That was never my impression. At the very beginning of the movie we don't know exactly where the Enterprise is, other that they are "three hours twenty-five minutes" from the Typhon sector, wherever that is. The Typhon sector is where Admiral Hayes is mobilizing a fleet. The Enterprise then travels to the RNZ and has time to complete a sensor sweep of the RNZ. At this point the Fleet (presumable in the Typhon sector) engages the Borg. The Enterprise at that point sets course for Earth at maximum warp, the Borg cube is still engaged with the fleet. The cube and the fleet arrive at Earth only shortly before the Enterprise does. The Enterprise might have spent multiple days at maximum warp to reach Earth, in order to intercept the Borg cube. From the RNZ, the Enterprise might have been incapable of joining the fleet at any other point other than Earth.
The Enterprise is at the Romulan Neutral Zone and then heads for Earth where the Borg cube is practically on top of the planet. That's what is in the film and it's just as dumb as the Enterprise making it to the heart of the galaxy in no time at all in TFF. The series often enough made nods to time required to get from place to place, but the films usually glossed that over without one line of dialogue to address it.
Absolutely agree. They short-changed Uhura and let Spock take over her role too much. It made sense thematically because Spock is supposed to be in a similar psychological stage as V'Ger, but it disrupted the ensemble atmosphere. I know there's debate as to whether Trek was ever supposed to be ensemble, but by that point that's what people expected to see. Spock also undercuts her somewhat in decoding the whalesong in Trek IV.
They're movies. For one, we have no idea how long it would have actually taken the Enterprise to reach Earth. Film, television and theater always have unexplained gaps from one scene to the next. We also don't know exactly how long the battle was. Actually, I think the Okuda's could tell us how long it would take to travel from the RNZ to Earth at maximum warp.
Yeah, that bugged me too. #1 STTMP- yeah, it was slow, but it felt most like the series to me. Plus: a great SF movie Trek or not. #2 Undiscovered Country- all I love in Trek is here.Great send off. #3 Voyage Home- No Enterprise here sadly, but the character & dialogue is spot-on! #4 Wrath Of Khan- plot holes aside, a rousing action tale with a great score & high emotion. #5 Search For Spock- Not a great movie, but full of great moments and even better FX. #6 First Contact- Feels epic, lots of fun. #7 Insurrection- a perfect extended NG episode. #8 Final Frontier- Clean up the FX, and add Rock-men to finale (and take out a few stupid gags) and this movie would be way higher up! #9 ST '09- not much sense here, but lots of eye candy & action. Plus Nimoy. #10 Nemesis- kind of a waste of time, nice first few minutes though. #11 I think it's called 'Generational' or something... whatever, it's so bad I can't deal.
Warp drive was always a conceit to enable the starship to explore a new planet every week...it doesn't bother me THAT much. Going to the center of the galaxy bothers me slightly more because its much further away than the borders of the UFP to Sector 001, but it wouldn't ruin the film for me alone.
It was cheap and unrealistic, regardless of it being a "subspace wave" supposedly travelling at multilight speeds... What really gets me though is this idea that Praxis is a Moon of Kronos... Let's see, we are given the impression that the Excelsior is cruising Through the Kronos system? This based upon Praxis orbiting Kronos and Kronos is the Homeworld of the Klingons? For this to hold water, the Excelsior would have to be Deep within the Klingon Empire at its heart... At least the novelization says that Praxis is orbiting some other planet or star and doesn't emphasize Kronos... But you can ask any fan today, and indeed read any novel like that "Shadows" one from the other year, and you'll be told that Praxis was orbiting Kronos... I remember some years ago getting into a pissing contest over this online... Fans were telling me "Why Can't Kronos be on the remote Edge of Klingon space bordering the UFP!" and they were comparing it to known borders on Earth, for Gene's sake!
I'm reviewing all the Star Trek movies on my blog, I've just finished Star Trek: First Contact, which was way better than I remembered it. Personally I really enjoyed ST09, though like all the Trek films since The Wrath of Khan it contains many irritating plot holes and discrepancies. http://ryesofthegeek.wordpress.com/
There is nothing canonical establishing Praxis as a moon of Kronos/Qo'noS. On-screen in TUC, Praxis is referred to as a "Klingon moon", which could simply mean recognized as belonging to the Klingon Empire, but not necessarily of the homeworld [transcript]. According to Memory Alpha, Star Trek: Star Charts definitively puts Praxis outside the Qo'noS star system.
The Enterprise travels at whatever speed serves the plot it always has and it always will. Ultimately the writers are not going to be enslaved by the mechanics of warp speed if it messes up the pacing of their movie or ruins their script. Best thing to do is just accept it and not get annoyed! Its a tv show/movie designed to entertain us after all.
Part of the problem, of course, is trying to maintain a sense of urgency in the face of vast cosmic distances. Imagine if Star Trek movies went like this: "Captain! We've received an emergency distress signal from Gamma Sigma III!" "Warp factor eight, Mr. Sulu!" "Aye-aye, sir!" (32.86 hours later). "Are we there yet?" (93.2 hours later.) "Are we there yet?" (103.05 hours later.) "Okay, I going to go take a nap. Wake we when we get there."
Good filmmaking can get around that. Look at RED OCTOBER. You're at the end of Act 2 and the subs are kind of 'talking' ... and then you have a title on screen saying something like '20 hours later, the laurentian abyss' and you go right on with things. If you did that wrong, it would be a dead stop for the movie, but they handled it properly. Then again, that was McTiernan on a very good stretch of days (which he has not enjoyed thus far this century.)
TSFS has really grown on me after many viewings. "How many fingers am I holding up?" "That's not very damn funny."
the film taken by itself is pretty good. My issue with it is that it's basically a giant reset button, and they only got a limited number of TOS films, I wish they'd done an original story rather than "Star Trek III: undoing the last ten minutes of Wrath of Khan."
TSFS is the Jan Brady of Star Trek films. It's a fun movie in its own right, with many memorable moments, but it's the under-appreciated middle film in the trilogy, stuck between its much more popular sisters!
The top group made me laugh, especially with the caption. The bottom group made me cry. I miss Star Trek, I watch the episodes and remember, but there will never be any new Star Trek again and that's sad. Sorry to be such a downer. I really wanted to add some comments and I congratulate you on your movie review thread, but those New Era opening credits are beautiful and create such a longing in me that I really can't adequately express here. Thank you.