A Quick Review Of JJ Abrams Star Trek

It's no surprise that I went to see the new star trek film. As much as I love Star Trek Generations and I respect the original series, I was ready for something new. When I think of the original series there's this sort of glimmery hazy filter of nostalgia that encompasses my memory, partially because it's been so long since I've seen any of the episodes.

Every time there's a film I really want to see I stop watching the trailers, I refuse to read the early reviews and I try not to think about it until I go see it. Why? Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Meanace, that's why. My hopes were so bloody high for that film that by the time I got a chance to see it there was no way it could have lived up to them, Jar Jar or no Jar Jar.

Back to JJ Abrams' Star Trek. I managed to keep my expectations low and I wasn't disappointed at all. You know that glimmering filter that I see the old series through when I think back to it? Like there was something magical and incredible that the original series had and my mental image of it sort of shines up those old sets and embellishes the performances? Well, it's like JJ opened my head, saw how my memories of the old Trek Original Series looked and said; "Aha! I think I know how I'll direct this film now!"

I shouldn't have been so afraid to get my hopes up, there's no Jar Jar Binx equivalent in this film. I like all the actors he chose and truly hope that they can do another four or five films or even better: make the transition to television. The action in this film (of which there is a great deal), helps tell a story and takes you on a wild ride with top notch directing and special effects. The story answered questions they honestly didn't have to, but the completeness of it connected the film to the rest of the franchise while surprising and entertaining.

JJ Abrams has grown as a director. This film is bold, he took massive risks with the visuals which couldn't be more amped up or exciting to watch. The pacing is fantastic and he managed to present Star Trek in a completely new way while keeping just enough of the old conventions to be unmistakably Trek.

There is a pretty big problem, however. JJ Abrams' direction style in this film is so unique and impressive that I shudder at the thought of another director trying to match or surpass it with a sequel. My hopes are that it's not all downhill from here, that Paramount doesn't hire a Michael Bay wannabe to do a sequel and another Brannon Braga to reboot Generations on television. I honestly think Paramount would be making a huge mistake in rushing to flood the market with Trek. If we can have one movie like this every year or two and a well thought out television series a whole new generation would be hooked and the current fans would have something to tune in to.

I'll take this opportunity to end on a rare positive note. The movie surpassed my expectations and was truly entertaining. I think Paramount may have learned from their past mistakes and in time we'll see a few quality films. Perhaps they'll manage to develop some decent science fiction television.

RL

Star Trek Nemesis: A Look Back

I miss Star Trek Generations, let's get that out of the way right off. When I watched Star Trek Nemesis for the first time years ago I came to the sad conclusion that it would be the last Star Trek film until they reinvented the franchise somehow.

When Enterprise fell on its face, I was sure we'd be without a new Trek series for at least 10 or 20 years. Right now there's a new Star Trek film by J.J. Abrams that will hopefully bring people back to Trek, and I'm looking forward to it.

Before we all go on to a new Trek, however, I thought it would be interesting to quickly review the last film we saw, Star Trek X: Nemesis, so here goes.

I enjoyed the more military feel to the ship's operations, the advancement in character story, the performances rendered by the main-stays and even some of the rivalry. One thing that had been missing from the franchise was a captain versus captain tale of any grand traditional scope, and I admit, this was a good try. Sadly, it didn't satisfy and was no where near comparable to the famous captain versus captain film from the Star Trek franchise: Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn.

Another saving grace for this film was the special effects. I found they were perfectly convincing, did everything they had to. The dogfight in the end looked really good even though combat in space promises to be quite different and will most likely be fought with ships kilometers if not thousands of kilometers apart. It was still fun to watch, especially on the big screen.

Now that all the positives have been laid out, here comes what certainly contributed to this film being the last Generations Star Trek movie. First of all, the villain reminded a large portion of the US and Canadian audience of Doctor Evil. Yes, that over the top villain from the Austin Powers movies. The story was good, but highlighted a lot of problems with the Star Trek setting and there were some other massive issues. Here's a list:

Alien worlds are named after Earth mythology by the aliens that inhabit them (Romulus, Remus).
Dune buggies? Why?
A starfighter in a hallway? I remember going to get more Junior Mints when that started...
ANOTHER Data??? I thought he was a rare specimen, but it's starting to look like they just dump pieces of him all over the place like old McDonald's wrappers.
Where is the exploration in this film? If I were an explorer, I'd make sure to at least visit the Romulan gift shop! All Picard got this time out was some gaudy knife with someone else's blood on it.
Last but not least, the directing in this film was nothing beyond standard fare.

Now, don't get me wrong, this film does make a fair attempt at saying farewell to the fans, the whole cast and production staff knew this would be the last Generations film, but they could have at least gotten a director who had done action or science fiction before, and worked a little harder on some of the action sequences to make them more plausible. The dune buggy and starfighter sequences were a bad fit for the film and not "very Trekkie" as a good friend of mine put it years ago. The suspension of disbelief snapped for a lot of people.

I'm glad to have this DVD as a part of my collection, but because I'm a fan of the Generations era of Trek (and I'll admit, pretty much all other Trek except for the latter half of DS-9), not because this film is in any way a stand out from the pack like Star Trek First Contact or The Wrath of Kahn. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you rent it online or at your local vid store before the new Star Trek film hits theaters in May, it is worth seeing once at least if you're a Science Fiction or Star Trek fan, despite its many shortcomings.

As for the new film, well, J.J. Abrams has a lot to live up to. His new movie won't be compared to Star Trek Nemesis, but to the rest of the franchise as a whole. That's damned hard to face, considering there have been some real golden moments in all the Trek series'. I hope he manages to give us something that is entertaining, somewhat reflects Gene Roddenberry's vision and starts us on a new seven year mission. I miss seeing Trek on my television, and my ultimate hope is that this leads to a series and not to an eventual sequel like Star Trek: The Voyage Home. Don't get me started on that one...

RL

Status update on Spinward Fringe Frontline: 227 pages locked in, writing 4000+ words per day and loving it. When will I be finished? Hopefully before page 400. More on that later!

Fringe: CW Network Screws Up Big!

Fringe is a new science fiction television show created by J.J. Abrams that has been compared to the X-Files by pretty much everyone. I like it, it's a quality show with a diverse set of characters and built in conflicts that could stretch those interesting relationships for years while they delve into the strange, wonderful, terrifying and sometimes gooey realm of science fiction.

I think it's worth watching and they should give it a year.

There's a problem, however. The Nielson ratings system (which is a pointless, outdated, overpriced, bloated, service the television world worships as gospel), reported that fewer than ten million people tuned in for the premiere. This is a problem because J.J. Abrams is also one of the creators of Lost, which posted over eighteen million viewers for it's premiere and has done amazingly well every year since, even when the show had "lost it's way" according to most viewers it posted premiere numbers well above Fringe. (That was season three for everyone who isn't hooked into the Lost phenomenon).

Fringe had some serious obstacles to overcome on its premiere night and it's important to take them into account, though I doubt the networks will. Here's a few of them.

The full pilot episode was "leaked" on the Internet almost two months ago. I saw a clip of it and it was in high defenition, perfect sound and picture. You honestly couldn't do better on the quality. Piracy of this premere was so pervasive that it made it to the Russian DVD market, where thousands of copies were sold marked as; "created by the director of Star Trek". Even though the upcoming Trek film isn't out, it must have worked. Bootleggers made a fortune, there are even subs in a dozen or so languages available online. So perhaps the right phrase here is: "The pilot episode was projectile vomited across the globe" instead of "leaked."

The advertising sucked. I knew exactly what this show was about since I had read up on it but after watching the first television ads I couldn't imagine anyone on earth understanding the premise behind the show. The 30 second long ad was also very irritating. It told you nothing, looked like a badly edited clip show and there was almost no dialogue. Even I was turned off and I already liked the idea behind the show. Advertising following that terrible mess included more dialogue, more descriptive narration but still didn't tell anyone what the premise of the show was in a clear way that the common IQ 85 viewer could understand. That's your audience advertisers! Those are the only people left on the sofa when the advertising comes on, because anyone with an IQ over 85 is smart enough to have something else to do while your ads are rolling or they used their TiVo and don't watch the commercials.

Here's another problem: The audience most interested in this type of programming are also most likely to use their DVR (Digital Video Recorder, for those of you still living in the 80s), and those figures don't count in the Neilson Ratings system. They're lightly considered after the fact.

The critics generally didn't like this show. Considering most of them are out of date and no longer in touch with the general audience themselves, I don't respect their opinions much. The sad fact is that people see these bad reviews and are too lazy to tune in and find out for themselves whether or not the show is good for them. Three's Company got terrible reviews back in the day, but it had massive ratings. Eventually the critics gave it good reviews just so they could save face a little.

Anyway, hopefully the CW Network (what a terrible name), gives Fringe a season to show it's stuff. I'm sure J.J. will gladly give it his best shot and it'll be the best oddity show on television for a while. I will be surprised if they do give it a chance, however, since the CW Network is already in big trouble and they're sorely disappointed with Fringe's performance. Since the whole network is run by corporate hacks who don't care if it's a good show, only that advertisers are interested, I expect to maybe see 6-13 episodes of Fringe before they flush it.

I'm starting to think if I ever get an opportunity to produce my own intellectual property in a visual medium I might just want to do it on a straight to Internet and DVD basis. Sure, the advertising budget has to be pretty high, but hell, at least I won't have to deal with Corporate heads who would rather sit around and watch the commercials.

RL

Star Trek Online, Coming Soon: Not Bloody Likely.

The Star Trek franchise has fallen on hard times over the last few years. As fans wait for the JJ Abrams franchise reboot film to appear in May, 2009, there isn't much of anything else going on with regards to new additions to this big universe. What irritates a lot of fans these days is the utter mismanagement of the Star Trek Intellectual Property and the failures that go along with it.

There are a number of examples I can bring up here, but the only one I'll focus on is the Star Trek Online fiasco. Originally licensed to Perpetual Entertainment, this game was supposed to be a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing / Adventure game where you could go out on your own or with friends to explore the universe while surrounded by all things Trek.

Even though they only had two screen shots for us after well over a year of development everyone was pretty excited. Then the drama began. It became public knowledge that Perpetual was having financial difficulty, they put all work on a nearly completed game on hold to focus on STO, cutting off a potential revenue stream that could have helped sustain the company and there were other bits of financial drama that shouldn't have been publicized. I'm sure I'm missing a few details here, but in the end it amounted to one thing: the years of work that had gone into this game went to waste.

The content and game that was in development at Perpetual Entertainment will almost certainly not entirely be used. After the passing of so much time and keeping in mind that the graphics we did see looked dated when they came out along with the idea that Perpetual was about to include a Psionic class, loot and a focus on combat, I'm lead to the conclusion that what they were doing was starting to look like a disaster.

Paramount had nothing to say about the quality of the work when Perpetual went under.

Now Cryptic Studios, a game developer with a much longer track record and success with online games, has picked up the ball and are running with it. According to the official press release they won't be offering screen shots or previews until they have made significant progress. It was rumored that they were picking up the entire STO dev team from Perpetual, but there has been no confirmation. In fact, Cryptic is holding to their word and seem to have given themselves a little time to work on this title before revealing any official info. On their main website there is an ongoing count down set against some concept art that was made for the Star Trek Online title, and it's expected that we'll see some official announcement there when the time elapses. Take a look here: http://crypticstudios.com/

I still have a beef, however. If you were to go to www.startrekonline.com you'd be directed to a lovely logo and a promise: Coming Soon. Not only that, but it seems that the page is still registered to Perpetual. I have some advice for Paramount, the owners of the Star Trek Intellectual Property. Buy it back, take it down, then let Cryptic use it to tell fans what's going on and hear what we have to say. Star Trek fans are very supportive if you give them a forum to express themselves and offer assistance. Many of them are also writers, gamers, industry insiders and may have some really good ideas.

The only way we'll be seeing this game on the market in the next year or two is if Cryptic is keeping a good portion of the work that was done by Perpetual. If that's what's going on I certainly hope that they're keeping the good bits and completely discarding the stuff that just wouldn't feel very Trek. I just don't see myself playing in a Star Trek Universe that is based on a firm class system, focuses on combat, and drives people to search after loot and cash. That's great for something like World of Warcraft, but it's not Trek. Period.

The Star Trek fans are getting irritated with Paramount in general. First Star Trek Online is seriously delayed, then Paramount postpones the release of the new Star Trek film, rescheduling it from December 2008 to May 2009. If this keeps up fans will turn naysayer before they even see new content, they might just expect a disappointment, the next Trek film is an odd number, after all.

RL

Edit: I contacted Paramount for more information on upcoming releases and was referred back to www.startrek.com. Not surprising, but at the bottom of the message was the announcement: Star Trek The Motion Picture, Coming this Christmas! It would be nice if they could at least publicize release dates correctly. As stated above, that film has been delayed until May 2009. That's a pretty late Christmas.