Why the cliched Time Travel? (Spoilers)

[Praetorian]

I just saw the movie..and I must say that the time traveling business seriously annoyed me.

I mean..c'mon! It's such a big cliche, it has been seen countless times in Star Trek, even 3 of the movies had time travel...

Was it all only to make obsessed continuity humpers pleased that "their" Star Trek hadn't disapeared unlike what would happen if they had simply done a reboot?
I mean who would care about it?

I certanly wouldn't. Instead a tired plot device was introduced...*again*!

I enjoyed most of the movie, it made Star Trek seem fresh and exciting like it hadn't been in years, had some balls and it was an interesting "Comming of Age" story...

But the time travel? The worst thing about the movie for sure. Besides being a tired cliche it also was the cause of most the things I didn't like in the movie:

So Romulus blows up with a Super Nova? What's the range of those things? Unless it was the Romulan Sun? Then there wouldn't be any time... However, my knowledge of science being limited I could be wrong, and this is a minor point...

Nero's motivations...unwillingly transported through time by the man who was trying to help his people, decides to go on a Vengeance Spree, blamming folks who had no obligation whatsoever to help the Romulans in the first place instead of.. I don't know, warning his people about the goddamned Super Nova?
Nevermind the look of Romulans...I mean they went from snobish aristocratic bastards to tatooed prison convicts or something..And their ship? How I missed D'deridex's...However I could handle this redesign of Romulans if necessary...

How convenient that Kirk's escape pod landed right next to Spock... And now there are 2 Spocks in the Universe? Didn't like the other times (Endgame for example) and I didn't like it here...



Instead Nero could be simply the commander of an highly experimental warship, intended on destroying the Federation because...he's a Romulan. Not very deep but hey, at least it's hard to see the flaw in this, enemies like to attack each other...

In short, I just think the time travel just complicated matters and could have been easely avoided, which would have resulted in a better movie. At least to me...

Despite this, I enjoyed the movie (could have gone without most of it's humor too, specially Checkov's accent..), hope it is a sucess that will bring sequels and perhaps a tv series..but please, no more silly time travel shenanigans..

 

[number6]

Why the cliched indignation??

Time travel is a device used in science fiction. Some of Trek's best moments involve Time Travel. Only two other films involve Time Travel and they are considered the best of the franchise.

 

[FlyingLemons]

It's inconsistent, it's unphysical, it's Trek science!

Well, it was intended partially as a sop to the "NOT CANON!!!!1!" crowd in the hopes that they'd accept it, but also it shows that they do respect the history of the show to try and tie it in. Hopefully, however, the next film will just tell a straight Abramsverse story and leave the time travel alone for a bit.

 

[SalvorHardin]

So Romulus blows up with a Super Nova? What's the range of those things? Unless it was the Romulan Sun? Then there wouldn't be any time... However, my knowledge of science being limited I could be wrong, and this is a minor point...

Well, the Countdown comics make it clear that it wasn't just a regular supernova but some kind of irregular, strange supernova phenomenon that grew stronger as it went and turned the matter of the planets it consumed into energy (or something like that).
This didn't come across in the movie.

 

[chrisspringob]

So Romulus blows up with a Super Nova? What's the range of those things? Unless it was the Romulan Sun? Then there wouldn't be any time... However, my knowledge of science being limited I could be wrong, and this is a minor point...

Well, the Countdown comics make it clear that it wasn't just a regular supernova but some kind of irregular, strange supernova phenomenon that grew stronger as it went and turned the matter of the planets it consumed into energy (or something like that).
This didn't come across in the movie.

Did it expand faster than the speed of light or something? Because otherwise they would have had years' worth of warning on this.

Anyway, going into the movie, I too thought the use of time travel to reboot the continuity of the franchise was kind of silly and unnecessary. I thought they should just do a straight reboot, and not worry about an in-universe explanation for it. But I changed my mind after I saw the movie. I thought they handled it well. Yes, the science was silly, but I didn't really mind.

 

[SalvorHardin]

So Romulus blows up with a Super Nova? What's the range of those things? Unless it was the Romulan Sun? Then there wouldn't be any time... However, my knowledge of science being limited I could be wrong, and this is a minor point...

Well, the Countdown comics make it clear that it wasn't just a regular supernova but some kind of irregular, strange supernova phenomenon that grew stronger as it went and turned the matter of the planets it consumed into energy (or something like that).
This didn't come across in the movie.

Did it expand faster than the speed of light or something? Because otherwise they would have had years' worth of warning on this.

If I remember correctly we are not given that information. We can only assume that it does.

 

[Kelso]

Why the cliched space travel? That has been used more often than time travel.

A lot of interesting things are possible in the Star Trek universe. None of them should be arbitrarily taken off of the table.

 

[chrisspringob]

Well, the Countdown comics make it clear that it wasn't just a regular supernova but some kind of irregular, strange supernova phenomenon that grew stronger as it went and turned the matter of the planets it consumed into energy (or something like that).
This didn't come across in the movie.

Did it expand faster than the speed of light or something? Because otherwise they would have had years' worth of warning on this.

If I remember correctly we are not given that information. We can only assume that it does.

Well, that's kind of stupid, but I'm just going to ignore the scientific implausibilities in the movie, because it's not really about the science.

 

[Praetorian]

Why the cliched indignation??

Time travel is a device used in science fiction. Some of Trek's best moments involve Time Travel. Only two other films involve Time Travel and they are considered the best of the franchise.

Hum, no...3 movies...

Voyage Home, Generations and First Contact. And yes, it's a device used....*used too much*!

Yes, some of the best moments involve Time Travel..some of the worse too..so?

Besides I could handle Time Travel in TNG, but after Voyager and Enterprise? I can't see it anymore. Of course, I'm aware that the average viewer doesn't suffer from this..luckily!

I just think the movie had nothing to gain from using time travel and lost a little for using.

I'm looking forward for the Time Travel free sequel...

 

[Praetorian]

Why the cliched space travel? That has been used more often than time travel.

A lot of interesting things are possible in the Star Trek universe. None of them should be arbitrarily taken off of the table.

Space travel is the essence of Star Trek, and doesn't create the inconsistencies that Time Travel does. Nor would it feel tacked on.
It's not like we are talking about the Back to the Future or the Terminator franchise.

 

[number6]

Why the cliched indignation??

Time travel is a device used in science fiction. Some of Trek's best moments involve Time Travel. Only two other films involve Time Travel and they are considered the best of the franchise.

Hum, no...3 movies...

Voyage Home, Generations and First Contact. And yes, it's a device used....*used too much*!

Yes, some of the best moments involve Time Travel..some of the worse too..so?

Besides I could handle Time Travel in TNG, but after Voyager and Enterprise? I can't see it anymore. Of course, I'm aware that the average viewer doesn't suffer from this..luckily!

I just think the movie had nothing to gain from using time travel and lost a little for using.

I'm looking forward for the Time Travel free sequel...

Generations did not use time travel.

I enjoyed VOY and ENT to varying degrees.. so I'm not seeing a problem here.

If the next film is as good and uses time travel, I wouldn't have a problem with it. It's just a device for storytelling, not something to get uptight about.

 

[Praetorian]

Generations *used* time travel... Picard went back in time and changed history. Please no technicalities about *how the Nexus really works*.

I also enjoyed Voy and Ent but they went overboard with Time Travel shenanigans.
And improper devices for storytelling get me worked up.

 

[number6]

You haven't proved anything "improper" about time travel. It is a device that gets used in a great deal of sci-fi storytelling. No one is going to stop because you dislike enough to post on a message board.

 

[Praetorian]

What's there to prove? It's a personal preference. I think I'm entitled to those...
For me it was improper because it was hardly original and mostly pointless.
Some disagree. I'm fine with that.

No one is going to do one damn thing because you dislike or like things enough to post on a message board...so what? Boards like these are to discuss things. And so we are...

 

[number6]

You referred to time travel as an improper story telling device.

Well, prove it. Otherwise why post about it?

 

[Praetorian]

Because I can?

If you can't see why I deemed the use ot time travel in this movie as improper...well I can't help you. I've expressed myself to the best of my abilities...
The time travel in this movie was, in my oppinion (that should go without saying) unoriginal and pointless. Why? See other posts in this thread.

I'm not opposed to Time Travel per se, if that is what you are getting from me.

Edit: Eh, what the hell... Let's try this:

Unoriginal: As I said, it is a device that has been used countless times. It can still be done in interesting ways. However, I did not perceived any originality on how the time travel happened in this movie. In fact it seems simply like an afterthought..something that just happened. Can't say i really confortable with that.

Pointless: This is the most important. The movie did not need the Time Travel in my oppinion. The movie was essentially about Kirk's and Spock's growing pains. But then there's this Time Travel thing too? I found it distracting. And it was the cause of most plot points I found dubious. And what did it added to the movie? As I showed the movie could have been easely made without time travel and very very little would change. And certanly not the message of the movie..

Therefore I consider the use of time travel in this movie...improper. In other words, time travel was improperly used in this movie, and it would have been better had it not been used at all!

Again, only my oppinion.