As regular readers of this blog might be aware of, I started it last November with three consecutive posts about Star Trek and have since then largely ignored my Trekkie tendencies although I’ve occasionally dropped references in my many blog entries.

Well, that’s almost four months ago so it’s about bloody time for another Trek centric post and what better occasion then to look over the new Trek commercial that premiered during the Super Bowl -- not to mention that the newest and probably final theatrical trailer is suppose to premiere before the Watchmen movie on March 6. Ad time is ridiculously expensive during the big game with some 30 second spots ranging from $2.5-3.0 million so it is actually heartening that Paramount decided to even bother with booking time for Trek. Admittedly, the company also bought time for two of its other summer blockbusters in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe so between the trio of commercials that’s about 9 million spent in advertising that lasted approximately 90 seconds. With three tent pole movies you can bet Paramount is salivating at the potential for dominating yet another summer season -- last year they hit it big with both Iron Man and Indiana Jones 4.

You can find the new Trek commercial here from the official movie website in many Quick Time formats.

Approximately half of the commercial features footage we’ve previously seen in the movie trailer but there are a few added sequences and shots that are new. I’m not going to review the trailer but just say that Paramount’s marketing department is really working overtime to play up the movie as a science fiction action adventure instead of focusing on Trek’s cerebral stereotype. Time will tell if it works but I have a feeling this is probably the best angle to take as this is basically a relaunch of the franchise targeted to bring a new generation of fans to the series. It might be hard to take James T. Kirk saying, “Man…” or hearing some grunt shout, “Woo hoo!” but adding modern slang and attitude is certainly a different take on things.

I myself wouldn’t mind watching a heavily action-packed film as it has been years since Trek has done any meaningful or memorable action set piece – there’s just so many times you can expect actors to shake their own seats or pretend to fall over scenery. Don’t even mention Nemesis’ dune buggy chase where you expected Mad Max to suddenly appear along with Tina Turner in chain mail or the final space battle between the Enterprise and the Scimitar that actually has the tenacity to stop midway so that Picard and Shinzon can wax poetic in a philosophical discussion ruining any attempt to construct meaningful tension.

Judging from the revealed footage it looks like there’s going to be at least two or three potential winners with the USS Kelvin getting massacred by Nero’s flagship (it is the money shot so far as its saucer section is getting riddled with explosions), the “new” USS Enterprise coming out of warp around Vulcan and immediately getting into a scrap with Nero and of course, the sky diving scene that simply looks amazing although vision of Mission Impossible 3’s Shanghai sequence definitely come to mind.

For this particular post I’m going to actually focus on two shots which piqued my interest more than most even though they couldn’t be more different. The first one is a simple angle of two shuttles flying by a backdrop of 23rd century San Francisco. For the first time in what seems like eons I was hit with a real feeling of satisfaction at this relatively simple shot not only because the special effects looked good but finally after years of harping with my friends about why no one ever did this here was a shot of a city on Earth that really brought home the point that it takes place in the future.



We’ve seen San Francisco and Starfleet HQ before in previous films but here is a shot that really provides some insight into an area of Trek rarely touched upon – how the Earth looks circa the 23rd century. Freed from its usually pedestrian TV budget the new Trek team has really got the term “epic” and grandiose down pat. It doesn’t necessarily mean in a classic sense that we’re going to get a three hour movie ala David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia but merely that J.J. Abrams and company understand that Star Trek should feature an expansive universe that shows a progression of tech from today not from 1966.

Many scientists have always remarked that the original series was the inspiration for them to get involved in science and one doesn’t have to go much further than looking at tricorders, communicators, phasers and other gadgets to see how much of a bell weather the original show was. Though it would please ardent fans to see the old Enterprise grace the silver screen it would probably alienate everyone else to watch a relatively clunky vehicle replete with a multi-coloured bridge with giant buttons and flashing lights. Maybe Trek in this new incarnation will accomplish the same feat and we’ll see a surge in physicists and engineers in the near future.

Some critics or anal fans might say that it bares a resemblance to a foggy Courescent from Star Wars but I disagree since we can harken things back even further to Fritz Lang’s seminal Metropolis. Sure there are your requisite tall skyscrapers but you can discern really organic elements like the marina and shoreline that add realism to the shot. Not to mention the sly use of the Golden Gate bridge to ground audiences that this is in fact San Francisco of the future. Considering that the tallest building in the world is the Burj Dubai (818 m or 2,684 ft) it’s nice to see humanity has kept on trying to outdo themselves and construct even taller buildings although let’s hope none of them are called the tower of Babel. After all, it’s only logical to build up as the population increases.

The other shot is of the new Enterprise firing phasers which is a scene we’ve seen a million times before. However, here again the filmmaker’s intent is obvious not only in the new muscular Enterprise model but the phaser effects themselves which now appear to be a cross between the Enterprise pulse firing in Star Trek 2-3 and again Star War’s shorter outbursts of weapons fire.



This is decidedly a polar opposite effect to Star Trek The Next Generation’s one long continuous phaser shot that tracks from one of the Enterprise’s phaser rings directly to the target. Fans can again continually argue as to the merits of the new effect but the choice is yet another instance where J.J. Abrams has made an active attempt to jazz things up and present a much more kinetic sequence with tons of visual elements and movement. The relatively static wooden ships and iron man sequences in past films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’s Enterprise versus Reliant battle are long gone. Watching two wooden ships ala Master and Commander continually pound each other with canon fire might be accurate for that period in history but watching the same sequence in space is a bit hard to take when one realizes that the tech is so advanced that ships of any size should be able to maneuver a bit faster than pregnant cows.

I’m more than willing to let JJ and company imbue huge capital ships with more agility although I hope there are no Star Wars inspired small fighter dogfights present which, although always hinted upon in Trek, would be a bit too close a resemblance in my estimation. You want people coming out of the new Trek film to say it is cool in its own regard rather than mouthing off that it’s nothing more than a Star Wars rip-off. Regardless, we’re roughly 2 months away from the premiere and the marketing campaign has barely begun. We can only guess what else Paramount has in store of us in the coming months.

In other Trek news don’t forget to read IDW’s Star Trek Countdown prequel comics penned by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Taking place many years after Star Trek Nemesis it details Nero’s origins and effectively bridges the gap between Star Trek TNG and Abram’s new relaunch. At the very least it should draw more light onto his machinations as well, set up his connection to Spock and answer why he needs to go back to the past to destroy the timeline which Trekkies have grown to love. The first issue of the planned run of four is already sold out but if you are lucky you can still pick one up from your local comic book store (or ebay).

Also, if you are a toy collector, be on the watch for the merchandising onslaught based on the new film which includes your standard action figures, Enterprise toys, bridge sets and….Barbie dolls? Yes, Mattel is making three Barbie dolls featuring Kirk, Spock and Uhura although it makes you wonder just what exactly you'd be doing with them as you can't really play dress up with this trio - unless, other Barbie apparel fits these dolls. Kirk in a tutu anyone? Is it just me or does Kirk bare an uncanny resemblance to Hayden Christensen?

It’s been donkey years since Trek has managed to have such a wide variety of toys and although I won’t be buying Barbie dolls some more adventurous male fans will. As for me, I’ll probably pick up the new Enterprise model. It’s definitely a good time to be a Trek fan. With the Star Wars movie franchise effectively over and in a strangely ironic sense moved to TV, “There will never be a better time,” for Trek to reassert itself as the second pillar in modern science fiction.

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