But he blew it by

I thought that was great. Added real emotional depth to the story and both characters and it was surprising and right.

I loved Scotty, Chekov and Kirk. Pine played Kirk with just the right mix of Shatner with a bit of (I think) Val Kilmer's Doc Holiday. Plus the comedy.

And what's with not liking Simon Pegg?! I vote wrongcakes.

"Do they have sandwiches in the future?"

Plus there was his little cabbage headed Ewok fuckbuddy.

I thought that was great. Added real emotional depth to the story and both characters and it was surprising and right.

Perhaps if there had been any other strong female characters it wouldn't have pinged me so hard. Plus having had her in her bra and panties earlier on in the movie cemented for me just what her role in the film was intended to be.

I really don't think "fuckbuddy" is an accurate description of the Spock/Uhura relationship as it was written. I found it surprisingly mature and respectful on both sides.

played Kirk's character for laughs so much

OMG, his antics with Bones had me in stitches. Real honest-to-dog laughter mingled with advancing the plot.

And what's with not liking Simon Pegg?!

Whereas, while I love SP, Scotty's humour seemed to be apart from the story and characters. Tense scene? Let's button it with a nonsequitur with a one-liner from Scotty! Rinse, repeat! It's not Scotty and therefore SP that I personally didn't like, it was how he was incorporated into the story throughout.

I thought that was great. Added real emotional depth to the story and both characters and it was surprising and right.

Agreed. I don't have a recollection of much interest in Uhura. She always seemed to be the chick repeating the crap she heard, but now there's background and depth and intelligence and mad capability that I could see her being capable of loving someone so reserved as Spock reflecting on why she was so damned good at the linguistics, and vice versa. But the relationship had more bearing on my increased interest in Spock and rounding him out beyond the "logic".

I thought what was interesting about the Uhura in her underwear scene was that the underwear in question was, well, functional. Plain, white, not at all skimpy, no attempt to look sexy. Plus, she didn't even seem phased by the fact that she was seen in her underwear. She came across as annoyed at her roommate and annoyed at Kirk.

I think they could have learned from BSG and perhaps cast a woman in one of the primary, formerly male, roles.

That's really not an option. BSG was completely starting over, Star Trek was an alternate timeline that was still part of the whole Star Trek universe that has been established. If Old!Spock had run into Scotty, for example, and he'd changed gender, Spock would have to suspect there was a whole lot more going on than a pissy miner on a vengeance kick.

Anne, yeah, neither party seemed particularly concerned about being seen in their underwear. Awesome!

Jessica, you're right that fuckbuddy is too strong a word. It just frustrated me that the only main female character was there primarily as a sex object. She was hit on by Kirk, shown in her underwear, and dating Spock. It bugged me.

I thought that was great. Added real emotional depth to the story and both characters and it was surprising and right.

Agreed.

And while they could have, in theory, brought on Number One and Nurse Doppelganger Chapel (and the casting suggestions I've seen for those roles have been great--especially the Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Garner + Blonde Wig one), I'd rather see either or both of them in a sequel. TOS had one core female character in Uhura. To give each core character a critical moment in the span of about 2hrs, when you have Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Bones, Uhura, and Scotty all needing one (PLUS Spock Prime), you wouldn't have had time to do more than nod to them in passing (which I hear was done with Chapel, but in two viewings, I haven't managed to catch that). They populated the ships and the Academy with a lot of women, which was pretty cool. And Uhura got to punch Kirk. Which was AWESOME.

So what I'm saying is, given the existing structure they had to work with, they did a better job than I expected.

And what's with not liking Simon Pegg?! I vote wrongcakes.

I like Simon Pegg fine in Shaun of the Dead. Here, his tonally jarring and inappropriate-to-character slapstick made it seem like he'd been cut and pasted from an episode of Red Dwarf and made me wish Scotty had been left in exile on the ice planet.

Or on Vulcan .