RT Sees Star Trek Footage!
JJ Abrams shows us four scenes from the film.
RT was one of a number of news outlets treated to a sneak peak of Paramount's upcoming Star Trek in London this morning, with director JJ Abrams himself introducing both the first theatrical trailer, and four scenes from the movie that haven't been seen anywhere else in the world.
Abram's firstly told us (rather surprisingly) that he was never the biggest fan of Star Trek - "it was always someone else's thing - not mine". However, what he did appreciate was both the show's "sense of optimism" and its "promise of adventure", but felt that it was just that - promise - that was never actually fulfilled in either the TV show or the films. So his goal for the film he told us was to address this - make it as action-packed as possible, but also make it both "fun and real" - seemingly his buzz-words for the day. The scenes we were then shown were obviously designed to reflect these twin ambitions. (It goes without saying that what follows involves detailed description of specific plot details, so if you don't want spoilers stop reading now!)
The new Star Trek Cast
SCENE 1: YOUNG KIRK
A caption tells us the first scene we saw takes place in "Iowa" - and shows us Kirk (played by Chris Pine) as a young man. He is riding through corn fields on his motorbike and goes into a busy bar, where he catches sight of beautiful young Uhura (Zoe Saldana). Kirk's clearly had a few too many shandies by this point and starts trying to chat her up, eventually impressing her with his knowledge of alien linguistics - her specialist field at Star Fleet academy. "You've got a talented tongue" he tells her. We didn't understand why this was funny but the rest of the audience laughed.
Before he can move in for the kill however four of her over-protective Academy buddies start picking a fight with him, and naturally a bar-brawl ensues. Beginning fairly comedic (at one point Kirk is pushed hand-first towards Uhura's chest - she's not impressed), things eventually become rather savage, with Kirk ending up pinned on a table getting his head completely smashed in.
At this point Captain Pike - famous for being the first captain of the USS Enterprise - enters the room and hostilities cease. He later begins having a heart-to-heart chat to a by-now-extremely-bloodied Kirk, where they talk about his dad and why Kirk himself hasn't joined Starfleet, even though his aptitude tests are "off the scale". He tries to persuade him to join the academy, saying: "your dad was captain of a Starship for 12 minutes, in that time he saved 800 people, including your mother. I dare you to do better"
His words obviously hit home, because the next day we see Kirk joining up with Starfleet, boarding a shuttle next to a building site where the massive new Enterprise is being built.
Bana as Romulan baddie Nero.
SCENE 2: THE ROMULAN TRAP
The next footage we were shown shows off some of the fun and comedy Abrams wanted injected into the series. Introducing the scene, he told us by this stage all the characters had been assigned ships, but because of some intransience whilst at Starfleet academy, Kirk doesn't get an assignment. However Dr. McCoy (played by Karl Urban) knows of a loophole to sneak him onto the enterprise - namely that if you're a medical officer you can take any patient you're treating with you onboard a starship.
The scene starts with Bones giving Kirk an inoculation that has some strange side effects, namely making his hands massively swell up - to much laughter from the audience.
Meanwhile, we also get our first look at Anton Yelchin's Sulu on the bridge, (his Russian accent is pretty over-the-top), who detects a massive lightning storm on the edge of Vulcan. Captain Pike immediately resolves to warp to the planet and rescue the inhabitants.
This is announced across the ship, and when he hears this, Kirk suddenly realises it's all a big trap orchestrated by the Romulans, and their dastardly leader Nero (played by an unrecognisable Eric Bana), who are hoping to lure the Enterprise to the planet and then destroy it. Despite his tongue swelling up as a result of the drugs Bones injects, Kirk manages to persuade Uhura that he's talking sense and the pair barge onto the bridge, despite Kirk not actually being a crew-member.
He recounts the story of his dad's ship - the USS Felkin - which raced to a similarly massive lightning storm, only to be confronted by a massive, heavily-armed Romulan vessel that hasn't been seen since. After hearing Kirk's reasoning, Spock concludes: "his logic is sound". Uhura listens for any chatter coming from Vulcan "I pick up no transitions" - "that's because they're being attacked!" Shouts Kirk. The ship jump out of warp space, and the crew suddenly find themselves in the midst of a massive space battle. The scene then (rather annoyingly) cuts out.
INVOCUS on 11-11-2008 10:42 AM
Chekov!