I just watched this for apparently the first time in my life. Wow. I just don't know quite what to say. How did movies 2-10 ever get made? I just don't seem to remember any popular sci-fi movie being quite that poorly written.

I guess my question is: Am I just missing something? Did anyone on here like it? Was I the only one that knew what it was searching for 30 minutes before the characters on screen?

Yeah, it's not a very good movie. I don't think it's quite as awful as it's popular to say it is, but, no, it's not very good.

No, It was that bad. I remember.

Ricardo rescued the whole Trek movie franchise with The Wrath of Kahn.

Some say that only the even Trek movies are any good. All the odd ones are crap. YMMV

I was just a kid, but even I was annoyed with that aspect of it. I couldn't believe they ripped off an old-series episode for the movie's plot. I kept yelling at Kirk: "Dude. It's like you don't even remember Nomad. Come on, it wasn't that long ago."

The thing is... Even with that aspect of it, it was the first Trek anyone had seen in nearly ten years. All the fans were just so happy it was back, and I was one of them. Many people complained about the long, loving exterior shots of the Enterprise in drydock, but that's still my favorite part of the movie (and the soundtrack). We'd waited a long time to see her on the big screen, and they gave us all the eye candy we wanted. The filmmakers didn't forget: She was always the main character.

OK, That makes sense. I was 5 when it came out, so I hadn't been exposed to the TV series yet. Not that it mattered, as I didn't see it 'till I was 33.

That being said, I do enjoy the Star Trek franchise. It's all the little details that I love. For example, the warp engines are really just massive gravity well machines. They physically warp space and the ship just slides through. They stuck the warp drives waaay of the main part of the ship so the gravity well doesn't affect the ship. In other words, they don't have to break the laws of physics to go faster than the speed of light. They never actually go that fast. They just make the far away places come to them. Neat.

I always loved Firefly for just this reason. It's the only space based show/movie I can think of that when they're in space, the ships and guns make no noise. It was also just plain fun. I'm still pissed they canceled that show.

It weird, if you look at the user ratings on IMDB, the highest rated of the odd numbered movies is lower than the lowest rated of the evens. It also looks like they're making an installment 11. Teaser poster says Christmas this year. Too bad it's an odd number, now it's bound to suck. It's a prequel to even No. 1.

Don't forget 2001.

But Kirstie Alley as Savik was quite pleasing...

I really loved 2010. The modern ship was mostly dark and in shadow, like it would really be, but when they came across the 2001 ship, it was well lit like the original movie.

That's my abiding memory of the film, too: I can't even remember whether I thought it was well-written or not, but the visuals were amazing, especially the bit where Spock wanders off into the glowing, coruscating cloud in his spacesuit. It's still my favourite Star Trek film, although looking now at the list, I realise I've only seen the first four and there's been ten, with an eleventh on the way.

Peter

The newest Trek film has flushed out the entire previous cast and crew. It's a reboot from scratch, going back to a young Kirk (late 20's), Spock, etc. J. J. Abrams directing. Given that Abrams worked on Alias and Lost, it's not unreasonable to think that he'll be able to do a good job. However, given that he worked on Mission Impossible III and Armageddon, it's far from a done deal...

MI III was much better than all but the first and most of the second season of Alias. The only ones that were any good. Lost was decent enough, but JJ was only 1 of 3 people responsible for it. He's been gone since Season 2 BTW.

With the exception of Uwe Boll, it usually takes more than one person to tank a production.

The Odd/Even Star Trek rule seemed to fall apart with the newer (TNG) movies. The most entertaining for me was First Contact. The other ones were largely forgettable and not much more than extended TV episodes.

I hope JJ doesn't apply his nearly patented "show part of the ending at the beginning, then have a very long flashback for 90 minutes" trick yet again for Star Trek. It got old in Alias, and it was carried into MI III as well. Can't say if it's something he did in Lost, as I haven't watched that show yet.

We're on ST:TMP here, not Wrath of Khan. Savik wasn't in the first film (unless I'm remembering wrong).

I think my favorite was Kim Cattral (sp?) in that mind-meld scene with the sexual overtones in Undiscovered Country...

The teaser for Star Trek was on JJ Abrams' new movie Cloverfield which I saw last night. I'm really undecided. I hate Hollywoods latest craze that every franchise needs to be "rebooted". The teaser has been bootlegged onto YouTube. Basically the Enterprise being built... apparently at Area 51 is the rumor...

BTW... after seeing that teaser, I popped in The Voyage Home last night for a good taste of Trek.