New observations after home viewing...

[Crazy Eddie]

You're right. Uhura the highly qualified and specialized xenolinguist wasn't in a language lab. She was monitoring the pressure regulators for the ship's fuel tanks.

No, she's a communications officer. She was probably routing status reports and forms from the guys who were monitoring the pressure regulators.

Xenolinguist or not, she WAS, in fact, a fresh academy graduate with no experience and no credentials. There are only so many positions for xenolinguists on a starship, with a much greater need for rank-and-file paper pushers performing the far more mundane tasks that are required for making a starship run.

Whatever she was doing, having a row of computers stuffed along side a bunch of tanks with obvious pipes and valves coming from it doesn't a 23rd starship make.

And for the second time I am compelled to ask, How do you know what a 23rd century starship looks like?

It looked like a facotry, not a spaceship.

I thought you said it looked like a brewery? Eh... okay, but same question: how do you know what a factory looks like?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Starships built 300 years from now that run on crazy nuclear and particle physics and don't run from turbines or need greases and oils?

Are the two mutually exclusive? Even nuclear reactors still run on turbines, still have moving parts that need to be lubricated. Hell, even FUSION REACTOR designs have that requirement.

I expect 250 years of spacecraft development would lead to cleaner lubricants, more efficient turbines that need less messy greases and oils, but they're still going to have moving parts and mechanical components if only because things need to be heated/cooled/pressurized/diffused and the easiest way to do that is a mechanical device.

Hell, in this case it's canonically established: see the "Water turbine section" that almost ate Scotty.

 

[Trekker4747]

And for the second time I am compelled to ask, How do you know what a 23rd century starship looks like?

How do you? You're obviously okay with this nonsense.

How do I know what a 23rd Century starship looks like? From watching the other series and movies, that's how. There's also expectation and preception.

And my preception of what a ship 300 years in the future should look like isn't one with a bunch of computer terminals stuffed in a narrow pathway between giant tanks with exposed plumbing.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

He even has the same postures!

Urban was amazing. Quinto as well.
But Chris Pine had the hardest job of all; re-creating Kirk without aping Shatner. And he was great IMO.

I agree, all 3 pretty much nailed what the characters essence were without just being the originals. The closest to the original was Urban IMO.

Watched the digital version a couple times now on the computer. I'll probably do the DVD next weekend.

Right at the end, when Pine comes out of the turbolift in gold for the first time, the way he says "Bones"... very Shatner like. Probably the first time he really seemed to be the Kirk we all know.

 

[Stag]

You're right. Uhura the highly qualified and specialized xenolinguist wasn't in a language lab. She was monitoring the pressure regulators for the ship's fuel tanks.

No, she's a communications officer. She was probably routing status reports and forms from the guys who were monitoring the pressure regulators.

Xenolinguist or not, she WAS, in fact, a fresh academy graduate with no experience and no credentials. There are only so many positions for xenolinguists on a starship, with a much greater need for rank-and-file paper pushers performing the far more mundane tasks that are required for making a starship run.

In one of the extras on the Blu Ray they are talking about the set design and JJ refers to that area where Uhura is as Communication monitoring station. Whatever that means??

To me, it makes sense, the chief communications officer on the bridge is in no way going to be able to listen to, dice and slice all communications coming through sensors, antennas and what not. There have to be junior officers and techs stationed elsewhere aboard the ship.

 

[Trekker4747]

To me, it makes sense, the chief communications officer on the bridge is in no way going to be able to listen to, dice and slice all communications coming through sensors, antennas and what not. There have to be junior officers and techs stationed elsewhere aboard the ship.

Yes, but having the communications stations located in a corridor amid giant tanks with exposed plumbing?!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

And for the second time I am compelled to ask, How do you know what a 23rd century starship looks like?

How do you? You're obviously okay with this nonsense.

Why wouldn't I be? I don't know what a 23rd century starship might look like, but what we saw in the movie is a distinct possibility.

How do I know what a 23rd Century starship looks like? From watching the other series and movies, that's how.

You do know those series and movies are FICTIONAL, right? Their producers didn't know either. They made it up. Just like Abrams' people.

And my preception of what a ship 300 years in the future should look like isn't one with a bunch of computer terminals stuffed in a narrow pathway between giant tanks with exposed plumbing.

Which, while interesting, doesn't explain why you know enough about factories to think the Enterprise looks like one with just a single glance. I'm beginning to think that you don't, and that your "It looks like a factory/brewery/plumbing" spiel is just an outflow of wharrgarbl.

 

[Trekker4747]

Which, while interesting, doesn't explain why you know enough about factories to think the Enterprise looks like one with just a single glance. I'm beginning to think that you don't, and that your "It looks like a factory/brewery/plumbing" spiel is just an outflow of wharrgarbl.

Umm, because I've seen enough episodes of shows like "Dirty Jobs" and "How It's Made" and things of that nature to know what a factory-like setting looks like? Because when I watched this movie for the first time I was like, "That factory-look for the ship looks dumb" and not "WOW! KEWL! IT REALLY LOOKS LIKE A 23RD CENTURY STARSHIP!!!!! THEY MUST HAVE BUILT ONE, OR GONE TO THE FUTURE TO FILM IN ONE!!! NEATORIFFIC!!!!"

It looks like a factory, it is a factory. It took me out of the movie seeing it as it simply didn't look like a starship to me, it stood out as a factory. Which is the problem you run into when you use 21st century buildings to stand-in for 23rd century ones instead of simply making your own sets and imagining on your own what a futuristic ship might look like.

You do know those series and movies are FICTIONAL, right? Their producers didn't know either. They made it up. Just like Abrams' people.

NO! Really! Why have you done this to me?! Why have you destroyed my world view?! Why?! WHY?! I may go kill myself now.

Of course I know the movies and series are fictional!

But they did establish what ships look like in their paticular time period and universe. Watch TMP sometime, THAT looked like a futuristic, large, complex engine room and didn't stand out as being a set on a soundstage or something filmed in the basement of the local WeBuildIt.

 

[Bob Blusoe]

I was never really concerned about the plot holes. Although the time travel scenario is still muddy to me. In some ways they want us to think that Spock Prime is coming back to the past of the same universe that he was originally from yet it created an parallel universe that co-exists with the original time line...but that means then he isn't from the future of this alternate time line...or in other words he isn't from their future?

I don't mean to open this can of worms again. But it seems they want it both ways and I have a difficult time resolving it.

I am personally okay with this thinking that this new time line is erasing the old time line even if that was not the intent . It makes better sense looking at it that way and it won't stop me from enjoying all my old DVDs.

The lens flares bother me less on TV as do the strange camera angles and shaky camera.

But what bothers me more is the scene where Kirk and Scotty are trying to evade security. It is so obvious that it is a brewery that it does momentarily take me out of the picture.

Other than that I really love this movie and the DVD.

I don't know if someone already sad this, but after reading the STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN comic (I know it isn't great; it's all we have so just listen!) I have come to this conclusion:
This Universe Branches out Zelda: Ocarina of Time Style; Doesn't erase old history. Spock in't from the future of Trek 11; hes from the future of the original TOS. However, so Kirk wouldn't be confused, or Told the future, i don't know, spock doesnt get into those details in the mind-meld. he also fails to show Nero's relationship with him & Ambassador Picard. Pretty much new fans and casual moviegoers, as well as Kirk himself, are "in the dark" about the details.

This is just what I thought. I don't know maybe I'm overthinking it too much.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Which, while interesting, doesn't explain why you know enough about factories to think the Enterprise looks like one with just a single glance. I'm beginning to think that you don't, and that your "It looks like a factory/brewery/plumbing" spiel is just an outflow of wharrgarbl.

Umm, because I've seen enough episodes of shows like "Dirty Jobs" and "How It's Made" and things of that nature to know what a factory-like setting looks like?

So have I. Of course, since the show wasn't shot inside of a factory this is kind of irrelevant, isn't it?

In the end, though, your complaint doesn't amount to anything more sophisticated than "It doesn't look enough like the TOS engine room!" Wharrgarbl!

It looks like a factory, it is a factory.

Actually, it's a brewery. And it's now clear that you have no idea what a brewery or a factory looks like since you are unable to tell the two apart.

Which is the problem you run into when you use 21st century buildings to stand-in for 23rd century ones instead of simply making your own sets and imagining on your own what a futuristic ship might look like.

Why are you so sure that a 23rd century starship's engine room would not look like a factory?

But they did establish what ships look like in their paticular time period and universe.

Yeah. And then JJ Abrams established something totally different. Because, since the first instance is a work of fiction, it can be contradicted by another work of fiction.

Watch TMP sometime, THAT looked like a futuristic, large, complex engine room

Actually, it looks like the LHC exhibit at the sci-tech museum to me. But since we were told it was the engine room, it's easy to suspend your disbelief and say "that must be an engine component."

That's easier to do in the STXI engine room, and is complicated only by the fact that we do not have a big obvious glowy thing to represent a specific crucial engine component (as, in, for example, this thing where you could maybe point to something and say "this is the main feromactal drive unit" or something).

You may notice that the above image doesn't look very much like the TMP set either. It kinda reminds me of the engine room of a WWII submarine, or the motor room of its more modern counterparts. It actually looks alot more like a brewery than a large shiny room with lots of buttons and large incomprehensible glowy things that in any sound design would have at least a foot of radiation shielding around it.

 

[Trekker4747]

Actually, it's a brewery. And it's now clear that you have no idea what a brewery or a factory looks like since you are unable to tell the two apart.

factory
–noun, plural -ries.
1. a building or group of buildings with facilities for the manufacture of goods.

brew·er·y
-nounm, plural -ries
An establishment for the manufacture of malt liquors, such as beer and ale.

So... a factory is a place where goods are made and a brewery is a place where liquors are made. Seems to me all breweries are factories. Since, you know, they make things.

If you're going to play semantics, it helps to know what words mean.

 

[jbohn]

I noticed that in Spock Prime's ship, the triangular chair against the round window forms the Vulcan IDIC symbol.

 

[M'Sharak]

Actually, it's a brewery. And it's now clear that you have no idea what a brewery or a factory looks like since you are unable to tell the two apart.

factory
–noun, plural -ries.
1. a building or group of buildings with facilities for the manufacture of goods.

brew·er·y
-nounm, plural -ries
An establishment for the manufacture of malt liquors, such as beer and ale.

So... a factory is a place where goods are made and a brewery is a place where liquors are made. Seems to me all breweries are factories. Since, you know, they make things.

If you're going to play semantics, it helps to know what words mean.

A brewery is place where beer (a malt liquor) is brewed and a distillery is where liquor is produced, if you want to nitpick terminology. But now, with the expertise you gained by watching Dirty Jobs and How It's Made, tell me what kind of factory is shown in the pictures I posted earlier. I'll make it easier by putting them here, too. (Click to embiggen)

 

[Trekker4747]

I have no idea, I've not enough information to tell you.

But I do know that neither looks like what my expectations of a starship interior looks like.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

The one on the right kinda does; it's how I always pictured the TMP impulse engines would look like (if only because it reminds me of a bank of diesel engines). The one on the left, not as much.

 

[M'Sharak]

The one on the right kinda does; it's how I always pictured the TMP impulse engines would look like (if only because it reminds me of a bank of diesel engines). The one on the left, not as much.

They are both photos taken of the engine room of the QE2, following its complete overhaul and refit in 1986-87. The one on the right does indeed show four of the ship's nine diesel engines; on the left are oil filters and water coolers -- pretty essential to the engines' operation.

http://www.roblightbody.com/liners/qe-2/1987_Refit/index.htm

Would a Trekverse starship engine room look like this, Trekker? Probably not exactly--differences in technology used, naturally, and form following function--but I suspect that it'd likely be a good deal closer to this than anything we've seen in previous movies and series (with the possible exception of Enterprise.) Maybe there's also a control room similar to the Engineering space seen throughout the Original Series or the squeaky-clean and streamlined ones of TNG or Voyager, but in the engine room proper and in the main support systems for the ship's functions, I'd expect to see a lot of the same things shown in those two pictures above.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I work in a pharmaceuticals plant. In the warehousing area actually, but have been in the fermentation buildings, which look surprisingly like a brewery.

Lots of pipes, tanks, steam & noise. The pipes are different colors too, based on what they're used for. So, not a lot different than "engineering".

 

[Yeoman Randi]

The one on the right kinda does; it's how I always pictured the TMP impulse engines would look like (if only because it reminds me of a bank of diesel engines). The one on the left, not as much.

They are both photos taken of the engine room of the QE2, following its complete overhaul and refit in 1986-87. The one on the right does indeed show four of the ship's nine diesel engines; on the left are oil filters and water coolers -- pretty essential to the engines' operation.

http://www.roblightbody.com/liners/qe-2/1987_Refit/index.htm

Would a Trekverse starship engine room look like this, Trekker? Probably not exactly--differences in technology used, naturally, and form following function--but I suspect that it'd likely be a good deal closer to this than anything we've seen in previous movies and series (with the possible exception of Enterprise.) Maybe there's also a control room similar to the Engineering space seen throughout the Original Series or the squeaky-clean and streamlined ones of TNG or Voyager, but in the engine room proper and in the main support systems for the ship's functions, I'd expect to see a lot of the same things shown in those two pictures above.

M, you are a god and my new hero!

 

[Fish1941]

First, the plot holes are more apparent.
Second, the lens flares are more in-my-face.
Third, Chris Pine is growing on me as Kirk.
Fourth, I am SO loving Simon Pegg.
Fifth, the FX are infinitely clearer than in the cinema.
Sixth, not enough E-pron.

Bottom line, it's a total non-fail. I love this flick. The most fun since STIV.

Now to watch the deleted scenes.

Comments?

I agree about the plot holes. I agree about the lens flares. Chris Pine is meh, since I've seen him in better roles. And I am so NOT loving Simon Pegg in this movie. He was annoying as ever.

Would a Trekverse starship engine room look like this, Trekker? Probably not exactly--differences in technology used, naturally, and form following function--but I suspect that it'd likely be a good deal closer to this than anything we've seen in previous movies and series (with the possible exception of Enterprise.) Maybe there's also a control room similar to the Engineering space seen throughout the Original Series or the squeaky-clean and streamlined ones of TNG or Voyager, but in the engine room proper and in the main support systems for the ship's functions, I'd expect to see a lot of the same things shown in those two pictures above.

This is a movie that is set 250 years from now. I would expect the Enterprise's Engineering Section to look a lot more streamlined than that.

 

[Chrisisall]

If you're going to play semantics, it helps to know what words mean.

LOL!
BTW, I'm with you on the greasy lead-based painted piping & concrete walls & stairs not looking very 23rd Century thing.