Star Trek Review
May 6, 2009 by Vic HoltremanWill you like the new Star Trek movie even if you’re not a geek?
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.
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…
Our Rating:
4 out of 5
Around the web:
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@ Johnny
Hmm Shran could’ve said it, it wasn’t the episode I was thinking of, but I’ll give it to you anyway.
The episode I was thinking of is the third last episode, Demons. The crew are on Earth for a big alliance conference when a dying (from a phase pistol wound) woman comes up to T’Pol and Archer and says “They’re going to kill her, don’t let them”. She’s talking about T’Pol and Trip’s daughter.
~Ingenue
2 Ingenue:
Well, thank you sweetie, I appreciate that, though I don’t really think I deserve it, I think Kahless deserves it more than I do, he came closer.
Klingon honor, you see, would demand in that case that he and I fight to the death, and I’m a lover, not a fighter, hahahaha (cover your teenage ears, honey, lol), so I’ll give it to him since, like I say, he almost got it, I was way off.
Having said that, I will throw mine out there anyway, a TNG quote:
“You’re the best ironworker in the province.”
I can’t remember which season, but it was a Hugo-winner from TNG.
Thanx again, hon.
~Johnny
PS: I almost forgot my daily FROA: “#3: Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.”
Always good advice, anywhere in the galaxy, Hahahaha!
@ Johnny
Very well, it’s your turn Kahless.
That’s defintely good advice. Hmm, and on that note:
“#17. A bargain usually isn’t”
That is completely true. Damn clothing is a rip-off, you buy sales items and you’re just paying what the shop paid for it in the first place.
~Ingenue
@ Ingenue:
Well, yeah, sweetness – Duh! They’re gonna break even, you can bet your last farthing on that. Short of a fire sale, or “Lost our Lease!” sales, as a former lady governor used to say, “You betcha!
Hahahaha! Good Ferengi advice!
~Johnny
@Johnny
That quote sounds like the episode where Data looses his memory and saves a village from radiation sickness.
“Permission to beam down captain. I promise I won’t be any trouble” TNG
What do you guys think about William Shatner possibly coming back for the Star Trek sequel?
http://screenrant.com/william-shatner-captain-kirk-star-trek-reboot-sequel-pauly-31441/#comments
I’d be happy to see him back just for the sake of some kind of “closure” that Generations didn’t fully afford him, Paul, but I’m wary of any more time travel storylines. I like Huggybear’s idea in your thread of having a (Nimoy) Spock flashback, which bypasses the time travel notion completely and would give the Big Two a final moment together. A lot of ifs involved, but it could be done.
@ Big Dentist & Paul Young:
At first I thoght Shatner as a returning Kirk was a terrible Idea – HEL-LLLOOO? He’s DEA-AAAAD! You KNOOOOW???
But then, I softened a little – I mean, after all, it IS Star Trek, and let’s face it. anything can happen, right?
Big D, I like your idea of a flashback in a newly-transplanted Spock Prime’s mind, of a point before Captain Kirk stepped onto the Enterprise B with Scotty and Chekov. That would likely be best, if ol’ Bill would go on Nutrisystem for a bit – he’s kinda ballooned. He’s “Denny Crane!”
Also, Big D, you can get creative as is concerned all of the various timeline permutations – rememberm this IS Star Trek; there could be an ‘alternative timeline’ scenario, even a parallel or alternative universe scenario – an evil Mirror Catain Kirk, maybe.
There are a lot of possibilities, all of them involving William Shatner – good ol’ ‘Shat’ – playing James T Kirk. But I would like to suggest that does not have to be so…
I have been, of late, enjoying the rebroadcasts of the Science Channel’s specials called ‘Mars Rising’; these are excellent specials about the upcoming international manned mission to Mars. These shows are narrated by a very serious, very professional William Shatner, and he does a fabulous job – it’s really cool to hear that voice talking about humans going to Mars.
My point is, he could do a voice-over narration, either as Kirk or somebody else. That might be interesting, and it would keep his hand in the new franchise.
Another possibility is that William Shatner could, especially with a lot of make-up (as a alien bad-ass, let’s say) play someone ELSE, someone totally unrelated to James Kirk. That might be interesting. Just look at the Oscar-winning performance by the late, great Heath Ledger playing the Joker. He was amazing!
Bill Shatner as a truly nasty Star Trek baddie might be the perfect cap on his ST career, and if he escaped capture in one movie he could keep coming back. I think I might have something here…
Whaddya’ll think? As Captain Picard might have said, “Comment is invited…”, hahaha!
Very, very good question, Paul,
~Johnny
Wasn’t me who thought of the flashback idea, Johnny! Agreed about Mr S shedding a few pounds. Not sure if I could accept him in another role, but on the subject of voiceovers I’ve got him on DVD narrating Trinity And Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie, and you’re right, he’s great given serious subject matter. How about the voice of the Enterprise computer, now Majel Barrett’s no longer with us?
@ Big Dentist:
That’s a very engaging idea: Mr Computer Voice!
I like it!
The only problem is the program the US Air Force initiated in the early sixties, coming up with a voice that could cut throught the sound of turbines in the (at that time) brand new F-105 Thunderchief (the beloved Thud), as originally planned, a supersonic nuclear bomber/interceptor intended to shoot down Russian TU-95 Bear bombers; I’m am sure you know of the four-engined, eight counter-rotating prop, swept-wing Bear. Big SOB.
Anyhoo, the Thud wound up as one of the planes (the other was the F-100 Super Sabre, by then quite venerable) used in ‘Wild Weasel’ missions in Vietnam to suss out NVAF SAM missle radars – took guts.
The reason I mention such an exhaustive antecdote is because, believe it or not, I first learned of the Thud‘s female voice from reading of it in the Star Trek Bible, the orange construction paper-covered paperback I sent off for with a coupon from my very first Enterprise AMT model kit (this was before AMT merged with Ertl, the TOS version with the light package and the suggestions where to but the monofilament for hanging). I still have it.
My point is, a woman’s voice can more easily be heard over the sound of screaming turbines than a man’s; since there are very few if any screaming turbines on 23rd Century starships (of course, after the beer distillery Main Engineering sets, who TF knows?), I see no reason why ol’ Bill’s voice could not be used, it would be cool!
They could even have a little fun with him, too, since by then we now know (unlike in the 1960s), there would be no need to expect a metallic-sounding voice from an AI computer of 300 years from now!
This might be just the niche to keep Bill in the new game!
As I say, I LIKE IT!
I have enthusiasm for this idea, now somebody, please, call JJ ABRAMS!!! He should be told how we feel about the Beer Distillery, anyway!
I can just hear him, now! Hahahahaha!
“Working…oh, I was taking a nap…what is it now?”
`Johnny-O
That’s a very good point, Johnny. I remember reading the same about the F-4 Phantom years ago: the higher pitch of a female voice in the cockpit was more easily heard than a male one. I mean, you’d never make out what HAL was saying above any engine noise (“I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t open the canopy.”)!
Actually, the more I think about it, I suppose realistically Shatner would never work as a computer voice. He’d have to tone…DOWN…those…weirdcadences we…knowandlove. And you can imagine the battles he’d have with producers, scriptwriters and directors trying to pad his part. He’d be a nightmare on stilts! Ah well, ’twas but a passing fancy…
I don’t know if I can support William Shatner returning to Star Trek at this point. Spock, as a Vulcan (and someone who was resurrected and lived into the 24th century) could age with the actor in a plausible manner. Star Trek VI was filmed 19 years ago (released 18 years ago) and Shatner looks nothing like he did, then. He looked even worse in Generations, so the best I can come up with is Spock rigging something in a secret holodeck and having it age him… which is a pretty weak thread. While they did use a male voice for the computer in Star Trek II, it sounded fake. I have to say that I much prefer the female voice, and I will miss Majel Barret immensely in providing that continuity. I suspect the hunt is on at Paramount for someone with a very similar voice, and I hope they succeed. Of course, as someone mentioned, there’s no reason that Mirror-Kirk died, and that would be very interesting, but this young crew would be eviscerated by a much-older (and evil) Kirk in battle.
What’s up with the quote game?
~Doc
@ Steve:
Glad you asked, Doc – From TNG: “You’re the best ironweaver in the province!”
The TNG episode won a Hugo Award, as I recall.
It was ME who suggested a Mirror Universe Kirk, (rolls eyes), thanks! Hahaha, I love you too!
Anyway, I have also mentioned before – I believe Big D liked my idea – why not use some woman who has a similar voice? I suggest, once again, Katey Sagal, former Peg Bundy. Why not?
Ms Sagal is already doing voice work, as Leila the captain of the ship on the animated sitcom Futurama, currently being shown on the Comedy Channel, and she’s pretty good, too – Leila is the pretty Cycpolian, just one big eye, hahaha!
Sha also plays the love interest of biker Ron Perlman on the FX series Sons of Anarchy, so she’s keeping her hand in. She probably could fiond the time to do sound-overs, why not?
My bid: Katey Sagal. Her voice kinda grows on ya, as long as she doesn’t say “Al-lllll?”
~Johnny
I think Jodie Foster would sound pretty good. I’d also take Sigourney Weaver, too. They both have good “computer” voices, IMHO.
~Doc
Sigourney Weaver’s a good choice, Steve. She’s got a built-in authority to her voice, would be a definite fan-favourite, and also particularly ironic given her troubles with “Mother” at the end of Alien.
@ Doc & Big D:
Yeah, I don’t know about Jodie Foster, I mean, I love her and all, and she WAS in Contact, that is true – but I wonder if her voice would be all that instantly recognizable – she did play the ‘voice of the self-eating-snake tattoo’ in the episode of The X-Files, when Scully got a tattoo (one of the few times we see Agent Dana Scully gettin’ busy!) and her voice was quite plaintive; hey, I just remembered that!
Maybey you’re right, Steve, Jodie Foster might work out kinda nice.
Sigourney Weaver – DEFINITELY! Can I change my vote? Not like Katey Sagal needs work…
I like what you reminded me, Big D, about that scene at the end of Alien with the Nostromo‘s computer ‘Mother’, hahahaha!
Hey, there’s an idea! I wonder who the voice of ‘Mother’ was in that movie? I know I’ve heard it before!
Anyone recognize ‘Mother’???
That would also be a good choice, if the lady is still alive.
“You now have one minute to reach minimum safe distance before auto-destruct…Have a nice day!”
Concerning Siggy Weaver, she’s another one who might be amusing as a computer with an attitude, lol!
~Johnny
Just done a search and apparently Mother was voiced by Helen Horton. Lots of TV work in minor UK roles, but the only other films she seems to have been in were small parts in Phase IV (the super-intelligent ants one from the ’70s) and Superman III. She’s still alive, but would be 80-81 now.
@ Big D:
Oh, well, they can’t all be gems.
I’m pretty excited about Sigourney weaver, to be perfectly honest with ya! Her voice is one of the best things about her anyway, if you ask me, especially since she couldn’t keep a pair of jeans from falling off her without a belt to hold them up to save her life, lol.
That would be a nice blending of older sci-fi cultures, I think; if Siggy weaver became the new voice of the new movie’s Enterprise, I gotta say. Good idea, Steve, and you too, Big D!
I suppose the only other famous woman from sci-fi would be – what? – Carrie Fisher, perhaps, from Star Wars.
After that, I guess we’d have to start mining Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, & Farscape, I always liked Claudia Black, m’self, who was also very good (until she got killed) in the Riddick movie Pitch Black – what am I saying, there are the babes from Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica!
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere: Mary McConnell, Katie Sackhoff, Grace Park, Tricia Helfer, even good ol’ Michelle Forbes, besides the ladies from the three series I mentioned.
Or, HEY! Howzabout any of the more palintive female voices from the TNG era series? Well, why not? Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Nana Visitor, even Kate Mulgrew or Roxanne Biggs-Dawson –
OMG, it just hit me (you were going there, too, don’t tell me you weren’t!) – Jeri Ryan! She was Seven of Nine anyway, she’s a GIMMEE!
This may be big! Jeri Ryan as the voice of the new Starship Enterprise, whaddya think???
She could probably use the money for her ex-husband’d legal bills, anyway, hahahaha! Okay, not funny…
~Johnny
Gates McFadden and Nana Visitor would certainly fit the bill. Jeri Ryan too – now there’d be a computer with a haughty dominatrix touch. Her and Michelle Forbes. If Marina Sirtis reverted back to her natural English accent she’d be less obtrusive as an obvious addition from TNG (for anyone who doesn’t want to see this timeline swamped with guest stars). Kate Mulgrew would get up too many noses, I think. Her Katherine Hepburn tones were one of the main things people had against her. She was described once as sounding like an irritated dolphin. Might even have been someone here! Slightly unkind, but there you go…
Failing any of the above, Nichelle Nichols is still sounding pretty good these days:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KegtpnkR_Cw
@ Big Dentist:
I agree – “Hailing frequencies open, Captain, honey!”
~Johnny-O
@ Paul
Not trying to be mean, but I don’t really care if Shatner isn’t in any more Star Trek Movies. Honestly, I don’t like him that much. He was good as Kirk and maybe a few other obnoxious characters, but generally he just annoys me, lol.
~Ingenue
@ Ingenue:
Well, there’s your problem! Hahahahaha!
Yeah, a lot of folks never had much use for Ol’ Bill, I hear ya! He had a tendency to get on people’s nerves. a lot of that animis kind of went away when he started to take self-deprecating shots at himself, like his Priceline commercials and his role as Denny Crane on Boston Legal – he can be funny!
He’s mellowed a lot over the years since then, but I think it’s time to move on in the reboot Star Trek universe, that’s for sure. I already mentioned his narrator skills on Mars Rising, and Big D credited him for Trinity and Beyond, as you just read. I think his Trek days are over, and it’s time for him to move on – he’s probably on his third hair weave by now anyway, hahaha!
Here’s today’s FROA: “#33. It never hurts to suck up to the boss.”
Always good advice! Have a good one,sweetie!
~Johnny
@Johnny
I had already answered your quote but didn’t get a confirmation:
That quote sounds like the episode where Data looses his memory and saves a village from radiation sickness
Is this right?
@Paul
Shat coming back is a problem, but I like the mirror universe idea. Also, Weaver, IMHO, has the perfect voice for the computer. Don’t know about Foster; doesn’t she have a southern drawl?
@Kahless:
I remember your response but I thought I answered it, Kahless, I’m sorry. Man, I must’ve come up with a good one!
That’s not it, but that’s a good guess. I will say it’s a quote that involves Captain Picard.
Oh, and, I am not sure, I don’t thnk Jodie Foster has a Southern acent, you may be thinking of her role in Silence of the Lambs she played that FBI agent. Even if she does, she manages to sublimate it plenty well enough.
I still say Katey Sagal has tht closest voice to Majel Barrett Rodennberry! But I like Sigourney Weaver too.
Nicelle Nichols is a grandmother now, but her voice is still easily recognizable, and I still say that would be cool on the new Enterprise to have the new Uhura talking to the ship’s computer and hearing the old Uhura answer her back, lol!
It would be a nice touchstone, and it’s not like Nimoy will be in every sequel, right?
~Johnny
Someone needs to answer this quote… we’ve been hung up on it for a week, now!
@ Doc et al:
Okay, I’ll give y’all a juicy hint, then I’m gonna, as John Bailey used to say on What’s My Line? back in the 60s, turn all the cards over (if you can remember that show, you’re as old a fart as I am, hahaha!):
“You’re the best ironweaver in the province.”
This is a TNG quote, TO Picard, by a woman speaking to him as a wife would speak to her beloved husband. It did not take place on board the Enterprise. There were no other people in the room, although in a literal sense it took place on the Main Bridge.
Anyone? I’ll hear from as many as want to check in for, let’s say, the next week, then I’ll give it up!
I never thought I’d stump everyone! I don’t know whether to feel proud or creeped out, a little, lol!
@Johnny
I think I remember this episode. A probe from another planet had connected with Picard and witin aabout 30 minutes, he lived an entire life on that planet in the past. He wasn’t actually there; the people of the planet sent the probe out when their sun was dying so that it would relay all the historical information of the planet to someone in the future. The quote was said by the woman playing his wife on that planet.
@ Kahless:
BULLLSEYE!
The episode was called “The Inner Light”, and YES, the man (whom Picard was forced to take the identity of) was named Kaamen, from a planet that hed been destroyed 1,000 years earlier when its sun went supernova.
Kaamen’s people launched that probe, which had the ability to inflict the record of the whole life of Kaamen’s on one person in the form of a dream, and also contained a small flute that belonged to him.
It’s your turn, my bony-headed friend, lol!
~Johnny
Of course I hit the bullseye! I am Klingon!!!
“We have a ram among the sheep” TOS