Monday 6 May 2013

Star Trek Into Darkness: The Long Wait


I first saw Star Trek back in 2009 and from my point of view it was a fun film to watch, but with an extremely poor storyline. 

JJ Abrams brought the series back to life ... but not in the way I thought was right. The Enterprise nacelles looked terrible and Engineering was ...was just...not Engineering! The ships in the Star Trek universe (exterior and interior) are supposed to be sleek. To help with my explanation , think back to … well, every Star Trek before the 2009 one. They are sleek, and “modern”. I hardly call grid metal (stuff with holes in) modern. 

Back to the 2009 film and I have quite a lot of things that I didn't like about it. It is possible the old sets had plastic for their walls, but in the Star Trek universe, it was supposed to be normal metal. Why all the stupid walkways, and grid metal. There was NO sign of a warp-core and those brewery tanks, labelled with a radiation sign were wrong. In the Star Trek universe (and in physics) tell me how deuterium and anti-deuterium is radioactive?  They’re not!  That is not Star Trek! Also, why detonate the Red Matter near Vulcan? The black hole will still suck in the planet. Why didn't the Enterprise just shoot the drilling machine like the Jelly. Why did the Narada need the Earth defence codes?!

Let's think back to The Next Generation's classic The Best of Both Worlds. The Borg just fired a torpedo at each Mars defence force and bam! they were destroyed. How will a 24th Century Romulan starship versus a 23rd Century ship have any difficulties overcoming it? Star Trek could once pride itself on being scientifically realistic compared to most science-fiction. A black hole does not just suck things in … but it would destroy them in the process. For me, after watching the film for the first time, I thought JJ should have been removed from ever working on Star Trek again. I wasn't happy at all.

Moving to character choices, I wasn't keen on Chris Pine as Kirk but I really liked the new Spock and McCoy. I thought Nero (Eric Bana) was slightly exaggerated baddie and his acting did not seem as good as some of the other characters though in fairness he was not on the screen that much.

I loved the jelly-fish ship that Ambassador Spock brought from the Prime Star Trek universe and the explosion effects were good - and the sparks!! I liked the sets except Engineering and I liked the new LCARS displays that they put on the ship. The new improved beaming sequences were great but the phaser (gun) design was a bit plain to be honest. Overall the  CGI was good and rather exhilarating on some bits. The music is very memorable, and good (I recommend getting the soundtrack - Clive). I just hope that engineering will be different in Star Trek Into Darkness. I also hope that the story isn't as bad in the new film.

What Do I Want From Star Trek Into Darkness?


Ok, it’s nearly here and I’m getting excited. Tickets for the Liverpool One IMAX (premier seats) are booked. (First weekend of course) I am going with my best friend who is also a Trekkie . You may think I have massive expectations and predictions. but you know what? I just don’t know what to think because this is only the second time we've seen this crew. 

Now onto the new stuff!



Some of the film is set in London as we've seen in the trailers and almost probably revolves around it being blown up (I like that England is included full stop).  I am definitely going to enjoy it. I have, in all honesty, being getting used to the cannons and nacelles, regardless of how bad they might appear at first. (The Enterprise has phasers, not [phaser] cannons!). I've been told and heard that the story is going to be more like “proper” Star Trek than the 2009 reboot film. The 2009 movie was really designed to attracted new fans to Star Trek. (Engineering is bound to stay the same I suspect)

I also think that Bones should be included more, which I will be happy to acknowledge. The USS Vengeance will be just awesome, no matter what! I mean … come on! It is a huge black ship, dwarfing the Enterprise, and being honest looks far better, and actually more Star Trek. The trailer footage takes the series firmly where no one has gone before. Wrecking the Enterprise looks amazing! Benedict Cumberbatch is going to make a fine bad guy as John Harrison or whoever he is!

The trailers have been good. They do not show too much, and are very memorable. It also begs you to find out “why does the Enterprise get destroyed?", and “Why does everyone decide to jump off something?” (answer is because they realised 2009 film existed!) among other things. So far I've not seen any merchandise advertised but I would like some Playmates ships if they get produced to add to my collection. Whatever happens, I am going to be on such a high for Star Trek Into Darkness, especially as this my first time I would have seen one of the movies on the big screen! I am going to enjoy it, and only after it might I start to work out what is wrong , if anything (fingers crossed for engineering).

Seb is a MASSIVE Trekkie  and is bringing a more youthful perspective to the SKoST world! Don't let age fool you though, he's been more than accustomed to the worlds of Star Trek before it all go rebooted in 2009. Hopefully that passion has been reflected here and we look forward to hearing more from him in the future! Want to hear more from Seb? Then go to his youtube homepage.

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