It is 2009 this is the year of the new Star Trek movie and the movie already has the whole world talking. This week the Great links focuses on the buzz about the new movie as well as some new movie fan art and video along with some ‘facts’ about one of the movies characters. But first JJ Abrams’ movie has actually highlighted a breakthrough insight in to Trek fandom!
BREAKING: MEN LIKE STAR TREK MORE THAN WOMEN
Fandango.com has stunned the world with new data on the battle of the franchises and the sexes. In a Poll Shock JJ Abrams new Star Trek movie came out on top amongst men with 23% citing Trek as their ‘Most Anticipated Blockbuster for 2009,’ however women ranked Star Trek 6th with only 6% of the votes, getting trounced by the next Harry Potter and some movie about brooding sexy vampires. Developing…
News conference announcing findings*
More on Star Trek anticipation buzz
As is the custom, this time of year is the time for ‘what we are looking forward to articles’ of all sorts, and the new Star Trek movie is showing up on most 2009 movie lists, but here are a few highlights of how the film is playing in the local and national mainstream press as well as the and entertainment press.
Paramount needed to get the cryogenically frozen “Trek” series into warp drive fast or risk a half-decade without new worlds explored. And in movie years, that’s an entire generation gone. Enter director J.J. Abrams (“Alias,” “Lost”), whose origin story of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and all the characters from the original ’60s series seems like it may kick intergalactic butt. Leonard Nimoy cameos, but not William Shatner. Well, we know what he’d say: “We’re psyched, but for how long, Spock? For … how … LONG?”
[NY Daily News]J.J. Abrams’ long-awaited reboot of the cultish sci-fi franchise features an intriguing young cast (including “Hot Fuzz” funny-dude Simon Pegg as Scotty and “Troy” star Eric Bana as the alien villain) and markedly more lavish special effects than the last few “Star Trek” films. The potential result: a crossover geek-fest that even the “O.C.” generation might love.
[Phoenix Tribune]The long-awaited return of the Enterprise to the big screen – a place it hasn’t been seen since since 2002. This new J.J. Abrams-helmed series reboots…restarts…re-somehtings? the classic continuity with the formation of the classic Enterprise cast: consider it Star Trek: Year One. Although rumors say it’s not a full reboot but is connected to the original continuity, it is new people playing all of the classic characters. The trailer is out and appetites are whetted. The question is this: will it be as good as it should be? It looks like it could, even if Khan isn’t in it.
[Newsarama]Can JJ Abrams reinvent Star Trek? (The Lost creator’s much talked about “reboot” of the series, with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock, is released in May.).
[one of 5 ‘Questions’ for 2009′ – The Scotsman]J.J. Abrams has been entrusted with the task of resurrecting the Star Trek franchise, which has gone wayward in recent years. Instead of continuing the adventures of the starship Enterprise, Abrams has instead chosen to reboot the series, though Leonard Nimoy is back as an older version of Spock. The pressure is on: if this fails to score big at the box office, we may not see another Trek film for a long, long time.
[National Post (Candada)]Watch out for Kiwi Karl Urban in the much-hyped Star Trek, due May
3 News (New Zealand)]Star Trek will also be huge with SIMON PEGG cementing his position as one of our proudest exports.
[UK Sun]Star Trek fans, otherwise known as “trekies” will be thrilled with the release of “Star Trek.”
“This is long in the making. A $150 million budget, but Paramount put J.J. Abrams on the job — he’s the guy behind “Mission Impossible 3” and “Lost,” Hundgen said. “It’s going to be a mega-film. They are really trying to re-brand the franchise and J.J. Abrams was not a trekie guy to begin with, so they are trying to kind of bring this to everybody and not just the die-hard fans.”
Star Trek’s message already resonating?
The new movie already has some people doing some deep thinking. Frank Cooper III, vice president of portfolio brands for Pepsi, concludes his entry on the Huffington Post titled ‘Optimism We Can Believe In‘ by writing:
We all need a little optimism right now and in our shared future. Whether it’s a new administration that arrives in Washington on a platform that explicitly promises change; or a new Star Trek movie that, according to director J.J. Abrams, will make “optimism be cool again”; or my kids, who surprise me regularly with how they see the world, there’s a bright vibe bubbling just underneath an otherwise gloomy national surface. It’s reassuring to know that the vanguard of the culture — this particular generation — stands so strongly for optimism.
Robau kicking Chuck Norris butt
It appears that Captain Robau in the new Star Trek movie is taking on Chuck Norris. Norris has become an unexpected (and unintentional) internet phenomenon with ‘Chuck Norris Facts’. In steps Captain Richard Robau from the new Star Trek movie as the world’s next ass-kicker-in-chief. Fans at TrekBBS have how accumulated hundreds of ‘Facts About Captain Robau‘. The motivation behind this seems to stem from comments from Star Trek co-writer Bob Orci who told TrekMovie that Capt. Robau (known just as ‘Federation Captain’ at the time) was a ‘cool mother f—er’. Once it was revealed that Faran Tahir, the the tough looking villain from Iron Man was playing the role, along with some comments from Tahir about the character and the ship (the USS Kelvin), and an internet phenomenon was born. Here are some of my favorite ‘facts’ about Captain Robau:
The Kelvin’s shields aren’t for keeping weapons out… they’re for keeping Robau in. [Hanukkah Jitty]
Captain Robau’s tears cure Borg assimilation. Too bad he has never cried. [Babaganoosh]
The Neutral Zone doesn’t exist to protect the Federation from the Romulans. The Neutral Zone exists to protect the Romulans from Captain Robau. [Sleighrider]
The new Enterprise is being built on the ground because Captain Robau plans to lift it into orbit. [The Cold Mixer]
Captain Robau doesn’t use the transporter. He just leaps down to the surface. [Starship Polaris]
Capt. Robau can stare you down in any quantum reality
Video of the week:
ST09 via TOS
Of course it isn’t just the media that have the new movie on the brain.
The latest entry in the Star Trek 2009 trailer mashup series may be one of the best. Alan Rhodes sends us his version of the trailer for the new Star Trek movie rereimagined via The Original Series.
Fan art of the week
Our fan art of the week is also Star Trek 2009 related. It is one of those plays on motivational posters done by tee-moss created using the ‘Motivator‘ tool.
Get motivated by Star Trek 2009
QuickLinks
A few things have cropped up since our last update that have nothing to do with the new movie as well.
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io9 selects ‘Eat Only Replicated Food’ as one of their "Fantastical ways to lose weight in the new year"
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New York Times Magazine looks at the late Joan Winston (Trek convention organizer) and how she was a pioneer of ‘mainstream media consumer paradigm’
- SciFi’s dvice.com considers Star Trek II’s Genesis device as one of their "8 most absurd devices from sci-fi movies"
* ok not really, found at Worth 1000 ‘If Trekkies Ruled’
I love those Chuck Norris style quotes
Captain Richard Robau from the new Star Trek movie as the world’s next ass-kicker-in-chief.
Who knew?
whats terrible is that i just received the latest (January 9th) Entertainment Weekly. and its features: “First look at 2009…the new years must see movies.”
Star Trek is no where to be found in the issue!
When Romulans go to sleep, they double-check their closets for Captain Robau.
Captain Robau grinds his coffee with his teeth, and boils the water with his rage.
Oh God, I’m dyin’
Loved that motivation tool
First?
Superman wears Capt Robau underware!
“whats terrible is that i just received the latest (January 9th) Entertainment Weekly. and its features: “First look at 2009…the new years must see movies.”
Star Trek is no where to be found in the issue!”
I noticed that too. I know they gave it a cover and featured story not long ago but a small mention would have been nice.
I disagree that there are more men than women who like Trek. I still believe by my own associations, that there are more closet Trekkies out there than are admitted.
I showed the video of the trailer to my sister. She never disliked Star Trek (my brother claimed to, but watched TNG in the Living Room with the family every night), but never got into it. When she saw the trailer though, her words were “I will totally be going to see that movie”. I believe that when it’s all said and done, that there will be more Trekkies among both genders than what people thought.
Thanks for the Drudge send up Anthony. He’s my favorite old fashioned “newspaperman”.
Sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
#7 exactly….
i’m mean the issue is basically a list of hot upcoming movies all the way through the end of 2009. They don’t detail much…..so would putting Star Trek on that list have been so difficult??
Giving them some benefit of the doubt…perhaps EW has much more indepth coverage planned for the future. Perhaps….but ya never know with EW anymore. They’ve gone down hill in the last year or so.
“They are really trying to re-brand the franchise and J.J. Abrams was not a trekie guy to begin with, so they are trying to kind of bring this to everybody and not just the die-hard fans”
Which is a good thing cause Star Trek even from the very beginning wasn’t just for Trekkies like us.
I hope JJ is listening to women
We want boy wizards and brooding sexy vampires…is there time for some reshoots JJ?
#3. The thing with that article is that it is only first looks (i.e. no material has been released previously). I believe there are several notable 2009 releases that weren’t included (i.e. Star Trek, Transformers 2, Watchmen) because promotional material had been released (or at least previously shown by EW).
No offense to JJ and crew, but the movie in THAT trailer is the one I’d give anything to see…
That headline “BREAKING: MEN LIKE STAR TREK MORE THAN WOMEN” is misleading.
I’m sure many men like women more than Star Trek, but that’s just a guess.
God, what the Phoenix Tribune said, about the new movie being something that’ll appeal to the O.C. Generation. God help us all.
15 – It depends on which women and which episodes we’re talkin’ ’bout.
All Glory To The Great Robaued One
#16–Jordan–no offense but your hatin on entire age groups is unwanted on this site and is an exhibition of the very same prejudices that the O.C-types have used to label all trek fans as geeks, nerds, loners and pedophiles…
BTW–your response to that O.C. generation comment is so flawed in its logic im shocked it was allowed to be posted in the first place…why? take the Original Series, take away the scifi elements and the classical literature and mythical references and rough it up a little and what do you have in the realm of how the characters developed and interplayed?? THE O.C. or ONE TREE HILL!!! so Jordan are you now saying you dislike The Original Series???
ALSO–THE O.C. GENERATION COMMENT was meant to illustrate that the character interplay would be something that would be universally appealing to everyone from trek hardcores to twilight fans, from those lovin shakespeare to those lovin the hills, from those lovin malt shoo memories to those lovin MTV…get it right…
error; error…that was meant to read MALT SHOP MEMORIES, not malt shoo memories
That video is cooler than the real freaking trailer.
Well, most other women might be simple-minded enough to prefer Harry Potter and Twilight over Star Trek but I’m proud to say that I disagree. Star Trek for the WIN.
Alan that was an awesome job with the trailer. You are to be congratulated on it!
#16: “God, what the Phoenix Tribune said, about the new movie being something that’ll appeal to the O.C. Generation. God help us all.”
I wouldn’t put too much stock in that. It IS possible for a movie/TV series to appeal to different generations for different reasons. I really enjoy the revamped Doctor Who series, and who am I to complain that the only reason my g/f wants to watch it with me is because she thinks David Tennant as hot?
I’m sure that’ll be the reason (e.g. Chris Pine) for many new female viewers, as Captain Kirk hasn’t been the handsome young man he started out as in decades. For the younger crowd, it’ll be the explosions and space battles. For the old-school fans, it’ll be the backstory and characters.
Hopefully, it’ll have something for everyone.
That was an excellent mashup trailer.
Holy Crap indeed.
I love the “fake” trailer. It just reinforces my belief that the TOS visual style could and should have been used more in the new movie. Most of the sets, costumes, and tech designs would have worked fine if detailed up for the big screen.
“For the old-school fans, it’ll be the backstory and characters.”
Except they have changed what little we knew about Trek history. So that leave us “old-school” fans sitting in our life support chairs beeping “NO! NO!”
I tried to remain detached about ST09 but I, and I’m sure many other “Old School” TOS fans were also excited that the TOS era was going to be revisited. Except for “Relics” TNG and “Trials and Tribble-ations” DS9, all the later series avoided TOS. Now it was going to be celebrated. It may be fun to see Spock Prime, the Kelvin and my namesake Chris Pike. But the main story of this film does nothing to engage my interest. It starts in the post TNG Nemesis universe – very little to do with classic TOS. It then wanders thru an alternate timeline where characters have TOS names but everything looks different.
“It’s your favorite characters. It’s Canon®,” we’re told.
We’ll see in 120 odd days.
At last, something cool to read about!
That YOUTUBE video rocked!!!
Captain Robau quotes need their own web site!
uhhhh… #26…. u say the series after DS9 avoided TOS? WTFFFFFFF? VOYAGER…”Flashback”–Sulu on Excelsior during Star Trek VI…STAR TREK ENTERPRISE–DOZENS UPON DOZENS OF TOS-REFERENCES… AND ‘IN A MIRROR, DARKLY’ ACTED AS A PSUEDO-SEQUEL TO ‘THE THOLIAN WEB… The Arik Soong Augments Trilogy led into a later 2-parter where the human-looking Klingons were explained… another Trilogy i call the ‘United Saga’ they started out by being called to Babel for a conference between the Andorians and Tellarites, was a psuedo-prequel to “Journey To Babel”…and the list goes on and on and on…
Wow…the message and buzz is working! Everyone now wants to see this film!
All thanks to the fact that they changed the design of the ship and bridge! Gee, good thing they did that! It probably helped that they changed Kirk’s origin too!
If they hadn’t made those changes, things would be different.
LOL
These are great, too:
Changlings can mimic any form…except for Captian Robau.
Tribbles don’t breed in the presence of Captian Robau.
You are correct – Enterprise had many TOS references in it’s last season. I enjoyed it immensely. If it had been doing that all along more fans would have watched.
By “later series” I meant TNG, DS9 and VOY.
I like the look of TOS and we’re not going to get it in ST’09 I’m afraid.
re:ST09 via TOS
Whoa… and, I saw the “renewal” video, too. Just wow. AWESOME.
Is there any way for a fanmade guy to get a higher res copy to burn to dvd? that work is just mac-nificent.
supermodeldoug@aol.com thats moi.
god i am sooo stoked about what the fans bring together for this franchise!!!!
THE WOMEN!!
=h=
That video is frieken stellar. I love it.
The shot of Kirk at 1:10 is one of the all-time greats. I think I got a partial. Anyone recognize the episode?
All the butt kicking is well and good, but I’m anticipating that ST:XI answers these two age old Trek questions:
1). If protein re-sequencers and food replicators can fabricate inanimate matter, such as meat, from recycled waste or star dust, will there be vegetarians in the future? I mean, if you can eat meat without killing animals, prevent extinction from over fishing and can sequence out all the bad fat & stuff then what’s the point?
2). Wont transporters extend life to something approaching immortality? Say for example, on your 18th birthday instead of receiving a hover-scooter your parents gift is to save your transporter pattern on some kind of future thumb drive. Then when you’re 80, get cancer, Mad Cow or Monkey Pox you step in the transporter and are re-assembled as your younger, healthier self. Of course you’d want to hack your pattern first to preserve your memories and knowledge.
These questions have kept me up nights for over thirty years.
33 – Is it “Court Martial”?
I LOVE THE RE-CUT TRAILER! PERFECT!
34 – Mr. Root, get some sleep!
Maybe it’s the new captain in the trailer questioning young about the wrecked Porsche? Robau-cop?
That should have read “young Kirk.”
Chaz Root™, who loves ya baybeeeeeeeeeee!
You and the Phase Dos© crew keep it rocking. Thanks again!
THE WOMEN!!
=h=
#19: Firstly, chill. No one’s hating on an entire generation. It’s the “OC Generation” to which I was directing angst, and there’s plenty to loathe about that particular culture. But “OC Generation” in no way encompasses an ENTIRE generation, of which there are many, many brilliant, original minds I am proud to call my friends and family, people who are very separate from the loathsome “OC Generation.”
Secondly, who in the hell has ever associated Trek fans with pedophiles? Nerds, losers, outcasts, ok… but pedophiles? That’s a new one.
Anthony:
No.
Apparently, you like fivethirtyeight as much as I do, or maybe you got it from Drudge… but you may *not* use the flashing siren gif. I’m sorry. There’s simply a line, and it must be drawn here. Or I will make you pay for what you’ve done.
Other than that, wonderful roundup! :P
Does Captain Pike have a picture of Captain Robau on the wall of his quarters for inspiration or is the picture in the crew mess?
—–
Spock: “hmm, Kirk, oh yes, you’re the guy who totaled the last restored cherry Corvette in Iowa as a kid. What an ass, that was illogical.”
Kirk: “bite me mechanical rice picker accident.”
…and what is going on in this picture, Captain Pike together with some alien chick and a jumping tribble?
http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1397440,00.jpg
I always love great links and espeicially so this week with it being dedicated to the new Star Trek Movie! :)
My Fav video mash up of the Trailer so far and great take on the motivational poster!
No boy wizards no sexy brooding vampires tut. JJ an utter disgrace. Why not start again and include the above and let us have the already done movie now. I think thats a fair trade?
And so it begins.
I have an idea of how to do my last post.
You could reboot the Salt Vampires and the sexy brooding ones and have them on veridian 3. Kirk didn’t die it was a bumbling Picard who didn’t check his pulse right and the Vampires bring him back to life.
Then for the boy wizard we could either have Balok or Qjrn cause mayhem with the vampires in the TOS time frame and the older Spock come back and save the day.
what do u think lol??
Thanks for all the kind comments re: the trailer
;)
re: Jefferies Tuber
“The shot of Kirk at 1:10 is one of the all-time greats. I think I got a partial. Anyone recognize the episode?”
It is from “The Enemy WIthin”.
44:
That must be “Mr. Pike” from The Cage with a girl, and someone across from him saying “Nice place ya got here, Mr. Pike.”