From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: sdlitvin@earthlink.net   
   Subject: Re: Star Trek 2009, I saw it this week (spoilers if you haven't   
   seenit yet)   
      
   Wouter Valentijn wrote:   
   > Mind you, I already saw several trailers and read dozens of spoilers. It   
   > wasn't that new to me. :-)   
   > Some assumptions I made were wrong. I thought there would be only one age    
   > for Nero whilst another poster with whom I had a discussion about this said    
   > there were decades between. He was obviously right.  Advance Scout?  Those    
   > twelve hundred quatloos are transferred!   
   >    
   > I consider this movie to be a totally alternate timeline, only a few levels   
   > more serious than 'In the Pirkering'.   
   > When did this timeline start to splice of? I think even before Nero showed   
   > up.   
   >    
   > If you look at the scenes involving the Kelvin you see a vessel you would   
   > not think possible for that time period. Outwardly it is reminiscent of the   
   > classic (non-canon) destroyer / scout configuration of the Starfleet Tech   
   > manual of the '70's. But it seems a great deal bigger and more modern too.   
   > It had 800 people or more on board and scores of shuttlecraft! And what was   
   > a pregnant woman doing on board? Passenger? Was there an early experiment   
   > involving family on board starships before the days of Picard?   
      
   She was likely a crew member too.  In TOS, Angela Martine and Tomlinson    
   were going to get married and keep serving aboard the Big E.   
      
   The producers have admitted that the movie Big E is over 2,000 feet    
   long.  The engineering hull is large enough to contain an entire    
   brewery.  :-)   
      
   So in this universe, the Federation and the Romulans build their ships    
   much bigger to compete with George Lucas in that other parallel universe.   
      
   I actually liked the bridge of the Kelvin much better than the bridge of    
   the new Big E.  The bridge of the new Big E looked like a MacWorld    
   exhibit--bright and perky.  The Kelvin's bridge was austere and dim like    
   the military command center on board one of today's supercarriers.   
      
   I didn't like the engineering decks on either ship.  They both looked    
   like--breweries or something.  :-)   
      
   You could even see the paint peeling on the stairways and beams.  But    
   you never saw anything that remotely looked like a warp drive core or an    
   impulse drive system.   
      
   I hope they build a real engineering deck set for the next movie.   
      
      
      
   > The heroes. Well, vehicular wise this was a very different Kirk. Not    
   > surprising since the focal point of the changes was his life. The same goes    
   > for most of the characters. Most close to the originals were Quinto as Spock    
   > (mostly because of his looks) and Urban as McCoy (almost too good a match).   
      
   I liked this new Kirk.   
      
   Karl Urban as McCoy was so close to the original, it was uncanny.   
      
   I did NOT like the portrayal of Uhura.  She came off as a black woman    
   from some northern American city rather than as African.   
      
      
   > Taking a few steps back, taking into account this is a totally alternate    
   > universe, I have some mixed feelings about the way the film was made. The    
   > first half seemed too loose and fast. Way too MTV. Maybe because it is aimed    
   > at a younger age group than mine. The second part of the movie, from Kirk's    
   > stay on that other Delta Vega was the better half.   
      
   A major problem with the first half of the movie was how it tried to    
   build up all the characterization of Kirk AND Spock AND Uhura, each of    
   which had taken multiple episodes to build up in TOS and TAS.   
      
   In particular, the movie raced through Spock's childhood, studying in    
   school, being harassed by Vulcan bullies (ripped off from TAS    
   "Yesteryear" which resembled this movie in several ways), being    
   comforted by his mom Amanda, being warned by his dad Sarek about his    
   destiny, why Sarek married Amanda, etc.   
      
   BTW, the SFX guys who designed that monster that chased Kirk into the    
   cave (where he met Old Spock) said that the monster's mouth was inspired    
   by a prolapsed rectum.   
      
   You've heard of vagina dentata, now meet anus dentata.   
      
      
   > As a whole it can be seen as a 'Collage Homage' to the classic series,    
   > mixing images and sound bites from Treks past into a story that is a bit    
   > shaky.   
   > I would have made two or three movies from that first half or so (up until    
   > the Vulcan distress call) and use those to flesh out Kirk's life in a more    
   > in depth manner.   
      
   In Abrams' "Lost," each separate episode focuses on a different    
   character.  The movie should have just focused on young Kirk, with a    
   plan to focus on young Spock in the next movie.   
      
   And finally: What was with all those lens flares??? Almost every scene    
   got washed out by bright lights.  It gave a surrealistic experience,    
   like we were watching a distortion of the future through some kind of    
   time portal.  :-)   
      
      
   --    
   Steven L.   
   Email:  sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net   
   Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.   
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