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by Olorin
I thought the new movie was significantly better than ST 2009, all those issues listed in the article Val linked in the Chatbox aside. It felt more like Star Trek. There was the Prime Directive front and center, and it was a big issue. The relationship that really got me in this one was the one between Kirk and Pike, a very nice father/son dynamic.
Sure, there were lots of things that caused raised eyebrows, like beaming to Kronos or the amount of time it takes to travel from Kronos at warp, etc. Those are relatively small quibbles. Moreover, since they established transwarp beaming in the last one, is it not logical that Star Fleet would try to further refine and enhance the technology?
As for bigger quibbles, there are the role played by Cumberbatch, his missing ethnicity, and the mirroring of the climax of TWOK. I was always against redoing any of the villains from TOS or its movies. I thought they should be left alone. However, if we are recasting and reconceptualizing the crew of the Enterprise, we are forced to admit that doing the same with the villains is fair game. I mean, if you can redo Captain Kirk, you can redo anybody! The villain's ethnicity is a little harder to justify. Were there no suitable Indian or Pakistani actors? I think that's just laziness.
And as for mirroring the climax of TWOK, when I first saw STID, I said, "Really? Are you really going to do this?" In addition to BC's comments about destiny, I'd also have to say this. They did this sort of thing in Fringe all the time. I loved it in Fringe, so I don't think I can condemn it in Star Trek. Would I prefer they not have done it? Sure. Am I going to go on a rant about it? No.
@BC, I respectfully have to disagree with your interpretation of "reboot." I think you're drawing a distinction so fine most people would fail to see it. While events in the prime timeline did initiate the plot of ST 2009, the new universe is independent from the prime universe, the presence of the elder Spock notwithstanding. These characters are in a different universe with a different history from the point of the destruction of the Kelvin onward. Things are not going to occur the way they did the first time around. Some things may not happen in this universe. Other things may happen that did not happen in the prime universe. It's a different universe. So, to me, it's a reboot.
And the prime universe still exists...Kurtzman and Orci were very e xp licit about that in interviews. They knew their lives would have been in danger had they suggested that the universe of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT no longer existed. I don't recall how e xp licitly the new timeline was e xp lained in ST 09, but the continued existence of the prime universe is definite.
I alone of probably everyone on this forum watched TOS in first run during the 1960s. I really became familiar with it, and a huge fan of it, during its syndicated run in the early 70s. I had misgivings about the movies as they tended to dumb down the franchise and emphasize the action. But I loved them for what they were, esp. II/III/IV. Then TNG came along and I thought it would be a fiasco. I was wrong about that. It was very different from TOS and the TOS movies, and it took 2 years to find its legs and its voice. But it was tremendous. Then came its movies, and again, they tended to dumb down plot in favor of action.
And now we have Abrams Trek. It is certainly different from previous incarnations of Star Trek. But what it does well, it does very well. If you're going to dumb down plot and make it about action, then give us some really tremendous action. Blow up a planet? Sure. Hide the Enterprise in an ocean? Go for it. If you're going to play it for action, then give it all you've got. I think it stands head and shoulders above the Star Wars prequels (not that that's saying all that much) as far as action goes. And I'd also say it has much better story and direction than the SW prequels.
It's true, this is not your father's Star Trek. But it is bringing Star Trek to a new generation. Hard though this is for me to fathom, in a society filled with DVDs, cable TV, internet streaming, and so forth, there are plenty of people who like sci fi movies but have never seen other forms of Star Trek. If Abrams brings them into the fold, then I say warp speed!
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."