Granted, I’m no expert on Star Trek canon, but the Enterprise wasn’t built on the surface of a planet. A ship such as that would certainly have to be built in a space dock, wouldn’t it? And if it’s the 23rd damn century, why do you have dudes welding on the ship?!? Shouldn’t a ship designed to stand up to directed energy blasts (phasers, right?) not be made out of stuff that can be welded? (Phaser > Welding Arc) Are we still so low on the technology tree in three hundred years?
Don’t get me wrong. I like J. J. Abrams style of film thus far. Both Mission Impossible 3 and Cloverfield were good, but what’s up with him making it look like the Enterprise was made in China? I’m not a Trekkie. I have watched all the movies (I even own the “good” ones on DVD), but even I recognize when someone has unzipped their trousers in order to commence irrigating a beloved universe/license.
My excitement and optimism for the film is waning fast. Let’s await Foxbat’s comments (a bona fide Trekkie) and see if I have reason to worry.
Fine, put me on the spot…
However, a correction must be made now. I consider the term ‘Trekkie’ as one solely devoted to Star Trek and its genre above and beyond anything else. ‘Trekker’ is one who enjoyes the genre immensly but not to the exclusion of other things. Ergo, I catagorize myself as a ‘Trekker’. Now that we have that nit out of the way…
Not being an expert in the genre, I would conclude the fabrication of the ship components (the smaller pieces) on a planet would not be out of the ordinary. Ship the completed components up to the space dock and put them together with a zero-G environment seems plausible (i.e. our own international space station).
As for the welding, suspend your disbelief for a MOMENT, and pretend (that’s what sci-fi is sometimes about…) they’re using highly advanced fusion arc generators that happen to resemble the functionality of their predecessors… And remember, the ships have several layers of defenses, depending on the genre (Shields, ablative armor, hull plating and so on…) so you’re probably seeing a work in progress, not necessarily the final product.
As for my hopes on the movie… I’m just glad someone finally got Paramount off their butt and got this franchise going again. It’s not the dream team I was hoping for (J. M. Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame offered and idea before Paramount shelved the franchise a few years back…), and a rehash of the Kirk Era may not be the most fertile bed to grow it in, but it’s a start. I remain cautiously optimistic on how it will do, in hopes that it will spur other things in the Franchise. I will go see it a few weeks after its release, unless my circle of friends and/or critics destroy it in their reviews…
If you really want to get entirely too much information about the minutia of Star Trek, go here:
http://www.ditl.org/forum/index.php
But I warn you now, these people are THE hard core ‘Trekkies’ of which I spoke about at the beginning of all this.
Isn’t this film #11? The trailer could be sex on a stick but we all know the curse of odd numbered trek films. I love J.J. Abrams (especially LOST) but the terrestrial starship construction struck me as off the mark.
Perhaps it’s an issue of physics (the building of ship parts on a terrestial object). Can you make alloys in zero-G? I don’t recall seeing anything in canon of a ‘raw ore to spaceship production’ line. They get raw materials in one place (Planet or asteroid), send it to a refining station – Terak Nor (Deep Sapce 9), then send the or to a fabrication facility, none of which I can recall as being in space, and then send the completed components to a space dock to put it all together.
It’s a non-issue for me, really. I could care less how and where they built it and if it’s feasable or plausible. When it’s done, it’s Enterprise, and let let the good times roll.
Actually, since the movie takes place before Star Trek the Motion Picture, wouldn’t it be film # Zero, thus shifting the curse to the odd numbered films?
LOL @ “sex on a stick.”
I just always had these glorious visions of the ship being fabricated in space with raw materials from asteroids and such. Any time in the movies the Enterprise collided with the atmosphere, it resulted in bad things. Star Trek 3 and Star Trek Generations, I think?
Oh, well. Foxbat says “don’t worry” so I’m not going to worry. Yet.