Sunday, December 7, 2008

J.J. Abrams's Vision of the Future in Star Trek

The starship Enterprise of J.J. Abrams's Star Trek movie wasn't exactly the first one in Gene Roddenberry's universe (there's Captain Archer's Enterprise), but the full-length trailer of the movie shows Abrams fondness for cinema flashbacks and establishing scenes that gives the main character his motivation for his actions later in the movie. It also gives us a hint as to how he envisions the future in a Star Trek setting.

In the trailer, we see an elder Spock with a young girl who appears to be sick or dying. We also see a young Spock and a young Kirk of about 10 who is apparently bent on going somewhere, riding an antique sports car with an Iowa license and being chased by a highway patrolman (or robot) who asks his name. That's actually the defining moment when we are made to realize that there are bigger things to come.

It's every fan's guess that it's to see the Enterprise in construction in some space shipyard. Later, we see an older but a still young Kirk (Chris Pine) on an antique motorbike stopping by and admiring the Enterprise in construction.

We can speculate how that part of the story is about how Kirk and Spock become friends after going through conflicts with the common goal of neutralizing the villain in the form of Eric Bana (who speaks with a Scottish, or Irish, accent for some reason), but it's still a question on what the elder Spock is reminiscing about the past.

This is the Enterprise that became popular in the original series. Take this one home where no starship has ever gone before!

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