Trek Trailer?

[sdelmonte]

You would think that I of all people would have watched the trailer for the JJ Abrams Star Trek film.

I can't do it. I cannot make myself watch it, knowing that a young James Kirk is driving a present day sports car. I am really annoyed at the very thought of it. Annoyed at the most basic fanboy level by the disregard for canon, though I know that canon is pretty much going bye bye. Annoyed at the notion of Kirk being the kind of kid who would race around in a sports car. Annoyed that anyone is even driving a car in the future. Annoyed at the "presentism" yet another filmmaker feels is needed to make his vision of the future accessible to a wide audience by making our time the only time that matters to the future. Annoyed at the very idea of building the most advanced machine ever designed outdoors in a cornfield. Yes, I will watch it at some point. And unless the word of mouth is abysmal, I will pay to see the film. I will accept that this is far more of a reboot than was previously indicated, and that maybe a reboot is needed. But my excitement for the project is a lot lower than I hoped it would be.

But what I really wanted to comment on is the contempt I am seeing for the old school fans for criticizing the trailer. There is a lot of hostility out there. Towards us. Towards even the original show. Towards any suggestion that we are allowed to love our show and to say "this isn't what we love." So I will say it now. I am an old school Trekkie. My love for the original series remains undimmed. My devotion to canon remains strong. And my feeling that you can make a Star Trek film that is at once new and in canon is also strong.

And that is all I have to say for now. Perhaps once I see the trailer, I will have something else to say.

Comments

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sorta bothered me, too. Isn't that like a modern day hero tooling around in a horse-drawn carriage to show how awesome he is?

[muji]

While I can totally understand what you are going for in this post, can I ask a question that my mother (an original series fan in her own right) asked me?

Are there not also references and terminology used in the original series that would look anachronistic? References to telephones for example, though I am forgetting the other examples Mom mentioned. I will come back when I have a better formulated question.

[sdelmonte]

There were definitely things that, when seen today, seem very much of the 60s, but that is the sort of thing that happens with every sci-fi project.

There were also a few examples of what I think I will keep calling presentism, stories set in the 60s that were a little blatant in using the present. I think that later versions of Trek were worse about this, though.

[essayel.livejournal.com]

I'm with your Mum on this. I watched the series when it came to the UK in the 60s and one of JTK's character quirks was his interest in the 20th century. I remember, or think I remember, him reading 'real books' on paper. I suppose it's a step on from that to give him some kind of 20th century transport. The sad thing is that what is cool now will be hopelessly dated in five years time. They'd have been better off giving him a genuine classic vehicle like a 1935 racing Bentley, though maybe that's a bit too British?

[agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com]

Your post here has inspired me to think of this movie now as JAMES T. KIRK'S DAY OFF.

With Kirk as Ferris
Bones as Cameron
Spock as Slone

Complete with the following rant from Bones.

Bones: He'll keep callin' me. He'll keep callin' me. I'll go. I'll go. I'll go. I'll go.

[dan-k-nj.livejournal.com]

if you are diehard to the canon, you know that we are currently in the middle of the eugenics war that spawns Khan. And that results in him leaving earth in a suspended animation spacecraft, to wander the stars for a while.

we just have to get used to be old enough (happy birthday, by the way), to realize the canon presumed changes (or rates of change) that just didn't happen.

For example: the entire series Space: 1999.

The trailer definitely looks... edgy.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Greg Cox wrote two novels about the Eugenics Wars, written after the 1990s ended, when the wars supposedly took place. He managed to show how the wars were kept secret from most of humanity, and he worked in real history to the books.

[timewalker.livejournal.com]

Roddenberry was about the future and the promise it held. By going back, here and in Enterprise, it just shows how much Paramount doesn't "get it". I guess the real test will be how much money it makes, as far as a business decision.
I'll stick to the books and hope for more New Frontier, the cast and crew that is continuing to go where no one has gone before, at least in my head...

[the_croupier]

I think one can have it both ways. I came back to the original series after a few years of loving TNG. I still like TNG, but the characters in TOS are simply more interesting, more iconic, and even after decades, the plots remain more engaging than any of the series that came after it. For all the sniping Shatner gets, Kirk remains the most interesting--and complex--lead character in any of the canon by far (and I include Picard in that, much as I like him too).

And yet, having said all that, I loved the trailer. I think it's possible to embrace a complete reboot while still appreciating the original every bit as much. Different approaches for different times.

As for car, that didn't bother me in the slightest--but then I was probably prepared for it by years of listening to Rush's 'Red Barchetta.' =)

[sdelmonte]

There is one thing I can add that is less the trailer than me: I am not part of the American car culture. This is why I have no interest in seeing Cars, either. It clearly comes from being a mass transit user whose driver's license has only served as an ID for the last 18 years.

It would of course follow that my vision of the future is all about extensive mass transit systems and not personal vehicles, even flying solar powered cars. Which probably wouldn't make for great cinema.

I am also the kind of fan who really, really wants there to be a line someplace talking about how much work was done to retrofit a combustion engine to be run on something other than fossil fuel. I guess that's either my inner Al Gore or my inner Doc Brown speaking.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm an old Trek fan, but, while I really don't care about Kirk in a sports car, it doesn't bother me on the same deep level that a certain moment in the third movie bugged me, one that could, in my arrogant opinion, have been tweaked just slightly to make it work.

But, with the sports car, it's less the car, less even "why the heck are there cars at this point in time?", and more "Okay, if the car thing is so important to the director, he's just not getting Star Trek". Or at least, not the Star Trek that drew me in.