Why include McCoy, Uhura and Chekov for that matter?
- Thread starter jayrath
- Start date
You don't know the story, but I feel safe enough to say time travel or not - its going to be something of a none linear affair... so obliviously they serve the story in some way, at some point in time...
Sharr
Well, probably because a lot of people want and expect to see them.
There doesn't have to be another reason.
There doesn't have to be another reason.
That's what I was going to say. Which non-fans will be aware of who was or wasn't part of Kirk's crew in WNMHGB? But people usually do know Uhura and McCoy, at least to a certain extent. I think that's reason enough. It's reason enough for me, to be honest.
^ I'll echo several of the sentiments above.
Honestly, who gives a shit? If it matters that much, just make up the canon in your head. A million ways to explain it away.
None of these characters has ever had a line of dialogue explaining when they came on board. Uhura, Chekov and McCoy could have been on leave. Anything really.
Bigger things to worry about. Like vectoring nacelles. And wings.
Honestly, who gives a shit? If it matters that much, just make up the canon in your head. A million ways to explain it away.
None of these characters has ever had a line of dialogue explaining when they came on board. Uhura, Chekov and McCoy could have been on leave. Anything really.
Bigger things to worry about. Like vectoring nacelles. And wings.
When "Enterprise: The First Adventure" was being written to celebrate the 20th anniversary, Vonda McIntyre was encouraged to use "the big seven" in her story - simply because most customers picking up a novel about Star Trek's first adventure would still be expecting to see all the familiar characters from the TV show.
It's a big ship - canonically, we saw (and heard) very few important department heads more than once. Ditto the crew. It wasn't because they kept being killed off.
Once you throw in a line about McCoy taking leave for his daughter's graduation (during WNMHGB), I can't see there are too many others things that are essential to explain. Uhura and Chekov might have been there at the beginning, just not onscreen.
Bouncing around the timeline is bound to be a feature of a JJ Abrams project, judging by "Lost".
Yep. More spunk for the fan wank. Otherwise, its a waste of Kleenex.
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It amazes me, anyone actually thought they'd make a Star Trek [ToS) movie, minus the rest of the crew. Dennis is quite correct most people expect these people to be a Trek movie in one form or another. Its not that hard to figure out.
Sharr
Sharr
But what about Kirk's best friend Gary Mitchell? Is he going to be in the radiation pod for the whole movie?
My prediction is that we will see the lesser characters on other starships and their parts will be minor. That's both my prediction and my hope.
Funny you should say that. At the end of the movie, Gary Mitchell (played by Andy Dick) will make his first and only appearance. He'll walk onto the bridge and say "What'd I miss?" and Kirk and Spock will look at each other and smile. Freeze frame and cue new theme by Alan Thicke.
Initially it seemed clear that this was going to be a movie about the TOS which became established and famous - not The Cage, and not the early growing pains of the first few episodes. This show was going to be a direct prequel to, and starring, the crew of COTEOF, of The Trouble with Tribbles, or Arena. The shows which became iconic.
But then they muddied the waters by tossing in Pike. And now it looks like Number One might be joining him. This opens a can of worms on what exactly the movie is ignoring and what it is going along with. Now it doesn't particularly matter to me if they ignore WNMHGB, I don't like it, and the TOS we got later was a better show, but it is illogical to me to embrace the continuity of The Cage and ignore WNMHGB.
frankly I'd have steered clear of the whole can of worms, and redone the start of TOS as if it began as the iconic show it became, ignoring the crews of the Cage and WNMHGB entirely - especially when making a movie intended for general appeal. Total loss to canon - two pretty lousy episodes and one token reference in Deep Space Nine.
But then they muddied the waters by tossing in Pike. And now it looks like Number One might be joining him. This opens a can of worms on what exactly the movie is ignoring and what it is going along with. Now it doesn't particularly matter to me if they ignore WNMHGB, I don't like it, and the TOS we got later was a better show, but it is illogical to me to embrace the continuity of The Cage and ignore WNMHGB.
frankly I'd have steered clear of the whole can of worms, and redone the start of TOS as if it began as the iconic show it became, ignoring the crews of the Cage and WNMHGB entirely - especially when making a movie intended for general appeal. Total loss to canon - two pretty lousy episodes and one token reference in Deep Space Nine.
Speaking as a fan of both pilots, all I can add is: why insult canon at all? Why not just give us a nice, self-conatined adventure starring the big 7 sans old Spock, time travel, etc.?
Hell, if we have to have a time travel/assassinate Kirk plot, whty not just adapt Vonda McIntyre's The Entropy Effect? Once you've hacked out the Mary Sue elements, you have a tight, exciting story with kewl weapons, paradoxes galore and the entire universe at stake. It would also have avoided Shatner's complaints because there would be no Nimoy and Ellison's complaints because there would be no Guardian. It would also mean we have a film based on the work of a Nebula Award winner rtaher than the guys who wrote Transformers.
But we're gonna get what we're gonna get.
Hell, if we have to have a time travel/assassinate Kirk plot, whty not just adapt Vonda McIntyre's The Entropy Effect? Once you've hacked out the Mary Sue elements, you have a tight, exciting story with kewl weapons, paradoxes galore and the entire universe at stake. It would also have avoided Shatner's complaints because there would be no Nimoy and Ellison's complaints because there would be no Guardian. It would also mean we have a film based on the work of a Nebula Award winner rtaher than the guys who wrote Transformers.
But we're gonna get what we're gonna get.
Honestly, ask the "average man on the street" and I suspect you'll find that most of them couldn't care less about any of them. They want Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty (only so the never-used phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" will still be in their lexicon).
Nobody really cares about Sulu or Chekov or Uhura outside of Trek fandom. They're footnotes, really... of little more interest than, say, Gary Mitchell or Jose Tyler.
Except to us, of course. But as keeps being pointed out... we're not the majority of the moviegoing public.
That's why I was hoping to see "WNMHGB" characters... who are mostly CYPHERS and thus can be played by anyone, and expanded by anyone. Essentially, new characters who just HAPPEN to be "easter eggs" for the fans.
I think that's a possibility... but there's another possibility which I think is more likely. Specifically, that this film takes place in several different points in time. Evidently, ONE portion of this will take place on the TOS-era Enterprise.
How do any of us know that the "major recast points" we've seen are going to see more than 3 minutes of screen time, and have more than one or two lines, a piece... with the exception of Kirk and Spock, I mean?
THAT is MY hope... and my belief. That we'll see very little of the "second banana" cast. Any more will be a distraction from actual STORYTELLING, if you ask me, and lead back into the "It's a small galaxy, aaffffter alllll" refrain.
I mean, damn... what, there are a dozen people in the whole freakin' Starfleet??? Gimme a break...
Because there will be action figures and bed sheets. I can't live my life without a Chekov toothbrush. And, no, I don't mean the writer.
"Keptin! The cavities... They're gone!"
Because the avid ST fans know the ending of that one, and there'd also be no need to do a movie novelization.
I'm looking forward to a new story, an untold one.
No, I'd say the general public know most of the names or faces of "the big seven", and probably also Chapel.
Mitchell and Tyler were one-episode characters, and more likely to be unknown to the general public. But I'm guessing there'll be characters who look rather like them, or are name-referenced in the movie. Ditto Carol Marcus, Leila Kalomi, Number One, Rand and Kyle.
Were this any other type of film, one would think TPTB would minimize the number of unnecessary characters. But since the entire point of it all is a nostalgia/revival trip, twenty-second cameos (including some by big-name actors) are a completely plausible element.
One wonders, though, who the "actual" characters of the movie will be if everybody so far cast is just a glorified cameo - save presumably for Kirk, Spock and the main villain. (What is the complete roll call here? Any obvious "villain's chief henchman" or "hero's love interest" roles so far?)
Timo Saloniemi
