To those who were following my "Future Begins" blogs, sorry I didn't have the time to finish all the blogs I wanted to write. So, now I figured I will give the back story on the new Star Trek movie and a short little review of the movie, hopefully without giving away and spoilers.
First of all, I found out about this right before the movie came out, but Paramount produced an "Official Movie Prequel" to the new Star Trek movie. This was called "Star Trek: Countdown". If you were almost like me and let this one sneak by, let me give you the quick story.
The Stardate is 64333.4, putting the story in the near future of the Next Generation time. Nero and his crew (all with hair and no markings) are mining decalithium in the Hobus system, which is deep in Romulan territory. Suddenly, the star begins to break apart. Nero orders a withdrawl, but a solar flare pushes gravimetric readings off the scale, and causes interference with everything. They are not able to pull in the drill platform in time, so Nero orders a shuttle to launch, warp to the platform, beam off the crew, and warp back. When they get back, the Narada goes to warp as the sun envelopes the system destroying everything in the system.
Back on Romulus, Spock has lived on Romulus for 20 years with his Reuninification effort. He has opened many minds, and finally was not only to come out in the open, but to become a legal resident of Romulus five years ago, where he has the job of the Federation ambassador to Romlus. But there is still some racism. He addresses the Romulan Senate about the supernova in the Hobus system. Not only is it unstable, but will grow as it consumes matter. Spock estimates that it will consume the entire Romulan empire in a matter of weeks. He tells of an option to take decalithium and convert it to something called Red Matter, but the technology to do this only exists on Vulcan. The Romulans believe this is a Vulcan plot to get their decalithium. Even when Nero addresses the Senate and confirms the supernova, no one believes them. The Senate forbids anyone to do anything on the matter.
Nero loves the Empire second only to his family. So after telling his pregnant wife about his conflict, she understands, and Nero goes to Spock. He offers all of his trust to Spock and his plan to save the Empire. He gathers his ship and crew, and with Spock, they are off to the Kimden system to mine the decalithium. While mining, the Remans attack. They board the Narada, and take everyone hostage, when a Federation ship arrives to save the day. The U.S.S. Enterprise, under command of Captain Data. Data was resurrected when his neural pathways were able to establish themselves in the B4 unit. Data has his team to beam off the weapons onboard the Narada. Then he boards the vessel with his own team. They take back control from the Remans.
Unfortunately, they have only gotten 78% of their target load of decalithium, and with a power conduit destroyed, the mining was off. Captain Data confiscates the Remans decalithium under the Federation Rules of Engagement. Enterprise repairs the Narada and then escorts them to Federation space. Under way, Nero is offered diplomatic rights, and he comes aboard the Enterprise for a tour, dinner, and the ability for research, where he looks up Federation history and captains. To make matters worst, Data informs Spock that Hobus star has the potential to threaten Federation Space and the Federation has authorized a covert mission to the Hobus system to deliver the weapon themselves, instead of trusting the Romulans.
Both ships arrive at Vulcan, where Spock and Nero are not allowed to beam down, until the Federation and the Vulcan High Counsel sends consent. When they arrive, Spock is criticised for his decisions to leave Vulcan for Romulus, and they do not trust him. The trust comes from the Federation Ambassador to Vulcan, Ambassador Jean Luc Picard. They take their needs to the Vulcan Science Counsel, but the Science Counsel refused to give up the secrets of the Red Matter for Romulan use. They were convinced they would turn it into a weapon.
Nero is mad and leaves Vulcan to help Romulus evacuate, but he leaves the decalithium for Spock and Picard to beg the counsel to turn into Red Matter. Picard reveals the one thing Spock has been hiding. The person delivering the Red Matter will be on a suicide mission. The ship would never be able to pull away from the singularity. That's why Spock always knew he was going to pilot the ship. Data interrupts telling the group the Hobus star has gone critical. Nero arrives in time to see Romulus and his wife get engulfed in the star.
Federation medical ships arrive to help the survivors. Nero tricks them into lowering their shields and by saying he will beam over his wounded. Instead he beams over mining explosives and destroys the ships. He find the Romulan High Counsel, and kills them to get information about the plans for what the survival plans were for Romulus.
In mourning, Nero and his crew follow tradition, they shave their heads and place markings on their skin. But a real Romulan mourning, as the marks fade, so will the mourning. Nero and his crew decide to make the markings tattoos. Their mourning will never fade, all that is left for them is revenge. The Narada goes to a location and sends out a signal. A large starbase uncloaks. It is the "Vault", a highly secret military base. The Narada is outfitted with retrofitted Borg technology implemented with Romulan designs. This gives the Narada the best in sensors, weapons, shields, warp speed and cloaking ability, plus with nanotechnology, the ship will repair itself.
Back on Vulcan, the Science Counsel has agreed to make the Red Matter, and the Federation has gotten Spock the fastest ship they can get their hands on, and the best ship to handle the stresses of the environment, with the ability to handle the Red Matter. A ship called the "Jellyfish", it was created by a Starfleet Engineer who left Starfleet to produce his own designs. A man Geordi LaForge, who delivers the ship to Vulcan. The Vulcans modify the ship for the Red Matter. As they do, there is stories of ships disappearing between Romulus and Vulcan. Picard has started a distraction for Nero. Spock says his goodbyes and leaves in the Jellyfish for Hobus.
A Klingon Armada finds, surrounds and uncloaks around the Narada. It is under the command of General Worf. They open fire, but cause no damage. The Narada cloaks, then starts taking out the Klingon ships with one shot each. Finally the Narada uncloaks and demands Worf to get in a shuttle and come over to surrender. Worf comes over with a boarding party and attacks. But Nero and his crew quickly get the upper hand and almost kill Worf. The Enterprise arrives on scene. Nero offers the return of Worf. Enterprise lowers shields to get Worf, and as he is beamed over, the Narada attacks, but Enterprise gets shields up in time. Although engines are offline. Nero figures out what is going on and leaves the Enterprise to go intercept Spock.
Spock arrives at Hobus, delivers the device which makes the unique singularity, or black hole, and absorbs the supernova. The Narada arrives, but immediately gets sucked into the black hole, along with the Jellyfish. And this is where Countdown ends and the movie begins.
About the movie, all I can say is WOW! This is a wonderful breath of life into the Star Trek genre. Even though there are many changes between the Star Trek storyline as we know, and the new beginning, but these changes are explained. There were a few things that did puzzle me. First of all, why is Chekov on the bridge? Chekov took over the bridge when Riley was sent to the weapons room in Season Two of Star Trek. But here he is from the beginning. But again, this can be explained with the changes in the storyline.
Secondly, Uhura goes into a bar and orders a list of drinks. Including a Slush-o, which is the mysterious drink from the movie "Cloverfield". But she also orders a Cardassian drink. The Federation doesn't meet the Cardassians until the Next Generation. If you put it into perspective, almost 129 years in the future of this time. How do you order a drink of a race you have not meet yet.
Thirdly, I know everyone has seen the scenes, even in the previews, even the first shots, even the first website ncc-1701.com, all showed, the Enterprise is being built on Earth. In all of Star Trek history, all the ships were built in space. It was said that the ships could not handle a gravity environment. The pylons the engines were built on would not be able to support the engines in a gravity environment. But yet, here it is, being built on Earth, then it is assumed that it is sent up to a large starbase orbiting Earth. Why need a starbase if you are not going to build in space?
Finally, everyone in Starfleet knows what a Romulan is, and what it looks like. But yet, the original series "Balance of Terror" made a big deal about how it was the first time the Federation had ever seen a Romulan and how they look like a Vulcan.
In a recent interview, J.J. Abrams did address this fact, and how they knew about the Romulans as far back as the Kelvin: ""It's not mentioned in the scene on the Kelvin, but they are aware of it," Abrams confirmed, agreeing with the sharp-sighted fans. "Because later in the movie, Kirk mentions that they were Romulan. And we very purposely begin the film with a moment that, for fans of 'Star Trek,' is a left turn from the timeline they are familiar with." For anyone who thinks they "caught" Abrams, however, the director is quick to point out the opposite. "For fans of 'Trek,' yes, the Romulans appearing breaks with what is known to be 'Trek' canon. But that is on purpose.""
But if you take out those nitpicks, the movie is amazing. The amount of humor is amazing and it is put in the movie in a believable way. It is not slapstick, but you can actually see this happening in life. I was almost in tears when Kirk was being taken to the Enterprise for the first time.
The actors are perfect. I am still a little indifferent over Uhura, but I like the attitude she has in regards to Kirk, but unsure of her closeness to Spock. But Spock, Kirk, McCoy are perfect. They bring the characters to life perfectly, and under the new "timeline" with all of it's differences. Sulu and Chekov are also wonderfully done. It was great to see these characters brought to a larger supporting role.
Of course, Rachel Nichols makes you believe for the first time that Orion women are as sexy as they are supposed to be in Star Trek legend.
And the best character, the Enterprise herself. She looks like a "suped-up" version of the 1960's model. And it holds true with the changes J.J. Abrams has put in. After the Kelvin meets the Narada, Starfleet learns, adapts and "beefs up" their ships in respect. Thus is born the new Enterprise.
But being a huge Star Trek fan, I always knew there was something missing. Especially after Star Trek acknowledged it and still did nothing to fix it. In Star Trek II, Spock mentions that Khan is fighting two dimensionally. At that point you realize, every Star Trek battle was two dimensional. It was like watching the ship battles on Pirates of the Caribbean. Two ships pass each other firing. This movie has now added the third dimension. It has been long missing.
The storyline is one of the best Star Trek has had, but you got to pay attention to it all. There are still a couple of things I missed that I need to go back to see what I can find. There are many tributes left through the movie. First of all, the hidden Tribble. Even the cast did not know it was there. But apparently somewhere in the scene where Spock and Kirk meet Scotty for the first time, there is a tribble. Also, when Bones is in sickbay, he calls to Nurse Chapel.
Another tidbit, there is a scene where the Enterprise comes out of warp around Vulcan and ends up in a debris field. People may have to wait for the DVD release of this movie, but there is what J.J. Abrams has said is a "Blink-and-you-miss-it Easter Egg". Somewhere in the debris field is something "cool". There are many other tributes and Easter Eggs. From shapes of glassware in the bar, signs throughout the Academy, and even the computer screens. Again, more use of the DVD player.
One of the main subthemes of the movie is destiny. The writers researched destiny and quantum mathematics and found out that there is a mathematical basis to destiny. In the writers words, the strange ways everyone comes together, is because they are destined to be together, and the timeline is now trying to mend itself.
The next movie will continue this unpredictable future. The one name that is being thrown around most for the next movie is bringing in Khan Noonien Singh. According to J.J. Abrams, in the new timeline, Khan may never reach Ceti Alpha V.
Finally, let me add this: now that the timeline of the future is different, there is talk of bringing back Shatner in the next movie. He would play the new future Kirk, it is possible in a flash forward, a stunt J.J. Abrams has loved on his show "Lost". But for those wondering about this movie, Shatner was originally thought of, and here is the interview that discusses the "never filmed Shatner scene:"
"If you've seen the new "Trek," you know that Nimoy portrays the original Spock in a series of scenes that has the character traveling to an alternate dimension and making contact with younger versions of the Enterprise crew. In one heart-tugging moment, "old" Spock addresses "young" Spock and explains their eventual friendship with Kirk; in the Shatner version, however, young Spock was to be more skeptical.
"Elder Spock tells young Spock, 'I couldn't tell you the truth about what's happening, because if I had, I would have robbed you of the benefit of realizing the greatness that you and Kirk will achieve together — and the amazing friendship that you'll have. You had to discover that for yourself, and I couldn't get in the way of that,' " Orci's writing partner, Alex Kurtzman, revealed. "And in our original version, younger Spock says, 'I'm still not sold.'"
Elder Spock said, 'Well, don't take my word for it,' and he handed him a little disc — a DVD, really — that projected a hologram, and then he walked away. And the hologram was of Kirk," Kurtzman continued. "It would've been Shatner.
"The scene was an attempt by the writers to adhere to "Trek" canon — which depicted Shatner's Kirk as being killed in 1994's "Star Trek: Generations" — yet still give him a presence in the film via a final recording he had taped before his death.
"If you follow 'The Next Generation' [TV show], elder Spock went off to Romulus to be an ambassador in two episodes called 'Unification 1' and '2', and [our] idea was that it was a long, long mission, and Kirk would have died by the time he returned to Earth [because they] just wouldn't have the same lifespan," Kurtzman explained of the Vulcan. "And so [this DVD] was essentially Kirk sending Spock a goodbye."
"It was a 'happy birthday' message [with Kirk saying], 'This is the last time I'm going to be able to wish you happy birthday, so I want to tell you how much you've meant to me and how amazing it was that we had all these adventures together,' " Kurtzman said of the alternate ending, which would have provided the last act with a powerful voice over the film's final scenes.
"That narrative, that voice-over," Kurtzman said, "became a link [to be heard] over [scenes of] this new crew coming in ... a young Kirk accepting the medal and becoming captain of the Enterprise."
"Ultimately, the Shatner ending of "Star Trek" was abandoned for a whole variety of reasons. "Whereas our elder Spock had a very organic reason to be there, we didn't have that same benefit with Kirk," Kurtzman explained. "Because Kirk died in the movies — he died in canon — it was very hard to come up with a way to bring him back in the movie that didn't feel contrived.""
For now, let me end here. Hope everyone has stayed awake. I will keep you up to date as new information about the sequel comes up.
