{"id":969,"date":"2009-05-12T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/?p=969"},"modified":"2010-08-02T01:15:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T05:15:54","slug":"star-trek-my-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/12\/star-trek-my-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek&#8230; My thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Star Trek\" src=\"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/images\/star_trek_08.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"535\" height=\"227\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Howdy y&#8217;all!\u00a0 Sorry I missed posting on Monday.\u00a0 It&#8217;s another very busy week for me at work.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll do my best to get some posts up this week, but please forgive me if I miss another day or two.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My thoughts on the new STAR TREK movie (and yes, there are SPOILERS):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">HOLY CRAP, WHAT A GREAT MOVIE!!!!\u00a0 That sums it up.\u00a0 Thanks for reading and have a nice day!\u00a0 &#8230; &#8230; &#8230; well, I guess I can go into a little more detail.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I flew to Dallas to spend some time with my brother and father; it was a sort of Guys\/family weekend.\u00a0 Thursday night we hung out, re-watched all the trailers, and talked about our anticipation for the film.\u00a0 We were so excited for the film and had such high hopes based upon the trailers.\u00a0 Because of our excitement, we all agreed there was no way the movie could live up to our expectations.\u00a0 We were ready to be disappointed, simply because the previews made the film look so good.\u00a0 On Friday at 7:30pm we saw the movie.\u00a0 I&#8217;m very pleased to say the movie lived up to the hype!\u00a0 I loved this movie!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Was the movie perfect?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Was a great action\/sci-fi film?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Was it faithful to the spirit of Star Trek?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0\u00a0 Here are a few Pros\/Cons about the film in my opinion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>PROS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>The new cast was great: Chris Pines (Captain James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard &#8216;Bones&#8217; McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Hikaru Sulu), and Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov).\u00a0 I thought each of them did a really nice job with their roles.<\/li>\n<li>Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy was quite possibly better than DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy. I&#8217;m sure that statement is sacrilege to some, but I thought Urban did a great job with this role.<\/li>\n<li>Zachary Quinto as Spock was uncanny.\u00a0 He did a great job channeling his inner Nimoy.<\/li>\n<li>Zoe Saldana was not only hot, but was also a real character.\u00a0 She did a great job creating Uhura.\u00a0 I say &#8220;creating&#8221; because the original Uhura&#8217;s character never really developed on screen.<\/li>\n<li>Chris Pines did not play Kirk like Shatner.\u00a0 That was a smart move.\u00a0 While much of the original Kirk&#8217;s spirit was the same, he did his own interpretation.\u00a0 That will help him avoid comparisons with Shatner.<\/li>\n<li>The opening scene with Jim Kirk&#8217;s birth and the death of George Kirk was powerful.\u00a0 Great action combined with strong dramatic effect.<\/li>\n<li>Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike.\u00a0 Greenwood is just cool.\u00a0 You couldn&#8217;t help but like Captain Pike.<\/li>\n<li>The special effects were freakin&#8217; amazing!  The subtle redesign of the Enterprise is sweet!<\/li>\n<li>I enjoyed Eric Bana as Nero more than I expected.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not typically a fan of Bana in movies, but he did a nice job with this role.\u00a0 The character was not what I expected at all.\u00a0 Nero was basically a blue-collar Romulan, who sometimes spoke very casually to his opponents.\u00a0 It was very different and I think that is why it worked.<\/li>\n<li>The romance between Spock and Uhura.\u00a0 It totally caught me off-guard, but I like it.<\/li>\n<li>The time travel subplot worked much better than I expected.\u00a0 I thought that would be what killed the movie;\u00a0 I was totally wrong.\u00a0 It accomplished two goals: (1) it symbolized the original cast passing the baton to the new cast, and (2) by identifying this as an alternate timeline, the writers have freed themselves of any pressure from the die-hard continuity Trekkies.\u00a0 Smart move.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>CONS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>The rapid promotions in the film were a little hard to swallow.\u00a0 Third year cadet on the skids suddenly becomes Captain?\u00a0 Uhura becomes the primary communications officer because she speaks a rare language?\u00a0 Dr. McCoy becomes Chief Medical officer because he answered the phone at the right time?\u00a0 Scotty becomes Chief Engineer because he &#8230; showed up? And after the emergency, they all got to keep their posts.\u00a0 I had to keep reminding myself, suspension of disbelief.<\/li>\n<li>The original Kirk was definitely a rebel.\u00a0 However, he only broke the rules when he felt it was necessary.\u00a0 This Kirk seems to want to break ALL the rules.\u00a0 I think showing him following some basic rules would help engender some trust between the Captain and the crew.<\/li>\n<li>Kirk finding Spock Prime&#8217;s cave on the ice moon.\u00a0 A little hard to accept.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m still trying to figure out the Roddenberry-like moral of the story.\u00a0 Star Trek was always a way for Gene Roddenberry to tackle moral issues facing modern society.\u00a0 So far I&#8217;m only coming up with vague concepts, like &#8220;There is no predestination.\u00a0 Your destiny is your own.\u00a0 You can be anyone or anything you want to be.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There you go.\u00a0 My initial thoughts on Star Trek.\u00a0 What did you think?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Also, enjoy this clip from Saturday Night Live.\u00a0 A few Star Trek cast members made a brief appearance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><code><object width=\"512\" height=\"296\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/embed\/VJp7eRl5-i4WPiayqK-xvw\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><\/object><\/code><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell the world about ONCE UPON A GEEK:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-969\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/12\/star-trek-my-thoughts\/?share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li 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These short audio interviews are conducted by me with my nine-year old step-son. This past weekend I took my step-son to see \"Star Trek\" the movie.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kid Who\/Kid Trek\/Rascal&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onceuponageek.com\/images\/star_trek_00.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":179,"url":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/20\/star-trek-new-movie-lots-of-pics\/","url_meta":{"origin":969,"position":1},"title":"Star Trek New Movie &#8211; Lots of Pics","date":"October 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The new Star Trek movie is coming, whether you like it or not! And this time they are aiming to make Star Trek cool.\u00a0 Hard to believe, I know.\u00a0 Directing and producing this new Star Trek film is J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Fringe, Cloverfield), so there is a good chance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;comic books&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Entertainment Weekly Cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.firstshowing.net\/img2\/startrek-EWcover-FL-Oct-01-HQ.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4926,"url":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/13\/star-trek-first-contact\/","url_meta":{"origin":969,"position":2},"title":"Listen Up: Star Trek First Contact Discussion","date":"April 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I consider myself a pretty big Star Trek fan.\u00a0 I've seen most of the TV episodes, all the movies, and read quite a few of the novels and comics.\u00a0 However, I don't hold a candle to the guys over at Two True Freaks!\u00a0 These fellas really know their Star Trek!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;podcasts&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Two True Freaks Star Trek Monthly Monday - First Contact","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/onceuponageek.com\/images\/STMM29pic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":375,"url":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/02\/new-star-trek-movie-trailer-if-it-starred-will-ferrell-stephen-colbert-steve-carell-vince-vaughn-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":969,"position":3},"title":"New Star Trek Movie Trailer&#8230; if it starred Will Ferrell, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Vince Vaughn, and more!","date":"February 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A\u00a0hilarious trailer for a Star Trek movie I think we'd all enjoy watching!\u00a0 Just a warning, some of the language might not be safe for work. My thanks to Ron over at THE UNIQUE GEEK for finding this one.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;movies&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":871,"url":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/21\/im-in-a-star-trek-mood\/","url_meta":{"origin":969,"position":4},"title":"I&#8217;m in a Star Trek mood&#8230;","date":"April 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe it's the upcoming movie or maybe it's just the cyclical nature of my fanhood, but I've had Star Trek on the brain for a while now. For whatever reason, the classic movie era is my favorite Star Trek time period. I'm a sucker for the adventures of Kirk and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;books&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onceuponageek.com\/images\/star_trek_dc_21.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1934,"url":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/23\/top-10-best-time-travel-movies\/","url_meta":{"origin":969,"position":5},"title":"Top 10 Best Time Travel Movies","date":"September 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we're going to discuss some of the best time travel movies.\u00a0 Being a life-long Doctor Who fan, I've got a soft spot for time travel stories regardless of the medium - film, television, novel, audio, comic, etc. Before we get to that, I gotta describe to you where I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;movies&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onceuponageek.com\/images\/backtothefuture.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3951,"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/3951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}