I think the closest thing was probably the whole bit about the difficulty in distinguishing Romulan language from that of Vulcan. It just isn’t spelled out for the audience. Still, the common appearance and similar language makes for a pretty simple puzzle for anyone who cares, IMO.

Funny you should bring that up though, as I have always wanted to see the actual story of the “Romulan Exodus” from Vulcan canonized. Although you are absolutely spot on in your assertion that Romulans would make a poor recurring nemesis for someone like Kirk, a story involving a Vulcan/Romulan olive branch (with facilitation by Spock Prime) in the wake of Vulcan’s demise might make a compelling tale. I don’t see anything headed in that direction though.

And I really really hope they don’t pull him out of the chair. This is a real opportunity to have a compelling person with a disability depicted. That would be as much of a mistake as removing Geordi’s visor in the second season of TNG. No way.

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Interesting…

This particular point was discussed in Q&A section! Without repeating the theoretical physics, black hole is like whirlpool. Ships can get around the center (the singularity) but floating debris gets sucked in.

On the other hand, it opened against Hairy Pothead 2, the finale to the LOR trilogy, and the umpteenth James Bond movie. The movie had significantly curtailed exposition/backstory due to the deletion of numerous scenes focusing on Shinzon and changing relationships between TNG crew. Also, the movie had its usual pastiche of self-indulgences such as Picard et al singing Gilbert & Sullivan (a gimme scene for Patrick Steward) and a couple ‘hammy’ Data scenes.

I’ve literally read hundreds of posts suggesting that the next Trek movie have a Khan storyline. My concern is that this is simply regurgitation rather than renewal and would be disastrous for the franchise. I’m reminded of the remake of Poseidon Adventure in 2006 which won a Golden Raspberry for Worst Remake.

My hope is that they try something new for ST2011. It was logical to ring all the Trek bells and whistles in ST 2009, but additional retreading would be silly. Obviously, there needs to be a epic threat to the Earth or Federation (the top three films and the top TNG film prove this out). Insurrection was too introspective, Nemesis too self-indulgent, Final Frontier too intellectual (perhaps the last gasp of the ‘made ya’ think!’ ideology of the sixties TOS), The Undiscovered Country was too ‘Trek-centric’.

It is quite possible that the next movie will spell the death-knell for Trek, which is something we should all be prepared for.

My predicts for ST2011: a TNG crossover with Picard/Data; a Shatner reprise; a ‘villain movie’; something to do with the Klingons.

My joke themes: Garth of Izar commandeers a Doomsday Machine and goes on a rampage (think Battyman 2’s Joker with a big gun); a multi-storyline movie with Kang, Tribbles and the female Romulan Commander (as a Kirk love interest); a remake of Spectre of the Gun only our guys are transported to a gangland ‘hood to deal with the usual 21st century craziness such as drive-by shootings, crimesprees, ho’s and hoods, and other such nonsense; “Kirk’s Brain” (nuff said); a doctorin’ the Tardis timeline story such as Nazis/Al Qaida take over the world; or suddenly finding themselves flung into the C Quadrant and having to find their way back to A Quadrant; the Trek crew finally encounter the mysterious ‘timeguy’ from the beginning of Enterprise and thwart his century-long scheme to divide and conquer the Federation.

Some ideas: Let’s take a look at a love interest for Kirk. An adversarial hottie would be interesting, a woman who can turn Kirk’s hormones against him (think female Nero, only insidiously clever and calculating instead of a psycho ‘everyman’). Kirk needs a chess match after being throttled, punched, asswhipped in a bar, etc…

We already had a time-line story, so why repeat it. The timeline thread in ST2009 used Spock in the role of expositor (the teller of the MacGuffins), so that would be a unnecessary redux. Unless the E goes ‘futurewards’ to prevent a cataclysm event such as the destruction of the TNG Enterprise or Federation.

Bold paint: Don’t do Khan, or Search for Spock, or ‘fix the broken stuff in ST2009″. A new villain race would be nice, such as a race of ‘transformers’, sentient mechanicals like Borg, only more ruthless. A natural cataclysm that just ‘is’, and our guys have to deal with it. An extradimensional threat (ie, the Monolith in 2001), something that isn’t from time or space, isn’t comprehensible, doesn’t make sense at all. Don’t bring ‘em back to 21st century…the current era sux enough without having to be proven even more assclown by ‘futurians’ from the 23rd century who have already accomplished the Great Ascent. Don’t dumb down the next villain to “Joe the Plumber” standards, plz.

Also, don’t skimp on backstory so much. I know this one had to be short-n-sweet to meet the ADHD mentality of common theatergoers who can’t handle anything more than 90-120 mins. Let’s face it…people don’t go see Trek for the plot…it’s an eyecandy adventure. Given this, Abrams did pretty well to make this one SFX-rich without sacrificing too much emotion, so it didn’t turn out to be a stale-fest like so many of the SFX -endowed movies and their ilk.

Take a risk…have an anime Trek movie using TOS crew, completely done by Asian filmmakers. It would be too sophisticated for American audiences, which would make it tasty for Asian and Euro moviegoers.

Yet the Kingon ads do kind of fit still…warbirds in the Kobayashi Maru simulation…the mentioning of Klingons in the film…. However why are the Kingons ridged only in the ads…. During that era Klingons are ridged and ridgeless. I guess it had to do with the familiarity with the TNG era Klingons appearance…yet ENT Affliction and Divergence was their last appearance…..yet honestly people watched TNG the most…. Makes me think what the Supreme Court has in store for their look and behaviour…I guess we will get a glimpse in the deleted scene…

What I want to see in the next movie is Kingons….lol…..those are awesome…

Just watched Enterprise – Affliction last night…..that and Divergence are the two most important episodes in Star Trek History……backed up by the Enterprise Augment Trilogy with Arik Soong…. Withoug Affliction and Divergence we would have no TOS Klingons. That two parter explained why TOS Klingons not only acted, but looked differently than TOS Movie and TNG era Klingons…. The Augment Klingons that boarded the NX01 in Affliction sure acted like TOS Klingons – cowardly by running away from a firefight, expressing fear, no bat’leths or dk’tahgs – only disruptors, sabotaging the ships computer….clearly TOS Klingon behaviour….

Makes me wonder if we will see Augment and Ridged Klingons in the sequel…could be pretty cool….. Someone mentioned that the Klingons should find Khan…awesome idea….

Agreed – Porco phoned it in… from Saturn.