I have to agree with Jessica that it was the building up of the Spock/Kirk relationship that makes this movie work.

Yeah. I thought this was done very well. Often it's rather subtle, as when Spock calls Kirk "Jim" for the first time.

(I don't think this is spoilery, but I hid it just in case....)

Damn. Haven't seen it yet. But I will be seeing it at an Imax theater this coming Sunday. Wheeee!

I enjoyed Star Trek, but - much to my surprise - not as much as I expected I would.

I just hate narrative shortcuts where things fall too easily into place for the characters and this whole movie pretty much runs on that principle to get the crew all together by the end.

I can actually buy Kirk getting the captaincy as his actions not only saved the Enterprise as they arrived at Vulcan, they also saved the Earth. But McCoy, Uhuru and especially Scotty getting permanent senior positions just like that? Must have left a lot of other Starfleet officers feeling pretty pissy about this bunch of over-privileged cadets.

As for the Romulans apparently vanishing for 23 years, I could totally buy that if they had made one single comment about going into cryo. After all their plan of revenge hinged on the red matter in Spock's craft so they didn't really have much to do until he showed up. I also got the impression that it was a different location due to the lack of a nearby star in shot. Still, given that they were pretty much certain they were in the right spot at the right time, it would have been nice if there'd been a throw away line about having gotten better at tracking the energy from the time distortions.

Finally, my only major quibble was Engineering. I hated the look of it. Not because it didn't look like what had come before, but because it just didn't feel like part of the ship. There was some minimal set-dressing on what appeared to be an actual factory. A few more bulkhead walls or something that was a visual link to the other levels of the Enterprise would have been nice. Engineering simply didn't look like it was on the same ship. It bugged me sufficiently that every time there was a shot of Engineering it took me out of the movie.

On the upside, my personal geek moment was the beauty shot of the Enterprise rising out of Titan's atmosphere. That was glorious.

Oh, and there's one other thing that bothers me. I'm not getting another 'episode' next week.

Edit: Because the spoiler font clearly likes fucking with me.

"But McCoy, Uhuru and especially Scotty getting permanent senior positions just like that? Must have left a lot of other Starfleet officers feeling pretty pissy about this bunch of over-privileged cadets."

okay, so I think this can be explained: I thought they had graduated by this time because they had spent 3-4 years in cadet school. Uhuru had language skills nearly unmatched so she got an instant promotion anyway. McCoy took over for the doctor who was killed (another promotion) and Scotty came up with a way to move people at warp speed.

I bought that they all got promotions because they all did some extraordinary work. McCoy is probably the only one who is questionable.

I agree with Pete about the look of engineering. It took me out of the film the first time I watched it. All the steel beams were riveted together like a bridge. Plus all the water tubes? And the big stainless steel vats? What, were they brewing beer in there?

The second and third times I watched it, I just didn't let it bother me.

See, I think it's because tons of people got killed at Vulcan, pretty much including Kirk's entire graduating class, and whatever senior officers were on those ships.

I still don't buy it, le nubian. World of difference between taking over in the thick of things and being given the senior position above all the other people who have been working towards a promotion.

I know it's something you have to let go of to get the franchise into a semi-familiar shape but could it have seemed just a little less like a bunch of fresh cadets getting all the plum jobs all at once?

Dana, that's a pretty good point. Not 100% convinced but that goes a long way to answer that quibble.

Good point, Dana. Plus they probably had to replace all the lost ships, creating opportunity for advancement for many...

Durring WWII, the US Navy built so many new ships, they were constantly removing skilled people from existing ships and using them as the core of new ship personnel...

I have Trekgasmed. If there are nits, I'll leave them unpicked because OMGSTARTREK! It was beautifully done.