What's with all the Union Jacks in the trailer?

[Greg Cox]

I always found it odder that nearly every single other planet was one government, one society and even one dress code.

And often, it seemed, one time zone!

Dialogue never heard on any STAR TREK show:

"Open hailing frequencies to the Zorganian High Ruler!"

"Er, Captain, it's four in the morning in their capital city."

"Oh. Well, hail him in about five hours then."

"Er, I'll be off my shift then. That will seven pm, ship-time."

 

[Set Harth]

That would be an interesting way to finally get him a cameo

I was hoping they still had commercials in the 22nd century on programming and he could appear as the Priceline guy.

Abrams ST takes place in the 23rd century.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I always found it odder that nearly every single other planet was one government, one society and even one dress code.

And often, it seemed, one time zone!

Dialogue never heard on any STAR TREK show:

"Open hailing frequencies to the Zorganian High Ruler!"

"Er, Captain, it's four in the morning in their capital city."

"Oh. Well, hail him in about five hours then."

"Er, I'll be off my shift then. That will seven pm, ship-time."

Oh that happened a few times on Enterprise. But then again, it's not really a STAR TREK show. So...

I think something in "Vox Sola" or "A Night in Sickbay" with the Kreetassans. Travis Mayweather would be the only one around, still on shift to take the call from a planet or ship they'd just left... operating on a different time of day. A little too hung up on mundane details really. Any other show would just have alien worlds be a bit more convienent. It speeds up the drama and doesn't bore the audience to death with crew chat between the next important scene.

It's the exceptionally difficult alien race, who demand the ship reset their clocks to their time and show respect about practically everything from which direction to pass the drinks in, to not allowing your dog to pee against their trees. Naturally being humans (read: Americans), the universe (read: rest of the world) revolves around us and our time zone.

 

[Greg Cox]

^ I stand corrected.

 

[T'Girl]

In the scene after Zefram's ship goes to warp, when the ship is being turned around to return home, Cochran remarks "Is that the Earth? It's so... small" He wouldn't have been able to see it, provided the distance the ship just flew. Warp 1 is the speed of light and in a 1 minute flight, the Phoenix would have travelled over 10 million miles - at that distance the earth would just appear like a bright star.

When the Phoenix turns, the Earth appear to be about a third of a degree across. Four and a third million miles, or 23 light seconds. I figure that in the 55 second of screen time the Phoenix didn't just go straight out and then stop, but was traveling in a curve.

Either than, or some of the scenes with the interior of the Phoenix, and the interior of the Enterprise were occurring concurrently within the movie's timeline. The Phoenix simply wasn't at warp for a near minute, but only a couple of dozen seconds.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's not about patriotism. It's not about blame, it's just dumb... really, really, dumb.

To complain about it before the movie even comes out? Yep.

 

[Dart]

Question. Would an Irish man get his titties in a twist if the flag went from orange to green on a flag pole instead of the reverse in a sci-fi movie?

Nah, sure that would be an Ivory Coast flag obviously.

 

[DarthTom]

Nah, sure that would be an Ivory Coast flag obviously.

Wow, sure is. Good lord, who had the design first? You'd think whomever chose it second could have picked something else.

Answered my own question They should have chosen something different still.

 

[ROBE]

What is this Sheldon Cooper Presents Fun With Flags?

 

[Kruezerman]

With Ferdinand T. Flag?

 

[DaveyNY]

Naaahh...
Sheldon finds flags to be a detriment to society and rank right up there with birds.

/Leonard

 

[Kruezerman]

But he's not insane.

His mother had him tested.

 

[lurok]

Because every last insignificant detail of STiD needs to be masticated to death.

 

[Oso Blanco]

I was in Rome at the end of 2012, and pretty much every Italian government building I passed had both the Italian flag and the EU flag, indicating that there was both a national government and a larger union of member states. So it seems very appropriate that the trailer featured a building with both the UK flag and the UFP flag. If anything, it might've been nice to also see a United Earth flag, but it's just a 30 second bit of video, how much can you really fit in?

Exactly. Here in Berlin, even the different metropolitan districts have their own flags. Berlin has a flag (both as a city as well as a federal state), Germany has a Flag ... but we are nevertheless part of the European Union. Although the EU is not our government, so this might not be the best example.

All four countries of the UK have their own flags and even their own provincial governments, but they are all part of the United Kingdom and are being ruled by the UK Government.

And it works the same way in the US and countless other countries ... so why would the UFP or the United Earth work any differently? Countries and regions and districts and whatever will not be abolished just because they have united in order to form a common government.

 

[Kaijima]

Funny thought - what if it's actually the United States, in Trek timeline, that broke up into a similar but different political entity?

Trek's WWWIII seemed to hit the USA particularly hard, if First Contact is anything to go by, with what appears to be a breakdown of the government as a whole. Also, just for fun, wasn't there some mention in a TNG writer's guide about native Americans being given back land and former nations by the 24th century?

It could be that many nations in Trek time still have their historical identities and even flags, but other nations have changed. Much as the Soviet Union no longer exists in our own time today, but we still think of many parts of eastern Europe with a "Soviet" tint, or flavor.

 

[DarthTom]

And it works the same way in the US and countless other countries ... so why would the UFP or the United Earth work any differently? Countries and regions and districts and whatever will not be abolished just because they have united in order to form a common government.

In the 4 TV series, hundreds of hours of television - the multiple times characters have visited earth and in all the previous films and TV episodes when they visited earth - not once did we see any flag except the UFP.

So, it's simply adding new material to the Trek canon that former nation states keep their old vestiges.

 

[FarStrider]

In the 4 TV series, hundreds of hours of television - the multiple times characters have visited earth and in all the previous films and TV episodes when they visited earth - not once did we see any flag except the UFP.

So, it's simply adding new material to the Trek canon that former nation states keep their old vestiges.

Uhura is from the USA (United States of Africa), Chekov is from Russia, Scotty is from Scotland, Kirk is from Iowa, Picard is from France, Riker is from Alaska. . .so even though we may not have seen flags, nations and states still exist on Earth. . . and really, there aren't that many episodes where we visited civilian places on Earth, so you can't go by what was shown in them.

~FS

 

[DarthTom]

. .so even though we may not have seen flags, nations and states still exist on Earth. . . and really, there aren't that many episodes where we visited civilian places on Earth, so you can't go by what was shown in them.

~FS

What about Ben Sisko's father Joseph, and his restaurant we visit multiple times.

 

[FarStrider]

. .so even though we may not have seen flags, nations and states still exist on Earth. . . and really, there aren't that many episodes where we visited civilian places on Earth, so you can't go by what was shown in them.

~FS

What about Ben Sisko's father Joseph, and his restaurant we visit multiple times.

Isn't Sisko's restaurant in New Orleans? That's not a nation or a state. And while certain cities do have flags, those are not generally something that most people outside those cities know about. . . unlike national or state flags.

~FS

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Isn't Sisko's restaurant in New Orleans? That's not a nation or a state.

Yeah, New Orleans is more like its own universe.