they'd fix that. I'm glad they didn't, though -- one of the Trek weaknesses when doing time-travel plots is to let it serve as a cosmic 'undo' button.
On a fandom side, I think 11-Spock has moved into my head, so expect fanfiction on Invoking Urania. I also have been enjoying a familiar-yet-different world to play in. Also Spock-Prime and 11-Scotty just introduced transwarp transporters. That's going to have Ramifications.
In a bit of coolness, the movie's science advisor was Carolyn Porco. For those of you who don't keep track of these things, she's the head scientist for the Cassini Imaging Team. In other words I know her -- we've only spoken twice, but my advisor knows her pretty well, since he's head of one of the spectrometer teams, and both he and Carolyn are scientists who work on rings.
