Did JJ Abrams ruin Star Trek?

Post Reply New Topic

I thought the plot seemed strung together, and the plot elements in common with Nemesis added to my feeling that the writers phoned it in. Also, lots of the characters were undeveloped, especially the villain.

Edited to add:

Although it was visually quite enjoyable, and the actor who played McCoy was spot on, Kirk and Spock, not so much, Spock: hello Syler.

I voted no. JJ had to change some stuff. But at its core, its still Trek. The same character dynamics are there. I thought all the actors were good. if I did not know any better, I thought the shot of Scotty at the end was James Doohan. Its that close.

The part where the nobody actor says "it's an ALTERNATE REALITY!@#$" made me cringe though. I guess that would have been a good out if it totally were to tank, or if they want to make another one that doesn't follow the alternate history in this one, similar to how all of Enterprise was apparently a holodeck simulation with Riker so it didn't screw up the timeline. Of course it's going to make a metric crapload of money, and they'll probably make a sequel that picks up after this one. Reworking series and pretending the rest didn't happen seems to be all the rage, like with James Bond.

I just saw it, I thought it was very good. Spock in particular was very nice-looking...

Of course he was. He's Simon Pegg for crying out loud.

Simon Pegg played Scotty. Carl Urban played McCoy. All were really good.

IMHO, He's saved it.

There's no doubt about it. Trek was dying.

I've watched the originals which were great (though one-dimensional) - like most TV of that era, a product of their time.

I've also (recently) watched The Next Generation for the first time. I spent last year watching them all in the correct order. I was impressed. They were really quite good and thoughtful.

I haven't been able to make it past Next Gen. I'm sorry but thus far the other series seem crap.

Then there's the movies.

St1 - Yawnfest.
St2 - Brilliant.
St3 - Corny ... and crap
St4 - Brilliant
St5 onwards mostly crap. Even the "good ones" were crap. The Even numbers thing got shat on by Nemesis which is worse than St1, though probably not quite as bad as William Shat..ner's little directing epic.

The biggest problem with Star Trek is that most of the stories (in the movies particularly) are mostly the same. ST4 was very similar to ST1 with the emphasis on Comedy rather than great (at the time - not now) effects.

If you want to make a good ST film, just recycle an old idea and spend your time working on Characters. That's what really makes a ST film.

Kirk is just a meathead - there's never really ever been any character there.
Scotty is mostly cliche with a bit of comedy.
Chekov, Sulu, Uhura etc are mostly window dressing
Bones and Spock are the real meat of the characters.

JJ Abrams didn't just do a fantastic job on Bones and Spock. He made some of the other "window dressing" characters come to life. In my book, that means he's done a better movie than the others.

The movie was a farce, but this isn't the first time Star Trek's produced something bad.

I agree The Voyage Home continues to be the best of the bunch. That time period seemed to produce a lot of really good comedy/sci-fi movies for some reason, like Back to the Future.

I saw the new movie today. It was very good.

Simon Pegg's Scotty and John Cho's Sulu didn't get much to do,
neither did Zoe Saldana as Uhura.

Kirk at first seemed like a horny dumbass,
but later saw what responsibilities were required of him.

IMHO, Bones probably got the funniest lines.

Zachary Quinto IS Spock, physically and logically.
Out of the main cast members, he probably gave the best performance.

Chekov's bad accent was one of the best parts of the movie.

BEGIN SPOILER ALERT
1. TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, the films... all of it no longer exists in this alternate reality because the time line was altered. So Yes in a manner of speaking he destroyed Star Trek.
END SPOILER ALERT

2. Beastie Boys playing over a futuristic Nokia phone? Are they kidding me?!

Last edited by kxmode on 11 May 2009, 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Watch DS9 in order then come back here and say that.

I'll give it a go.

After I finished NextGen, I looked in my local video store for DSN. It didn't have it but it had the first episode of Voyager. I turned it off in disgust after about 1 episode. Maybe I need to be "eased in" with DS9 first.

These words may be blasphemy ("DO NOT BLASPHEME!")... but in my opinion, DS9 and Voyager were kind of lame... lots of wasted potential. They didn't really offer much that the first two Treks didn't have. I mean, don't get me wrong, they had their moments. But I got the sense that they weren't even trying for quality anymore, knowing that the Trekkies would just "lap it up" no matter what. DS9 was mostly boring, and lacked the appeal of the other shows. Voyager had atrocious acting and was poorly written, for the most part. I'm not sure about Enterprise, since I haven't watched it yet. But of what I have seen, TOS and TNG were the best, because they (usually) tried for quality to keep viewers interested (and they did pull it off pretty well.)

DS9 didn't find its footing until about season 3, or the finale of season 3. That's when the war with the dominion begins and the rest of the series is one long story arc. It's actually quite good. Lots of battles, Klingons take on bigger roles, Sisko's mortality becomes gray and jaded, and a lot of guest characters become major reoccurring characters. Based on a TOS/TNG comparison scale for what it did I'd give DS9 8 out of 10.

Voyager never found its footing. Every episode was a distraction from the ultimate goal of getting the crew home. I watched the show religiously for the first six months. I was hoping they would find some sort of wormhole sci-fi mumbo jumbo to warp themselves home and then the real show could begin, but they never did, so I gave up. There were moments were the acting really shined such as the episode "Death Wish" but for the most part I couldn't really connect with any of these characters. Based on a TOS/TNG comparison scale for what it did I'd give Voyager 4 out of 10.

Enterprise was DOA, however the one bright spot was the season three arc about the Xindi. Based on a TOS/TNG comparison scale for what it did I'd give Enterprise season three 7 out of 10.

Last edited by kxmode on 11 May 2009, 7:18 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Anyone notice the poll looks like a middle finger? lol