Whatever happened to Charlene Polite, from The Cloud Minders? She was beautiful.

While season three had some stinkers, it’s badly underrated. ‘Official Fan Perception’ has a lot to do with season three’s perception as a flop. Its hit:miss ratio is still way above that of any other post-TOS season IMHO! It’s just that the stinkers stink so memorably (eg The Way to Eden), whereas the likes of The Last Outpost and Genesis are wastes of life we’d all prefer to forget losing!

Now that we see some of the ideas they had in mind, the choices they made will stand out in contrast.

“People gave the modern Trek shows way too much leeway: without the Trek name there’s no way some of those shows would have been allowed three seasons (78 commercial hours) to get things right. Actually it’s downright amateurish. For all its pilot-ish rough edges, TOS is up and running from the start of Where No Man Has Gone Before!”

In all fairness, TOS actually went in reverse – started off great, then took a massive nosedive in the end. So I think they end up even. Additionally, the new shows had to establish new characters in the shadow of the original while using the same basic framing concept, which is not an easy task. Whether a person likes TNG or DS9, you have to admit that both shows forged their own unique identities.

However, TNG did not begin the tradition of the warp core. Unless you guys missed TMP, which had Scotty working next to a warp core (horizontal and vertical).

Trousers? I’m hoping they exchange the mini skirts for red short shorts and delta shield pasties.

Well screw them! Miserable old sods! :p

There’s nothing wrong with the minidresses. Maybe women wouldn’t wear them in battle planetside, but on a heated, luxurious space ship or at the academy, I can’t see the problem!

104. Trekenstein: ‘But the reality is, that look started 30 years ago with TMP.’

The Engineering set in TMP isn’t so far off the Budweiser look as you may think. Given it’s a much larger Enterprise in the new film, it’s not incompatible at all. It is incompatible with the TNG look, but TNG (as was) no longer exists in the new version of events!

‘Moreover, a similar concept was originated 44 years ago in TOS. I mean what was that grill covered forced-perspective hole-in-the-wall which glowed red-hot when the ship was struggling for power?’

I never considered that as the same area as the areas shown in TMP. Then again, don’t you love discussing all this stuff in the context of the Trek universe(s)?

Rather than saying ‘How dare the producers do this!’ I prefer to say ‘OK, Engineering now looks like this: why does it in this version?’ then make up what the reason is. Then someone can have a different idea. The that leads to new ideas.

There was a time where people discussing this stuff was fun: sadly, in this era of guide books and ‘official websites,’ everyone seems to need things spelt out for them. It all gets a bit ‘post-Septuagint.’ And perhaps sometimes you just have to say ‘There’s a different team at the helm, so things will be different. Oh, and maybe they needed to concrete (plascrete?) some areas of engineering! ;)

120. Horatio: ‘Well, you see, in an alternate timeline I AM one of the producers/writers on this project with a good track record and I DIDN’T want engineering to be a big pipe-filled powerplant.’

Yeah and in another universe I was Napoleon Bonaparte and bonking Lady Emma Hamilton on the quiet! ;)

115. I, Mugsy said: ”The problem the sequal faces is that Star Trek fever will have waned by 2012, except for the hard core. The cast will also be 3 years older, and ditto for each sequal made after that. This 5 year mission will be over rather quickly unless they turn this into a TV series, or extend the 5 year mission?’

If they publicise the sequel as well as they did the first ‘new’ film, there’s nothing to worry about! In three years’ time the actors will be about the right age for the beginning of TOS!

‘How many films did we get with (all) the original cast? 6. How many sequals can we expect with this cast? Think about it – 6 episodes into a TV series the characters are only just finding their feet and still developing.’

Movies (well made) are different. If an actor can’t get a handle on his role by the sixth film in a franchise, he’s not an actor at all! People gave the modern Trek shows way too much leeway: without the Trek name there’s no way some of those shows would have been allowed three seasons (78 commercial hours) to get things right. Actually it’s downright amateurish. For all its pilot-ish rough edges, TOS is up and running from the start of Where No Man Has Gone Before!

Right that’s me done after a long day. Early start tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who replied to me. Sorry if I didn’t respond to everyone. I’m not on a job where web access is easy this week. Cheers, folks! :)

I have just watched the movie again on Bluray and the more you watch it the worse it looks.

I design Oil and Gas Installations for a living and a brewery isn’t cutting edge for today never mind 250 years in the future. The whole thing just looks sloppy.

For me good Sci-Fi is in the detail, don’t get me wrong, ignoring the shaky cam / lens flares, you did a very good job with most of the film. But I would rather you didn’t bother with the sequel unless your attention to detail improves and leave it to a Director that cares.