Star Trek (film)/YMMV

• Ear Worm: Some bits of the score are like this particularly the song that plays when Nero's ship is being shot into the black hole.
  • It is composed by Michael Giacchino, after all.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Captain Robau, who had about five minutes of screentime, has gone down in Trek lore as one of the most badass captains ever.
  • Gaila is proving very popular. She stars in one scene, is a face in a crowd scene, and that's it. This may have something to do with her being an Orion who presumably has lots of sex, or just the fact that she's another female face.
  • She also looks kinda like Dizzy Flores from the Starship Troopers film.
• Fan Nickname: "Satan's Batmobile" for the Narada.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A two-in-one, even; Simon Pegg's character on Spaced once said that the odd-numbered Trek films were always crap, as a law of the universe. In an interview in Wired; "Fate put me in the movie to show me I was talking out of my arse."
  • Zoe Saldana's character in the 2004 film The Terminal is a huge Trek fan, including making the famous "Live Long and Prosper" gesture.
  • Chris Pine's character in The Princess Diaries: Royal Engagement objects with "That's cheating!" when he's shown the "easy way" to win at darts. Cue Kirk and his approach to the Kobayashi Maru scenario...
  • On the commentary, the "cliffs" in Iowa (actually part of a quarry) were caused by the "2011 earthquake". There actually was an earthquake in an unusual part of the United States (the East Coast) in 2011.
  • A "lightning storm in space" occurs on the day of Kirk's birth. As SF Debris notes, this makes sense considering, "His father is Thor"
• Ho Yay: Kirk/Spock is the granddaddy of all slash pairings, and the subtext was definitely there in this adaptation. Kirk/Bones too, what their Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic.
  • In what seems to be a conscious aversion, a deliberate effort was clearly made to emphasize both Kirk and Spock's heterosexuality and disarm a relaunch of the Slash Fic genre, which Kirk and Spock were the virtual prototype for back in the 60s before there was even an Internet to spread it over and it had to be done in print via mailed newsletters. Hilariously subverted in that not only the Slash Fic still blossomed, it also turned out the actor playing Spock is gay.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks: Parodied by The Onion in the video "Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'", which "showed" how the hardcore-Trekkies were upset when the movie was critically acclaimed, on the basis that it was "theirs". "They" were particularly annoyed about its inclusion of demographic-pandering things like a sensical plot, actors who care about what they're saying, and aliens who speak English.
• Just Here For Nimoy: Many of the original fans only turned up to see Nimoy as Spock for one last time.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Kirk getting chased by a gigantic toothy monster. Kudos to them for giving the monster a face made of Nightmare Fuel, but there couldn't have been a single person in the audience who was the remotest bit worried for Kirk's health. And lo and behold, he doesn't get a scratch that isn't gone by the end of the movie. Quel suprise.
  • And, of course, an impressive subversion with the destruction of Vulcan.
• Memetic Badass: Captain Robau, now being adopted by some segments of the Trek fandom as their own personal Chuck Norris.
• Memetic Mutation: "Fire everything!", "I like this ship! It's exciting!", "Wictor wictor...", "SPOOOOOOOOOOOOCK!"
  • Chekov can do zat. HE CAN DO ZAT HE CAN DO ZAT! MOVE MOVE!
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Many pairings qualify, but Sulu/Chekov and Scotty/Gaila are notable for their HUGE popularity in proportion to the amount of canon interaction.
• So Cool It's Awesome: The film has turned out to be both a critical and popular success.
• Strangled by the Red String: Spock and Uhura.
• Tainted by the Preview: The initial two trailers (the first featuring some shots of the Enterprise under construction, and the second being a somewhat random collection of clips from the film capped off by a shot of Spock Prime) were treated with indifference at best, and outright derision at worst by most filmgoers. Averted in the end however, as the third trailer was much improved and credited with creating much of the buzz that made the movie a success.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Everything from the Enterprise's design to Spock's sideburns has been used as proof.
• Uncanny Valley:
  • Winona's birthing assistant sure does have some huge eyes.
  • The guy sitting between Kirk and Uhura at the bar.
• What Could Have Been: As SF Debris points out, the villain described in the novelization/comic version^[1] is more complex than what Nero was, even sympathetic, and could've actually outdone Khan.
• Win Back the Crowd: Like it or not, this movie got everyone interested in Star Trek again after years of decline, also considering what would happen with the Star Trek Movie Curse.
• What the Hell, Casting Agency?: Many people's first reaction when the cast was first announced.
  • Winona Ryder in particular became this in the editing room. They cast her as Spock's mother because originally there was a prologue where we see the family around the time of Spock's birth. But when that scene was cut it became a bizarre incongiruity that an actress who could easily pass for 30 is caked in unconvincing age-effects to play such a small role.

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1. ↑ a working stiff who risks charges of treason to help save his world, working with Spock toward the solution only to have the Vulcans slam the door in his face, dooming his race... and then having nothing to live for but revenge