This story may contain spoilers for "Star Trek XI."
One lesson that genre fans learned Monday night: If the producers of the new Star Trek film show up in your city wanting to show you a 25-year-old movie ... don't miss it.
Just hours before it was to premiere at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, fans in Austin, Texas, got to be the first in the world to see "Star Trek XI" in a sort of bait and switch that will be talked about for a long time.
Fans had gathered in Austin to see a cleaned-up "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" Monday, with the added bonus of getting 10 minutes of "Star Trek XI" and a chance to chat with the movie's producers and writers, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof. Instead, they got a big surprise, and Quint from Ain't It Cool News described it best.
"The movie started, James Horner's fantastic title music played over the credits, some audience members snickering at "and introducing Kirstie Alley, and then the first scene," Quint wrote. "The print was beautiful, and then lines started appearing on the print. Then cuts, then it skipped frame, running for about 10 seconds split in half ... up is down, down is up, and all that before locking up, the frame burning."
The crowd, of course, was understandably upset. Before the crowd can riot, a man shows up in a trench coat and hat with a film fan in his hand. He removes his hat, and to the astonishment of the crowd, it's Leonard Nimoy.
Director J.J. Abrams "made a good movie, why only show 10 minutes of it?" Nimoy asked the crowd. He then took a poll of the audience getting silence on who wanted to see just 10 minutes of the film, and "thunderous applause" to who wanted to see the whole thing.
The crowd? They got to see the whole thing.
Quint had a chance to watch the film with everyone else, and did point out that Eric Bana's character of the Romulan Nero won't be chalked up there with villains like Khan from the late Ricardo Montalban, but he's still quite essential to the story.
"Here Nero isn't a brain, he's not a warrior," Quint said. "He's almost a truck driver that happened to be off planet when something horrible happens, casing him to seek his revenge with the person who tried, and failed to help: Ambassador Spock.
"That's right, he's not after Kirk. He's not trying to use time travel to personally attack that family. He's not after Kirk at all. His aim is the dude with the pointy ears."
The events that transpire in the film does create new character motivations for just about everyone involved, including Kirk himself, played by Chris Pine. Because he doesn't have that father figure to provide focus, he has to seek it elsewhere instead: From Bruce Greenwood's Capt. Christopher Pike, as seen in many of the recent trailers.
The movie officially premiered in Australia, overnight, however, with some 1,600 people in attendance including Abrams, and stars Eric Bana, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.
While local media in Australia felt that Bana, a native of the country, was instrumental in bringing the film there, a Paramount Pictures spokeswoman said it was more because they wanted the film to premiere in an iconic building like the opera house.
"Star Trek XI," which is rated PG-13, will premiere elsewhere in the world May 8.
About the Author:
Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha and the entire BlipNetwork. He owns Quantum Global Media Inc., the parent corporation of the BlipNetwork. He's a print journalist by day, and lives in Tampa, Fla.