You know nothing divides Star Trek fans more than the two newest Star Trek movies by JJ Abrams. Even discussions of canon are more civilized! But we are all Star Trek fans and so IDIC is the rules that should govern our lives: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. JJ Trek may not be for you, but it certainly has revitalized Star Trek.
The first JJ Star Trek movie established that JJ trek takes place in an alternate timeline, and the rest of Star Trek takes place in what has become known as the “Prime Universe”. And while Axanar takes place in the Prime Universe, we use cues from JJ Trek. First, we used some of the starship designs from Star Trek (2009) as the basis for our Starfleet ships. We resized them (JJ ships are HUGE in comparison to the Prime Timeline) and we retrofitted them with our nacelles, but my feeling is that the timeline would develop similar ships that close to the Narada event, and so that is how we got our Starships. We also use the pulse phasers at times. That is because we feel these things would exists in both universes.
I saw Star Trek 4 times in the movie theater, more than any other movie (I Saw Star Wars 3x in the theater when it first came out). And while not a perfect movie (don’t get me started on that engine room) I loved that the movie brought Star Trek back into the mainstream and gave it a jump start.
So you will always find us talking about Star Trek, what we like and what we don’t, but we all have the right to have our favorites. Just be respectful to those whose opinions differ from yours!
Alec Peters
Executive Producer
The Enterprise eventually became the very flag ship of Star Fleet, but it was not the be all and end all of all ship classes. The heavy cruiser being built was NCC-1701. This is wrong. The Constellation (NCC-1017) was the first of this type of heavy cruiser. The Enterprise, which came later, was a Consitution (NCC-1700) class ship.
If I trust my creaky memory 🙂 the class ship is 1700 – Constitution; but 1701 – Enterprise – was completed first. Not uncommon in naval construction. And the less said about Connie’s re-arranged Naval Construction Contract number the better 😉
You’re right, Constitution was 1st to be laid down. Enterprise was 2nd. However, according to the book Federation: the First 150 Years as the 2 ships were being completed Garth was given command of the Connie & was such a perfectionist that he delayed the ships launching by 6 months, thus allowing Enterprise to be the 1st out of the docks. Apparently April wasn’t such a nitpicker.
I think we can safely dismiss anything from that book; the Axanar writers will have their own bead on things and should not restricted by anything. i suspect their stuff will be far better anyways
First off Alec, from a fan to a fan, I love that you take the time to explain things like this. Its humbling and appreciated. For me – all aspects of Star Trek from the actors and their characters, stories, settings, ships, uniforms, technology and the vast ‘History of the Future’ – are all important and add to the continuing rich history and vast story of Star Trek. The JJ movies are no different. I agree with the logic and artistic choice behind the ships. I think the Kelvin type ships accurately represent the pre constitution class style of ships in that era. The alt ships are massive, so to resize them and use the TOS style nacelles is just perfect.
I saw Star Trek 6 times in theatres (friends and family members, etc), (STID twice). That opening scene of sacrifice, the grand STAR TREK text over the delta shield logo intro to that bombastic music was just astounding. I was blown away at how grand the movie was, it was big and it was epic. in Into Darkness I love the addition of the stretching and light warp effect for the Enterprise, little additions like that make me smile, just like the Axanar versions of the ships. Now I like most fans have an issue with the lack of exploration and all the other issues in favour of the fast action, shoot em up style in the new movies. But what is not debatable is that the new movies have given new life, new interest, and as you said gave Star Trek a jump start. This paves the way for more movies and because of increased popularity the increased likelihood of a new TV series. It allows Star Trek to continue. NuTrek, Old Trek, it all Trek to me. IDIC indeed.
LLAP
When I first saw the JJ-verse looking ships, I thought, how cool is that, the Axanar guys are paying a homage to the current Movie-trek. They look even better with the right engine nacelles. Likewise the pulse phasers, but we get our REAL Blue Phasers o’ Doom 🙂 which are clearly more powerful on the refits and new ships. Bravo Zulu!
Perhaps the new movies, and Axanar, will stir up a new prime universe show. I have no great love for the reboot, but, dare I say it, it has stirred up interest. I for one, just hope it stirs up interest for exploration and diplomacy over the shoot-em-up(-ness)?, of the new movies. I don’s want people to want Star Trek to be Star Wars, because it isn’t. This all being said, I would love to see another prime universe series set in the TNG DS9 and VOY era. One of the foremost candidates recommended is “Star Trek: Captain Worf” (tentatively titled of course). I would support this with all my being. I also would support what I have seen of Axanar. While I completely dislike pulse phasers, I love almost everything else. Although, canonically speaking, pulse phasers would allow starfleet previous experience with pulse weapons over beam weapons. This would eventually allow for Defiant Quad Phaser Cannons to be developed. That is a good tie-in. It may be that beam weapons were improved over time, and that Axanar pulse phasers were more like turrets, thus beams won over time, until cannons were developed (with their own limitations, such as fixed angle firing). I also love how the bridges in Axanar took from TOS rather than the reboot. THIS I love. Well done so far Axanar Team. Keep It Up!
I seem to remember from way back in the day, from one of David Gerrold’s Making Of books that the original TOS bridge layout was given a solid thumbs up from the USN Submarine Community as a good layout for an Attack Centre. The Ares bridge layout looks like that, and even more so with a position behind Helm and Nav ala the helm and planes on an SSN
I have to disagree. The JJ Abrams movies are a travesty. The scripts to both movies are great insults to one’s intelligence. They have plot-holes so huge you could drive a Dyson Sphere through them.
And don’t get me started on the portrayal of Vulcans in the first movie. Appalling.
I think Abrams has done a great deal of harm to Star Trek. We want smart fans. We don’t new Abrams fans who clearly also enjoy Michael Bay’s Transformers movies. There I said it: JJ Abrams = Michael Bay.
TYPO: “We don’t new Abrams fans…” should read “We don’t WANT new Abrams fans…”
Since ST “canon” contradicts itself so many times, sometimes you just gotta pull a “James R Kirk” and bend the rules to save the “enterprise.” For example, are you really going to let one line of dialog spoken by one mentally unstable woman in a stinker of a third season episode ruin all 23rd century women’s chances of ascending to the captaincy? Glad to see you didn’t.
The difference in a nutshell between a fundamentalist and an extremist.
I’m totally cool with the classic Enterprise having the Abrams-style pop-up point defense phasers and the wub-wub-wub “warp” sound effect, just don’t forget that the photon torpedo tubes on the Connie class are located near the bottom of the saucer section, not at the base of the dorsal fin like the movie Enterprise refit and JJ-prise.
The best reference for the layout is Argentine artist Gustavo’s rendering on Cygnus-XI.net. Avoid that Franz Joseph/Star Fleet Battles cr@p like the plague.
Phaser beam colors; Red=stun yellow=kill blue=disintegrate green=Klingon disruptor (Although they too may have different colors/settings maybe red=set ablaze:-) No hand phasers yet, maybe the big “rifle” though.
This lifetime Trek fan can’t thank you enough for putting this together, it’s almost like stepping into the Genesis Cave and feeling “young as if the world was new”.
Bravo, Mr. Peters, bravo! Thank you for restoring order to the universe. In my opinion, the only good that can be said of JJ-Trek is that it has renewed popular and commercial interest in Star Trek, both of which had been lagging a bit. From what I have seen of “Axanar,” it is what we really needed: Star Trek as done by a Star Trek fan, not something done by a self-described “non-Trekkie” that treats the fans with disdain, simply for the sake of a new perspective.
And kudos for the decision to set this film (dare I hope “these films”?) in the Captain Garth era, a rich and relatively unexplored page of Star Trek future history. It’s late enough that the “gee whiz, we don’t know what the hell we’re doing” aspects of “Enterprise” can be avoided, and yet early enough that issues of canon should be minimal. And ever since JJ-Trek, I’ve been dying to see the original Enterprise (NCC, not NX) depicted CORRECTLY on the big screen.
Thank you!
Exactly
While there were some things that I liked, and some things that I did not like about the first two prequel reboots, I still enjoyed the prequel/reboots for what they are. Not everything about them is going to be the same as those depicted in the now erased Prime Universe. This new timeline is going to be different on many levels. Fans just need to separate the two and leave it at that.
I could go on about the differences between the Star Trek universe as I know it and the JJverse. I could, but I won’t. I realize there’s plenty to dislike and to be bluntly honest: whoop-de-freaking-do. Where were the complaints about the Mirror Universe? Things were certainly different there. I enjoyed the JJverse movies because they WERE different, with a different perspective. What if this had happened instead of that?
Given the penchant for time travel in Star Trek, is it that hard to consider that if something went catastrophically wrong someone may want revenge in some possible manner? Considering the circumstances, the admiralty in Starfleet would know what happened. Is it that hard to consider that an admiral may use that as an excuse to build a ship and try to get into a war with the Klingons (the premise/assumption of “it’ll happen eventually so we need to look out for ourselves”)? For all the superior morality that many seem to attribute to Starfleet and the Federation, what about the admiral in Insurrection? Hardly the type that should hold that rank.
People seem to have forgotten that the Pine Kirk stood up for what was right in Into Darkness. Star Trek has, in many ways, reflected our real life society. Broke ideas in a fictional format that got some to think that perhaps there is a better way.
Is this “fighting” over what’s right and what’s wrong in the way something is portrayed in the JJverse really the way to show that there is a better way? Or are we going to fight like the Vulcans did before their division between the teachings of Surak and the ones that went to Romulus?
I love em all. I’ve been a fan since the first episode back in ’66. I’ve enjoyed every new series that has come out since. I enjoy all the possibilities that could be experienced by zigging left instead of zagging right. Even Capt. Kirk and Spock had their experiences , City on the edge of forever, Mirror, Mirror. Time travel and interdementional travel is a fun concept in any century. I don’t understand all the squabble about “right and wrong” it’s all fantasy, all escapism, I love it all. even the fan based webisodes that I stumble across. Bring it all on, the more the merrier. Can’t wait for whatever comes out next.