This movie is the exact same movie as Generations, except with the cast of The Original Series and slightly less bad physics ("Fly through the corona of the sun to go so fast you reverse the flow of time" still isn't as bad as "shoot a star, stop it's light, suddenly gravity has the reverse effect of what you'd expect").
I kid you not. The movie isn't fantastic, and it's got an over-bearing, heavy-handed moral, just like Generations. But it's so freaking hilarious that I will forgive a MULTITUDE of sins. And it doesn't actually have a multitude of sins. Just a few. Let's discuss?
FIRST! Time travel. Slingshot around the sun to pick up a lot of velocity. Sound physics there. Slingshot around the sun at 9.95 times the speed of light to pick up a lot of velocity? Um... yeah. Your momentum at those speeds (we'll pretend you're in normal space, which isn't possible but whatever) would probably prevent the gravitational attraction of the sun from having much of an effect on your direction, let alone your speed. Also, while special relativity does theorize that time travel is possible at really high speeds, they're talking about significant fractions of the speed of light. Not significant multiples of the speed of light. And you need a stationary reference point. The fact of the matter is, time travel, while theoretically possible, only works going backward, and wouldn't work in the situation shown in the movie. But that's a whole other can of worms, far beyond the contents of this paragraph. Suffice it to say, it's not a deal-breaker considering this isn't the first time we see time travel in Star Trek. It's a part of the universe, so we'll let it slide.
The second issue is the moral. Or rather, the delivery of the moral. I don't have issues with an anti-whaling moral. DON'T KILL WHALES GUYS! See, I even support it. But the way the moral is delivered in this movie is... too much. Just, guys? It's Star Trek. We know you're going to make episodes about environmental impacts. We expect it. But an alien race flies to Earth to make contact with the whales, starts vaporizing the oceans in order to do so (which would probably not be all that great for the whales that live in them), and then fly away after talking to a couple of humpbacks displaced in time for a few minutes? That's... dumb. Like, that makes no sense. "Save the whales or we'll all be boiled by a cigar ship!"
Clearly that's an environmental message in need of some direction.
Other than that, however, I don't have any issues with this movie. The rest of it is pretty good, and the humor is about the best thing ever. Literally about the best thing ever. Just watch this.
I mean, do I really need to say anything else? This movie holds this spot based solely on the strength of its humor. And that's all it really needs.
I kid you not. The movie isn't fantastic, and it's got an over-bearing, heavy-handed moral, just like Generations. But it's so freaking hilarious that I will forgive a MULTITUDE of sins. And it doesn't actually have a multitude of sins. Just a few. Let's discuss?
FIRST! Time travel. Slingshot around the sun to pick up a lot of velocity. Sound physics there. Slingshot around the sun at 9.95 times the speed of light to pick up a lot of velocity? Um... yeah. Your momentum at those speeds (we'll pretend you're in normal space, which isn't possible but whatever) would probably prevent the gravitational attraction of the sun from having much of an effect on your direction, let alone your speed. Also, while special relativity does theorize that time travel is possible at really high speeds, they're talking about significant fractions of the speed of light. Not significant multiples of the speed of light. And you need a stationary reference point. The fact of the matter is, time travel, while theoretically possible, only works going backward, and wouldn't work in the situation shown in the movie. But that's a whole other can of worms, far beyond the contents of this paragraph. Suffice it to say, it's not a deal-breaker considering this isn't the first time we see time travel in Star Trek. It's a part of the universe, so we'll let it slide.
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| This really should have ended with more flames. And more death. |
The second issue is the moral. Or rather, the delivery of the moral. I don't have issues with an anti-whaling moral. DON'T KILL WHALES GUYS! See, I even support it. But the way the moral is delivered in this movie is... too much. Just, guys? It's Star Trek. We know you're going to make episodes about environmental impacts. We expect it. But an alien race flies to Earth to make contact with the whales, starts vaporizing the oceans in order to do so (which would probably not be all that great for the whales that live in them), and then fly away after talking to a couple of humpbacks displaced in time for a few minutes? That's... dumb. Like, that makes no sense. "Save the whales or we'll all be boiled by a cigar ship!"
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| Enormous power-draining space cigars. Still a better ship than the Narada. |
Clearly that's an environmental message in need of some direction.
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| Though to be fair, it's possible the writers were working haphazardly toward this shot right from the beginning, a method I heartily support. |
Other than that, however, I don't have any issues with this movie. The rest of it is pretty good, and the humor is about the best thing ever. Literally about the best thing ever. Just watch this.
I mean, do I really need to say anything else? This movie holds this spot based solely on the strength of its humor. And that's all it really needs.
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