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Star Trek XI Plot Details Revealed 220

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the omg-spock-is-made-of-chocolate dept.
HotChk101 writes to tell us that the plot for Star Trek XI has been revealed over at IESB. This information has not yet been confirmed by the studio so take with the requisite grain of salt. Be warned link contains potential spoiler information.
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Star Trek XI Plot Details Revealed More

Star Trek XI Plot Details Revealed

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  • huh? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:31PM (#21327547)
    HotChk101 and Star Trek? Something here does not compute.

  • Spock dies?

  • Spoilers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by niceone ( 992278 ) * on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:34PM (#21327581) Journal
    Who would have guessed an article that tells you the plot of a movie would contain spoilers? Luckily TFA has so many spoiler warnings that I gave up reading before I got to any mention of the plot.

  • Hypocrisy! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Greatmoose ( 896405 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:36PM (#21327609) Journal
    So the author starts off the article by lambasting those who don't know the original series, and then proceeds to spend the majority of the article rehashing the "City on the Edge of Forever" episode and the Kobyashi Maru scenario. Oh, and has a few sentences thrown in about the new movie. Man, that was bad.

    • More time travel? DO NOT WANT! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bckrispi ( 725257 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:46PM (#21327737)
      Out of the 10 current films, three of them involve time travel with the intent of changing the present. Are the writers so bereft of fresh ideas that they need to go back to this stale premise again??? Gahh! Jar Jar was annoying, but at least he was original.

      • It's worse than that. He's dead, Jim. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by khasim ( 1285 ) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:07PM (#21328027)
        The PROBLEM is that time travel does NOT change the present. They heroes fix the problem in the past and the present is the present again.

        There's nothing moving FORWARD. There is no development or change. The entire movie could just as well never have happened.
        • Why would anyone want to move the plot forward, or the characters to develop further? People are already super-invested in things the way they "know" them to be. These time plots are the perfect device for Star Trek--the characters and situations are already well-known and familiar to the hardcore fans. It's like that kids show Blues Clues, which shows the same episode every day for a week because little kids crave the familiar.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by jo42 ( 227475 )
        Jar Jar was NOT original - 'he' was a parody of an African-American stereotype.

      • Re:More time travel? DO NOT WANT! (Score:4, Insightful)

        by MontyApollo ( 849862 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:53PM (#21328659)
        And time travel is handled so poorly. In the TOS episode they had to go back and find out what happened, so it makes since for them to go back and figure it out.

        In the movie plot however, Spocks knows what the Romulan's plan is, so he could just go back in time right before the Romulan tries to go back in time and kill him there couldn't he? He knows where and when he will be, but instead chases him some place where he has trouble finding him.

        Same with the Generations movie plot. If Picard and Kirk could come out of the ribbon at whatever time they wanted, they could have chosen a better time and place.

        In First Contact, the Borg could have time traveled in secret, not in the middle of a big battle where someone might figure out what they were doing. They could also keep trying until they got it right - they still had the knowledge of how to do it even if that one ship was destroyed.

        I don't remember much about the save the whales movie.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Applekid ( 993327 )
        There seems to be an almost religious fantatisism with keeping everything nicely contained within the same timeline of events at Paramount.

        While not related, I had played through the Halflife 2 Epsiode 2 commentary and they mentioned something about the flashlight battery now being separate from the main HEV sprinting battery, and their argument was that they weren't going to make the game less fun just for the sake of a keeping bad game design decision true throughout the lifespan of the series.

        That said,
      • Yes! I've got a brand new idea. Why don't they kill off a main character! That is always exciting and rarely done with this type of franchise. That should provide some fresh experiences for trek fans out there...
      • My three least favorite plot complications are time travel, amnesia, and anything having to do with a "prophecy."
        • My three least favorite plot complications are time travel, amnesia, and anything having to do with a "prophecy."

          Well, given time travel, then prophecies kind of come with the territory. It's just a matter of context really. I'm a time traveller, you're a prophet, he/she/it is a fraud.

          I'd add to the list of annoying plot complications 'controlled by an evil alien entity'.

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by jollyreaper ( 513215 )

            My three least favorite plot complications are time travel, amnesia, and anything having to do with a "prophecy."
            Well, given time travel, then prophecies kind of come with the territory. It's just a matter of context really. I'm a time traveller, you're a prophet, he/she/it is a fraud.

            I'd add to the list of annoying plot complications 'controlled by an evil alien entity'.

            Or how about an enemy that has you so outclassed, the only way they can be defeated is either through jaw-dropping stupidity on the part of the enemy or a credulity-banishing one in a million shot that never could have been made or some stupid-ass deus ex machina. UGH! Yeah, build the Borg into some big awesome enemy and they're so damn powerful, the only way they can be defeated is with a mathematical riddle. UGH!

            Well I was walking down the street just a-having a think
            when I met a snake of a producer gave

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )

        Gahh! Jar Jar was annoying, but at least he was original.

        No. He was a complete rip off of Snarf by Larry Elmore with some annoying Black and White Minstrel Show lines tacked on and extra stupidity. It's a pity that Lucas never credited him and also made the character so annoying. Elmore drew the strip for Dragon Magazine and has also done a lot of impessive fantasy art. You would have seen his work on a lot of book covers, the sides of vans, t-shirts, box art for the Everquest game, box art for Tonka a

      • Funny, I only seem to remember movies about time travel that I liked.
        To each his own.

        And just to piss you off since you obviously aren't going to enjoy the movie:
        Yousa livesa longs and prospa.

  • I for one.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ArcherB ( 796902 ) * on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:37PM (#21327619) Journal
    I'm getting pretty tired of prequels and time travel. This seems to have a lot of both. Don't get me wrong, I'll still pay to go see it and drag my wife along kicking and screaming to see it with me. I'll probably have to fork out for good dinner to get her to come along.

    Who knows. It can still be good. Let's hope it doesn't suck or I'll get more resistance from the Mrs when trying to go to the next SciFi movie.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by magarity ( 164372 )
      getting pretty tired of prequels and time travel
       
      I was thinking the same thing and figure the final word in tired, cheap ST plot devices would be a prequel about travelling back in time to meet Q in a runaway holodeck program.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by ArcherB ( 796902 ) *
        I was thinking the same thing and figure the final word in tired, cheap ST plot devices would be a prequel about travelling back in time to meet Q in a runaway holodeck program.

        Well, you may need the Borg in there somewhere and whatever the problem is, it must be fixed using some pseudo-science techno-solution that is redirected through the deflector dish.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by magarity ( 164372 )
          I have to disagree; the Borg are a pretty good relentless antagonist and not a cheap plot device in themselves... although unfortunately cheap plot devices are too often used to get the Federation Friends out of their clutches.

    • That's the problem. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by khasim ( 1285 ) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:56PM (#21327877)

      Don't get me wrong, I'll still pay to go see it and drag my wife along kicking and screaming to see it with me.

      SCORE!!!

      No matter what crap they produce, just stamp "Star Trek" on it and they've sold tickets.

      They won't stop producing crap until you stop paying them for the crap.

      It's got time travel in it. It's 100% guaranteed to suck. That's why they had to include baby Spock ..... better include Big Spock just to make sure. Yeah, that will sell tickets. No matter how bad.

      • Re:That's the problem. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Stamen ( 745223 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:44PM (#21328537)
        "Last nights episode sucked. Everything Star Trek has sucked since TOS. Another rehash, more talking heads, time travel, Picard's feelings, blah blah blah. I watched the episode twice and man did it suck. I've seen every episode, at least two times or more, and they all suck so bad. Do they have writers? How about real actors? I'd write more, but Enterpise is on, and I have to watch it again, just to make sure it still sucks, just as bad."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ianare ( 1132971 )
        You're right, and I agree, BUT - by making a sucky movie they lose out on :

        1) Repeat viewings. No matter how hard core a fan you are, you're not going to see a sucky movie 5 times. I think Lucas knows a little about this by now.

        2) People that like sci-fi, but are not attached to Star Trek. Like me ... I'm not going to see this movie, it really does sound bad. However I've certainly enjoyed some StarTrek movies before, even though the series as a whole leaves me rather "blah".

    • I'm getting pretty tired of prequels and time travel. This seems to have a lot of both. Don't get me wrong, I'll still pay to go see it and drag my wife along kicking and screaming to see it with me. I'll probably have to fork out for good dinner to get her to come along.

      Who knows. It can still be good. Let's hope it doesn't suck or I'll get more resistance from the Mrs when trying to go to the next SciFi movie.

      I wasn't aware that conjoined twins could be legally married.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ArcherB ( 796902 ) *
        I wasn't aware that conjoined twins could be legally married.

        Do they have a choice?

        and...

        Who are you to say who can and can't get married!??!

    • Maybe pre-quels are a throwback to the time we liked. The time when we thought of ourselves as the rebels and not the Empire, the time when our system of government made us identify with the Federation rather than a weird mix of Klingons and Ferengis. The time we are all nostalgic for even though we don't want to say so. Isn't that the best fantasy? The one based on nostalgia for what never was?

  • Harlan Ellison (Score:5, Informative)

    by WombatControl ( 74685 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:38PM (#21327641)

    Harlan Ellison, who wrote the original TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" was not at all happy about the rumors:

    Would someone go to that site, and suggest to those people there, that "City" and all its elements EXCEPT specific Star Trek characters, belong to Harlan Ellison--author of that much-lauded episode--by terms of the Separation of Rights clause of the Writers Guild's Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA), and if Mr. Abrams--with whom I'm currently on strike--or anyone else, at Paramount or elsewhere, thinks they're going to use MY creations--whether the City, the Guardians, Sister Edith Keeler, or any other elements CREATED BY HARLAN ELLISON...they had damned well better lose the unilateral arrogance, get in touch with me, or my agent, Marty Shapiro, and be prepared to pay for the privilege of mining the lode I own.

    Thank you, and thank Peter David, who just called to alert me, as have you, Mark, to yet another gimmegimme grab by Paramount and the Star trek francchise that makes billions, but withholds recognition or recompense to the artists who labored in that vein.

    Yr. Pal, Harlan

    So either Abrams didn't get clearance, or the rumors aren't true. From what we know of Leonard Nimoy's involvement, I'd guess that it's the former rather than the latter. So either Abrams will have to pay Ellison off, or production will have to shut down since the WGA strike precludes any changes to the script.

    This could really throw a monkey wrench into everything...

    • Re:Harlan Ellison (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:46PM (#21327757) Homepage
      Hey, thanks; I was pretty much ready to fetch my torch and pitchfork over this fucking travesty, but now that I know that it's pissing off Harlan "Fuck off" Ellison [penny-arcade.com], I may even pre-order a ticket.

    • Re:Harlan Ellison (Score:5, Informative)

      by Grandiloquence ( 1180099 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:49PM (#21327799)
      Based on Penny Arcade's [penny-arcade.com] encounter with Mr. Ellison, I would say the man is unhappy quite often at just about everything.

    • Re:Harlan Ellison (Score:4, Funny)

      by Quantum Jim ( 610382 ) <jfcst24&yahoo,com> on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:54PM (#21327853) Homepage Journal
      The thing is, the Guardian of Forever that appeared in Harlan Ellison's scripts was very, very different than what appeared in the episode. Ellison's Guardian was an old man or a group of old men, and the time portal was a pillar of light. The "donut-of-time" which appeared in the episode was probably a product of either Roddenberry, Fontana, or someone else on the writing staff. Ellison's contributions to the final Guardian seemed to be vague and mostly in setting and name. I am not saying which version is superior, just that Ellison's rants about the Guardian of Forever are really exaggerated.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )
      I wonder of Harlan bothered to talk to his lawyer before making these claims? Probably not — he's a shoot from the lip kind of guy. Really, all he's been doing for the last few decades is making big pronouncements and whining about how people are ripping him off. The dude is the original drama queen.

      In any case, there's no monkey wrench here. "The City on the Edge of Forever" (Harlan may be a bombastic hack writer, but he does dream up great titles) is just another Star Trek time travel gimmick

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Chris Tucker ( 302549 )
      So, Harlan DIDN'T have a standard "Work for Hire" contract with paramount/DesiLu/Roddenberry/rest of world + dog?

      And that he somehow OWNS all the non-Trek specific aspects?

      Yeah, good luck, Harlan.

      As an aside, WAY back when, when Budweiser introduced 8 oz cans of beer, we called them "Harlans".

      They were, after all, bitter, impotent half pints.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fm6 ( 162816 )
        I wouldn't know for sure, but his claims aren't totally implausible. Like all Hollywood hacks, HE belongs to the Writers Guild of America, and their standard contracts are not the "work for hire" contracts you and your dog signed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
      Harlan Ellison is a whiny bitch who tries to claim credit for virtually every scifi premise you can think of, including ones that pre-date his birth. He's arrogant and pissed that his "greatness" isn't constantly acknowledged. So he sues and bad-mouths everyone he can to cover for the fact that no one has hired him in decades. He's the poster-child for the infamous "writer who thinks he's the director."

  • The plot (Score:5, Funny)

    by moogied ( 1175879 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:41PM (#21327679)
    Title: The final answer.

    Plot: Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Cisco, and that guy from enterprise that nobody liked all get merged together in a transporter accident, not only fusing body, mind, spirit, and time.. but also...

    A CAT.

    After several days of bickering about which part of there personality was most dominant Tuvok and Spock have to do a threesome mind meld in order to seperate the individual personalities. After several intense shots of tuvok and spock both appearently giving birth(facial expressions only) they both suddenly stop and lock at eachother. Appearently in shock.. they announce to the world that the winner of this battle of personalities was no one but:

    Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds.

    Shortly after this serenity was seen flying off.

    You may think this to be satire.. but with the cluster fuck that this new movie promises to be, I might actually wish they made mine instead of theres..

    ©Daniel M. 2007.

    ^ Just incase.

    • a threesome mind meld

      AWESOME! Have you ever thought about becoming a professional Star Trek script writer? You might just pull it off.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ari_j ( 90255 )
      I really hope they don't make your idea into a movie, and for this reason alone: Trek has become so bad that doing a crossover with Firefly would ruin anything that's left of Firefly, which is pretty much the perfect sci-fi series. Don't pollute its memory by taking everyone's long-since-raped childhood and stuffing it into that memory.

  • But it is an "Odd Number"... so it will "suck"... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Fallen Kell ( 165468 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @04:50PM (#21327811)
    Come on. We all know the curse of the odd number Trek movie. It has happened every time. While the Trek content out there has toned down a bit (there isn't a single active series out there), I still think the movie will suffer the curse of the odd number. I hope that it won't, but I just have this feeling that both the trekies and non-trekies will hate this movie. The trekies will hate it for changing the "universe" for some reason or another, because it is going to be a prequel, and doing that just begs to mess with the cosmic timestream, especially in a sci-fi universe with so much literature, movies, and TV series as Star Trek (this is one of the reasons why trekies didn't like "Enterprise" due to it screwing with the "verse"). The non-trekies will hate it because to them it is just another trekie film...
  • Star trek time travel plots have always been inconsistent and many times lame but this just takes the cake. Ohh-noes someones going back in time to kill the hero when he was a kid we better go save him.

    It might also go hand in hand about the rumored series reboot with a new show (the idea of a new star trek show ware none of the events of the previous shows happened so they didn't have to worry about breaking the time line or plots of tos/tng like voyager and enterprise did)

    With all trek rumors this smells

    • Star trek time travel plots have always been inconsistent and many times lame

      To be fair to Star Trek, this isn't just a Star Trek problem. I think it is probably pretty hard to write a non-clichéd time travel script. Changing the timeline, paradox, woo, etc... if you are a hack writer there's nothing much else to say in a time travel story. You take your character(s) back to your chosen time period to create conflict -- maybe also as a social commentary blunt instrument -- and then waffle on for page

      • Some writers have gotten rid of the paradox with a rather simple key element: everything that the characters do in the past causes the events in the present. When characters travel back in time, they do exactly what they did. The line I always think of is "It all happened just the way I remember it."

      • Someone could really invent a time machine, go back in time and substitute all the Star Trek time travel scripts with decent ones.

        Yeah, but what if someone already did that and substituted what were really good scripts for the crappy ones we got to see?

    • There was a play out years ago in the Seattle area called "Star Drek" (or such).

      It had the BEST time travel plot. It is TNG time and TNG crew is celebrating "Cpt Kirk Day". Picard is not happy. So Q changes Picard to an ensign and drags Kirk forward in time and drops him in as the captain of TNG Enterprise. It was very funny.

      Move from the PAST to the FUTURE is a safe use of time travel.

  • Find out when we first meet Kirk in Abram's Trek plus alternate timelines and time travel explained! If you want to stay as spoiler free as possible this article is NOT FOR YOU!

    On the other hand, if you know you're likely to be disappointed by yet another lame attempt to keep the Trek franchise alive, but have been a Trekkie since TOS first touched down on the planet of the salt monster, you pretty much have to read all the spoilers you can find so you won't be tempted to waste your time and money actually going to the movie.

    Case in point: they're doing the Time Travel plot again. The only thing different about this one is that they're going through the time portal at the City on

    • instead of colliding with a "black star", doing a tight orbit around the sun, or imploding the warp engines

      I hope they bring souvenirs, like a pair of whales

      Trekkies are so lame. Myself included!

      Sadly, yes...

  • SERGEANT!!! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by newgalactic ( 840363 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:02PM (#21327951)
    I've often pondered the idea of a series following a Star Trek group of sergeants. Like an away team, following orders. Not the sanctimonious, self serving upper chain of command. I'd much rather follow the adventures of some more regular joe's. One's who don't have the luxury of allowing hollowed ideals to get in the way of "results". Leave the captain where he belongs, on the bridge or in his stateroom.
  • so, the plot is unfortunetly.....lame.

    Once the continuem got word that some alien was try to destroy their favorite playtoys- um, species, they would simply wipe the dude out.

    What would the Q do without the painfully bowed legs of Beverly Crusher?

    You just KNOW they sold tickets to watch all those Borg-Federation space-fights from a distance, like off-track betting.

  • Truly, they're boldly going where no Trek film has gone before - a *plot*?! Abrams sure has guts. I dunno is the hardcore trekkers are gonna go for that plot stuff. Maybe if he puts in enough phasers and green dancing alien girls, they won't notice the plot.

  • Trek needs a clean break (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SlappyBastard ( 961143 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:06PM (#21328009) Homepage
    Not a BSG type clean break, but I'd like to see them find a spot into the future. Y'know, where some new writing could occur. Enough with the time travel and the continuity issues.

  • Gak!!! More fscking time travel .... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:07PM (#21328019) Homepage
    Why can't anyone write a friggin' Trek script without pulling out the old Time Travel saw?

    I'd love to see a well written script that didn't devolve into time travel or strange-particle-du-jour emissions.

    Why does it always have to be time travel? Have we exhausted all that can be done in a sci-fi script??

    *sigh* I don't even know if this is an odd or even Trek any more. I think I've given up on Trek.

    Cheers

    • *sigh* I don't even know if this is an odd or even Trek any more. I think I've given up on Trek.

      Of course, if I'd dug out my handy roman numeral calculator, I might have spotted that it's an odd numbered film.

      It's doomed. :-P

      Cheers

  • In a thousand years, I'll get right on it (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:07PM (#21328023)
    The biggest reason that Enterprise sucked total ass was because of time travel, the "temporal cold war", and alien space Nazis.

    Paramount takes a few years off to let the franchise breathe again, and they come back revitalized with... more time travel crap?!

    When will they ever learn?

  • Academy Classes (Score:5, Insightful)

    by arthurpaliden ( 939626 ) on Monday November 12, 2007 @05:51PM (#21328631)
    So long as they do not have them all in the same year at the Academy or even all at the Academy at the same time. If they have Kirk and Chekov or even Sulu in the Academy at the same time I am waking out of the theater.
  • Isn't that going to be Star Trek Online [startrekonline.com]? Or am I confusing it with some other sequel [wikipedia.org]?

    Chris Mattern
  • It's not so complicated, just renumber the movies! Lucas did it. Star Trek the Motion Picture could become "Star Trek IV: A New Hairpiece". The "New" Star Trek could be "Star Trek I: The Phantom Storyline". Look how much money this strategy made for Lucas.
  • Without reading anything... to THANK YOU PROFUSELY for posting that there would be spoilers and not revealing them in the headline.
  • Mark my words, this will be done right. We are coming full circle here. The only thing that could make it better for me personally would be if the episode started on the bridge of the enterprise D.

    We have:
    - Nimoy's Spock - probably the most loved and respected character across every Trek series, and probably the last time we will see him on the big screen
    - City on the Edge of Forever tie in - one of the best Trek episodes ever
    - Good old fashioned time travel without a bunch of techno babble - the Guardian i
  • Can I ask: am I the only person on Earth who thinks the "City on the Edge of Forever" episode of TOS sucked? That, alone, is enough to make me avoid this movie.

    Give me "Balance of Terror" or "The Doomsday Machine", any day.

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