Captain's Log

I thought I'd give my rambling, incoherent thoughts on the most recent Star Trek film, just for the heck of it. If you haven't seen the movie, SPOILER ALERT!

First off, my bonafides. Now, I'm not a Trek authority, by any means. I've seen many, if not most, of the Original Series episodes, but that was a long time ago, and I don't really remember them all that well. I've seen almost all, if not all, of the episodes of Next Generation. I watched about the first 5 - 10 episodes or so of Deep Space 9; I've seen 1 or 2 episodes of Voyager; I've never seen an episode of Enterprise. I have seen all the movies. I've never read a Star Trek novel, and I've never been to a Star Trek convention -- although when I was young I did go to comic conventions, gaming conventions, Dr. Who conventions, and even a Blake's 7 convention or two.

So, with that in mind, I think you could call me a fan, but not a hardcore fan. I certainly know the basics of the universe, but not all the details of canon. I did know enough about this film to know that it was changing the storyline, but I wasn't sure how (and some of the details of how things were changed I didn't know until they were made clear in the movie). Anyway...

I enjoyed the movie, overall. I thought the action was exciting and fast-paced. I thought the visual design was sleek and cool. I thought the actors all did a good job playing to the expectations of the characters while not aping their predecessors. I would like to see them again, as I think they would be even better in a second movie without the need to "Assemble the Team" -- the story and the characters could breathe a bit.

Now on to some details, which will involve revealing plot details. At some point in the future -- I think about 20-30 years after the end of TNG/DS9/Voyager -- Ambassador Spock (who has been living among Romulans, working on a reconciliation between them and their 'cousins' the Vulcans) is tapped to save the Romulan planet. Something about a supernova, he injects some "Red Matter" into the star, blah blah, it will not blow up and destroy the galaxy. However, he's a little slow on the draw or something, so the planets Romulus (and Remus, I assume) get destroyed. Still, the star doesn't destroy the rest of the galaxy, and it turns into a black hole. Nero, the captain of a mining ship, sees his planet destroyed (with his lovely wife too) and wants to kill Spock for what he sees as a betrayal of his people, but both are sucked into the black hole and back through time. In doing so, they radically change the timeline and the lives of everyone in the new Star Trek universe.

Problem 1: Nero's change from simple mining captain to seriously evil dude is quite rapid. This was something that I was a bit unclear on: was he just in the area when Romulus got destroyed and then got immediately sucked in to the black hole? I assume that had to have been the case -- had he been far away and just decided to fly over to kill Spock, he would have missed his ship going into the black hole. But that means that within seconds he goes from regular guy to vengeance driven madman and convinces his whole crew to go along with him to boot.

This speaks to the larger problem of Nero's character. It seems like they didn't quite know how to portray him. Was he just a normal person, driven mad by grief? Was he an evil man, leading a crew of evil people? When he gets sucked back in time, he emerges in front of the USS Kelvin and immediately attacks. He seems rather sinister in his confrontation with the bad-ass and buff Indian Captain (go Indian Starfleet!). And speaking of Nero attacking... why the hell does a mining ship have all these weapons?

Anyway, when, later, he meets up with the USS Enterprise on its maiden voyage, he's not quite as eeeeeeeeeeevyyylllllll. Captain Pike introduces himself as Captain Christopher Pike. Nero responds with, "Hello Christopher, I'm Nero." It was a funny touch, but also quite clever: Nero isn't an officer or a military man, he has no sense of protocol. He just calls the guy by his first name. It also serves to make him more than a bit creepy. So, 25 years after his first sinister attack on Starfleet, he seems a bit more mellow.

And here's another oddity: Starfleet is attacked by what they recognize to be a Romulan vessel. The Romulan vessel destroys the Kelvin. Does this have any sort of repercussions for Starfleet-Romulan relations? Are they in a war? What exactly is their reaction? Do they go out in search of this guy that just killed a bunch of their people? And why does Nero leave the spot where he emerges? Spock emerges from what is apparently the same place 25 years later, but Nero has been off flying around somewhere -- or at least, that is what the movie suggests, as his 2nd in command says something to the effect of, "We're coming to the spot you indicated, sir." Where the hell have they been for 25 years? And how does he happen to know that Spock will reappear there at that exact time?

But anyway, my point is that Nero was a villain with potential that wasn't really explored. And Eric Bana is a solid actor, so certainly they could have given him a bit more to work with.

So, that's the first main problem I have with the film. Now on to problem 2: Capt. Pike gets captured by Nero, Vulcan gets destroyed and Spock is sad, Spock & Kirk get into an argument, Spock maroons Kirk on Delta Vega where Kirk runs into Old Spock (who had been marooned there by Nero to watch while Vulcan was destroyed) and Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. That's quite a coincidence, eh? I mean, we've already populated the Enterprise with all the other main characters (who all just HAPPEN to get quick promotions to their expected crew positions despite being cadets), now Kirk, Scotty, and time-traveling Spock all end up on the same planet? Spock makes some sense -- apparently the planet is close enough to see the destruction of Vulcan, and also habitable (if inhospitable) -- it makes sense for Nero to dump Spock there. Kirk as well -- he gets kicked off the ship by Spock right after Vulcan's destruction, so they are in the Delta Vega area anyway. But Scotty too?

Spock Prime (that is, old time-traveling Spock) speaks of Kirk's need to fulfill his "destiny" and take command of the Enterprise, as that's the only way to defeat Nero. Let's put aside the question of how the hell Spock Prime, from a completely different timeline, would know that only Kirk's plan to defeat Nero would work and not young Spock's plan, which also seems like it has its merits. But the notion of "destiny" is an interesting one, as its a psuedo-religious concept that usually you don't see in a sci-fi show like Star Trek. If, however, we take it seriously as a force operating in the Star Trek universe, it would seem to explain how Sulu & Chekov happen to be assigned to the Enterprise in this new dimension; how Bones meets up with a young Kirk and becomes his close friend; how Bones becomes quickly promoted to chief medical officer and how Uhura becomes quickly promoted from nobody to chief communications officer; and how Kirk meets up with Scott on some random backwoods planet. But what is the nature of this "destiny"? Is it the will of some sort of deity? Yes, in a way. The only way that "destiny" really makes any sense is if you consider "destiny" to be the will and expectations of the fans. I mean, think about it: this is a radically changed timeline. When Nero & Spock came back in time, they supposedly altered everyone's lives, most especially Kirk's, whose father was killed by Nero. Wouldn't it make sense that some OTHER person in this new timeline would become the greatest engineer/language expert/Starfleet captain/doctor/whatever, instead of one of the characters from the original series? The only way it really makes sense, the only way that these characters still become who they become is because we, the fans, expect them to be that. We will tolerate a slightly different Kirk or Spock or whomever, but not a Kirk who isn't a bad-ass mack-daddy Starfleet Captain, or a Bones who is a happy-go-lucky Vulcan lover. So, in fact, it is the fans who make the world of the new Star Trek coherent, ensuring that all the characters come together in some recognizable form, taking the places that they are "destined" to hold.

So, now some minor nitpicking: the way Scott & Kirk get off Delta Vega and on to the Enterprise. We are told it is through transwarp teleportation. Now, let's assume a couple of things: Kirk has been on this planet for AT LEAST 4-5 hours -- long enough to wander around, meet Spock, wander around some more, and convince Scotty to travel with him to the Enterprise. All this time, the Enterprise has been traveling AWAY from the planet at warp speed. How far has it gotten? Not sure, but pretty damn far. It's got to be out of the solar system. We're talking millions of miles away. Now, Wikipedia tells me that transporters in TOS were 40000 kilometers. Even in TNG there is only an "experimental" transporter than can traverse interstellar distances. Now Scott -- with the help of Future Spock -- can suddenly transport people from solar system to solar system? What the hell is the point of space ships anymore if you can just teleport bazillions of miles?! I know they had to get them on the Enterprise somehow, but that was a bit lazy.

Other nitpicky problems: the confrontation between Kirk & Spock when Kirk gets back on board is very rushed. Uhura has a bigger role in the movie but still doesn't really DO anything except convey information for Kirk & Spock to use. And finally, when Kirk cheats at the Kobayashi Maru test, he is way too cute about it. I would expect Kirk to be a bit less obvious about his cheating.

OK, enough babbling. Goodnight.