Nov 16 2008
To all the ungrateful Star Trek fans
I swear, this has got to be the most fickle, annoying subgroup of fans ever that aren’t happy with the new Star Trek film without having even seen it yet.
Oh my gosh, the phasers look slightly different!
Oh no, the events of the past are in a slightly different order!
Please, it’s just a few changes because locking the new film for a whole new generation of fans into a “canon” that was built sporadically from a TV show, retrofit for novels and movies, that is hung together like spaghetti was kind of restrictive.
I’m not done yet.
All I keep hearing is stuff like “Oh, but this is Christopher Pike so the uniforms should look like they did in “The Cage”" and on and on.
The Cage was a pilot for the show! They stuffed it in to have more episode material! It was an afterthought, not some grand Roddenberry scheme based on a canon or bible. Most of the Star Trek canon is a mish mash of fans trying to make sense of the big Hollywood mess they made! The other Star Trek movies broke it all the time… “Well, Chekov never met Khan!” “No wait, Chekov was really on the ship but wasn’t promoted yet so we just didn’t see him in that episode.” Who cares? It’s a TV show, not a real history!
These hard core fans, wanting the impossible — to keep to some canon that hardly fits together anyway, that the TV series, movies and books even have to break from time to time, is ridiculous. Face it, Star Trek has DIED. Enterprise BOMBED. They are BRINGING IT BACK and trying to make it appeal to a whole new generation of fans and give it LIFE again. The hard core fans should be HAPPY that new people get to experience the Star Trek universe and that Hollywood is WILLING to make a movie after the dismal ratings for the last series and the last Star Trek movies! It’s like a starving man turning down a free sandwich because “oh, it’s got too much mayo.”
You know what, you want to complain and moan about these things? Fine. But you have no appreciation for the fact that you are not only getting a movie, you are getting one from a director who actually CARES about the fans and the series, instead of some Hollywood rip off artist. Not only that, he is one of the BEST directors out here! You haven’t even SEEN the film and yet you are trashing it! This has got to be the most ungrateful type of fan I’ve ever seen. “I want Star Trek, but I only want it MY way.” This film is going to re-launch the Star Trek universe, and you can either get on board the NEW USS Enterprise, or you can stay in your basement holding your old-style phaser saying, “It’s just not the same.”
Canon doesnt matter here anyway. The whole point of this movie is that this is a new timeline created by tampering. It does not replace original Trek it compliments it. I for one am as bout as hardcore a TOS fan as ever there was buty I plan on judging this on its merits not on some preconceived notions and stubborn refusal to get past the effects and writing of 4 decades ago.
“Young minds, fresh ideas, Mr Scott.”
So do the Klingons have head ridges or not? If they do, it’s not canon, and I hate it. If they don’t, it’s not canon, and I hate it.
Err… nevermind, I just don’t care enough to hate it; I just wanna see some stuff blow up… in spaaaaace!
I don’t know Steve. I think if it’s just little changes, then you’re right (it’s okay that the Enterprise is being built on Earth in the new movie, while in “canon” it is built in space, or if they change the color of the photon torpedoes, or the sound of the transporter, for example). However, my experience has been that when people deviate from original plot lines, time lines, character backgrounds, then the end result is a bunch of smelly suck (see Star Wars I-III).
I actually had and have serious issues with the fact that Chekov is not in the original Khan episode. I always thought the worm-in-the-ear scene was the best scene ever for any Star Trek movie or episode (except maybe for the Khaaaan!!! Khaaaan!! scene). When I saw the original Khan episode and saw that Chekov was never in it, it really muted the poignancy of that scene in Wrath of Khan for me. I never looked at it again with the same enthusiasm.
Also, why in the hell could they not find a Japanese actor to play Sulu? Why a Korean? Never mind that this changes everything ever about Sulu’s character because it’s a TOTALLY DIFFERENT RACE with COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CULTURAL WORLD VIEWS, but I also find it insulting and racist in a Americans-are-too-stupid-to-notice-the-difference-between-Asian-races sort of way. I mean, really, would you ever replace Scotty with an Irish guy? Of course not! Why? Because everyone knows that Irish is NOT Scottish. It would be an insult, it would be stupid, it would fly in the face of everything that makes Scotty Scotty, forever, and even you could never conceive of it. But I’m just supposed to be okay with the fact that Sulu, who is probably the coolest of all of the supporting characters besides Scotty, is now Korean. No. Screw that. It’s just wrong.
So for me, the movie looks rad. But I do have serious reservations about what ELSE they might have changed. It better be damn good, is all I’m saying, or this post of yours will look very silly. :-)
Zach
And yes, I understand that the Korean actor might be playing a Japanese Sulu. But still, there is merit in making sure that the actor fits the bill. (Which is why they got Will Smith to play Muhammed Ali, and not Sylvester Stallone). A Korean person does not, at least to me, look Japanese. It’s why I have a problem with David Carradine playing Bruce Lee’s character. It’s just a show, who cares if David Carradine is white; he can still play a Chinese person. No. He can’t. Does it not make more sense to have a Chinese person play a Chinese character, or am I out of my mind?
Oh no, something I posted on the internet might make me look silly? Whatever shall I do? :)
I just found out about the Korean guy this weekend, I’m not sure how I feel about that. Honestly, it happens in Hollywood all the time though, the guy who played Taejo in Speed Racer was Korean but the character was Japanese.
Umm…yeah. I know you’re really down with Speed Racer, but, no one I know knows who the hell Taejo is, and couldn’t have cared less if sasquatch played him. But Sulu, man…it’s Sulu. We all know who Sulu is. We all know he is Japanese.
Okay, shouldn’t have said silly. I could have said “wrong”, or “obvious conflict of interest here.”
Wait…I think I just DEFINED the internet.
And for the record, I said the “post” would look silly, not you.
You’re a given. :-)
And one more thing (I can’t believe this matters so much to me…but I USED to love Star Trek, until these 9 million attempts to appeal to new fans ruined it): anytime someone says they are trying to make the series “appeal to a whole new generation of fans”, I start picking out headstones. That means it has died, and the new writers and directors have no idea what direction to go in or what they are doing. In this case, Star Trek has already died. By appealing to new fans, they are trying to resurrect it. I wouldn’t go picking out shovels just yet, though.
The problem with Trek, is not that the fans are too serious, and stubborn, and won’t accept changes. On the contrary. The problem is that it has deviated just waaay to much to be either believable or good. It can’t figure out what it wants to be. Does it want to be a James Bond type series, where there is no pretense of continuity, and actions of previous movies are never really mentioned or referred to in subsequent movies; like, each movie is a stand-alone. Or does it want to be a true series, where the movies build on each other in some kind of sensible time-line. In waffling between these two approaches, it is muddled, confusing, and silly.
It seems to me, that these Trek movie-makers want their cake and eat it to. They want to make all kinds of changes to Trek, so that things are contradicted from big to small, and the fans are just supposed to accept it instead of seeing it for what it is: an attempt to keep making money at their expense. Hey, here’s Trek! Now we know we’ve changed a lot of things, and this will only sort of approximate the Trek you know and love, but, hey, get over it! Stop being such a fuddy-duddy about it. It’s just Hollywood, you big, giant, sexually-challenged nerd! Stop being such a huge sci-fi Trek dork! Um…wait. Don’t change yet. Come see this NEW Trek movie, and then you can stop being a dork. Well, not that it matters, because this new movie will be so cool that EVERYONE, a whole-new generation, will want to see it. Even cool people…the ones that used to beat you up in gym!
I have high hopes for this movie, because it looks great. But I believe that skeptic fans have a right to be skeptic. Every movie since four has basically been horrible. I hope this is not just an attempt to dazzle us with new-fangled CGI effects and to squeeze just a little more juice out of this shriveled lemon. I hope not. I really do. Because I love Trek. Which is why I’m writing these posts like a moron.
Dude, you really need to start your own blog. Your comment is longer than my post!
I know. I fee like a huge nerd. But Kirk is my fav character of all TV so…I tend to get passionate about this stuff. :-)
I will say that I am glad JJ kept the bright colored shirts, circa original series. That is so awesome. I’m glad they didn’t try to put them in some kind of horrible jump suit/spandex condom (e.g. Enterprise series, the first few season of TNG).
To beat a dead horse further:
Steve [sigh],
Hollywood wouldn’t bother making another movie if they didn’t think they could make more money off the franchise with this new, hip, cool director — who wasn’t even a fan of the original series. There is absolutley nothing altruistic about this project.
And all of us Trekkie fans who should count themselves lucky to be getting another movie are the same people who wished they stopped making them after Star Trek IV.
And have you seen the NEW Enterprise that we are to get on board? It’s a monstrosity. I never thought I’d ever see a design that was actually less graceful than a Borg ship.
Steve, just wanted to say that the fact that you are in the film is the best reason to go see it, and of course I will. THAT’S exciting. The rest, though, the jury is out in my mind. So…sorry if I seem a little beligerent.
“Even cool people…the ones that used to beat you up in gym!”
Exactly what i was thinking! the movie was totally a CGI flick. Had they called it “Space Action movie” i would have liked it. the whole “lets appeal to a whole new segment of fans” is BS we are the fans who bought the DVD box sets of DS9. Show us some love. the other folks don’t give a flying Frak about Star Trek. they will forget about it in a Centon.