Star Trekking Across The Universe

[kerravonsen]

Well. I have now seen "Star Trek". When the end-titles started playing the classic Trek tune, I just couldn't stop myself from smiling. I am still smiling at the thought of it.

I didn't find The Attack Of The Lens Flare as intrusive as vilakins did, but I did notice it every now and then. But I still liked the movie, I liked it very much.

To reassure those who haven't seen it yet, it isn't a reboot, it's a canonical AU. Which seems like a contradiction in terms, but it does make sense when you see it.
And, yes, there is the usual level of Treknobabble and dubious science, but, well, I was carried along for the ride. It was Fun! And Adventury! And Dramatic!

The Cast
Some of the cast were just Perfect, they were the characters, just them at a younger age.
In that class, I would put Kirk, Sulu, Uhura, Sarek.

Other characters gave me a bit of cognitive dissonance at first, for various reasons, but they ended up being themselves anyway.
* Spock was a perfect Spock, but I kept on having Sylar flashbacks every now and then.
* Chekov does not have curly hair! No! Except he does have that cute speech impediment. (grin)
* McCoy seemed odd at first, but I liked him from the start.
* Scotty didn't look like Scotty, but he wormed his way into my heart too.


Here be spoilers

I liked the backstory for McCoy. Explains how he's so good and so disgruntled, and why he describes himself as a "simple country doctor".

Uhura pwned Kirk. Yes!
Me, I know what Xenolinguistics is - doesn't everyone?

I do actually like Uhura/Spock; I'm assuming (and it could be an incorrect assumption) that they didn't have a relationship at the academy, but she was his best student and had a crush on him, and he might have secretly had a bit of a crush on her, but he primarily loved her for her mind, and it wasn't until the events of the movie that he decided to actually go for it. That is the version I prefer, anyway. It seems more in keeping with the character. He would be all propriety when she was his student, no matter what his feelings. On the other hand Spock does know what her first name is. And she was kissing him in the elevator. Darn. I don't like the idea that they had a relationship before the Enterprise. (sigh)

Anyway...

Oh, Sulu!
"What martial art do you know?"
"Fencing."
And then when Sulu pulled out that collapsible sword, I went "Yes!"

Gee Kirk did an awful lot of hanging over abysses, didn't he? At least he didn't go around with a torn up uniform exposing expanses of his manly chest.

That Romulan mining ship was HUGE! And it doesn't look like a mining ship, it looks like the designers got together and said "We gotta make a bad-ass ship that looks evil! Let's put a lot of spines on it." Plus, I think it's a bit too well-armed for a mining ship. Though I assume that the drill-into-planets drill was a mining thing.

Vulcan destroyed! Oh noes! A bit like Gallifrey destroyed, I suppose. Which I guess various NuWho fans will already have pointed out.

Niggles
Excuse me, you would not be able to see the destruction of Vulcan from Delta Vega. Isn't it, like, a different starsystem? Oh well.

Excuse me, I don't think a supernova would destroy a galaxy, not would turning it into a black hole save the galaxy either. (sigh) I wonder what astrogirl will say to this.

Um, I could be mistaken, but I thought that in TOS one of the things about Romulans was that, until the Enterprise encountered them in a particular episode, nobody knew what they even looked like, let alone that they were related to the Vulcans. So Young!Spock saying that Romulans were related to Vulcans and thus he would do better on the mission to the Romulan ship and be able to access their computers better... does not compute. Oh well.

In conclusion
So, we have a canonical Alternative Universe. Interesting; usually when AUs come up in Trek, the point of the adventure is to put history back on track. But in this case, the writers opened up a universe of possibilities by not putting history back on track. And I must admit, I would like to see more in this universe.

So has anyone written any fanfic yet?

Comments

Star Trek fanfic

[cesy]

singularity has fic.

Re: Star Trek fanfic

[kerravonsen]

Thanks!

(looks)
(wonders if there's going to be nothing but Kirk/Spock slash)
(gives a sigh of relief at the sight of a Spock/Uhura drabble)

Re: Star Trek fanfic

[jinxed_wood]

There is a lot of Spock/Uhura fic at st_reboot on LJ, and even one that went along the lines of your hopes for the rlationship (I'm having problems loading LJ at the moment, or I'd give you a direct link!)

Although, I will say that in the movie Spock calls Uhura Lieutenant rather than Cadet before they board the Enterprise, which implies there was a measure of time between her graduating and them serving together on the Enterprise...

[Grins]

Re: Star Trek fanfic

[jinxed_wood]

And I'm back on LJ! The dtory is called Genesis, and he found here:

http://community.livejournal.com/st_reboot/21563.html#cutid1

Re: Star Trek fanfic

[kerravonsen]

Thanks! I'm exploring that whole comm right now, downloading stuff left and right, including that one.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Um, I could be mistaken, but I thought that in TOS one of the things about Romulans was that, until the Enterprise encountered them in a particular episode, nobody knew what they even looked like, let alone that they were related to the Vulcans. So Young!Spock saying that Romulans were related to Vulcans and thus he would do better on the mission to the Romulan ship and be able to access their computers better... does not compute. Oh well.

I believe that people have been theorising that the destruction of the Kelvin triggered a political shift across the Alpha Quadrant -- hence Uhurah ordering a Cardassian ale, and making it more likely that people knew a little more about the Romulans.

taraljc has some good posts about the movie, too.

[kerravonsen]

And Uhura knowing three dialects of Romulan, which I'd forgotten about until reminded by discussion in other folks' posts, which I've now read.

[alexthai.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I assumed they were on a moon of Vulcan (which did strike me as odd), and it bugged me that the black hole didn't pull it in too. The whole supernova and throwing a bit of red matter into the leading edge of it really annoyed me, but I didn't want to say in my review since I tried to avoid major spoilers. :-P

And yes! That was another homage I forgot: the ship looking like a Shadow one! I must add that. Apparently there was stuff from "Alias" or some other show too but as I don't know that, I'll ignore it.

selenak has already posted links to fic. :-)

[Edit] Re not knowing what Romulans look like, seeing the AU split off at Kirk's birth, maybe they did. Or did Vulcans know, just not others?

[kerravonsen]

Other people have pointed out that things must have changed at Kirk's birth, because there's also the "Uhura knows three dialects of Romulan" which is a clear difference.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Looks like we pretty much agree.

Like you, I think Uhura/Spock started on the Enterprise; and not even in that elevator, I think Uhura was just trying to provide comfort any way she could, and then they both discovered they were in a relationship.

- - - - -

Yesterday at work I argued that one could not complain too much about ST tech in this movie, given that there's canonical FTL travel, time travel, and interspecies mating. Turns out, shouldn't mention interspecies mating when other people are drinking coffee.

[kerravonsen]

I think Uhura was just trying to provide comfort any way she could, and then they both discovered they were in a relationship.
Agreed. It was clear to me that in the elevator, she was totally acting out of compassion.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I agree with this also, and I found it both strong and sweet---a lovely way to handle it.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This is good - damn, I have to wait for the film!

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Great review.

Niggles...Some of the movie details were sort of headache-worthy. I might just have to watch the movie again =)

Did they say that the mining ship was thrown back in time about 25 years before Spock? So they've been wandering around in that big spiky mining ship for all that time and no one noticed except for when they killed Kirk's father? Or did I miss something?

Did Earth look awfully undefended at the end? I know the fleet is elsewhere and all the cadets were drafted too. But that means they left Earth completely without defence of any kind? Even planetary ones? I didn't see any kind of reaction at the end other than people wandering out of buildings and looking up. And no one trying to contact the big mean ship asking, what do you think you're doing trying to drill a hole in our planet without permission?

I did like that they've made it a canonical AU. And like you I would like to see more of this universe too.

And why do I get the feeling that Kirk will regularly be dangled over abysses or pounded to a pulp?

I even loved that it was so predictable that when 3 people were going jump down to the platform, the third guy might as well have had a sign on his forehead that he wasn't going to make it. Maybe that was why he decided to have some fun before he went...

[kerravonsen]

So they've been wandering around in that big spiky mining ship for all that time and no one noticed except for when they killed Kirk's father?

Space is big. Space is so mind-bogglingly big that... (rambles on in HHGG fashion) 8-)

And no one trying to contact the big mean ship asking, what do you think you're doing trying to drill a hole in our planet without permission?
Well, I got the impression that Nero got the security codes out of Captain Pike, so he arrived at Earth without being challenged. And then once the drill was going, that jammed their transporters and their communications.
I think the only reason why Spock was able to cut the drill cable was because his ship was from the same time as Nero's ship, so it had a similar technology level, whereas all the other ships were completely overwhelmed by the future technology; for Nero it was like swatting flies.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Yes noticed the bit with Delta Vega, but perhaps it was in the same star system as Vulcan. Though even that is stretching things.

It was only a tiny singularity that has been created by the "red matter", so only Vulcan was affected, hence the need to drill down to the core and not just drop it off in the atmosphere.

The only reason the ship got so close was that Pike had given them the codes to get past the Earth border defences.

As for the Romulans, Enterprise rather mucked that up already. It was clear they were going with continuing that universe they even referred to Archer and "his prize beagle". (Wonder if it is ever going to rematerialise?) So they already knew about the Romulans before George Kirk's ship got destroyed and everything changed.

Mind you Spock referred to himself as an "endangered species" was a bit what? I mean yes only 10.000 got off Vulcan but don't they also have other colony worlds? Ditto for the Romulans. Yes it is an emotional wrench to lose the homeworld (Don't give up the homeworld) but the race as a whole survives.

Supernovae do effect systems other than their own star systems. So if the nova was close enough it could indeed extinguish life on Romulus.



I did like the Xindi chasm that young Kirk drove the car off.

I didn't like the Sarek at all. Ben Cross is not a patch on Mark Lenard. I wasn't impressed with Kirk but that was the way the character had been written and not a reflection on the actor.

I loved the rest of them!

I noticed one continuity error. A Romulan "pistol" that appeared before it did in the script.

By the way considering the number of times he was hanging over one Kirk's performance was literally "abysmal"

[kerravonsen]

I mean yes only 10.000 got off Vulcan but don't they also have other colony worlds?
I've seen other people mention that Vulcan probably didn't have colony worlds. Canon doesn't have much to say on the matter; we certainly didn't see people visiting Vulcan colonies, just one mention of one Vulcan character not having been born on Vulcan, but I can't remember whether it was said he was from a Vulcan colony or not.

As for the 10,000, I can't remember whether he said that 10,000 got off Vulcan, or if 10,000 was the number of Vulcans that were left in total.

So if the nova was close enough it could indeed extinguish life on Romulus.
Oh, I'm not disputing that; what I'm disputing was the assertion that the supernova would affect the whole galaxy.

As for the Romulans, Enterprise rather mucked that up already.
Ah, I wasn't aware of that.

I wasn't impressed with Kirk but that was the way the character had been written and not a reflection on the actor.
I think I like this Kirk a bit better than the original. Not by much, but a little.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

The 10,000. I thought he said escaped Vulcan but others seem to think that that is the number for all the surviving Vulcans.

Tuvok came from Vulcanis Lunar colony, whetner that is insystem and had already been destroyed I don't know.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I think I like this Kirk a bit better than the original. Not by much, but a little.

Really? I thought that he was even more obnoxious. :)

While we're talking about niggles, it was stretching the long arm of coincidence a bit far for Kirk to stumble upon Future Spock like that. Accepting that it was reasonabe for them to finish up on the same planet, planets are big spaces. And then they both find Scotty there!

I especially liked the Spock/Uhura romance because it confounded our expectations that Kirk would get her.

Kirk not only did an awful lot of hanging over abysses but also had his face smashed in an awful lot.

Vulcan destroyed! Oh noes!

Yes, but apparently we weren't supposed to be really bothered about six billion people dying, but to just be happy that the Enterprise finished up with the "right" crew.

In spite of having had a few niggles, I should add that I enjoyed the film.

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

So has anyone written any fanfic yet?

Have they ever...

[kerravonsen]

Indeed. Also, st_reboot has much goodness.