I know we’re generations apart, and it’s refreshing to find someone who appreciates art that is outside his or her peers’ tastes. The Village Voice film critic, J. Hoberman, once wrote, “The French call adolescence the ‘age of film-going.’ And it may be that the movies you discover then set your taste forever.” I think this statement would apply equally to music and books.

The multiple beams you’re thinking of (I believe) are actually seen in the original series’ episode “The Enemy Within”, Reed, when Sulu heats the rocks.

I was referring to the updated phaser seen during the attempt by Kirk and crew to rescue the Nimbus III hostages. Before the hostages are revealed to be on Sybok’s side now.

Typical…I loaned my copy of Star Trek V to a neighbour some time ago, holding onto the box for some kind of safety measure to ensure its return. The box is empty, and the neighbour long gone. Grr.

So I had to resort to YouTube to get this, and some creative use of Blur to reduce pixelation, but here’s a crappy screencap of Sulu’s awesome phaser beam I was referring to originally:

b dot imagehost dot org /0656/sulubeam.jpg

(If Sean can edit this to make the link functional, that would be great sweetie – posts won’t go through if I put the link in normally myself.)

I just thought the new phaser-beam effect was really well-done, cool, and realistic. When you see Sulu stumble, drop his cloak and reach for his phaser in a “holy crap” panic-mode situation, he starts to fire it before even taking proper aim. And the beam reflects that! Very neat. I also liked the sound & the blossoming after-effect seen when the beam strikes someone or something.

But it wasn’t just the phasers that were great in this movie. Who could fail to be impressed by the young Sarek during Spock’s confrontation of his inner pain with Sybok? Goodness, that whole sequence gives me chills. McCoy’s pain…and I think Sybok is one of the most interesting & unique characters to be seen in Trek’s history, ever. I could go on forever. Suffice to say it’s a favourite film with moi for sure, and people who don’t like it baffle me.

200 million dollar budget, Reed? Holy hell…the budget for The Final Frontier was just under 28 million. An entire *season* of Enterprise was budgeted at 36 million. Maybe they won’t spend it all?

I’ll say this: I’ve never been of the opinion that the more money you pile into a film, the better it will be. I don’t think JJ will make that mistake either (I sincerely hope not, anyway). It’s the characters that make the thing. The humanity of a film…it’s why low-budget plays and films can often truly move you, and garner awards to this day. [Example: I just saw "Once" and...wow. My words wouldn't do it justice, it's simply...wow. I love it! And they only had a budget of 130,000 euros.] Though granted, especially in the case of something like Star Trek, it’s nice when you don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re able to afford a special effect.

Ramblingly, fondly yours,

Rachel

Rachel is the only person I know of who has praised the special effects in ST V. Sulu’s phaser had the 3 parallel beams? Or am I thinking of the phaser effect in ST II when the Ceti eel was zapped after coming out of Chekov’s ear?

Shatner must no doubt be jealous of J.J.Abrams’ 200 million dollar budget.

But if the film had sucked, I wouldn’t hesitate to say so. It doesn’t suck at all. For me, it was the movie that was the most like the Original TV series, more than any other of the films. There was so much introduced in the film too, essential to the relationships & histories of our beloved Kirk/Spock/McCoy triad that I find it strange people aren’t fonder of the film. Especially when it’s counter-balanced by great classic-Trek style humour.

From the camping trip at Yosemite, to the relationships, to the deeply-felt emotions and soul-searching, to the humourous moments aplenty, to the grandiose dreams and pretty damn exciting adventure, to even really sweet special effects (Sulu’s phaser on Nimbus III is awesome!), Trek doesn’t come much better than The Final Frontier.

I really had thought for years that I was the only person who felt this way! *hugs ya both* That’s all. I just wanted to praise the fifth film.

Fondly,

Rachel

P.S. Trek XI Spoiler: There will be outer space at some point in it! Unconfirmed…but we have it on good authority. Thanks for your consideration in advance, Reed!

Not sure when the WWW started, but I remember that I subscribed to Star Trek news groups on the Internet in 1993, so that’s where I probably got the script from. I don’t remember how the script described how Kirk got killed.

Funny you should mention a Commodore 64, because that was my first computer that I got in 1984 or thereabouts when it first came out.

Rachel, I’ll try not to spoil anything too major about the next Star Trek movie in any of my Treknobabbles, not that I have any insider information. But I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I want my surprises ASAP. So I don’t care if someone spoils anything for me. BTW, I liked your Christmas presents analogy.

Would it ruin the movie for you if I told you that the last scene of the movie is on the bridge of the Enterprise? Haha. (I’m only speculating.)

My ultimate Star Trek Movie experience, as blasphemous as it may sound now, was Star Trek V: Final Frontier. It was the summer of ‘89…no studio could do wrong! Batman, Last Crusade, Ghostbusters 2, Back To The Future 3, Lethal Weapon 2, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, UHF, Road House…I saw all of those flicks but what stands out is the end of Star Trek V. I’m not trying to be funny either. “What does God need with a star ship?” blew my mind. Shatner was screwed by Paramount when they wouldn’t let him release his director’s cut.

Looking back, I suppose that if I had been so inclined, I might have been able to look up Enterprise spoilers at the time, and find a bunch of them online, not only revealing the secret, but the specifics (a.k.a. the alternate opening credits, etc). I’m glad that this never occurred to me back then. People like to be surprised.

Yes, I’ve looked at a few photos regarding the new Trek film, borne out of an insatiable curiosity regarding the new film, because it’s probably even more ambitious a project than TMP was….it’s natural to be curious. These last seven years have also been the longest period we’ve ever had between Trek films since TMP came out.

But generally speaking, I don’t want to know. In fact I make a point of not seeking any info about the new movie save from startrekmovie.com, the official site, lest at some point I accidentally stumble across some huge spoiler that really ruins the surprise.

I had a neighbour who liked to borrow Trek books from me. It drove me absolutely nuts that they wanted to borrow titles completely out of sequence from the new ‘relaunched’ DS9 series. How can someone want to read Book 3 of 3 first, for example? It’s bound to completely drain all the surprise out of the Books 1 & 2. This person was an idiot though, and moved away (whew) so no worries.

I applaud JJ therefore for all that’s he’s done security-wise, and for wanting the new movie to be a surprise for us. In light of all that, I think most fans will be willing to sit tight & wait this time around. This movie is on a different level.

Yes, we all have that little kid inside of us, the one that shakes the presents under the tree to try & guess what’s inside. I guess the grown-up in me has finally taken enough control to leave them be and sleep in an hour or two. The family & the presents will be there in the morning.

Fondly,

Rachel