Star Trek Trailer Analysis

Yay, it’s Star Trek Trailer time! It’s always exciting to get these little teasers, the promise of exciting things to see in a few months.

Of course once the trailer is release, the internet is filled with people analysing it frame by frame, picking out each word and shot and speculating what it could mean. Myself, I like to be surprised, so I’m not overthinking this one. I’m just going to sit back and be pleasantly excited about a film I will most likely enjoy.

But this film… ok there’s a lot of rumour and speculation. And actually it’s kinda fun to read how people can take the same moment and declare it 100% without a doubt confirms that this will happen, while other people take the same moment and declare it confirms a different theory. As far as I can make out, there are 2 popular theories and rather than deriving conclusions from the trailer, people are using their theory to interpret the trailer. They seem to hinge upon who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing, on the assumption (which has been stated by producers to be true) that he’s a character we’ve seen in the Original Series before.

So with that in mind, I’m dreaming up my own outlandish theories and forcing the trailer to fit into them!

Theory 1: Benedict Cumberbatch is …HARRY MUDD!!

Hey, everyone is so excited about this mystery villain from Trek’s past, well Harry is a pretty well known one. Yes, it would on the surface appear to be a drastic re-imagining of Mudd’s character. But bear in mind this movie will be taking place a lot earlier in the Trek timeline, maybe before Harry discovered Bolian Snickers Pie?

My ridiculous justifications

Well, let’s say while trawling the spacelanes for old women he can beautify up with illegal drugs and pimp out (see Mudd’s Women) Harry stumbles upon some sort of weapon or power and in revenge for perceived slights when he’s been arrested in the past, Mudd decides to remake the Earth in his image…Mud! You see, this is obvious, as there’s the scene where the Enterprise makes it’s splashdown into…water!. To make mud, you need to mix dirt and water! So either  Mudd crashes the Enterprise into the sea to splash mud around, or has an underwater mudbase. Carol Marcus is the pretty young scientist who’s developed an amazing new wash powder that can be used against mud (and Mudd) while also having a romantic subplot with Kirk. The crew must travel to the alien world that is the source of Mudd’s new mud powers and then back to earth for the big splashdown showdown!

I think it’s pretty plausible! More plausible than my theory that Cumberbatch is playing Edith Keeler anyway…

Theory 2: The main villain is GOD!

It’s the return of one of classic Trek’s favourite theme! An awesome powerful being presents itself as a god until being taken down by good old human ingenuity.

Like the Thasian’s powered up Charlie X and Q gave Riker Q powers, some powerful race grabs Benedict Cumberbatch and powers him up, unleashing his rampaging powers upon humanity. As the Enterprise crew finds a way to defeat him, Kirk also has to give an impassioned speech to this powerful race about leaving humanity to find its own destiny. Or possibly the gift of amazing powers makes Cumberbatch’s character think he is God? Something like that.

It would be very classic Trek to do a story like this. I don’t know how well it would fit in the new re-imagined super realistic style Trek we’re getting these days. And to be honest, the advanced being/godlike powers thing works better in episodes and tends to fail dismally in movie treks.

Theory 3: Benedict Cumberbatch is Darth Sidious.

Wait, getting confused….

Theory 3: Benedict Cumberbatch plays…Flint!

Actually this could work out. Flint, if you don’t remember (or aren’t a massive nerd, but to be honest I doubt you’ll have got this far if not) was an immortal human who built himself a robot wife, but needed Kirk to teach the robot wife to love. Maybe in this timeline, Flint has been upset by something and is all up for vengeful rampage against humanity! Somehow Carol Marcus is drawn in, maybe Flint has been posing as her professor/mentor? Y’know, before the vengeful madness. Hopefully he’ll build an army of robot wives to devastate planets?!

Actually, it’s funny, but Flint actually could be a viable candidate, except he wasn’t that memorable a character from TOS and also wasn’t really a bad guy in the way that this movie seems to have one. But it’s an alternate universe and he could have been changed by events since the Kelvin was destroyed in some way so it’s not completely impossible. Just unlikely.

Theory 4: Benedict Cumberbatch is Kor! Or Koloth! Or Kang! Or Kruge!

Look, I just really want some Klingons! It’s been years since we’ve had any new Klingon wackiness! With their singing and their fighting and their drinking! I want to see warriors charging through Enterprise corridors with their bat’leths, I want to see Kirk go toe to toe with a smug arrogant Klingon captain who revels in the idea of a glorious battle. Yes, I know this isn’t happening, but if we all just close our eyes and wish really really hard…

Ha, did I just make you wish for Klingons?!

More fatherhood examples

Back to my search for a decent father example for nerds! I’m expanding my search beyond just sci-fi, I think I’ll incorporate fantasy a little bit. Just to give myself more options really…

Doctor Who. Ok, I never really thought this would yield much in the way of results. The Doctor? Well, he must be a father as he has a granddaughter (unless you subscribe to the Looms idea from Lungbarrow, which never really seemed right to me) but obviously we never see him parenting. We do see him abandon his granddaughter on an alien (to her) world that’s just been devastated by a Dalek occupation. Pretty harsh. Not many other fathers to choose from after that. Until Brian Williams! Ok, he’s pretty good! Changes lightbulbs, waters the plants and offers useful advice for items to keep on your person or add to the Christmas list. Brilliant! That’s two good dads I have found!

Feeling pretty inspired by a second success so soon, I return to my quest with renewed vigor. In fact, I’m a little overconfident now, cocky even.

So it’s a logical progression from Doctor Who, to look at Torchwood. Jack is a father while working for Torchwood, which has necessitated special provision for his daughter to have name changes and remain hidden. And at the end of Children of Earth… oh. But then there’s Rhys! Good old Rhys! He’s ok? Well, I can’t find anything obviously bad in his parenting, I’d have more issues with Gwen and the staggering amount of guns she keeps around the house.

Ok, well Torchwood was always going to be a long shot, with its adult themes and action packed episodes. What about finding something that features a lot more characters and a lot more detail? Something that really delves into the minutiae of the lives of the races within it’s world? Surely in something like that, we’d find more room to detail family life and fathering? Yes, I mean Lord of the Rings!

Why would I choose this mighty epic for my search? A mix of the  overconfidence I mentioned and the staggering amount of material available from Tolkien detailing his world and it’s inhabitants. So, characters who are fathers…

Elrond. Well, I guess he’s pretty ok. His main fathering role tends to be grimly disapproving of his daughters choice in men, then taking the man she loves and encouraging him to go off into a massive war. Over-protective maybe, but a sight better than Denethor, the guy who openly favours one son and tried to set the other on fire. Otherwise, there’s Bilbo’s fatherly relationship with Frodo, that culminates in him handing Frodo the most dangerous bit of jewellery you could get, along with the responsibility to take it to Mordor and chuck it in a volcano. While being pursued by that Gollum fellow he once robbed.

Actually, mentioning Denethor reminds me of John Noble, so Fringe. Walter! Yeah, um, that… that’s quite a mess right there. The guy replaces his dead son with an alternate reality duplicate, whom he nearly drowns by setting his portal up on an iced over lake!

My previous enthusiasm has been dampened somewhat. Actually it’s been brutally beaten out of me by a thuggish gang of disappointment. Wearily, I turn to the next item…

Harry Potter. Well… oh! Arthur Weasley! He’s ok! Lotsa kids, fun house, good choice of mother, government job, they all go to school, no turning evil! We have another! Brilliant!  And isn’t it odd, he’s played by the same actor who plays Brian Williams?! (Hey who’s playing Pa Kent in the new Superman movie? It’s not… no, it’s not.) It is only Arthur though, Remus didn’t want to have a child, Malfoy got his family indentured to Voldemort, Seamus’s dad couldn’t handle his wife being a witch, can’t think of any others...

I’m reaching now, but Lost in Space? Ok, well the dad there gets his family lost in space! The idiot!

Red Dwarf? Well, as seen in an episode of the recent new series, Lister does try to do his best for his son. But being as his son is himself, I think he’s done plenty of damage right there.

Ok, it’s a sad fact in TV and movies for these sorts of genres, extended sequences or stories of a dad just being a dad are not going to come up a lot. It’s always going to be more entertaining to have a space battle or a sword fight. Still, there’s some pretty bad fathers out there! And my search was mainly focussed on ‘the good guys’! Imagine if I did this with the villains?

Fatherhood in Sci-fi

Having been a father for nigh on 10 months now and discussing the impending fatherhood of a friend, I’ve come to the realisation that there are not many good dad’s in sci-fi.
You see, often when I’m faced with a new challenge in my life, I like to look to my idols in the science fiction world to see how they handle it. For instance, when cooking for myself was becoming in issue as I advanced through my teens, Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine was a brilliant example. I always carry a screwdriver and make sure to leave my droids outside of bars. So naturally, when my wife was expecting, I turned to my normal array of science fiction TV and film for advice.

Oh dear…

So I began with Star Trek. There’s actually no fathers at all there, except for Kirk, who stayed away from his son until forced to meet him when Khan stole the Genesis device. Ok, no help there.

Ok, The Next Generation must be more help? Picard, no children, hates kids. Riker? Had an imaginary son and mainly tried to teach him the trombone. Worf? Oh, right, packs the kid off to his grandparents or if he can’t get away with that, pretty much leaves it to Troi. Data? Built his own daughter and has no emotions. Oh and had her working in a bar!

Let’s move on to DS9! Sisko! Brilliant! Sisko seems on the surface to be a good example. Until you factor in he’s dragged Jake to a backwater run down space station where the only schooling opportunity is a class of mixed ages run by a botanist?! No disrespect to botanists or their field, but he’s not getting a well-rounded education there. Plus it shuts down after a year! After being blown up! Still Sisko persists with keeping his son, now without any school, wandering around an increasingly dangerous space station as the area degenerates into a war zone. Finally, Sisko conceives a second child and promptly ups and leaves to be a prophet and live in a wormhole, abandoning both children. I guess there’s O’Brien, but… well his wife and kids are so annoying, I can’t. I just can’t!

Voyager has one father, Tuvok, who’s probably great, but we never get to see any actual parenting. And again, Enterprise has no active father. I think Phlox has children, but they’re not seen.

Forget Trek then, let’s move onto other areas…

How about Star Wars? Hm, actually, I don’t need to think too hard about this one do I? Me and my son would be happier not chopping limbs off…

It’s not going well so far is it? What about the Buffyverse? Well, Buffy’s dad left his family, her surrogate father, Giles, well I guess he’s pretty ok, but there was the time he drugged her so she lost her Slayer powers and locked her in a house with a vampire. And Angel? Well, he managed to lose his son in a hell dimension with his worst enemy.

Batman! Right, ok his Dad was shot and killed in front of him, causing severe emotional trauma. But Alfred was like his second father from then? And he’s… pretty much let Bruce’s trauma overwhelm him to the point he dresses like a bat and risks his life nightly fighting crime. Bruce’s own son is encouraged to follow the same path while fighting his upbringing as a cold blooded killer with a superiority complex. Not to mention Batman’s taken on three other kids and encouraged them all to wallow in their pain and grief to such an extent that they also feel the need to embark on a suicidal quest for justice while wearing silly costumes. I hate to say it, but Batman sucks! As a dad at least.

Superman? Sure, his biological father put his newborn child in an experimental rocket and blasted him into space, which I think is grounds for a referral to Social Services, but what about Jonathan Kent? He’s good right? Actually, he is! There’s pretty much no problem with Pa Kent! Except DC keep insisting on retconning Superman’s history to kill the poor guy off earlier and earlier.

Right, we have one good father! Surely, I can find more? Otherwise I’ll have to raise my child using my own judgement and common sense! My search continues…

Some thoughts on Disney buying Star Wars

So, there’s going to be a new Star Wars Trilogy. The 3^rd trilogy, making a trilogy of trilogy’s you might say. And it’s going to be made by Disney. This is pretty huge news and understandably causing some mixed reactions amongst Star Wars fans.

I’m thinking this is probably a good thing. There, I said it. But wait! I have reasons!

The first reason! I actually quite liked the prequels. Yes, they were caught up in quite a political storyline, but like many stories, they’re a product of their time and we’re in an age where everything is politicised to some degree. It might not be the most entertaining thing to watch in a movie of course, but we are now several years on and new movies will have new writers and reflect their take on our times.

Which neatly brings me onto new writers. No Lucas! Imagine! Given how everyone complained he’d ruined Star Wars with the prequels, surely this is a good thing? Though I don’t think he ruined anything, I do think new movies will benefit from new writers and directors. Joss Whedon’s name has already been thrown into the mix and I do think he’d have a pretty interesting take on Star Wars. But there’s a huge number of skilled writers out there in Hollywood who could bring some fresh new thinking to Star Wars.

If you’re a fan of The Clone Wars series, then you’ll see how well Star Wars is still working. Different writers, new story ideas and a wide array of characters, it’s a pretty good series.

It’s Disney! Disney are pretty hot on making kids films. Ok, not always successfully, but sometimes successfully, And Star Wars films are films for kids. The sense of awe and wonder of alien worlds, old Jedi Knights and the youngster who finds his way into a whole new world of the Force and an important role in a galaxy-wide battle for freedom. That’s perfect for Disney.

Ok, I’m saying a lot about new writers and new stories, a new take on Star Wars. However, you also need to maintain a certain respect for the original source. I think Disney can do that. The recent Muppets film I think stands as a brilliant example of making a new relevant film that maintains a good respect for the original series. Actually, the Muppets is pretty much an hour and a half love letter to The Muppet Show. I think we’re at a point now where the writers and directors around now are the ones who grew up with Star Wars and will come in respectful of the original trilogy.

Actually, you know what’s also good about Disney buying Star Wars? Crossovers! Next time there’s a Toy Story movie, we should see Harrison Ford voicing a Han Solo figure! I’m actually really excited about this idea!

Most of all, Star Wars is a pretty defining set of movies for a child to see. Regardless of the opinions of guys in their 30’s and 40’s who will staunchly resist anything different to that original trilogy, kids in the next 10 years are going to love this new set of Disney made Star Wars movies. And that’s good, it’s their childhood and they deserve to have those movies made in their day. 2015 means my little boy will be 3 or 4, just about old enough to sit through a movie. So this will be his trilogy and I’ll be able to take him to see brand new Star Wars. Regardless of whether I like them or not, he probably will and to me that makes this news good.