The Star Trek trailer

[McC]

Aboard a ship scheduled to be decommissioned, to boot.

I'm intrigued by the description of the trailer. Scuttlebutt is that it airs in front of Bond, so here's hoping that much of the rumor is true.

[Jon]

Spoilers, 4 full scenes described from press viewing:
Spoiler

Star Trek: four full scenes and new trailer reviewed
Martin Anderson



Den Of Geek reports from the world-first screening of four complete scenes from the new Star Trek movie, as introduced by JJ Abrams and Simon Pegg. Huge spoilers...
I've just been to see twenty minutes of footage from J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. We were told by Chris Hedges - head of Paramount UK - and Rob Moore, vice-president of Paramount pictures, that we 400-odd journos were the first people in the world to see the footage. A very disarming Abrams himself was there, as was Simon Pegg, the new 'Scotty'; both were on-form but clearly very nervous, and both addressed the gathering, Abrams at length. After joking that he'd never been a big fan of Star Trek, Abrams went on to explain how he'd followed the franchise through the original TV and film series, and through the later spin-offs, and intimated that his movie would be the first time that the 'promise of adventure' would actually be realised. He may be right: the viewing started with the new trailer, which will be in cinemas Friday, followed by four scenes from the movie itself, all complete with polished SFX and scoring.

And it all looks absolutely amazing.

Anyone prepared to withstand some major spoilers can check below for details of these scenes. For those leaving it here and saving themselves for the movie, let me say that the footage screened today is just sensationally great. Pine is good as Kirk, Urban is UNCANNY as McCoy, Quinto has got Spock's icy reservation and underlying anger nailed, the effects look more like GREAT model-work than ropey CGI and I'm just about as impatient for May 2009 as I can be...

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NUCLEAR-STRENGTH SPOILERS BELOW. BE WARNED!
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THE TRAILER
The trailer for Star Trek starts off looking more like a 70s road movie, as a young Kirk (Chris Pine) drives a beat-up old Chevy round the ranges of Iowa in search of a few thrills before over-estimating his own braking power. Pretty soon his car is plunging a few thousand feet and he's being rescued from a literal cliff-hanging situation by a rather robotic-looking Iowa traffic cop, who's just descended from his floating ride to help the young rebel out. They're really going for the 'bad boy' bit with Pine's Kirk, as we shall find out in the full-length scenes.

Much of the content of the rest of the trailer contains material covered in the scenes that we were shown afterwards, and the slow Kirk-in-trouble scene quickly gives way to the usual epilepsy-inducing quick-cuts, showing some pretty spectacular space battles, the Enterprise under construction in the fields of Iowa (being regarded by an awed Kirk, not yet enrolled in Starfleet), a roll-call of all the returning characters and…Uhura (Zoe Saldana) stripping down to her bra (for some reason - I'm not complaining, it's a very nice sight, but it's a bit of a cheap shot for a film with this much going for it). The trailer concludes with Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana) declaring portentously 'The wait is over'….

THE FIRST SCENE: Kirk's bar-fight
The first scene shows Kirk getting his arse totally kicked by some Starfleet squaddies who were letting off steam in a nightclub near the Enterprise site. The squaddies were in fact trying to defend Uhura from Kirk's persistent and relentless pestering, It's a far more intense chat-up than you would ever have guessed from the Shatner-Nichols dynamic, and at one point Kirk makes mention of Uhura's famous linguistic skills, descending to some sub-TOS innuendo with the line "It must mean you've got a magic tongue".

Anyway pretty soon the belligerent squaddies are telling Tiberius to back off. There being only four of them against one of him, Kirk tells them to come back with four more…to make it an even fight! After a bit of a scuffle - during which Kirk ends up inadvertently holding Uhura's breasts before she sends him back into the fray - the squaddies totally whip Kirk, and at the end he's pinned to a table having his face violently pummelled by the lead squaddie, before being rescued by Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who's slated as the first captain of the Enterprise.

The following section zips to ten minutes later. Kirk is sitting opposite Pike with cotton wool stuffed up his nose to stop the bleeding, while Pike remonstrates with him for being constantly in trouble and failing to enlist in Starfleet in spite of his genius-level test scores. "You could have your own starship in eight years", he promises. The scene concludes with Pine reminding Kirk that his own father was captain of a starship for only 12 minutes and managed to save over 800 lives - including Kirk's mother - in that time…and he challenges Kirk to do better.

THE SECOND SCENE: An ill Kirk tries to warn Pike of danger
Abrams prefaced this scene by informing us that - after the preceding scene - Kirk continues to get into trouble after his enrolment in Starfleet, and that when all the other graduates have been assigned starships, he is assigned none. Kirk's friend Doctor McCoy (Karl Urban, who REALLY nails DeForest Kelley's voice and mannerisms) manages to get him on board Pike's first run with the Enterprise by invoking Federation Rule 691, which states that a doctor can bring on board any person who he deems to be in need of treatment. In order to qualify Kirk for this loophole, McCoy gives him a nasty but non-lethal virus.

As we join the scene, Kirk's looking pretty ill as McCoy drags him over to a bed in a very spacious and cool-looking sick-bay. McCoy gives Kirk something to allay the effects of the virus, but Kirk has an allergic reaction to it and his hands swell up like Mickey Mouse's.

Over on the bridge, Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) tries to log on with voice-identification, but the Enterprise computer won't let him until he can pronounce his V's properly.

Chekov announces to the crew that there is a catastrophic electrical storm on Vulcan, and that the Enterprise is running to the rescue. But Kirk recognises the description of the storm as identical to a Romulan attack that took place at the time of his birth, and is determined to warn Captain Pike that he is warping into a terrible trap.

Kirk tracks down Uhura, not yet a fixture on the bridge, and tries to convince her to help him, but then the virus/palliative causes his tongue to stop working! McCoy eventually manages to stabilise him so that he can talk to Pike.

Confronting Pike with the information on the bridge, a very disapproving Spock tries to have the brash young graduate taken off by security, but Kirk is able to persuade both Spock and his captain of the danger they're in.

Dropping out of warp-speed, the Enterprise instantly finds itself navigating the hulks and wrecks of the aftermath of a huge space-battle. This is no natural phenomena…

THE THIRD SCENE: Meeting Nimoy's Spock and Pegg's Mr. Scott
Abrams prefaced this scene by explaining that Kirk's continuing impulsiveness has forced Spock - now in command of the Enterprise - to exile him temporarily on an unnamed location. Here Kirk is met by...Spock! This time it's Leonard Nimoy, who has been aged even beyond his 77 years to play a Spock that has travelled back in time to change the course of history.

As we join the scene, Nimoy's Spock is leading Pine's Kirk to meet Pegg's Mr. Scott, who has been similarly exiled, and is in belligerent mood. Scott has a big scene here, talking with some annoyance about his efforts to effect matter transference onto a ship that is travelling at warp-speed. This is something Kirk and Scotty need to know if they are going to use Spock's handy transporter terminal to get back into the action.

Nimoy informs Scott that his future self will solve the problem of 'beaming up' between speeding ships, and even shows him the formula he is destined to work out. The engineer declares (against the evidence). "Of course! I never would have thought of space as a moving force!".

Old Spock informs Kirk that he will need to get Young Spock's command revoked with the old 'unfit for command' ruse we have so often seen in Star Trek, and that he should do this by getting Young Spock emotionally off-balance. Old Spock declares that it will not be difficult, and that he himself is like that (suggesting that Spock has seen himself in this way his whole life).

As Kirk and Scotty get into the transporter, Kirk playfully accuses Old Spock of cheating by travelling back in time to change the course of events. "I learnt it from a master", Spock rejoins. Ouch.

THE FOURTH (FINAL SCENE): Stopping the Romulan drill on Vulcan
Here Kirk and Sulu are in a drop-ship (inside it's very similar to the drop-ship from Aliens) along with a security officer called Olson. Sulu and Kirk are wearing blue-ish space-suits, but Olson's of course, is red.

Olson will be dead in three minutes.

The mission for our heroes is to stop the chain-like drill that is hanging twenty miles down from an orbiting Romulan ship from completing its work and creating the singularity that will engulf Vulcan. Vulcan only has minutes left before the Big One, and Mr. Spock gives Chekov the helm and beams down to the surface to save the Vulcan senate - including his parents. Meantime he has given orders to have Vulcan evacuate as far as possible in the minutes remaining.

Back at the rescue mission, Kirk, Sulu and Olson are dropped off and free-fall down the endless miles of space-chain. It's undoubtedly the longest parachute jump ever committed to film, and it's totally spectacular.

The chain has a number of interstitial platforms, and poor Olson comes a cropper of one of these after deploying his parachute, and ends up a blot on the landscape. Meantime Kirk and Sulu fight Romulans on the rusting platform/link suspended 4 miles above the Vulcan surface. To make matters worse, there's a vent near them that blasts a decimating wave of energy out every few minutes, so they have to fight around it.

Kirk once again finds himself hanging above a huge drop by his fingernails, with his Romulan adversary trying to stamp on his feet and get him off the ledge. Luckily for Kirk, Sulu's amazing sword - which unfolds to full-length from the handle like a light-sabre, but is made of metal - downs the Romulan nasty, and Sulu pulls Kirk up. Sulu saves Kirk? Huh?

Fear not, it will be repaid with interest in moments. Nero reveals that the interference of Kirk and Sulu has come too late - the singularity is in place. The Romulan ship lets the chain go and Kirk and Sulu find themselves about 60 seconds from becoming part of the rocky Vulcan landscape.

On the Enterprise, they're having a bit of trouble beaming our heroes up. "Try and stay in one place", shouts the transporter officer. Not easy when you're plummeting at maximum velocity. It looks like the end, but not so, for young Mr. Chekov is sure that he knows the technique for beaming up moving objects, and fights his way through the confusion on the Enterprise to rescue Kirk and Sulu just as they are about to become bug-blatter.

[Bounty]

This is not your father's Star Trek.

I don't know what to think of these scenes - either they will be the coolest thing on celluloid next year or the most cringe-inducing bore-fest since Nemesis. Somehow I don't see much of a middle ground between them happening.
Spoiler

Kirk sounds like he has had his wild streak dialled up to 11, and depending on how they show him evolve through the movie, it can backfire spectacularly. I'm worried about the old stand-by of "get the Vulcan angry", but the way it's implemented - and why - doesn't sound too bad. Overall, the clip descriptions sound like a very different movie to the original run... which can either be reinvigorating or turn people off in droves.

Also...
Spoiler

Scotty in exile? Exiling officers, period? WTF? I'm hoping the "unmanned location" is just a shitty facility Scotty happens to work at... I don't want to see my favourite Scot get the rebel make-over too.

[tim31]

Yeah, you can see some hardline Trekkies are going to savage the details like:
Spoiler

The Enterprise being constructed in a field in Io-way. I myself had assumed that the construction dock would be, oh, say, San Fransisco? I guess SFFY only refers to the head office of the company that constructed it.

and as for:
Spoiler

Chekov's speech impediment

Should have known that would get played for lulz.

[Bounty]

Can't blame them for that. It is his trademark.

The Enterprise being Spoiler

constructed in a field in Io-way. I myself had assumed that the construction dock would be, oh, say, San Fransisco? I guess SFFY only refers to the head office of the company that constructed it.

Spoiler

The earlier trailer descriptions said it was just a large building Kirk was gazing at. Maybe someone at the screening jumped the gun?

[charlemagne]

Well, Chekov being there clashes so hard with the "old" canon that I thought this would get the most flak. I just checked the dates, Chekov is born 2245, while Kirk is born 2233. Kirk enters the academy in 2250 and finishes 2254, while Chekov finishes the academy some time in the 2260s.

I mean, I get the "people love the whole crew" aspect, but this is just impossible to cram into the old canon, so if this movie is not meant as a reboot, will trekkies ever accept it?

Besides that,
Spoiler

Kirk's non-stop brawling and hitting on Uhura like a spoiled fraternity brat doesn't sound good, and hands swelling to Mickey-Mouse-size, I mean WTF?

[Anguirus]

Spoiler

My biggest concern canon-wise is not Chekov (I don't think any of those dates are actually canon, just conjecture from Okuda based on actor ages), it's the fact that having the Vulcans and Romulans so heavily involved flirts with invalidating "Balance of Terror." Since that's such an important and well-known episode, I'll be very surprised if the Trek fans on the writing/production staff haven't brought it up. So either Abrams overruled them with "I don't give a shit," or Spock and Nero's time jaunts may, as I've conjectured before, be a "Sarah Connor" style explicit retcon of the universe.

[Bounty]

TrekMovie got a screening of the trailer. It's a long article, but this jumped out at me:
Spoiler

Why is Kirk driving a stick (when he shouldn’t know how). Why is Enterprise not exactly as it was? (inside and out). Why are Spock and Kirk at each other’s throats? Why is Uhura taking off her top? Why do these Romulans have tattoos? Who is Kirk jumping into bed with? (okay maybe that part isn’t different). These were certainly things that came to mind on my second or third run through, and for now I have no answers. It is quite possible there are no satisfying answers (however, I have been assured that there are canon answers for all).

Canon answers for all? Either Abrams is terribly optimistic or he's got a major plot surprise in the works.

The review in a nutshell does sound promising:

So does this trailer settle all issues and ensure a fantastic Star Trek film? No, of course not. I can still foresee many possible roadblocks for either the mainstream audience or the installed base. But this trailer is still fun and thrilling and only makes me want to see and learn more (and I imagine the same will be true for those action movie Bond fans who see it this weekend). Bottom line is that this trailer will send the message loud and clear to fan and newbie alike — there is a new Star Trek in town, and it means business.

[Darth Wong]

I can't understand the enthusiasm based on these leaks. This sounds absolutely awful. Spoiler

The "Kirk was a young rebel" idea is retarded at the outset. It's like the "Maverick" idea from Top Gun, translated to Star Trek. Maybe they should have gotten Tom Cruise to play Kirk.

Kirk seems like a person who had a burning ambition to be a starship captain, not an aimless delinquent who got smooth-talked into enlisting because he has nothing better to do with his life. Honestly, the scene where he's hitting on Uhura and then challenges 4 cadets to a bar brawl sounds like something that might have been written for Riddick, not Captain Kirk.

[Thanatos]

I think this is the best part of the 20 minute screening, from a different article Spoiler

Scotty explains that his experimental beaming worked on fruit but he said "didn’t turn out so well for Admiral Archer’s beagle"

Also, a critical plot detail should be mentioned that makes the early scenes with Kirk make sense. Spoiler

The Kelvin (If I remember the name correctly) getting destroyed is a new event in the timeline caused by Nero. Given the new information here, it looks like they were attempting to assassinate Kirk while he was young but his father managed to prevent that. However, it also means that Kirk's life past that point is changed in the timeline, which is probably where him acting out comes from.

[NecronLord]

Fucking hell. This sounds positively awful.
Spoiler

Kirk getting into a bar fight after Uhura? What?

Sure, he was always a womaniser, but I don't see how that should translate into 'jerk who doesn't take no for an answer, and starts fights.'

And it goes downhill from there.
Spoiler

Manly hand to hand, with Sulu bringing a sword to a gunfight no less, because original Sulu had a sword from time to time, therefore when thinking rationally he'd take one to a real fight... Yeah. Here's betting that no reasonable excuse for them not just sending a goddamn bomb at this... sinuglarity drilling platform will appear.

[Darth Wong]

Thanatos, that doesn't solve the problem. Spoiler

We still need to explain how an aimless juvenile delinquent ends up being able to quickly rise through the ranks and attain the rank of ship's captain, especially in a fleet which only has a handful of battlecruisers and in which being a captain of one of those ships is no doubt a very prestigious position. Someone with a background like that is more likely to end up like John McCain: a low-ranking individual of little importance.

[NecronLord]

Spoiler

Presumably he'll be a big damn hero after he heroically and maverickly saves Vulcan. Urgh.

[Masami von Weizegger]

Spoiler

A possibility is that Kirk fucks up, big time, during the course of the movie and this makes him shape up but that hardly covers all the issues with this raging teenager Kirk.

[Darth Wong]

Spoiler

Presumably he'll be a big damn hero after he heroically and maverickly saves Vulcan. Urgh.

And then Iceman will look into his eyes with barely controlled homoerotic longing and say "you can be my wingman any time".

[NecronLord]

Yes, folks, this morning's reading has conviced me that this movie will be bad. Very bad. I wonder if it'll manage to be even worse than Nemesis...

[charlemagne]

Yes, folks, this morning's reading has conviced me that this movie will be bad. Very bad. I wonder if it'll manage to be even worse than Nemesis...

At least Nemesis didn't butcher the characters we knew and, err, loved. But I don't get how
Spoiler

an attempt on his life makes Kirk go all asshole. And I totally agree with DW that a juvenile hotshot who gets into stupid testosteroney bar-fights is more likely to end up in jail than the Captain's chair.

[Darth Wong]

Unfortunately, that's a classic Hollywood cliche. Spoiler

According to Hollywood convention, someone who works hard, gets good grades, and shows unwavering dedication to his goal is a geek and an idiot. Given a scene with a factory worker and a scientist wearing a lab coat, you can pretty much bet money that the factory worker will be portrayed as the smart one, and the scientist in the lab coat will be portrayed as a dangerous fool with psychological issues.

Therefore, it's not surprising that they would portray Kirk as a former delinquent, since Hollywood believes that is where true geniuses all come from.

[Kane Starkiller]

The same was true of Picard. Remember the episode where Q gives Picard a chance not to get involved in a bar fight where he looses his heart? Apparently by deciding not to fight Picard ended up as a mere ensign on Enterprise. The point being that it is actually necessary to act like an irresponsible idiot in your youth if you are to be a great leader.

[charlemagne]

Spoiler

He, I just remembered and wanted to comment on Picard losing his heart in a bar brawl, too.

It's fascinating, but actually Voyager might have gotten this right, for once: this young Kirk sounds a bit like Tom Paris, and Tom was in jail, got his act together for a bit and made it to Lt., only to be demoted again for insubordination or reckless behaviour or something.

[Samuel]

Actually, Paris was demoted because he disobeyed orders and Voyager had to flee for their lives from the pissed off natives.

He eventually got his stripes back because they didn't exactly have a large amount of officers.

Still, TOS Federation has captains with an obscene amount of power- you don't put that in the hands of a person unless they have shown consistent and repeated self control. These aren't like naval warships or fighter planes- they can sterilize worlds!

[The Romulan Republic]

Actually, Paris was demoted because he disobeyed orders and Voyager had to flee for their lives from the pissed off natives.

He eventually got his stripes back because they didn't exactly have a large amount of officers.

Still, TOS Federation has captains with an obscene amount of power- you don't put that in the hands of a person unless they have shown consistent and repeated self control. These aren't like naval warships or fighter planes- they can sterilize worlds!

To be fair, Kirk was never the most cool headed individual. He made some glaring mistakes (like not raising shields in WoK), and he was too militaristic even by todays standards (didn't he almost order the total bombardment of a civilized world that wasn't even at war with the Federation?)

[NecronLord]

To be fair, Kirk was never the most cool headed individual. He made some glaring mistakes (like not raising shields in WoK), and he was too militaristic even by todays standards (didn't he almost order the total bombardment of a civilized world that wasn't even at war with the Federation?)

If you mean Emeniar Seven, it was holding hostages, and was actively attempting to force a UFP crew and an ambassador into a disintegration chamber. What's more, an actual attack would have killed no more people than the Emeniaran government killed in its simulated attacks (G.O. 24 is far from 'sterilisation') but would have broken their ability to make war and continue excecuting masses of their citizens.

[The Romulan Republic]

To be fair, Kirk was never the most cool headed individual. He made some glaring mistakes (like not raising shields in WoK), and he was too militaristic even by todays standards (didn't he almost order the total bombardment of a civilized world that wasn't even at war with the Federation?)

If you mean Emeniar Seven, it was holding hostages, and was actively attempting to force a UFP crew and an ambassador into a disintegration chamber. What's more, an actual attack would have killed no more people than the Emeniaran government killed in its simulated attacks (G.O. 24 is far from 'sterilisation') but would have broken their ability to make war and continue excecuting masses of their citizens.

Well interfering in their culture to protect his ship would be a Prime Directive violation would it not? Besides, if I remember correctly, the ship could have left. The only ones who would have died would have been him and a few others, who would have died anyway in a bombardment.

As to weather destroying their civilization in a mass bombardment would have been better than perpetual low level war fair, I disagree. Kirk's basically saying: "stop killing each other or I'll wipe you all out." It's like solving the Israel/Palestine conflict by threatening to glass the Middle East. The cure is worse than the disease. Nor in my opinion was it Kirk's place to make that decision.

I think Kirk was probably better than a lot of other fools Star Fleet put in command, but this one's a real stain on his record.

[Samuel]

Didn't have the Prime Directive than.

As for the bombardment, Kirk was bluffing... maybe. However, killing an ambassador is an act of war and the Enterprise is a warship- he would have been justified reducing them and the threat they posed to the Federation.