Trek Trailer Treats

 Blimey, it's been a fortnight since First Contact Day and I've finally gotten round to posting my thoughts on the new trailers and info. Better late than never, I guess.

DISCOVERY SEASON 4

Discovery season four sees the crew, now under the command of Captain Michael Burnham, confronted with some kind of gravitational disaster that is threatening everyone and everything. They've only just solved the mystery of the Burn and now they're dealing with another cosmic crisis that threatens the whole galaxy – give these poor people a week off! It seems that S4 will carry on in much the same vein as S3, trying to rebuild the Federation while space travel, even space itself, is falling apart. I'd hoped for a bit more, well, discovery in this season, and we might still get that, but the trailer makes it look like we'll mostly be seeing places and people we recognise. 

I'm loving the colourful new uniforms, much better than the dreary grey ones the Disconauts ended up at the end of last season, although it reinforces the impression that Starfleet spends most of its time designing clothes for its officers. Clearly Book and Saru are to remain important in the series. Detmer also gets a bit of focus in the trailer, but that might just be because she's so hot. We see some hints here that the Vulcans are mending their relationship with the Federation, with the President of Ni'Var making some positive speeches, and we also see someone in authority in the Federation itself – perhaps the Federation President, oft-mentioned but unseen in S3? She appears to be part-Cardassian, which hints again that the Cardassians joined the UFP at some point between the 24th and 32nd centuries.

PICARD SEASON 2

   

The Picard teaser really is just that, just enough to tell us that Q is back. Initially released without the interview, this was a nice surprise – well, not a huge surprise, but a nice revelation. I can't wait to see how Picard and Q interact in this new era, with Picard's age, more cynical attitude and new status as an artificial being surely changing the dynamic. (I presume that John de Lancie's physical age will be explained as a conceit for Picard, or perhaps a mockery.) 

Picard S2 has a lot to cover. The first season gave us the rights of artificial life forms, the repurcussions of the Romulan supernova, the fallout of the Borg incursion into known space, and didn't always manage to balance it all. S2 has to follow up on all this, plus Picard's new incarnation and the return of Q. That's a lot to fit in (and I still want to see them explore the rights of holograms in this era, and how it relates to the ban on artificial life). It's good to read that the showrunners have accepted there were pacing and writing issues in the first season, and that they have planned out more fully were the story is going this year. I'm ultimately just glad we're seeing the series return, especially seeing how production was stopped for a while due to COVID (Patrick Stewart being an elderly man, after all). 

We also know that Whoopi Goldberg is back as Guinan (and with Q as well – will we learn about their mysterious past encounters?), and there are persistent rumours of Robert Picardo joining as the Doctor. One interesting aside from the teaser is the inclusion of a sacred Bajoran relic among Picard's collection of cool galactic stuff – just a reused bit of set dressing, or a hint at something more intriguing?

LOWER DECKS SEASON 2

 

Life seems to be carrying on as normal for Lower Decks, which is to say, utter chaos and monsters (there's a mugato! Sweet!) A well as a bunch of new bizarre creatures, we're meeting both the Cardassians and Denobulans again (about time). Plenty more references to the franchise, as expected – a Miranda-class starship like the classic Reliant, seemingly plucked from the 23^rd century; Mariner picking up Riker's ultimate martial arts skills, Riker banging on about jazz as always. It looks like life's more stressful than ever for Bradward Boimler, as we might have predicted. And we only have until August to see it!

STRANGE NEW WORLDS

Strangely, we haven't had any footage from either Strange New Worlds or Prodigy, even though the former has begun filming in earnest and the latter is supposedly landing later this year. A general trailer released about a month ago recycled footage from Discovery S2 and Short Treks to represent SNW, while all we'e had from Prodigy is some artwork of the characters. Still, what we've seen and heard is intriguing.

I'm relieved to read that showrunner Akiva Goldsman is making SNW more episodic than the other series he's overseeing. Not because I dislike the serialised structure, but because it's something a little different, and suggests we'll be doing more standalone adventures on those strange new worlds of the title. He's particularly spoken about having tonally different episodes following each other, which will be a refreshing change from the more holistically styled series we've had recently. It sounds like the series is deliberately being set up to be more like classic Trek and there's nothing wrong with a bit of that amongst today's modern storytelling.

PRODIGY

Prodigy is sounding more interesting the more we hear about it. Given that it's designed for younger viewers, new to the franchise, I expected it to be very standalone. From the sounds of it, it both is and isn't. The main characters (bar one) appear to be entirely new alien species (there's one who might be a Talaxian, but it's hard to be sure with the art style). Yet it's being positioned as a follow-up to Voyager: set in the Delta Quadrant in 2383 (five years after Voyager finished, three years on from Lower Decks and four years before Romulus gets destroyed, fact fans), it features an Emergency Training Hologram based on Captain Janeway.

This is a really interesting way to bring back her character, rather than simply having an older Admiral Janeway getting involved. I'm also glad to hear that Kate Mulgrew asked the artists to tone down the prettiness of her holographic image. She's still quite prettified, which makes me imagine the original design must have been like something out of a Disney film. But look at those aliens! One of them is a blob! A proper blob monster like Yaphet on The Orville. I'm stoked for a modern kids' adventure series take on Trek, and having a whole bunch of new aliens as main characters is the icing on the cake.

STAR TREK 4/STAR TREK 14?

And finally... Paramount have confirmed that there's going to be a new Star Trek film in 2023. I mean, don't hold your breath for them to actually make that date, what with all the to-ing nad fro-ing on the movie front the last few years, but it's still encouraging. It's stated it'll be produced by J.J. Abrams, so I would expect it'll be another Kelvin Timeline film, but frankly, who can be sure? Kurtzam has also said that the line between the film and TV franchises is now gone (thanks to CBS and Paramount now making friends again), but given they were literally in separate universes before it's a mystery how this will actually work.

I can confirm that Bustin' continues to Make Me Feel Good

Well, that was exciting!

Having watched this trailer, oh, a few times this evening, that's my strongest reaction. It's exciting. It looks like an adventure. Yes, it's clearly a film made in the shadow of Stranger Things and the IT adaptation; it's even got Finn Wolfhard, the go-to kid for eighties nostalgia movies. As grandson of Egon Spengler, Trevor looks like he's going to be a great protagonist, but it's Mckenna Grace as his sister Phoebe who I really want to see more of. Just from these glimpses, she's got some real presence. I've only seen her in Captain Marvel, but from what I read, she's quite something, and it looks like she's a real character actor, unlike Wolfhard who, although brilliant, plays to type.

Then we have Paul Rudd, who's always a joy to watch. I like the idea of someone who was actually there in the original and remembers the “Manhattan Cross-Rip.” He'd have been fourteen when the original was released, and, although Rudd is apparently ageless, I assume his character is going to be around the same age as the actor. It makes sense that the events of the original would have passed into legend, and that's not a bad reflection of how we fans feel about the film. There's a real frisson seeing the old equipment – proton packs, a ghost trap (apparently still occupied) and, of course, Ecto 1, bruised and battered but never bettered.

It doesn't feel like the originals. It doesn't really feel like any version of Ghostbusters we've seen before. It feels like a modern adventure film clearly (and sensibly) with an eye on a young audience. It also looks like it might be quite dark, which might be down to the cut of this trailer, or might reflect a more serious version of the concept. Then again, there were a couple of horror movie moments in the originals (heads on fricking spikes), and even The Real Ghostbusters got surprisingly dark at times.

The trailer doesn't make the film look very funny, but then, the trailer for the original didn't much either. It's hard to judge, on one trailer, how this will play out. Have they left out all the jokes, or is this easing us into a more serious version of the franchise? So far, there are two elements that are certain: excitement and nostalgia (and pretty much the entire surviving main cast of Ghostbusters one and two are returning for the film).

We've been here before. This is the third attempt at Ghostbusters 3, after Dan Aykroyd's own script, which stalled and stalled and was eventually recycled for Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and the 2016 reboot, now renamed Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, which I thoroughly enjoyed but utterly failed to set the world alight and didn't do anywhere near well enough to start its own franchise. Still, it did well enough and generated enough talk to show that there was still a lot of interest in the Ghostbusters property.

This looks like a good balance of honouring the originals while pushing ahead into something new. The reboot suffered from trying to be two things: an entirely new vision of Ghostbusters and a cameo-fest for fans of the original. This, potentially, can balance it better. There's a reason for the old cast to appear, and while that still might end up as glorified cameos, it's more fitting than having them appear as new characters. I mean, those cameos were cute, but all they succeeded in doing was make you long for the originals. Here, echoing the originals is kind of the point. Sure, it might backfire, but it could also really work.

And what a beautiful way to honour Harold Ramis. When he died, it looked like Ghostbusters was finished, but if anything, it made the remaining cast realise that they were running out of time to reunite (and seemingly kicked Bill Murray out of his sulk). Having a new generation of Spenglers is a lovely touch, and Wolfhard and Grace just look the part. Plus, you know, it accepts that it's been a long time since the original film, and it's better to embrace that and make something of it than pretend we're just picking up where we left off.

There will be more trailers. I'd like to see more jokes, more ghosts, more of Grace and perhaps a glimpse of the returning cast. But for now, this has me interested.

Exciting Star Trek news! Picard trailer!

Now, how ruddy exciting is that?

Straight from SDCC is a whole raft of info on the new slate of Star Trek series coming out in the near future. At the forefront of every old school fan's mind is just how will Star Trek: Picard play out? With the first full trailer now available, I'm more excited than I have been in years about a Trek production - probably since the 2009 movie was announced. There's an thoughtful tone to the trailer, but it still offers plenty of action among the introspection. And while I want to see new things from new Trek, Picard and the post-Nemesis universe are elements of the franchise that are worth exploring.

Naturally, I want to dissect this trailer and analyse everything in the hopes of predicting its course. It's confirmed in dialogue that it's set around 2397, "almost two decades" since Data's sacrifice in Star Trek Nemesis, set in 2379. This, then, puts it around ten years after the destruction of Romulus and Remus in 2387, as seen in Star Trek (2009). Last we saw Picard, he was making the first steps towards a lasting peace with the Romulan Empire. Given that he was also close to Spock and involved in his attempts at Vulcan-Romulan reunification, the destruction of Romulus is naturally something that will be weighing heavily on his mind.

Beyond this, things are more mysterious. There are a number of Romulans in the trailer, so Picard still has some kind of relationship with the people. Much more surprising is the inclusion of brent Spiner as Data. Spiner has previously been very reluctant to take up the role again, particularly as he is getting older and would struggle to play an ageless android these days. Of course, the Marvel films have pushed the way forward for convincing de-ageing algorithms, so it's possible to have him take on the role realistically again. At the beginning, Data is in pieces, which is actually rather rude health considering he appeared to be vaporised in Nemesis. (On the other hand, it could be his "brother," B-4, whose body is used.)

The other surprise cast member is Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, which is actually something i was half-expecting (well, it's what I'd have done). Seven was a fascinating character, and the chance to see how she's developed over twenty years in the Alpha Quadrant is irresistible. Moreover, Picard may have an interesting relationship with her, given their history with the Borg. We even see a Borg cube, although this could, of course, be a flashback. There also appears to be a Borg body - possibly Hugh, who has been rumoured to be in the show.

The main new character appears to be the mysterious young woman played by Isa Briones. There's no clue to who she really is, other than she's about twenty, good at fighting, and trusts Picard. Still, appearances are deceptive. My money is on Lal, Data's daughter. She died after only a couple of weeks of life, but technology and research must have moved on in the last thirty years of Trek history. If they can rebuild Data, couldn't they rebuild her? Yet a Romulan character seems to think she's a threat, and it flashes directly to the Borg cube. I wonder if perhaps this suggests tension between technological and biological life?

Most importantly, as the recent poster reveals, Picard has a dog. His name is Number One, because of course it is.

Trailer rundown - part two

Bohemian Rhapsody 

 

Queen are perhaps the greatest pop rock band of all time, and Freddie Mercury was a true icon. It's safe to say that this film is important to a lot of people. It looks promising - for one thing, Rami Malek is perfectly cast as Freddie and is the dead spit of him when he sings - but it could easily turn out to be underwhelming. Different trailers have hinted at romance with women, while this one at least suggests more to his sexuality, but we could really do with an honest portrayal of the bisexual superstar. Really hoping this one is as good as it should be.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters



I quite enjoyed the 2014 Godzilla, although it took far too long to get in on the monster action. It doesn't look like this one is going to have that problem. Godzilla! Mothra! Rodan! King Ghidorah! Nice to see Sally Hawkins back, and great to see Millie Bobby Brown become the film star she's destined to be. On the other hand, how derivative is this? MBB is a spooky kid with some kind of connection to a monster, Charles Dance is ominous and goes on about kings... Still, it's probably silly to see the 35th Godzilla movie and complain about it being derivative.

Aquaman




This one looks pretty good. Glad to see that DC aren't taking this too seriously, given the inherent silliness of the character. Kind of going off Momoa given his dickishness at conventions and the like but he does carry this part bloody well. Whether it's enough to make the film work is another matter, but it does at least look fun. The Black Manta looks amazing.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald

I'm not the biggest Harry Potter fan but I really enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts film. This sequel looks like more of the same, but ramped up with more threat supplied by the villainous Grindlewald. Hopefully this will turn out to be one of Johnny Depp's great performances, rather than his increasingly ropey ones in recent years. Casting Jude Law as Dumbledore is a great choice; he's surprisingly good at playing fuddyish characters now he's older. Joshua Shea looks perfect as the young Newt. This should be good fun.

Trailer rundown

It's Comic con time in San Diego, which means there's trailers galore. So, what's coming up?

Doctor Who season eleven



After the rather pointless teaser aired during the FIFA World Cup final, we finally get a proper trailer for the thirteenth Doctor's debut series. Jodie Whittaker looks like she's going to be absolutely perfect, but the trailer really doesn't tell us much about the series. Would it kill them to show us a monster, or a historical figure, or play us some dialogue with the companions? It still feels like we know nothing new about the series. One thing we do know is that the Daleks are taking a breather, which is probably for the best.

Star Trek: Discovery season two

This looks pretty grand. There's even more of a hint of Abrams Trek to this than the first season, but it also looks like Discovery is getting back to the sense of exploration than Trek is known best for, albeit with some mysteries and threats to face. Anson Mount looks like he should make a great Captain Pike - Bruce Greenwood is still my favourite though - and it's also been reported that Rebecca Romijn is set to play his executive officer, Number One. Spock's absence is clearly a major plot point, while we know he does make an appearance in the season at some point this might just refer to the reported flashback scenes to his and Burnham's youth.

As well as this exciting and visually remarkable trailer - love the Saurian crewman - it's also reported that, among other initiatives, the gap between now and next year's season will be filled by mini-episodes called Short Treks. Lots to look forward to here.

The Orville season two



This looks really promising. As well as the feel being almost identical to Discovery's trailer, this makes it appear that the series will be more like Star Trek itself than the parody that the first season played as. As that first season went on, the scripts relied less on humour, and the jokes that were included were better balanced with the drama. Season two looks like it will continue in this direction.

Shazam!




Cap'n Marvel! Cap'n Marvel! The first Shazam! cinematic release in almost eighty years, this looks like it'll be a lot more fun than most of DC's recent film output. It's not how I'd have done a Shazam! movie, more like a new version of Big than anything, but it looks like it's going to be tremendous fun. Captain Marvel is the silliest of the properties DC is comfortable bringing to the big screen, only a step away from its own parody, Bananaman. Looking forward to this one.

Titans




Hmmm... not feeling this. Previous TV takes on the Teen Titans have been aimed at younger viewers and embraced the inherent silliness of characters like Beast Boy. Alternatively, a middle ground, a show for older kids like Young Justice would have worked well. This is just... blah. I guess it's pretty accurately predicting what teenagers would be like as superheroes: convinced that they're terribly mature, going on about how dark everything is, swearing whenever possible. Doesn't mean that this is any good though. Teen Titans Go to the Movies looks better.


Marvel Rising: Initiation




This is the beginning of a series of Marvel Rising cartoons which bring together a bunch of modern, young characters from Marvel comics - either new in the last few years, like Ms. Marvel, or revamped, like Squirrel Girl. Largely female, which sets this apart from most superteams on screen. Spider-Gwen, the breakout star character of the last few years, is clearly the big draw here (named Ghost Spider in this version), but it's Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl that make me want to watch more than anything. Love that Squirrel Girl hasn't been madeover into the usual skinny type. Also, America Chavez is going to be in this, so expect multiversity.

Star Trek: Discovery trailer released

After a bunch of delays, Star Trek: Discovery is finally on its way, set for an autumn launch on CBS Access (in the US) and Netflix (everywhere else). A trailer has been released, with a couple of different edits, but the overall impression is of an exciting series with a mix of galactic conflict and weird space phenomena. The main character seems to have spent time on Vulcan, which brings in a Spock-esque element without being a rerun. Some new aliens and new takes on classic alien races make for a good mix. I'm really looking forward to it.

Everyone is bloody complaining about it.

I honestly don't understand the aggressively negative reaction so many fans have had to this series so far. Before a second of footage was shown, fans had written it off. Most of the fans seem to have watched this trailer with the sole purpose of attacking it. Discovery might turn out to be crap, but it might turn out to be a masterpiece. It'll probably turn out to be pretty good. We'll find out. for now, I'm going to address the many criticisms I've seen for the series based on this one trailer and dismiss them completely.

It doesn't fit the timeline
No, it probably doesn't fit very well. There seem to be several elements that clash with its setting of ten years before the original series. I don't really care. Continuity is a fan game, and I shall enjoy picking apart the episodes, but it won't limit my enjoyment of the series. CBS want normal people to watch this too, and if telling a good, exciting story means that some fifty-year-old continuity point is contradicted, then so be it. How narrow does your idea of entertainment have to be if continuity is the most important thing to you?

The uniforms aren't right
The uniforms here look more like an evolution of Enterprise's style than a predecessor to the original. In fact, this is set around about the same time as "The Cage," so the uniforms should consist of fairly shapeless jerseys with roll necks over navy trousers. There's a reason the original series had such basic uniforms - they hardly had any money.

It looks like the Abrams movies/it looks too good
Christ, to think that people are actually complaining that something looks too good. Even fan productions such as Star Trek Continues, whose raison d'etre is to recreate the original as closely as possible, update the effects. Things have moved on in fifty years, they're supposed to look better. People should want to watch this. The reason it looks like the Abrams movies? Because, for all their flaws, the Abrams movies look amazing!

The Klingons don't look like Klingons
Fair point, they do look very different. I prefer the 24th century look, which is itself completely different to the various looks in the TOS movies which were themselves barely recognisable from the original look. That said, if you got rid of the bizarre outfit, these Klingons wouldn't look all that different.

 I, myself, hate it when the uniforms are changed or the Klingons are redesigned, so I refuse to watch The Motion Picture or any Star Trek production since.

Aren't they allowed to cast white actors anymore?
Seriously. This was the second comment on the YouTube link for the US trailer when I checked in earlier. Because aliens are fine, but if human characters don't look exactly like me, I just can't relate anymore.

The ship looks too sophisticated to be before Star Treki
The same complaint as for Enterprise and the Abrams movies. Technology has moved on since 1966, so not only can we create more sophisticated props and systems, having tech like the original wouldn't be remotely credible. Even Voyager looks ludicrously primitive now.

They've hired crap actors
Seriously? Michelle Yeoh? Doug Jones? Are you joking?

Movie trailer roundup

This is certainly a very exciting trailer, and promises a great sci-fi action adventure. What it doesn't look like it'll be is very Star Trek-y. It's also very backwards looking; it's only the third film in this series, and yet it's already looking back to the first film. Admittedly that was released seven years ago, but that's still very little material on which to base a reaction. The obsession with daddy issues is very Trek though. Some great looking new aliens, though. If nothing else, this should be fun.

Of the two new trailers just released, the international is the better, showing more and better material. They both work better as trailers than the first pair, and while it still doesn't look like it'll be a classic, I really think this looks great fun. Part of it is that I'm seriously enamoured with Kate McKinnon, but still. Some of the CGI looks great, some looks a bit shonky, but there's a great, colourful vibe to this. I'm not sure releasing footage of the Big Bad was very wise, but as we have seen it, riffing on Stay Puft by creating a monster out of the logo ghost is a fun idea.

I'm not sure how I feel about this remake. To be honest, although I used to love Rocky Horror, I'm really quite bored with it now. Not only have I been to see the show half a dozen times, once you start having shenanigans in real life, the show/movie loses something. Still, the prospect of a new film version could be good. I wasn't sure about casting Laverne Cox as Frank N. Furter - surely he's a man. I'm usually all up for gender-switching iconic characters - I've been vocally in favour of a female Doctor for years and I'm so up for the new Ghostbusters - but it didn't sit right with me. It also smacks a little of conflating "man in drag" with "transwoman," two completely different identities. However, it has been pointed out that, while a bisexual man in drag was shocking in 1975, it's less so now, while transgender actors and characters are still rarely seen. Plus, Laverne Cox really does look and sound rather perfect.

Bustin' continues to make me feel good

The trailer for the new Ghostbusters is finally here. If we can manage to drown out the meninists and dudebros ("Urgh, they put girls in it! Women catching ghosts is so PC and unbelievable!") and the nostalgia-entitled ("This isn't Ghostbusters and now my childhood has been retroactively destroyed!") we can start to talk about what the movie is actually going to be like.

To be fair, the trailer doesn't scream classic to me, but then, trailers rarely do. (They can't all be Deadpool). What it does look to me is good fun, with plenty of slapstick humour and above all, plenty of slime. It's colourful and refreshingly free of grimdark, even as it parodies The Exorcist. It doesn't evoke the feel of the original, which is perhaps a good thing. It certainly feels like Paul Feig's other releases, such as the recent, underrated Spy. To me, it also has a feel of the animated series, The Real Ghostbusters, with its cartoonish, primary-coloured visuals.

Wisely, it hasn't tried to shake off the shadow of the original. Everyone knows this is a modern day remake, so to pretend otherwise would be foolish. The opening of the trailer makes it seem that this is actually in continuity with the original films, but this goes against everything else we've been told, and it seems this is just a way of introducing the concept for the audiences. This is a whole new Ghostbusters. Some elements feel very old school. The ghost faced by Kristin Wiig's character in the beginning of the trailer is clearly designed to evoke the original's Library Ghost, while Slimer is present and correct (and looking perfect). On the other hand, the possession angle is quite different to how the originals played it. It's admittedly hard to make a judgment from such scant footage, but it looks like this could be a major plotline in the new film.

I'm not keen on how they've used Leslie Jones. As in the original, it's the three white people who get to be the scientists and the black person who comes aboard later to drive the car. While the other leads don't seem to exactly reflect the original's characters, at first glance it looks like Patty=Winston. Hopefully there'll be more to her than that.

Overall, though, I'm very optimistic about this. Definitely worth a look.

(No dudebro comments please.)

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary teaser trailer

Just in case there's anyone out there who hasn't seen it yet, here's the special teaser for the upcoming anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.


So, what do we all think? I loved it, although some of the Doctors get short shrift. The CGI Hartnell at the beginning is wonderful, as is the hi-res Tom Baker, but the decision to use a lookey-likey for Pertwee is a bit odd (he's already been dubbed the 'Impertwonator'). It certainly looks like it's intended to be shown in 3D, so I expect it to turn up in cinema trails soon. It's very exciting though, and really whets the appetite for the special.

There are also lots of little extras to spot in the video. See how many, and then check out what you might have missed here.

TRAILER UP for Star Trek Into Darkness

So, what does everyone think? A fuller trailer will be shown before screenings of The Hobbit, I am told (I am not interested in seeing nine minutes of the film at the iMax - how annoying would that be, having to wait months to watch the rest?)

As pointed out by some, it does come across as a fairly generic action trailer, but then, all such trailers look pretty samey these days anyway. What little we can see gives us alien planets (looks like Kirk gets a Mustafar moment), starships crashing into the water, lots of big guns and long black coats and a definite vibe of a superhero/blockbuster/summer event movie. The jury's still out concerning who Cumberbatch is playing. Is he Khan or Mitchell? Or someone else entirely? I'd like to see the return of Captain John Christopher, the temporally displaced USAF airman from the 1960s. Twisted with rage due to something dramatic and arbitrary. Because, you know, why not?