Star Trek Into Darkness (Pre-release)

How many previous Trek films involved earth?


TMP - V'Ger is coming to eat the Earth
WOK - Starts out in Starfleet Academy on Earth
SFS - Kirk's apartment is on Earth
TVH - Yet another Alien Probe Thingy threatens the Earth
TFF - Gee...that big rock Kirk falls off of looks almost as familiar as the Vasquez Rocks but I can't place what planet it's on...
TUC - They never specified where that room the high level meeting took place in but since Uhura needed to get back to teaching class at the Academy which is in San Francisco...

Need I go on?
 
TMP - V'Ger is coming to eat the Earth
WOK - Starts out in Starfleet Academy on Earth
SFS - Kirk's apartment is on Earth
TVH - Yet another Alien Probe Thingy threatens the Earth
TFF - Gee...that big rock Kirk falls off of looks almost as familiar as the Vasquez Rocks but I can't place what planet it's on...
TUC - They never specified where that room the high level meeting took place in but since Uhura needed to get back to teaching class at the Academy which is in San Francisco...

Need I go on?


So basically, no one had a problem with Earth being in star trek.....Until NOW?:lol
 
So basically, no one had a problem with Earth being in star trek.....Until NOW?:lol

Earth being in Star Trek is not the problem here Darth. It's the over reliance of it that's the big issue. I posted this over at Trekbbs and I feel it bears repeating here.

  1. Earth doesn't make Star Trek unique. Despite Lindelof bringing up Star Wars, there aren't all that many science fiction franchises that don't have an Earth, let alone stories that don't follow a human protagonist. The idea of giving Earth a more centralized role I feel does more to hinder Star Trek's identity, since a lot of science fiction works have an Earth. Just compare how many science fiction works have an Earth, and how many have a planet Vulcan. Sadly, Star Trek doesn't have a Vulcan anymore.
  2. It's a cheap gimmick. For a franchise that has spanned so much territory in regards to how much the federation has explored, there sure seems to be a lot of focus on that one tiny blue planet. That's where the gimmick part comes in because putting Earth in danger will get audiences rallied up because, hey, we all live on Earth! Damon's reasons seem to stems more from this fact than anything else in just trying to get more audiences into the seats. Imagine for instance if the Earth was destroyed instead of Vulcan. The writers would actually have to work in coming up with ways to get audiences excited about Star Trek! Impossible? Well, how many original series episodes dealt with a destructive force that wanted to destroy just the Earth in the entire series? Here's a clue. The crew never even went to their modern day Earth.
  3. It makes Star Trek more human focused than it should. This is where my idea of what Star Trek is clashes with a lot of "it's about humanity!" ideas. For me, Star Trek is about a massive, diverse and ever changing galaxy and how everyone fits into it. That includes humans to, and also Klingons, Romulans ect. When you look at some of the characters from TNG or even Deep Space Nine as a whole, Star Trek has given several alien cultures a huge chunk of non-human based stories. This is one of the crucial parts that separates Star Trek from any other science fiction franchise because it was willing to give the aliens and sometimes ONLY the aliens their own story that played out in a big way. However with JJ's Trek, aliens have gotten their roles reduced dramatically since the original series had all it's main character be human to a degree, and now with Earth's bigger role, there may never be a huge part for any alien based story for quite some time, and that's unfortunate.
  4. It's been done already. Star Trek Into Darkness is the third consecutive Star Trek movie that features a bad guy who wants to attack Earth out of vengeance. I would just like to see the writers come up with a storyline that can be exciting that doesn't involve Earth. But with Lindelof's comments about making Earth more prominent in 'their' movies, I don't think Star Trek is going to leave it's comfort zone anytime soon.

So that's my view on Earth in Star Trek. I just find the planet boring and uninteresting. I'd like to see the Enterprise to be the crew's home, not that over used rock of dirt and water.
 
Need I go on?

Allow me to make a more specific point.

TMP: V'Ger wants to eat Earth.
TVH: A log wants to steam fry Earth.
FC: The Borg wants to assimilate Earth.
Nemesis: Shinzon wants to burn Earth.
Trek09: Nero wants to suck Earth.
Trek13: Benedict wants to terrorize Earth.

That's half of all the Star Trek movies that focus on some destructive force that wants to destroy Earth. For the movies themselves, it can be used to tell a much bigger story, but when so many of the films focus on it, it starts to show how the writers start to become heavily reliant on it. No pun intended.
 
And yet, as stated earlier, the complaints about Earth conveniently start with JJ trek.

Yeah, because Earth being in danger was used in the movie before his. It's not so much JJ giving Earth the spot light, but us getting tired of Earth having the spot light for so long. It's had the spotlight in every major Star Trek story for over a decade.
 
Yeah, because Earth being in danger was used in the movie before his. It's not so much JJ giving Earth the spot light, but us getting tired of Earth having the spot light for so long. It's had the spotlight in every major Star Trek story for over a decade.

That still doesn't chane the fact the several previous trek films (and shows) have spotlighted earth, and used the time travel element, but no mention of that in this thread...just complaints about JJ trek.

It's as though the trek fans were perfectly fine with Earth being in danger in several previous films, but as soon as JJ's name is attached tothe credits, that's where the line is drawn.
Just more of the bias that's been blatantly apparent over the past 40 pages.

Red matter is unacceptable because it somehow had strange properties but the genesis device creating a mini solar system from space dust is ok.

A fan explanation for Red Matter's properties is a no-no because it wasnt explained in the film, but a fan made explanation for the Genesis device space dust theory is perfectly Ok, even though its not explained in the film.

The alternate reality/time travel theory in the last trek must abide by previous trek time travel theories even though previous trek changed the theories constantly.

Complaints that the new trek is too much fx and action and yet the biggest complaint is about an FX cosmetic issue - lens flare.

The movie poster is released and instantly the entire film is judged as a wreck based on the image of the poster.

The film is bashed for having too much action and yet the most popular of all the trek films (wrath of Khan) had more action than any trek show prior.

Trek isn't smart enough and yet ST:TMP Is considered the smartest ofthe trek films and got so-so reviews and is considered boring by trek fans.

Anytime a flaw in the new franchise is compared to the previous trek some unheard of rule is concocted in order to justify the old series while maintaining the guilt on the new franchise.
The funny thing is the majority of the people complaining about JJ and his new trek will by in line bright and early to get their tickets for the movie...and soon after they'll be on here discussing it.

Need I go on.
 
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What's the problem with focusing on the importance of Earth? Is this taken as some form of prejudice? Are we making the Venusians into a second class race?

We are from Earth. The Federation starts with Earth.
 
We are from Earth. The Federation starts with Earth.

Because, like your quote implies, it puts humanity above every other established race in the galaxy. Gene Roddenberry once said "If we aren't writing about humans, what's the point?" and that's a quote I detest because, now I know this is going to sound silly, it's flat out arrogance and prejudice towards the other races in the show.

The Star Trek franchise has had many major reoccurring characters who were not human. Some would be Vulcan, Klingon, Bajoran, Trill, Cardassian, Changling, whatever Neelix was ect. To say that we should focus completely on humans and Earth when we have so many other races with stories to tell is in and of itself a prejudice. We are putting us above every other race for no other reason outside of the fact that they are not human. Star Trek may not always have been the super intellectual show many claim it is, but at least a big chunk of it was open minded about the universe in which these characters inhabit.
 
The film is bashed for having too much action and yet the most popular of all the trek films (wrath of Khan) had more action than any trek show prior.

Balance of Terror
The Galileo Seven
Shore Leave
Arena
A Taste of Armageddon
Space Seed
Errand of Mercy
The Doomsday Machine
Mirror, Mirror
The Gamesters of Triskelion
A Piece of the Action
The Ultimate Computer
Spectre of the Gun
Elaan of Troyius
Day of the Dove
The Savage Curtain
 
Balance of Terror
The Galileo Seven
Shore Leave
Arena
A Taste of Armageddon
Space Seed
The Doomsday Machine
Mirror, Mirror
The Gamesters of Triskelion
A Piece of the Action
The Ultimate Computer
Spectre of the Gun
Elaan of Troyius
Day of the Dove
The Savage Curtain

yup, more action than all of those.
 
"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to EXPLORE strange NEW worlds, to SEEK OUT new life and new civilizations, to boldly GO where no man has gone BEFORE."


now modify it so it fits with JJ Trek.

have fun!
 
Ooh, maybe in JJ's third installment we can get the Doomsday machine trying to eat the earth. Nothing like a giant alien machine in the form of space poo trying to eat ya up.
commadordecker.jpg


I could care less if Star Trek is Earth centric. Face it, Earth rules and all the other planets suck. Who cares if space poo or anything else is trying to destroy Vulcan, or Romulas, or Praxis. Well, maybe Risa and Orion. Kirk needs a place to unwind and hook up with green women.

Earth...home of the Federation, which is in America. Murica...F Yeah!
 
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Because, like your quote implies, it puts humanity above every other established race in the galaxy. Gene Roddenberry once said "If we aren't writing about humans, what's the point?" and that's a quote I detest because, now I know this is going to sound silly, it's flat out arrogance and prejudice towards the other races in the show.

The Star Trek franchise has had many major reoccurring characters who were not human. Some would be Vulcan, Klingon, Bajoran, Trill, Cardassian, Changling, whatever Neelix was ect. To say that we should focus completely on humans and Earth when we have so many other races with stories to tell is in and of itself a prejudice. We are putting us above every other race for no other reason outside of the fact that they are not human. Star Trek may not always have been the super intellectual show many claim it is, but at least a big chunk of it was open minded about the universe in which these characters inhabit.

I dont even know how to respond to this excuse...
 
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