New Empire magazine STID photos

[BillJ]

Star Trek hits a lot of common story points. The same can be said for every Trek movie that has come out since 1979. Somehow the fact that Abrams is doing it makes it not ok for some people. That's just petty.

Can you show a sequence of Star Trek movies that go back-to-back-back with the same basic story points (Nemesis, Star Trek 2009 and Star Trek Into Darkness)? Bad guy with an axe to grind that can make a big bang...

It could be a great film, it could be a shitty film. If acknowledging that concept makes me petty, so be it.

 

[controlfreak]

How about Star Trek 2-4.. Spock gets killed, brought back to live, saves whales.. Kirk dealing with old age in pretty much all of them.. How about every super villain Kirk has fought in every film? How about Picard dealing with his loneliness and solitude being a ship captain? I could go on and on. I know nothing about the plot of this film so I can't conclude that the plot is the same as the 2009 film. Maybe you've already seen the film and can make that conclusion? And yes, of course you're being petty. Extremely. Carry on.

 

[BillJ]

How about Star Trek 2-4.. Spock gets killed, brought back to live, saves whales.. Kirk dealing with old age in pretty much all of them.. How about every super villain Kirk has fought in every film? How about Picard dealing with his loneliness and solitude being a ship captain? I could go on and on. I know nothing about the plot of this film so I can't conclude that the plot is the same as the 2009 film. Maybe you've already seen the film and can make that conclusion? And yes, of course you're being petty. Extremely. Carry on.

Have you even seen the first ten films? Based on your description above, I'd say no. Might want to correct that before coming into a discussion that involves them...

TMP - Searching for its creator.
TWOK - Bad guy with an axe to grind who acquires the ability to make a big bang.
TSfS - Bad guy trying to acquire weapon for his government.
TVH - Probe comes looking for whales.
TFF - Spock's brother searching for God.
TUC - Conspiracy flick with the two sides working together so they can continue to hate each other.

Need I go on?

 

[Christopher]

Somehow the fact that Abrams is doing it makes it not ok for some people. That's just petty.

It's not about Abrams. It's about recentness. A decade ago, people were trashing Enterprise just as viciously. A quarter-century ago, there was widespread outrage about TNG. Before that it was the TOS movies, and before that it was the animated series. There have always been Trek fans who are vehemently hostile to whatever the newest incarnation of the franchise is, unable to tolerate the fact that it's different from what existed before. Yet the differences or continuity errors they denounce as unprecedented betrayals and corruptions are really no greater than the differences and continuity errors that have been part of the franchise all along. I've seen the cycle repeat over and over, so I can tell you -- whatever specific charges they level against the individual work or its individual creators are just the excuse. The real reason is that they're just uncomfortable with novelty. Which is sad, really, because Star Trek is supposed to be about facing the new and different with curiosity and wonder.

 

[blaXXer]

TMP - Bad guy with an axe to grind with the ability to make a big bang.
TWOK - Bad guy with an axe to grind who acquires the ability to make a big bang.
TSfS - Bad guy trying to acquire weapon for his government. To make a big bang. also, has an axe to grind with Kirk.
TVH - Probe with the ability to make a big bang comes looking for whales. Has an axe to grind with Earth, since the whales are all dead.
TFF - Spock's brother searching for God to make a big bang. Has an axe to grind.
TUC - Klingon General with an axe to grind with the ability to make a big bang.
GEN - Scientist with an axe to grind with the ability to make a big bang.
FC - Borg have the ability to make a big bang THROUGH TIME! Picard has an axe to grind with them.
INS - Rua'fo has an axe to grind with his former people. Wants to wipe them out to make a big bang.
NEM - Picard's clone has an axe to grind with Romulus and Earth. Has the ability to make a big bang.
ST09 - Nero has an axe to grind with the past. Makes a big bang. Dies trying to make another.

FTFY
(fixed this for you)

 

[Nerys Myk]

So, it's the big bang theory?

 

[blaXXer]

So, it's the big bang theory?

Oh no. Their gags were never funny. Trek on the other hand...

 

[controlfreak]

How about Star Trek 2-4.. Spock gets killed, brought back to live, saves whales.. Kirk dealing with old age in pretty much all of them.. How about every super villain Kirk has fought in every film? How about Picard dealing with his loneliness and solitude being a ship captain? I could go on and on. I know nothing about the plot of this film so I can't conclude that the plot is the same as the 2009 film. Maybe you've already seen the film and can make that conclusion? And yes, of course you're being petty. Extremely. Carry on.

Have you even seen the first ten films? Based on your description above, I'd say no. Might want to correct that before coming into a discussion that involves them...

TMP - Searching for its creator.
TWOK - Bad guy with an axe to grind who acquires the ability to make a big bang.
TSfS - Bad guy trying to acquire weapon for his government.
TVH - Probe comes looking for whales.
TFF - Spock's brother searching for God.
TUC - Conspiracy flick with the two sides working together so they can continue to hate each other.

Need I go on?

Oh do go on. It's fairly obvious where you stand on the matter. I've been a fan since the original show was on TV, so you're not going to sway me with your condescending attitude about how I somehow don't understand Star Trek the way you do. Every incarnation of Star Trek has brought something new to the table and we'll see what Abrams brings to the table on this outing, now that the introduction has been taken care of. You see, this is a CONTINUATION of the first film. That's how a sequel works, so of course they're going to pick up on threads about Kirk and Spock as characters, just as they did with the series of films 30-odd years ago. You can sit this one out if you're not interested...But to say that they didn't continue storylines across the six films is ignorant at best.

 

[BillJ]

It's not about Abrams. It's about recentness.

I started watching TOS back in 1975 and it is my favorite series. I watched Encounter at Farpoint three times the weekend it premiered back in 1987, saw Star Trek 2009 twice the weekend it opened, twice more in the theater during its run and have seen in several times after it was out of theaters since I own the film on Blu-ray.

My feelings about films have nothing to do with who makes them or if they're new. Why must people always try to assign ulterior motives whenever someone has concerns about something new coming out or points out flaws in something that has just come out?

My feelings towards the current films would be the same whether it was J.J. Abrams, Rick Berman or Gene Roddenberry making them. I would have the same concerns about a plot, that seemingly, copies the last two films plot in broad strokes. What I state is simply my opinion and can change when the film comes out.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

All of this nonsense about whether the movie is too this or not enough that is beside the point if you've seen the first nine minutes.

I have. Despite the "villain" making only a token appearance, it's already better than most previous Star Trek movies. Of course it's going to be a huge success, and a reaffirmation to Paramount that they're taking the right approach to Star Trek now.

If you've seen that material and you don't like it, of course, you may as well go ahead and focus on things other than this movie, because it's gonna be like that.

Next.

 

[Set Harth]

I'm kinda hoping old Spock is the one who saves young Spock.

 

[blaXXer]

I'm kinda hoping old Spock is the one who saves young Spock.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a cop-out and will not happen.

 

[JarodRussell]

His name is John Harrison and he is sort of an average – that is what makes him so scary – he is just an average guy who works in an organization called Starfleet, and he turns against the group because he has got this back-story and this kind of amazing secret agenda. After two very violent attacks, one in London and one in the US, our characters have to go after this guy and apprehend him. And it is a far more complicated and difficult thing then they ever anticipated.

He’s sort of superhuman, pretty much unbeatable. Brainy and brawny. He manipulates situations. He’s incarcerated when Kirk is talking to him and yet he still gets Kirk to do his owrk for him. He pushes him into a corner where the only route to salvation is cooperation. There is a real Hannibal Lector quality to him.

Oh yeah, let me guess. They catch him, and then he's in his cell and it turns out he actually wanted to get caught in his evil plan, and THEN things turn really ugly and he escapes again.

 

[Nerys Myk]

His name is John Harrison and he is sort of an average – that is what makes him so scary – he is just an average guy who works in an organization called Starfleet, and he turns against the group because he has got this back-story and this kind of amazing secret agenda. After two very violent attacks, one in London and one in the US, our characters have to go after this guy and apprehend him. And it is a far more complicated and difficult thing then they ever anticipated.

He’s sort of superhuman, pretty much unbeatable. Brainy and brawny. He manipulates situations. He’s incarcerated when Kirk is talking to him and yet he still gets Kirk to do his owrk for him. He pushes him into a corner where the only route to salvation is cooperation. There is a real Hannibal Lector quality to him.

Oh yeah, let me guess. They catch him, and then he's in his cell and it turns out he actually wanted to get caught in his evil plan, and THEN things turn really ugly and he escapes again.

So?

 

[indranee]

Seems they've based the story somewhat on Prime Directive by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, one of the best Trek novels ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Directive_(Star_Trek_novel)

agreed on that one being one of the best Trek novels.

 

[Captain_Amasov]

His name is John Harrison and he is sort of an average – that is what makes him so scary – he is just an average guy who works in an organization called Starfleet, and he turns against the group because he has got this back-story and this kind of amazing secret agenda. After two very violent attacks, one in London and one in the US, our characters have to go after this guy and apprehend him. And it is a far more complicated and difficult thing then they ever anticipated.

He’s sort of superhuman, pretty much unbeatable. Brainy and brawny. He manipulates situations. He’s incarcerated when Kirk is talking to him and yet he still gets Kirk to do his owrk for him. He pushes him into a corner where the only route to salvation is cooperation. There is a real Hannibal Lector quality to him.

Oh yeah, let me guess. They catch him, and then he's in his cell and it turns out he actually wanted to get caught in his evil plan, and THEN things turn really ugly and he escapes again.

I was sort of hoping he'd commandeer the Enterprise and attack San Fransisco with it, but that'll never happen.

 

[SalvorHardin]

High quality versions of the Empire photos

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

They're really doing this less than a year after he takes command? It's disappointing...

I'd rather see the character growth and the see chemistry among the characters begin to gel for myself.
I don't want that growth and gelling to have already happened off-screen, between movies. I want to be a witness to it.

 

[Franklin]

Thanks for posting the better pics, Salvor. I missed Scotty wearing his Starfleet ring in the lower resolution pictures.

 

[SalvorHardin]

Not from Empire but I didn't want to start a new thread...from the post production process of the movie at Bad Robot headquarters.