Who Needs the Borg When you have JJ Abrams
As a Star Trek fan, change is hard for us all. When “Star Trek: Next Generations” first aired, many like myself was upset that Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) was trying to replace William Shatner (Captain Kirk) until I braced myself what Hollywood was doing, creating the Star Trek Universe. Throughout the series, there was many references to the adventures of the original crew of the Enterprise and the late actor James Doohan even appeared in an episode Montgomery Scott.
Throughout the many spin offs of the Trek franchise, “Deep Space Nine”, “Enterprise” and “Voyager”, there were always references to what the other series did in their missions or what other characters did by reading historical logs.
Continuity is what Star Trek is all about and the last 2 installments of Star Trek undid everything we all know about Star Trek.
Changes in the Timeline
A temporal violation is a term used by the Department of Temporal Investigations in the Trek franchise when a character uses time travel to change the past which in turn can change the fabrics of time and change the outcome of the future. Characters from the Star Trek universe can commit these temporal violations. If it were not for these characters, Captain Kirk, Captain Sisko, Captain Janeway, Seven of Nine, or Ensign Kim, story lines would be boring. However, our directors and writers cannot.
So exactly how did the first two Star Trek movies by JJ Abraham did what the Borg or not other Trek foe could do, destroy the fabrics of our Trek World?
JJ Abrams’ List of Temporal Violations
List of Timeline Issues
Do not get me wrong, I have enjoyed the new movies with the special effects and impersonations of the original Enterprise crew as younger men and woman. However, I am waiting for the next installment to make everything right, that is the joys of time travel, you can keep on going back to make it right but as of now, it is a rip in time that is so vast, why bother watching any of the old shows or movies and get into Trek conversation if everything was erased. Decades of TV History, do over.
At last, here is my list of flaws in the 2 movies.
- Biggest problem is the destruction on Vulcan! Need I need to go into depth in this one? Without the original planet, many of the events from STOS and the movies seem pointless. Hello “Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan” Spock is recruited from the planet Vulcan to rejoin Kirk?
- Captain Pike dies in an terrorist attack at the Federation council meeting when he his fate was to live his life on Talos IV where the alien race, the Talosians, could tap Pike’s mind with telepathy and illusions, so he would be spared dying helplessly in his lifeless body in a wheelchair with blinking lights. This version of Pike was not like the original.
- Mr. Spock in love with Lgt,Uhura, the ships’ communications officer. Lgt. Uhura was more dignified and conservative on the ship and her wild side should have never been displayed on the ship. And we thought Captain Kirk (Shanter) kissing Uhura (first interracial kiss) was controversial.
- Future Spock tells his younger self that Khan is the Federation’s biggest foe and there is reference to the events in “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” but this could not be if Vulcan was destroyed altering the future and future Spock since he was not caught in any temporal rift so he should have been altered by the timeline change.
- “The Trouble With Tribbles” Kirk meets the troublesome fuzzballs for the first time but in the 2nd Trek movie, it is the Tribbles that save the day and the Enterprise’s test rat.
- Khan dies in a battle in space not on Earth. The early reference to the rise of the supermen was good but lost track to shove the movie goers more action and random familiarities.
- Like most fans, I was excited to see Carol Marcus enter into the “Darkness” film but once Khan was determined to be the father, this was impossible.
- The series Enterprise is totally disregarded in this timeline as there is many references to the movie being the beginning when “Star Trek Enterprise” was before the days of Kirk and Spock.
- Kirk was raised in Montana and we see Kirk not being drafted to the Federation or any reference to his upbringing.
- If Kirk was given Khan’s blood to save his life? How is that possible? Does Khan have his blood type? Why did Kirk not become superhuman like the rest of Khan’s supermen race?
In all, I like the new Star Trek movies but they have not capture the chemistry like the original staff had. I owe the movies and watch them often but they do not have the Star Trek magic like the other series or movies had. Perhaps changing the soundtrack had a major factor in my feelings. If it is not broken, do not fix it is what I say. Granted to keep the franchise going, they had to do something and why not create a movie with familiar characters? Two of the original actors have already passed on and the original cast is not getting any younger so I get it. With the recent death of Leonard, that is three original cast members from the original Trek gone, I get it.
How do I and other Star Trek fans deal with such matters? Shut up and just enjoy the movie? No, as fans, we need to keep the directors and writers straight. What did Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in the Stephen King movie, “Misery”, I think she said it best with matters of continuity.
“This isn’t what happened last week! Have you all got amnesia? They just cheated us! This isn’t fair! HE DID’NT GET OUT OF THE COCK – A – DOODIE CAR!”
So for now this fan can sleep at night, the Abram films is not really Star Trek but “Star Trek: Alternative Universe” and now I have finally found peace and can sleep at night.
Enjoy the show and let’s hope the next movie after the first one and Darkness is even better.
Chinook the Ferret
CLUCKO FILMS: A Studio of Life's Answers 