Rating:
4 out of 5
Short version: While hard core Trekkies may have some problems with it, this long time classic Star Trek fan found this reboot fun, fresh & exciting.
Screen Rant reviews Star Trek
Where to start? (This is going to be a long one, folks. If you want to skip the preamble and get right to the review itself click here.)
Some people are Star Wars fanatics, others go nuts over Transformers or X-Men. While I’m a huge Iron Man fan, Star Trek is my true love going back well over 30 years. My favorite of all the shows? The Original Series (aka TOS). You may look at it now and think it looks cheesy (however I highly recommend you check out the digitally remastered version with brand new visual effects on DVD or Blu-ray), but remember the original Star Trek is over 40 years old.
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At the time the other big Sci-Fi TV show was the cheese-fest called Lost in Space – so keep that in mind as a comparison. 
I have Star Trek prop replicas on my bookshelves (some pretty damned nice ones) along with a copy of the original Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph and a set of blueprints of the original U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (which shows the location of a bowling alley on the ship!). I’ve memorized every episode of the original series – I can tell you which one each one is within seconds of any of them starting. And I’ve seen every movie.
Yes, I’m into Trek “canon” – tracking all the little details that tie the whole Star Trek universe together, however I’m also aware (though some fans seem to be in denial about this) that over the course of hundreds of episodes across five different series, Star Trek itself has violated its own canon many times.
Why am I telling you all this? So you have some context for my review of J.J. Abrams’, Roberto Orci’s and Alex Kurtzman’s reboot of the Star Trek universe. However this is not a review just for “Trekkies,” and that’s appropriate because neither is this film just for that group of die hard fans (among which I include myself).
Also, I did read the four part prequel comic that tells the story which leads to the events that take place in the film. If you have a chance I recommend you find it and pick it up at your local comic book store as it really fleshes out the “villain” in the film, Nero.
Some fans may disagree, but this franchise was in desperate need of a reboot, re-imagination, fresh “take” or whatever you’d like to call it. Star Trek, as a brand, was whithering on the vine and was in danger of being put on the shelf for who knows how long – until Paramount might decide enough time had gone by to give it another go. This was due to a number of factors, among which included the subsequent series being taken in directions by Rick Berman (and to some exent, Brannon Braga) that the fans did not agree with. Essentially it was a case of “the fans don’t know what’s good for them – we’ll tell them what they want.”
From this we gained the ignoble death of Captain Kirk in a transition movie with a stupidly weak plot device, Star Trek: Voyager, the Lost in Space of Trek, progressively crappier movies and finally Enterprise: At least an attempt at something fresh in Trek, which unfortunately went off in some half-assed direction – and Manny Coto’s efforts to bring the show back to what it should have been in season 4 were too little, too late.
So… when it was announced that the new film would go back to before the original series crew had met I was both excited at the prospect and terrified of how it might turn out. I mean we’re talking about recasting iconic roles. Bill Shatner? Leonard Nimoy? DeForest Kelly and James Doohan?
Sacrilege!
But I tried to be cautiously optimistic over the course of very early news, pre-production and through the production. I listed this film as my most anticipated of the year…
And I was NOT disappointed.
So finally – the review…
Click here to continue reading our Star Trek review…
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2,444 Comments
Ed Harris would indeed be spot-on for Ridgeway, great pick.
While The Ridge may be an Asshole with a capital “A” he is not a villain with a capitol “V”, any one who writes for hin should take care not to make him TOO evil, or it will cast his employers in a bad light, namely ther Federation, and by extention, us.
My need for dramatic conflict in the plot reveal scene necessitated his creation. You have to admit it reads much better than “Here’s the situation gentlemen, the Vulcans are royally screwed bla bla bla blah..”
I needed somebody who could go toe to toe with Spock on an intellectual level but had a completely different worldview, so I took George C Scott’s two great generals, George Patton and Buck Turgidson, added a liberal amount of Jack Nicholson’s Col Jessup, a dash of G Gordon Liddy and Oliver North and just a sprinkle of the Watchmen’s “Comedian” , mixed it all up with a New York sized ego with attitude to match and Voila! Stanley (like the tool he is) Ridgeway a “Bad Admiral” that makes the most recent BA, the weak-willed and tired-looking Admiral Doughrty, look like a cream puff by comparison.
In the end he’ll probably be inspired by Kirk & co to have a change of heart and sacrifice himself to save the day in some suitably spectacular fashion, but he promises to give us a lot of hissable moments and quite a few laughs before that happens.
Trekmovie is reporting The Discovery Channels Mythbusters
will be testing the feasability Of the Makeshift cannon Kirk used to defeat The Gorn in Arena.
Mythbuster Grant Imahara will be wearing A blue Starfleet uniform during the test .
crash dummy Buster will be wearing a red shirt.
sorry I dont have a link ,
but if you go to TrekMovie
They not only have the original cannon clip from Arena,
but also clips of past cannons created by the Mythbusters.
This will happen in their next fan special sometimes next year.
@ Steve:
“The Ultimate Computer: Kirk to Daystrom?”
Bingo! Now it’s your turn again, Paisan.
Are we having fun yet, hahaha?
~Johnny
@ Brighteyes:
HAHAHAHA, “and [General] Buck Turgidson”…
“Gentlemen, please! You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!”
Don’t sugarcoat it for us, BE, we can handle the truth!
And you’re right, Stanley is a good name for a tool!
~Johnny
@ Gary:
All due respect to Grant Imahara, I’d give anything to see Kari in a starfleet miniskirt! Okay, she’s white and a red-headed Irisher, but, hey, she looks as good as Nichelle Nichols ever did if you ask me…
Hey, how ’bout a gold shirt? Seems like Jamie or Adam ought to be wearing one of those, doncha think?
Lemme see, a rigid tube, a pointy stone to drill out the touch-hole, some coal or other carbon, some diamonds or other hard gems to act as bullets, some sulphur, some flint to make a spark over the makeshift fuse – yep, that oughta be within the Mythbusters’ skill set!
Poor Buster!
I can’t wait, thanx for the heads-up, Gary.
~Johnny
Johhny,
I hear you but I am not sure about Karris due date.
She miight be on maternity leave by then.
They say Grant is wearing Blue Because its a Science Officers uniform.
LOL! with all the explosive these guys use ,
I wish I could be a “Scientist” like them!
oops !
Kari I meant .
As a rule, I wouldn’t want a movie to be a retread of a TOS episode, even a great one like Balance of Terror.
Still, elements of that episode would work really nicely with the treament I am working on.
The more astute of you have realized where I intend to go with this, that Vulco-Romulan re-unification is the key to the Vucans’ salvation (at least in the short term)
Rigeway’s plan to “jump start” re-unification (much like we jump started democracy in Iraq) is not at all popular in the Admiralty and neither is he. The reason he is in that room is that he has correctly deduced the cause of the Vulcan attacks. The Admiralty and the Federation will insist on a diplomatic solution. Spock Prime will volunteer but Starfleet will not permit it due to the risk of SP being captured and interrogated for his knowlege.
Guess who gets to be the Federation’s “olive branch”
Tragicly, while the events in First Contact, Enterprise, etc have changed things a great deal in the Federation, the Romulan time line has remained pretty much the same. As the Enterprise embarks for the Neutral Zone on a mission of peace, one of the Preator’s finest and proudest flagships is embarking on a mission of war.
I like it.
Even more tragicly, Spock Prime has not told anybody what a cloaking device is because that is precisely the kind of technology that would make Ridgeway’s suggestion viable.
At this time the Federation has no knowlege of cloaking technology and our heroes are about to be surprised….again.
Those of you who would like to take a crack at writing what happens next shouldn’t pay too much heed to the throwaway line “Their power is simple impulse” used in BOT. What I’m sure they meant is that they detected no warp signature from the cloaked Romulan. This would make sense if Cloak 1.0 could hide a ship but not it’s warp signature, the Roms would have to go sub-light in order to sneak up on their prey. The situation is similar on the submarines of today, prefectly capable of the same speeds of a surface vessel, but to go that fast would give away their location by prop cavitation and plant noise.
“But what about “The Enterprise Incident” ” I hear you say, “Didn’t the Enterprise cloak at warp 9?”
Ah, but that was with Cloak 2.0 , a much improved version. The Romulans could never penetrate deep into enemy territory undetected with Cloak 1.0. The ability to cloak a vessel’s warp field as well as the ship itself is what made cloak 2.0 a weapon so deadly that the Federation had to employ extreme measures to obtain a copy.
I’ll bet if we put our heads together we could come up with a hell of a script. Shall we try it, just for fun.
I’ve started the ball rolling with a pretty kick-ass premise, and the next scene is writing itself in my head.
You’re gonna LOVE what comes next.
@ Brighteyes:
Don’t forget about Chaing’s BoP, in ST/VI: It could not only hide its warp signature, but could remain cloaked even while firing a torpedo, except for just a flash of a fraction of a second – and Spock was there when Uhura figured out that all the gas anomaly-detecting equipment hey had aboard the Enterprise might be adapted to one of their Starfleet torpedoes, so he even knows how to defeat it.
And if Spock would never reveal any of his secrets, why did he give Scotty (as a young man) his own formula back to him so he and Kirk could transwarp-beam onto the Enterprise in the first place? Obviously, he has enough intelligence to discern what could be changed thru his intervention, and those events that could not possibly be changed by any ‘meddling’. Like no one else would. Space is a great insulator, even in the 23rd Century.
Good observation on the risk of Ambassador Spock’s capture, I hadn’t thought of that – and I still say, he has 135 years of the knowledge of things that are still gonna happen anyway, the kind of things that would not be affected by Nero’s corruption of the timeline.
Hmmmm, Ed Harris as someone named ‘Stanley’ – I like it!
@ Gary:
I didn’t know Kari was pregnant – lucky daddy!
~Johnny
Lot’s of good stuff. I have to catch up.
OK, so I’m up for the next quote. Hopefully this one will be easy (so someone else can get a quote in!)
“Soon, Captain… quite soon…”
Good luck, and good night.
~Doc
@ Steve:
Okay, Doc, that is a TOS movie qute, but not from the series, but that’s okay by me, I’ll take it:
Valkris, Lord Kruge’s operative (and main squeeze) in ST-III/TSFS, right before he blasted her – and all the other men onboard the merchantman ship – into space debris after she made the mistake of telling him she saw the Genesis Presentation made by Carol Marcus.
~Johnny
TOS movie QUOTE, I mean, sorry…
~Johnny
Correct! Now pick a TNG quote or something so I can’t possibly get it!
@ All:
Hmmm, okay, whatever Doc wants, Doc gets.
I picked one from the TNG series, first season. it even has a title that tips the hat to TOS.
“Captain’s Logg, [stardate]: Where ARE we?”
~Johnny
“Hmmm, okay, whatever Doc wants, Doc gets.”
LL – if only. Incidentally, I don’t believe there are two “g”s in “log.”
Ingénue – you still with us?
~Doc
@ Steve:
Well, that’s the Scottish spelling of log, like the name Pegg, get it? Haahahahahahaha!
Okay, you caught me! I thought I proofread that, hoping no one would notice; guess you guys are just too sharp for me.
Btw, ‘LL’? Don’t you mean ‘LOL’? You should talk, hahahahaha! Typos are a bee-yotch, ain’t they? Remember what it used to be like back in the day, with typewriters & White-Out? Correction ribbons?
Anyways, that’s my quote. Tough enough for ya, Doc?
And I agree, where IS Ingenue? I should leave a ST/DS-9 quote just for her, come to think of it:
“Well, we could always paint it…”
That’s for anybody who watched DS-9, but Kath liked it the most.
~Johnny
What are these things of which you speak: “typewriters” and “white-out” and “correction ribbons?” I can only find references to them in the Library Computer under “ancient history.”
So now there are two quotes to which I have absolutely no guesses. I like this game!
~Doc
@ Doc:
Hahahaha! Look under ‘Stone knives and bearskins’, lol!
That keyboard you are accessing right now was originally intended to slow the typist’s hands down, so as to not tangle the rods of the original ‘tower’ type typewriters – and they just never updated it, although there have been attempts to do so, but this has never caught on, despite some very innovative ideas – all the vowels on the middle row, the split keyboard, the ‘bent’ keyboard, with all the number keys & the spacebar in a triangle in the middle (my favorite), but the ‘qwerty’ type keyboard is still the favorite, I suppose because people just hate change.
Sometimes I wonder how much we have to ‘un-learn’ to adapt to new things – look at texting, people type with their thumbs. I could never type with my thumbs!
~Johnny
Well check Hell for snowballs . . .
I just got an Iphone today.
What is the world coming to?
@ All:
Okay, obviously that first one was too obtuse, here’s another hint:
“Do you have any facts to support this?”
Same character, to the person responsible – even though it was his assistant who was really responsible, and only Wesley understood that…
And as for the second one, that DS-9 episode also involved 100 gross of ’self-sealing stem bolts’, which the station would be stuck with for quite a while…
Here they both are again:
“Captain’s Log, [stardate]. Where ARE we?” – TNG, first season, and
“Well, we could always paint it…” – DS-9, late in the series’ run.
Did I go too far? Hahahaha!
~Johnny
“Captain’s Log, [stardate]. Where ARE we?” – TNG
I guess that was Picard in “Where No One Has Gone Before”
“Well, we could always paint it…” – DS-9
Maybe Nog to Jake about Sisko’s baseball?
Let me run a little “Koboyashi Maru” scenario by you.
Suppose you are a lifelong Star Trek fan with a particular affinity for the original series. You see the movie the day it comes out, even knowing that it will be less than perfect. Parts of it are goofy and implausible, but other elements are downright brilliant and they almost make up for the bad stuff, in other words; typical Star Trek.
A few days later you wake up in the morning with a sudden realization; “OMG! PONN FARR! The Vulcans must return to their homeworld to spawn and now they havn’t got one! Earth didn’t get 10,000 scientists and scholars, it just got 10,000 walking time bombs with seven-year fuses!” Pieces start to fall together, characters come to life in your head, and a script begins to write itself and you CAN’T TURN IT OFF. You can see a story that flows naturally out of the events of the movie, is canonicly bulletproof, and is packed with potential for drama, action, humor, sex, moral conflicts and social commentary, in other words; EXCEPTIONAL Star Trek. A premise that, if handled properly, could even dethrone the mighty Khan for the title of “Best Trek Film Ever.”
But you find yourself in the Kobayashi scenario, you have no agent or Writers Guild membership, and even if you did, your chances of penetrating the insular and incestuous world of the Hollywood elite is pretty much nil.
Is it a no-win scenario or is there an outside-the-box solution? Do you just keep to yourself an idea that clearly needs to see the light of day?
I decided to post it on this forum for peer review “run it up the flagpole and see who salutes”, so to speak. Some of you have asked; “What is there to stop them from stealing your idea?” To borrow a quote from “A Taste of Armageddon” (one of my all time faves;)
“Stop it?..I’m COUNTING on it!”
There is a saying; “The internet is forever” If my treatment makes it to the screen without credit or compensation, Paramount will receive a letter from my lawyer pointing to a certain forum on a certain website that points to a certain E-mail address, namely mine. More than enough evidence to implicate them for intellectual property theft, leading to a nice, fat, out of court settlement to buy my silence.
There are however, other ways to silence me, and the Hollywood crowd aren’t exactly paragons of moral virtue. I wouldn’t put anything past them, especially with a property worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
That is where you come in. If the screenplay is co-written by half a dozen guys, most of whom have their identities “cloaked” by the anonymity of the web, then bumping me off becomes a much dicier proposition.
What I offer you is a chance to share in the rewards of my….”enterprise” in exchange for assuming a portion of the risk, which would be diminished exponentially by your participation. We all know the characters, we all know the universe, and we all know what a good Star Trek episode is all about. Together we could craft a script that they simply could not refuse.
Having it out on the web for all too see is not an insurmountable problem. Hollywood is very familiar with Ridgeway’s world of disinformation and subtrefuge. Creating one or more equally plausable “Decoy” stories and giving them a greater exposure than the real one will throw 99% of the public off track, a much greater percentage than the portion of the population that knows what a brewery looks like.
There are what..six of us left here? If we divide the pie between us we should all never have to go hungry again.
Is anyone in? To quote Gamesters of Triskellion “I THINK you’ll find it a MUCH more INteresting game than the one you’ve BEEN playing.”
To quote Admiral Ridgeway of Fleet Intel “Slice, anyone?”
@BE
As much as I like your idea, these guys have lawyers that would probably put Johnny Cochrane’s firm to shame. Also, as we all know, Tuvok overcame pon farr and he was almost 70,000 lightyears from Vulcan, and so was the Vulcan ensign. Of course, that happens over 80 years from this timeline but it does show they really don’t need to go back to Vulcan. Your story could still work, with Vulcans going crazy and then McCoy finding a similar cure to what the holographic doctor found; but McCoy wouldn’t have a holodeck to work with, he would have to use other means.
Not as up on “Voyager” as I am on TOS. Janeway always struck me as the anti-Kirk, always screwing her crew out of a ride home to uphold the Federation’s ideals.
Finding and synthesizing a cure is one venue they would explore, as well as finding a world with that certain “something” that Vulcans need, but if those things were easy, the Vulcans would have done it themselves by now.
Paramount has their lawyers, I have weblog forum entries with a time stamp. I am busy working on the next scene, but it needs polish and fact checking, that’s where you guys come in.
Thanks for the info on Voyager Kahless, I didn’t know that the “no homeworld” plot device had been done before. I still say that it holds up. I haven’t answered every objection and pecadillo, but it it is not due to a lack of answers, but rather a lack of time. All questions will be answered in due time, but I’ve got a story to write. Even if it goes nowhere, it is tale that must be told.
-Till next, BE
@ Kahless:
““Captain’s Log, [stardate]. Where ARE we?” – TNG
I guess that was Picard in “Where No One Has Gone Before”
BINGO! Very good, John, the back-up hint was to Kosinski, who was supposeed to be the Federation’s fair-haired boy but it was really The Traveler, who was seeking out young geniuses like Wesley Crusher. SO glad someone finally got that one.
And, you’re up for tha next quote.
[“Well, we could always paint it…” - DS-9]
“Maybe Nog to Jake about Sisko’s baseball?”
You’re in the right family, I guess, Kahless – actually, I just dropped that in there to flush out our young friend Katherine, our Ingenue, haven’t heard from her lately.
It was Chief O’Brien to Kira, in command of the Station in Sisko’s abscence, explaining that the different, smaller desk that they (Jake & Nogg) had got from the starship captain they had traded with over the ton of Yamok Sauce, the 100 gross of self-sealing stem bolts, and the alien dirt that was considered sacred by the Bajorans, was all part of “Faith, Luck, and the Great River” – a sort of Ferengi philosophy, as well as the name of that episode – I think the first one was titled ‘Progress’, where Nogg proved he had the chops for Ferengi commerce by getting a great barter on 100 gross of self-sealing stem bolts, of which no one to this day can determine what the damn things do or what they are for. It was all based on a M*A*S*H episode where Radar O’Reilly did the same thing with Henry Blake’s desk, on a “three phone call finagle”.
Like Blake, Sisko got his desk back. His baseball was never even displaced. Ingenue, y’out there, little one?
@ Brighteyes:
You know, you should contact Sylvester Stallone, good ol’ Sly. I read decades ago about his story:
Stallone came to Hollywood as a nobody. He had a script (’Rocky’), a burning desire to see it onscreen, and the firm conviction that he, and only he, could play Rocky Balboa.
He was not quite penniless, but he had “one beautiful wife” (whom he has since divorced), a couple of kids, and a dream, and he managed to get his foot in the door in Hollywood. he actually became a pretty good actor, if you ask me.
Anyway, give it a shot, what the hell, it’s worth a shot, right?
I must agree with Kahless that there seem to be get-arounds for Vulcans “returning to their homeworld like salmon swimming upstream” as McCoy put it in ‘Amok Time’, but don’t let that limit you, there could be, say, a virus or something involved, possibly of Romulan origin.
After all, who knows what Nero was doing after he got released from Rure Penthe, right? He probably went to the Romulans himself; my point is, there are all kinds of different plot variations possible.
Good luck, I’m in if you want me. It’s hard to chop back a burning inspiration and if you ask me, you shouldn’t have to!
~Johnny
As a physician, I of all people know of the danger of reopening old wounds. It’s true, and let me tell you, in college (prior to Medical School) I wanted nothing more than to write a Star Trek novel and get it published from Pocket Books. They do not accept unsolicited scripts, and Paramount owns all legal rights to everything Star Trek. They own merchandising rights, licensing rights, copyrights, _____rights. To win a case against them, or even entertain a settlement, you would need to prove that they stole your original work, which cannot contain anything Star Trek related. Period. Now, I’m an optimist, not a pessimist, so I’m not necessarily saying this is an insurmountable obstacle. As an English graduate, I know a hell of a lot about editing. But the worst way to do this is on a public forum where anyone can see your script. Anyone who wants to entertain this idea is going to have to somehow get in contact with one another via email. From there, a script needs to be drafted, edited, re-written, revised, and then written all over again. Since writing has already begun on the sequel by the same crew who brought us the last movie, it is unrealistic to expect to change the outcome of the next movie. Instead, you write a kick-ass plot, you join the screenwriter’s guild, and probably get an agent. Then, with all of that under your belt, Paramount will likely be more than happy to read and consider the script. And then comes the hardest part, and it must be remembered – if Paramount bought your story, they own it. They hire a director and an executive producer. They change your story, they edit your story, and you’re powerless to do anything about it. You may be advised or hired in a consulting role, but stories are often not told in the manner originally penned. Nicholas Meyer literally cried – wept actually – when they put in the scene with Spock’s tube on Genesis at the end of Star Trek II, because it completely changed his story. He was the director but Paramount wanted the option of a sequel. So, having said all of that, I’m used to betting on long shots; it’s what medicine is all about. If someone wants to coordinate getting something set up, I’m happy to partake as my schedule allows. Since said schedule has me seeing patients in under 8 hours, I need to get some sleep.
You are forewarned: I am a doctor and a wicked editor.
~Doc
@Johnny
No, 4th July isn’t a holiday here; I was in Sydney for the past 10 days for a school music tour for the International Music Festival!
~Ingenue
@ Johnny and Steve
Don’t worry, I’m here! Lol. And Johnny, sorry to dissapoint but I don’t remember DS9 well enough to remember that quote – I haven’t watched and DS9 in years.
~Ingenue
@ Ingenue:
Good to have you back with us, hnn; how was Sydney? Did you spend any time in that wonderful Opera house? I love that building!
~Johnny
PS: I almost forgot – FROA # “157. You are surrounded by opportunities; you just have to know where to look.”
PPS: Hey, Vic, why did I just now have to re-register?
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