Stuff: Star Trek

Well I've decided to do something new as I'm fast becoming predictable, though this will end up likely being another series of semi-regular postings, that or fading into obscurity - time will tell. I also decided it was time to be a bit more geeky!! I've made my attempts to be a bit more analytical with some success and I think there's definitely room for that, but not at the expense of going "wow that was sooo coool!" and so I'm resorting to this post, which I'm labelling 'Stuff' to celebrate the amazing new ships, tech, aliens etc. that appear in new media focusing, for the time being, on movies. These posts will focus on movies a few months old so as to allow the relevant wikis and fan sites the time to get decent images and facts.

First up is the new Star Trek film, which recast the original crew and has 'rebooted' the series with a time-travel induced series of plot twists. It also introduced us to a great bunch of new spaceships!! By the way this will constitute spoilers for people who are waiting for the DVD.

Narada














This image is concept art, but I can't find many images of the full ship and I guess you've seen the promo images from the film anyway. With the Federation ships beinbg designed in 'classic' style this was a great way to put something new and alien into the movie. The long, spiky tendrils just screamed menace and the sheer size of the thing made me gawp first time it appeared. The later revelation that it was a mining ship - but a super advanced mining ship from the future made it fit even better. It set up the conflict well, even with the Enterprise in command, this was way out of their league. I love seeing original designs that can be cooked up be creative teams and don't stick to what we expect in ship design, this definitely pushed the boat out in creativity I felt.
There isn't much in terms of technical information on this ship other than what you see in the movie - one source claims the ship was upgraded with modified Borg technology, explaining it's appearance.

USS Kelvin











The team did create some great new Federation starships too. The USS Kelvin, commanded by Kirk's father was prominently featured at the start and was a fun mix of old and new. There was the classic round disk, but it featured 'top and bottom' nacelles, which marked it out from previous ships. Seeing new Federation designs is always a treat, from the first time I saw Voyager or Enterprise - E and then spotting my first Akira class in a movie was fun and so to be treated to a new class of ship right at the start was fantastic.
For geeks like me who love to know in-universe info: This ship is a Kelvin - class starship (presumably making it the first of it's type) which has a crew of 800 and used primarily as a survey ship.

Jellyfish












Another ship from the future, belonging to 'Spock Prime'. It was a smaller, one man craft and had gryoscoping sections that rotated as it glided through space like it's namesake. I thought this worked well, like the Narada as it just yelled 'other' at you and could not be attributed to the designs of Federation or other ships from the present era. It had an interesting set of weaponry and proved a decent match for the enemy vessel despite it's size. I enjoyed this innovative spaceship design.
Not much info on this one either. It is a prototype designed by the Vulcan Science Academy and described as their fastest ship. It was designed to be able to transport 'red matter' to create black holes and stop dangerous supernovas.

And that's enough on spaceships for now, before moving on I'll just leave you with two images, one of a spacedock and one of a Federation fleet.











OK one more thing before I ramble on too long - aliens!! Now I wouldn't rank Star Trek the highest in alien race creation, most species look like humans with funny bone structure, but they have put real effort into the personality and background of each of their races...and they also make some pretty darn good monsters!!

Hengrauggi

















This monster had everything you need, big teeth, large limbs and a way of catching you even after you think you've gotten away. Again the creature had a fairly original design with a pink body unusual for it's snowy domain and large gangly limbs. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was designed by the guy Abrams hired to create Cloverfield in his hit movie and you can see some similarities. But it was no copy of Clover and made for a good chase sequence across the snow.

I hope I wasn't too rambly here, I hope it was fun anyway. Possibly more 'Stuff' on the way soon!

And I'd also like to thank Memory Alpha the Star Trek Wiki for the info and some images as well as Ex Astris Scientia a Star Trek fan site which had a lot of good ship info.

Cloverfield: American monster?

It's been a fair while since the film was released, so reviewing it will be fairly fruitless, but I thought I might discuss the monster itself while the urge takes me. J.J. Abrams, the man behind the project has stated that he created the project after seeing Godzilla and King Kong toys in Japan, and he wanted America to have a monster to call it's own. I figured I'd discuss whether he achieved that or not - to be honest I'm still not decided, but I'll keep hitting those keys and see if a conclusion comes out.

It's a cracking monster that's to be sure, freaky, scary and unpredictable, hitting all the right spots to get your heart pumping as the film moves on. It's big enough and powerful enough to take a beating from man's arsenal and fight back as it rampages through New York City. It's got a big body that can tower over buildings and a heck of a scary face that comes at ya from nowhere. So yeah, it definitely works as a monster.

It's original too. While borrowing many story elements from earlier monsters, we've all seen the buildings smashed and the bullets bouncing off, it as a creature and a dynamic is quite new and refreshing. It has a refreshingly new shape to it, rather than an overgrown monkey or dinosaur it is a long, sniewy mass, trailing limbs awkwardly (see preproduction sketch below.) While not modelling any creature, it has a distinctly biological feel to it, it looks like a creature, not a mutant or an alien (though I guess those are still possibilities) but a very believable animal that just happens to be huge and scary. There's a moment when you look into it's face and you see a curious almost cautious look, not the semi-intelligent sympathy of King Kong, but more like a dog analysing something.

There are also parasites, falling from it that are deadly to humans. I thought this was a clever device to bring the fight to the people but not in an unrealistic way 'cause there's no way a group of partygoers could do anything against something that big, and since they haven't chucked any expert scientists into the mix all they can do is run, which they wisely do a lot of. But the monster carries more than just a poweful body creatures latching onto it fall to the city and attack humans with deadly effect - again original so you don't have to spend half the film watching helicopters and tanks to get in on the action.

So yeah, Cloverfield is an all new and great creature, but is it America's monster - I'm still unconvinced. Part of the film's genius is it only shows you what's recorded on the camera by the group of friends so realistically detailed images of the creature are used sparingly. While this works well as a film dynamic, I think it's actually detrimental to stamping Cloverfield as a monster for America. While Cloverfield may be more believable than previous films, the dramatic and thematic nature of those creatures, though simplistic at times is what stamps them on the minds of the viewers. Cloverfield is barely seen at all and it's a tough job to get decent images of the beastie even some time after the film's release - is we can't remember what it looks like how are Americans supposed to identify it as "their monster?" Since a sequel is likely we may get to know the creature more - I hope they will because while the film will be remembered for some time, the monster is actually easier to forget, despite it's awesomeness.










I guess the DVD will give us more images of the beast and that may help, along with the figure coming out later this year. But more will have to be done to cement this remarkable creature in our minds for the years to come.