Be the change you want to see. Challenge22.com

I want to see a world that is like Star Trek, and this is one of the stepping stones imo. And the Gene Roddenberry foundation thinks so too: https://www.livekindly.co/star-trek-foundation-grants-vegan-startup-250k-for-converting-1-6-million-to-plant-based-diet/

The difference between Gene Roddenberry and Seth is the america they portray in the show. Gene portrays a noble and moral america that could be. Seth portrays america as it is.

I thought it was a mistake having the bronzer-overdosed-human Klingon be canon rather than what they were, the best that Roddenberry's 1960s budget and f/x technology could manage.

I would have been more impressed if they somehow updated the f/x to use updated Klingons but still using the ST:OS original film.

OOps sorry. Killed that one and moved it over here. http://videosift.com/video/Star-Trek-THE-PILOT-Gene-Roddenberry-Biopic-1

Gene Roddenberry was kind of a bad ass.

First Contact has three unforgivable flaws.

1. The time travel plot makes zero sense. Why do the Borg need to go back to that particular time to assimilate humanity? Why don't they go back to pre-WW3, where there were a) more humans to assimilate and b) lower tech weapons? Why do they need to interrupt the moment of humanity's first contact with the Vulcans? Why do they give themselves such a tiny margin of error by only giving themselves a few days to assimilate Earth before the deadline? Why don't they send Borg down to begin assimilating humanity straight away? And the Enterprise conceals itself from the Vulcans by hiding behind the fucking moon.

2. The writers fundamentally ruin the idea of the Borg by giving it a figurehead it doesn't need. They are not a collective if they have a Queen; they are subjects.

3. Worst of all, Picard's characterisation is a complete volte face. Seven seasons of the TV show proved that Picard just isn't a man who stoops to revenge. Only a year or so after recovering from his own assimilation, Picard has the chance to cripple or destroy the Borg forever and he doesn't take it, because he's a man of balance and pragmatism, not of blind rage. His sudden change into Captain Ahab is lazy and it's unearned. Picard, like everything else in the film, is dumbed-down for the sake of the action, and the character as written undermines the work done over the course of the TV series, amputates him from Roddenberry, and is frankly unworthy of being performed by Patrick Stewart.

Star Trek: First Contact is fucking dumb.

Of course I have to concede to subjectivity and some of the action is very exciting (if still stupid; the "no firing at the deflector dish oh except when you do" incident is a prime example). But it's only possible to enjoy it as an action movie if you like your action movies to appeal to the very lowest common denominator.

The other three TNG movies were awful, absolutely, but I think First Contact actually played pretty nicely alongside Roddenberry's vision.

We get to see flawed humans building a warp ship out of an old ICBM, there are questions of humanity (Data) and vengeance (Picard) and on top of that, it still manages to be a fun action spectacle.

Of course, arguing over taste is pretty pointless as it's entirely subjective, so you're perfectly entitled to dislike the movie, but I don't think it's fair to say that First Contact was as dumb as you say it was.

This trailer has none of that. I'm just hoping that Simon Pegg is a good enough writer (and he's a brilliant writer, watch World's End for evidence of that) to write his way out of the complete fucking mess that Lindelof wrote them into.

I think I've figured it out - they're trying to power the world with green energy by putting copper coil onto Gene Roddenberry's casket and each time it slows down they make another one of these Star Trek movies?

This is Star Trek via name only. I'm disgusted.

Well that's pretty patronising. I'll disabuse you of your misapprehension: I'm a lifelong fan. I've seen all of the series and all of the films. I understand Star Trek pretty fucking well. I think that what you don't understand is that these things are subjective.

I think the TNG films are horrid. Tired, clichéd, uninspired revenge plots that don't represent the TNG TV series or Roddenberry's ethos at all, and as you say, with an emphasis on irrelevant space action and some pretty egregious plot holes. And they are boring, which Roddenberry-era Trek never was, even at its most talky. It's not just the writing and production - half the time the actors are basically sleepwalking their way through the films, and are often completely different characterisations from their TV show incarnations (particularly Picard in First Contact).

That I prefer this trailer over the TNG films isn't so much praise for Beyond as disdain for the lazy work presented from Generations onwards.

The problem with JJ Abram's Star Trek is that he destroyed the core of Roddenberry's vision. Star Trek IS the optimistic, utopian future of mankind.

The popularity of themes comes and goes with the hopes and fears of the current culture. But if zombies are in and vampires are out at the moment, you don't try to make a vampire movie where vampires act like zombies. Just make a fucking zombie movie!

So maybe Roddenberry's core theme is not popular at the moment. If audiences want to see a future of betrayal, violence and individualist motivations in their plot, then pick a franchise that represents those themes and have at it. Remake "Forbidden Planet" any way you like. Shit, do "Logan's Run" in space with a shit ton of CGI.

Or get out ahead of the curve. Old testament angels in an anachronistic setting is just WAITING for a good director to come along.

I'm thinking you probably don't understand Star Trek. The TNG movies were no work of art, but they were still decent Star Trek movies. Now none of the Star Trek movies, not even the first 6 (with the exception of the Motion Picture, and arguably The Voyage Home) truly represent what Star Trek is with relation to their respective TV shows, as they choose to focus more on space action and conflict, but all of them stuck with the core premise that Gene Roddenberry laid out: To explore the human condition and show how mankind can better itself.
The TNG movies certainly could have done better, and while First Contact was pretty darn good (especially if you consider how it relates to the Borg "trilogy") I've come to see Generations and even Insurrection in a more forgiving light. Heck, as painful as it is to admit, even Nemesis had a lot of potential, judging by the scenes that were cut. (But that's being REALLY generous.)
However, none of the new movies come anywhere near what the old movies were. Yes, Star Trek 2009 was actually a better movie than several of the previous movies, but otherwise, all of them, even what I'm seeing in this new trailer, lack the vision laid down by Roddenberry. And also, it's very hard to appreciate a Star Trek movie that doesn't have its core points laid down in a TV show, as it really is best suited for the TV medium. Without that character and setting development, you can really only get by with nostalgia and action.

Now some of the fan works, on the other hand, seem to do their source material better justice. I avoided them for quite some time, but after hearing about some of the good ones, I've started to look into them and have been pleasantly surprised. They are certainly rough around the edges, but they do seem to stick to Roddenberry's vision a lot better. Heck, that Axanar thing looks pretty compelling, if they ever get to complete it.

Yeah, sign me up for the "this looks awful" train.

Right now, there is one thing that might make me want to see this and that's the fact that Simon Pegg wrote it.

Because Simon Pegg is awesome and he actually cares about this.

But I can picture the scene now...

INT: PARAMOUNT EXEC's office
SIMON PEGG: "I've just finished the screenplay for the new Star Trek movie"
PARAMOUNT EXEC flicks through script, obviously not reading it

PARAMOUNT EXEC: "Great.. great! great work, Si (can I call you Si?) Now can we add some ninjas and dirt bikes?"

SIMON PEGG: "er, that's not really what it's about. And please don't call me Si."

PARAMOUNT EXEC: "Thanks Si! So we'll have those ninjas and dirt bikes in the next draft. Also good news, you'll never guess who we got to direct it."

SIMON PEGG: "I was thinking maybe Duncan Jones. He did some great sci-fi with Moon."

PARAMOUNT EXEC: "nah, he's off making an extended blizzard cgi sequence! No, even better, we got Justin Lin!"

SIMON PEGG: "The guy from Fast & Furious? Why? why would you...."

SIMON PEGG breaks down crying

PARAMOUNT EXEC laughs maniacally

CUT TO : Ext GENE RODDENBERRY's grave

GENE RODDENBERRYs corpse spins out of grave

Off topic, but speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Apparently a trove of 200 floppy disks owned my Gene Roddenberry have turned up, and been deciphered (they were made on a proprietary OS made just for Gene, apparently) and 'there may be surprises in store on this, the 50'th anniversary of the original Star Trek' is all that's been said about it so far....
http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/04/200-floppy-disks-belonging-to-star-treks-creator-have-been-recovered-and-could-offer-some-surprises/

And here we are again.
THIS is the reason why we can't have nice things.
Instead of agreeing that certain things are wrong and need to be changed, we argue about who got it worst. Instead of acknowledging that we have a lot work to do until we become the nice people Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek wants us to be, we fight about shitty details. We'd rather point fingers than making a change from within ourselves.
Any change for the better in any society comes from within. It's a painfully slow process and it requires more patience and blood than humanly bearable. We, as a society, need to suffer greatly before we learn our painful lesson. We always pay a price much too high. We pay in human suffering. We pay in blood. All the time.
What doesn't help is antagonizing each other. Apparently, we can't help it.

#i'mjustsayingi'mamisanthrope

Ack, I want to hear more! One of those videos that you look at and go, cool it's an entire 5 minutes of Trekkie AND civil rights goodness -- then it's over in a blink. Should have been 15 minutes. Damn.

We really need to hear more about Tack-eh's "liberal" conversations with Roddenberry... My wife is a TNG fanatic (and Asian), so this might be the selling point I've been looking for to get her to watch the OG with me, which she doesn't consider serious enough scifi.

Also, on the subject of the "South" -- my family is from Florida/SC and I remember my mom freaking out because she worked in a building (circa 1988) with a colored's only bathroom. She had no idea that there were still relics of segregation in public places. I don't know how it survived THAT long, but when you live an hour away from the nearest grocery store, yet the manatee "preserve" (they didn't look very preserved, the majority of them covered from head to tail in propeller scars...) is less than five minutes away, you're bound to find things that escaped the flow of time. Trailers on blocks of cement, just resting on top of the white sand in a hurricane fuckland... How smart my ancestors were.