Ghost of a flea: Also featuring Kumar as Ricardo Montalbán

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March 25, 2009

Also featuring Kumar as Ricardo Montalbán

The new Star Trek trailer includes at least one spoiler; an irritating, gratuitous addition to the back story of two of the main characters. I would like to say it is sufficiently irritating for me to give the film a pass but - let's face facts - I am going to see it anyway.

And the thing is set to premiere in Sydney, Australia, for no apparent reason.

The Australian premiere has disappointed Trekkies in the town of Vulcan in Alberta, Canada. Leonard Nimoy, 77, who first portrayed the Vulcan Mr. Spock, had joined a campaign for the movie premiere to be held in the small farming town. But the campaign proved unsuccessful, partly because the town has no cinema.

Someone get the Alberta Human Rights Commission on the phone.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 25, 2009 04:04 AM

Comments

Unexpected proof that Starfleet Academy is currently masquerading as California State U. Northridge! Who knew?

Posted by: Varenius at March 25, 2009 01:32 PM

Based on the trailer I doubt I will like the film much, but then it is hard to imagine what sort of Trek film I would enjoy.

The whole Trek backstory has been bypassed by real history. No 1990s Eugenics Wars, no 2002 interstellar probes, it's highly unlikely sleeper ships will be invented in time to go out of service around 2018, no colonising of the solar system, etc etc.

Also, it turns out it is a lot harder to remove human nature from humanity than anyone ever imagined. Trek doesn't have a good framework for dealing with things like Islamic terrorism, for example. Prime Directive? OK. How does one firewall the ummah when they're on the same planet, exactly? And they happen to have the biggest reserves of the fuel that makes our standard of living possible?

Trek was an entertaining artifact of its times, but I think our renewed understanding of the immutability of human nature has delivered the fatal blow to its essentially utopian outlook.

Posted by: Chris Taylor at March 25, 2009 06:27 PM

How the hell JJ Abrams sleeps at night after producing a ST Prequel and not giving William Shatner a cameo is beyond me. "Shoving him in would be a disaster"???!! Geeziz I can think of around 18 possibilities for a cameo spot without even really considering the matter. It would be a piece of cake!

Grumble, mumble, grrrr...

Posted by: Temujin at March 25, 2009 08:08 PM