Trek Teaser: Original? Or prelude to past mistakes?

[Patrickivan]

Seeing the trek teaser for the first time almost brought tears to my eyes. Hearing Spock utter the some of the most familiar lines in TV history goes as well with Star Trek as Gin goes with Tonic...

The picture of the Enterprise being built was awesome. We all have probably burned out our computer monitors from staring at it...

But here's my problem. After listening to the trailer again and again, I realized something. Is this pretty much how the opening sequence to Enterprise started? Except instead of historical images, we have historical audio clips. These are the first official words we hear from the new movie, and not one bloody thing is original.

So will this movie bring us original and new exciting stories? Or will it be another Enterprise?

And that's my true fear. Is it yours too?

 

[Tamek]

Enterprise was in a class all its own.

JJ Abrams can't touch it even if he tries.

 

[Arlo]

^ Remedial class, maybe
JJ would be wise to keep his distance from that colossal mistake.

 

[Jon1701]

Meh.

Wasnt the best series, certainly wasnt the worst. Its Canon though so watcha' gonna do?

Teaser didnt make me think about Enterprise though. Far from it.

 

[Kegek]

Orci is on record about this trailer's similarity to ENT insofar as giving Star Trek historical context is concerned.

Frankly, ENT had a lot of problems, but its desire to depict the Star Trek universe growing organically from the modern space program is not one of them. There were problems with execution, but it was a good idea.

 

[Ptrope]

jon1701 said:
Meh.

Wasnt the best series, certainly wasnt the worst.

True ... that would be My Mother the Car. But IMO it was the worst Trek series, by far, and most of its problems had nothing to do with the franchise, but sheer, astounding incompetence in the field of storycraft.

I don't see the teaser as repeating ENT's mistakes, but that, based upon it and Orci's comments, there's some strange drive that many of the folks involved have to somehow make Trek 'accessible' by introducing technology and settings that are contemporary. It's Star Trek, guys! It's not supposed to be J.A.G. or The Hunt for Red October - it's supposed to be centuries in the future, and as such, it should inspire a sense of wonder, not a sense of familiarity. Let the characters resonate with us, not the technology, as TOS always did - we could see our contemporary struggles and goals in the show, even though they were zipping across the universe at many times the speed of light and encountering alien rocks and little green men and intelligent clouds of gas.

The welders don't bother me ... the writers do. I don't want to see them transform this franchise into something that doesn't look back and say, "We survived and made this world better."

 

[Number One]

I agree to all the people that said it wasn't the best series, to a degree, all have a valid opinion on why. IMO it was better to VOY for the most part. Certainly introduced some nice ideas however. The opening sequence was one of them.

Having said that however Trek should not repeat itself too much, it is SciFi and as such needs innovation.

I suspect they wanted to say, "Hey, ENT was the last series we had and as is customary to Trek we more or less continue from the point we stopped", remember what they do with pilots, bringing stars from the last series or movies(For ENT) to link it to the fans minds.

Now, ENT fans liking it or not, it was canceled as failure(like I said it had strong points, especially the three main actors, but the fact remains), so I guess they don't want to associate themselves too much with it, just be reminiscent, that's my take on it.

 

[Sharr Khan]

Having said that however Trek should not repeat itself too much, it is SciFi and as such needs innovation.

Oh, Trek was repeating itself long before Enterprise came on the air... its a fine Trek tradition to reuse and steal from itself. So far its most glorious case of self theft would be TMP...

And scifi doesn't have to be "innovative", it does though have to be entertaining. Lets not start adding extra requirements where they don't really exist now.

Sharr

 

[Michael]

^ But innovation and entertainment don't exclude one another. For me it could very well be entertaining because it is innovative in the way it depicts Star Trek. Just my two cents, though.

 

[Number One]

Sharr Khan said:

Having said that however Trek should not repeat itself too much, it is SciFi and as such needs innovation.

Oh, Trek was repeating itself long before Enterprise came on the air... its a fine Trek tradition to reuse and steal from itself. So far its most glorious case of self theft would be TMP...

And scifi doesn't have to be "innovative", it does though have to be entertaining. Lets not start adding extra requirements where they don't really exist now.

Sharr

I already said "TOO much" is not good, so the entire post is not so useful. Obviously, as I'm told, there are only 7 basic stories. Repetition is inevitable. And TNG is one of the series that recycled a lot and was still great.

I do not demand innovation. But asking is another issue.
It's really not too much to ask. In any instance, let's just say it's my desire and they don't have to make it happen(how often they do this anyway, I think it only happens by accident, unless on a mail campaign)

The entire writers strike is a good opportunity to re-think how a possible future series will be built, if ever. I'm with those that think Trek would benefit from getting scripts from pioneering authors, like the original did(and to clarify, get scripts from other sources as well, but why not add this element as well? Raise the scripts budget somewhat, doesn't hurt)

 

[archeryguy1701]

So, ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is another case of panic over a teaser that was not only filmed a year before the movie was due, but completely seperate from the movie. Gotta love being a Trekkie

 

[CommanderRaytas]

It is impressive how we can panic over a 40 (or so) seconds teaser trailer. Just imagine what'll happen once the real trailer (with actors in it and all) comes out.

It'll be anarchy. The internet will implode.

And I don't think that ENT failed because it was a prequel, but simply because the idea wasn't carried out well enough.

 

[Tamek]

CommanderRaytas said:
It is impressive how we can panic over a 40 (or so) seconds teaser trailer. Just imagine what'll happen once the real trailer (with actors in it and all) comes out.

It'll be anarchy. The internet will implode.
[...deletia...]

Imagine, if you will, a situation in which WWE fans were smart enough to use the internet after a WWE pay-per-view event....

 

[Patrickivan]

archeryguy1701 said:
So, ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is another case of panic over a teaser that was not only filmed a year before the movie was due, but completely seperate from the movie. Gotta love being a Trekkie

I don't sense any "panic" here. This is merely a discussion on an element of the movie that is a direct comparison to something in Enterprise. That is to say, the exact use of historic elements to present an idea and evoke emotion.

It's not that ideas can't be re-used. I am bringing up a very specific element and how I find it to be too close to Enterprise. Enterprise is a part of the franchise that I believe they would want to distance themselves from.



I, nor anyone here seem to be dumping on the whole movie because of this discussion. I am dumping on one little element of the movie, and hope that the movie dosn't turn out to be a piece of crap...

Of topic- based on a comment in this thread regarding Enterprise being canon- as far as I am concerned, only the seasons that include "Star Trek" in the title should be included as canon.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I got a real ENT vibe from it, too. But once upon a time (before the premiere episode that is) I was really excited about the ENT prequel premise, and I still think it could be done well (Coto was starting in on doing just that in S4). If ST XI is "ENT done right," plus Kirk, Spock & the gang, that would be ideal.

 

[aelius]

I'm with you Temis.

 

[cultcross]

Temis the Vorta said:
I got a real ENT vibe from it, too. But once upon a time (before the premiere episode that is) I was really excited about the ENT prequel premise, and I still think it could be done well (Coto was starting in on doing just that in S4). If ST XI is "ENT done right," plus Kirk, Spock & the gang, that would be ideal.

I'm with the Vorta - ENT, like VOY before it, had a reasonable idea behind it, very poorly executed. The Star Trek 'origin story' remains to be told (well), and with the resurrection of the original series characters this movie could well be that opportunity.

 

[Patrickivan]

And all our speculating and nitpicking over everything is purely to entertain ourselves until the bloody movie actually arrives.

I am hoping that my take on the teaser is nothing more then something that will fade away when the real previews come out. But what else do we really have to do until then? Other then working on my ST models.

 

[Dale]

I am experiencing nothing but hope and anticipation. The teaser excited me.

 

[Tamek]

Patrickivan said:
And all our speculating and nitpicking over everything is purely to entertain ourselves until the bloody movie actually arrives.

Preach it, brother. I agree with this sentiment 100%.

And there is not anything at all wrong with it.