I have come to realize that the JJ Abrams led Star Trek universe
is actually quite a bit like "Lost." Though there may be things
that don't get their proper due, there are many things that are SO steeped in
mythology that they seem non-sensical, and really just require the audience to
connect the dots. There are those who will argue that it shouldn't be
necessary to have to think so hard about your entertainment, and that's a
matter of taste. I find I love "Lost" because of my philosophical,
religious, and science fiction background. It all makes sense to me,
though I still want to know where they were going with Walt. I find I
love JJ Trek because of my deep knowledge of the existing Star Trek universe,
though I still want to know why Nero's wife had tattoos. Inspired by this brilliant defense of Lost which made me say "YES, OBVIOUSLY" 108 times, I decided to do just one more essay on The Abrams-verse and its peculiarities.
There are stylistic differences in new Trek regarding ships and
transporters that I hear a lot of complaints about: How does the Kelvin,
pre-Narada, have 800 people on board? Why does it only take the
Enterprise a few moments to get to Vulcan or Kronos? (And Yes, I am going
to spell it "Kronos" because I am not writing to a Klingon audience
in Klingon. I would also not reference "Munchen" in the place
of "Munich" or "Moskva" in the place of Moscow unless I was
writing to a German or Russian audience.) Why do you need Starships if
there is Transwarp Beaming? Why does Marcus have a hate-on for the
Klingons when the Romulans are the ones who attacked the previous year?
Why does so much of "Into Darkness" echo "The Wrath of
Khan"? There are in-universe answers to all of these inextricably
linking New Trek to Original Recipe if you deeply, deeply know your Trek.
"Lost" requires a bit of understanding of non-temporal afterlife to
put it all together. Abrams Trek requires you know Prime Trek. Intimately.
It happens I do.
First, let me set the primary stage one has to understand to put
all of it into perspective: A behemoth Romulan ship, enhanced beyond its simple
mining mission, brought technology from the late 24th Century to the early
23rd. With no regard for protecting any temporal Prime Directive, it
allowed full scans on the part of the Kelvin (the telemetry of which went with
the survivors back to Earth). The Klingons also held it for 25
years. We know there's full records from the Kelvin, because Pike did a
dissertation about it (and was likely on the Kelvin since he seems to have
known Kirk's dad). Starfleet was so wrapped around the axle on this that
they built a shipyard in George Kirk's hometown to honor him (the construction site
of which was the canyon little Jimmy sends his ‘Vette plummeting into) as
evidenced by the Kelvin saltshakers in the little Fleet bar. Indeed,
Section 31 even names their secret London facility after the Kelvin. We
know the Klingons have the Narada for a quarter century due to both the
Kelvin's radio traffic regarding their location, and Uhura intercepting the
breakout warning from the Klingon prison planet just before the Kelvin
returns. We even see that Nero had a hell of a time in prison because someone
between his first appearance and second has chewed off his right ear.
So, though the destruction of the Kelvin certainly has a
personal effect on Kirk, there are also larger ramifications for Starfleet and
the Federation. Not only do they suddenly have a big bunch of data to
work with from the future, but they are also convinced the Romulans are out
there with five mile long starships ready to Balance some Terror all over Earth
and her allies. In response we get a more military fleet less focused on
exploration for exploration's sake. This stays true until the last scene
in STID where Kirk, as undisputed Captain of the Federation flagship,
rededicates Starfleet to boldly going where no man has gone before. Now,
let's get into some specific questions.
Why does the Kelvin in 2233 have twice the crew of the TOS
Enterprise? First of all, we don't know from TOS exactly how big the
fleet is. We don't know what kind of ships besides the Constitution Class
are out there. Would I love to point to the Franz Joseph “Star Trek
Technical Manual” to see more TOS ships.
Sure. Or FASA’s ship guides? I would, but I can’t. We only have what’s on the show. There could be some very specialized vessels
with missions like, oh, say colonization. What evidence do I have Kelvin
was carrying a colony? James Kirk's past. Remember, ST:IV only says
Kirk is "from Iowa." I am "from" Arizona, grew up
there, have no childhood memories of anything different, but I was born in
California. We know though that Kirk doesn't spend his whole childhood in
Iowa; he is living in a colony when he is twelve, specifically Tarsus IV.
A colony that obviously isn't thriving, or else the governor would not be
executing citizens to conserve food. Maybe the supply lines are tough for
that colony. Maybe because they are near Klingon space. Is it a
stretch to think the Kelvin was on its way to drop the Tarsus colony when it
meets the Narada? Imagine a Starfleet vessel dropping a colony, and then
exploring that region of space while being the protector for the colony as
well. This mission would go back and forth and some Starfleet crew might
choose to have their families in the Colony to keep them from having to wait
until the space between tours to see them. The evidence is circumstantial,
but there. A fat, slow, overloaded colony ship might have hundreds more
on board, but it wouldn't be more advanced than the Constitution in the Prime
Universe.
Why does it only take the Enterprise a few moments to get
to Vulcan or Kronos? This is a good one; remember we never see the Kelvin at
warp. We don't see Starfleet vessels at warp until the incident on
Vulcan. Then, damn are they quick. Why? They are using the
tech they have developed from the Narada, and get ready: It's transwarp drive. That's right,
what the Federation couldn't pull off in the 2280s in the Prime Universe, Nero
has delivered. Look at it visually; they are flying in a transwarp
conduit. Why don't THEY call it Transwarp? Because, like the Europeans
in "Pulp Fiction" they don't know what the f***a quarter pounder
is. All they know is they have adapted an advanced warp drive.
"Transwarp" only comes into the vernacular from Prime Spock when
referring to Scotty's transwarp beaming equation. That's a huge clue by
the way as to how the Narada has
transwarp. Now, I could cite the "Countdown" comic which states
the Narada has Borg tech from a secret Romulan/Borg retro-engineering project,
but I want to stick with screen evidence regardless of "canon"
claims. The Narada is a Romulan ship from 2387. Regardless of the
excellent, but non-Canon Typhon Pact novels, it is reasonable to assume that if
Spock is still living on Romulus and traveling freely to Vulcan there is some
form of detente between the Romulans and the Federation. This makes
sense: not only where they allies in the Dominion War, Starfleet will likely
help them pick up the pieces with Donatra after the events of
"Nemesis" in 2379. Sometime before 2387, Starfleet gets
Transwarp drive, because it's SCOTTY who uses that drive to create transwarp
beaming. We don't see it in the Prime Universe before Nemesis, so it must
be in the 2380s Scotty develops the equation. So where does the
Federation get Transwarp? In 2378 the Voyager brings it back from the Delta
Quadrant. Admiral Janeway outfits the Voyager with Borg transwarp.
It would take a couple of years to get it ready for fleet deployment (hence we
don't see it in Nemesis) but then its there and something to share with
allies. Including the Romulans, who include it on the Narada. The
Narada carries it back to 2233, and the improved 1701 can get to Kronos to
Earth in minutes. Again, it all lines up.
Why do you need Starships if there is Transwarp Beaming? Aside from the fact
that it looks like transwarp beaming can be imprecise and difficult (Scotty in
the waterworks) there are two very important things for which it would be
useless: exploration of new worlds and defense.
Those happen to be Starfleet's primary mission sets. Beaming a guy from Earth to Vul…uh, Andoria (what, too soon?) is great and will revolutionize travel and logistics in the
new 23rd Century. It won’t
allow you to make detailed scans of a planet’s ecosystem, or a culture’s
advancement from orbit before putting someone on the surface. Perhaps one day you could beam probes there,
but there will still need to be starships out charting the systems. Additionally, when a whole fleet of really
pissed off Klingons drop out of warp in your solar system, you ability to beam
a couple of dudes to another planet is again not particularly helpful. STID showed there are certainly ramifications
and consequences to transwarp beaming in the wrong hands; it has not negated the need for
starships.
Why does Marcus
have a hate-on for the Klingons when the Romulans are the ones who attacked the
previous year? This goes back to the discussion regarding the Narada’s
changes. The Federation and Klingons
have both benefitted from future tech; ironically and perhaps tragically Nero’s
interference has again doomed his planet.
The Romulans get no exposure to the Narada. Perhaps their spies can glean some info from
their enemies (unless Starfleet starts building ships on the surface instead of
in orbit making it tough for cloaked starships to see) but the Narada
revelation also makes the appearance of Romulans known at large to the
Federation. Remember, in TOS regardless
of the war a century prior, no one knew what Romulans looked like. Their ability to infiltrate as Vulcan spies
was probably fantastic. Now though, the
Kelvin reads Romulan language and equates to these pointy-eared guys in the big
ship. We know the Federation knows more
now than their Prime counterparts because Spock in 2258 knows the Romulans and
Vulcans share a common heritage. These
guys have been outed, and though for a while Starfleet believes they might have
a killer doomsday machine ship, there’s no further evidence of that. In fact
all the observable Romulan ships are pretty quaint compared to the Federation
Starfleet. MEANWHILE, the Klingons are
getting bolder and keeping pace. They
manage to clean up that whole augment blood virus that made TOS Klingons look
like Genghis Khan well ahead of schedule. (First use of magic Augment blood
serum, by the way, thank you very much.)
And, their accelerated tech development has already exhausted a key
energy production facility: Praxis is already in ruins. As I recall from ST:VI that alone was going
to lead to war unless something could be negotiated. The Klingons are the
immanent and imminent threat to the Federation. Marcus would know this, and apply LOTS of
Narada tech to the baby he’s apparently been working on for a while (which is
why he has a model on his desk), but needs Khan to perfect: The Vengeance. We are reminded of this by the simple fact
that the Vengeance actually looks like the Narada: a black behemoth ready to
kick everyone’s ass. (Yet, like with the Narada, the Enterprise survives the
unbeatable foe!) On a side note, would I
sure love to see the new Romulans reach out in desperation to the Vulcans, who
need a home and more genetic diversity THROUGH SPOCK PRIME who has always
wanted to unify the two. There’s a
backstory for a third film.
Why does so
much of "Into Darkness" echo/ripoff/mimic/steal from "The Wrath of Khan"? Simple answer
here: the JJ Verse wants to be like the Prime-verse. Sounds silly? It's not, it's Trek Canon established over and over. Look at every alternate universe we see across Star Trek. They all
share great similarities. When Kirk and
the crew in “Mirror, Mirror” go through to another dimension, they don’t end up
on Babylon 5 or Lost in Space, then end up in a universe SO similar to theirs
the ship and crew are virtually identical.
They are even on the same mission in the same relative part of space and
using the transporter at the same moment.
When Worf goes universe hopping in “Parallels” he finds 144,000
universes so similar they all produced the NCC-1701-D. Events in “nearby” universes seem to follow
similar patterns. Why would the JJ Verse
be any different? In the OS episode
“City on the Edge of Forever” Spock mentions that time follows certain
“currents and eddies” like a river. Even
when the universe had changed due to McCoy saving Edith Keeler, Kirk and
Spock’s trip through the Guardian brought them to that location. The situation is very similar to New Kirk
just happening to run into Prime Spock in a cave on Delta Vega. (One more
sidebar: as much as I defend the new movies, calling that planet Delta Vega was
bullshit. It should have been PSI 2000,
and then when they beamed on the Enterprise, Scotty could mention showering
with his clothes on.) Now, I am going to
go outside of my mission statement for just a moment on this one, because I
think there are two very dramatic statements made by the writers here: 1) By
putting the characters through the same set of similar circumstances we get to
see how they are like and different from their Prime counterparts. It’s important in defining where the series
will go. 2) The deliberate insertion of
Spock Prime drives home the fact that this is not a remake of either Space Seed
or Wrath of Khan, but rather a sequel to both of them. This is Superman facing Zod like this father
did, or Luke having to make the same choice as Anakin while Palpatine looks on
from in front of a big window, or Forrest Jr. getting on the bus like Forrest
senior. The juxtaposition of these
scenes shows you how the follow on characters will act in their predecessors’
worlds, and it’s a big dramatic cue for this series.
There are other questions I could get into here that are more
plot oriented: why is the Enterprise in Nabiru’s ocean? Why does Khan hide his people in
torpedoes? Why does the Enterprise get
caught in Earth’s gravity? Why does
Carol choose to change clothes in a shuttlecraft? The answers are in there,
some better than others. Those might be
questions for another post, but my goal here is only to point out that JJs Trek
universe is entirely embedded within the Prime Trek universe. It is not a reboot, but an extension and
utterly dependent on what went before, like all the Trek sequels. Now, I may be connecting dots the writers
never considered. (I’d ask Bob Orci, but
we chased him off Twitter.) Fans have
ALWAYS brought more to the viewing of Star Trek than what was intended. That’s the whole reason our fandom was born
in the first place. Being a fan is not a
“set to receive” relationship. It’s
interactive, and we all work within our favorite fictions. It’s where half our expectations for TOS come
from in the first place. Spock the first
Vulcan in Starfleet? Fandom. In fact it
contradicts “The Immunity Syndrome” where the Intrepid is entirely manned by
Vulcans, at least one of which must outrank Spock (unless we think he’s not as
exemplary as others). But we see it as
so, because fandom connected dots.
That’s what you do when you love something, you explore it, like any
great fiction. New Trek is flashier,
faster, and at times freakier than any previous Trek. Connect those dots though and you will see
New Trek is still Trek.
