At the moment we join the Enterprise, the ship is in orbit of Vulcan, waiting for the Vulcan delegation to arrive. In total, the Enterprise is taking 144 delegates to the Babel conference, 32 of which are ambassadors. This could be a ballpark estimate for the size of the Federation at this time.

Ambassadors Surak, Shras and Gav.

The most prominent Federation delegates that feature in the story are of course the Andorians and Tellarites, two races that would eventually come to prominence as the founders of the Federation. A number of other aliens were created for the background scenes.

Purple alien

The first obvious alien we see among the delegates is a purple skinned woman. She appears in the corridor when Kirk and McCoy exit Kirk’s quarters, and is seen standing next to the door during the reception, before walking around and mingling with the guests.

Purple alien sharing a drink with a delegate.

Interestingly, there are also purple aliens in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It could be these were intended as a tribute to the purple alien seen in TOS, and therefore of the same unidentified species.

Purple alien in The Voyage Home

Purple alien in The Undiscovered Country (behind the scenes)

In novels, several aliens with purple skinned appear. The Huanni are depicted in Christie Golden’s The Last Roundup and in Keith R.A. DeCandido’s Articles of the Federation as purple-skinned Federation members with elongated ears. In the Stargazer series, the Cataxxians are bald purple-skinned humanoids, and in the Corps of Engineers e-book range, the Icorians are described as purple or grey skinned humanoids. I do not know whether any of them were specifically supposed to be the aliens seen in “Journey to Babel”.

Woman in colorful dress

An Asian woman in a colorful dress can be seen among the guests standing outside Kirk’s quarters. She is later seen standing in a corridor talking with another delegate, and later is seen mixing with guests during the reception.

Woman in red dress

A woman in a red dress is seen walking through the hallway, and mingling with guests during the reception.

Federation official

This backgound character wears the same uniform as High Commissioner Ferris from “The Galileo Seven”. Of all the recycled costumes, this one actually seems to work in the context of the story. The man in the Federation uniform is probably a commissioner or other government official attending the conference.

Reusable Nuclear Shuttle

The Reusable Nuclear Shuttle, part of an ambitious overall concept called the Integrated Program, would have been launched by a variation of the Saturn V rockets that launched the Apollo missions. You can read more about the Integrated Program and the Nuclear Shuttle at Beyond Apollo:

• Integrated Program Plan (1969)
• Nuclear Flight System Definition studies (1971)

In the Star Trek universe, these concepts could be the perfect way to make sense of the DY-100 spacecraft of the 1990s. The Reusable Nuclear Shuttle could evolve into a system that has its payload arranged along its centerline, similar to the DY-100. As you can see below, removing the submarine-like sail from a DY-100 already makes it look much more like a believable 1990s spacecraft. Whatever the sail actually does (docking, cooling?), there may have been variants that did not have it.

Early space transportation

Antedeans undergoing medical checks.

• Federation Member: Antede III
• Member since: circa 2365
• Rationale: Membership process disrupted by assassins in 2365.

The Antedeans featured in TNG’s “Manhunt” as somewhat peculiar fish-like ‘humanoids’. The Enterprise-D ferried two Antedean dignitaries from their homeworld of Antede III to Pacifica for a conference, to give the Antedeans  the opportunity to join the Federation. Unfortunately, these particular Antedean dignitaries were revealed to be assassins by Ambassador Lwaxana Troi.

Antedeans are apparently somewhat unaccustomed to space travel, as they prefer to go into a self-induced coma during travel. Part of the Antedean diet is vermicula, a fish-like substance. They consume large quantities of it after coming out of their self-induced stasis.

An Antedean called Nelino Quafina serves on Federation President Min Zife’s cabinet as Secretary of Military Intelligence in David Mack’s A Time to… series of novels, set in 2379.

In Keith R. DeCandido’s Articles of the Federation, Antede III is a full Federation member by 2380, 15 years after the TNG episode. Antedean Councilor Selora Quintor represents Antede on the Federation Council. The Antedeans have no history (or even concept) of slavery. Antede III is also depicted as an opponent to the Federation alliance with the Klingons.

Also note that while there are around 80 named planets on the list, there are a few dozen unnamed Federation aliens that aren’t on the list. Think of the “Journey to Babel” or The Undiscovered Country background aliens, for example.

Starfleet Academy

Star Trek (or Star Trek 2009 as I will call it when there is confusion) has a very distinct look that sets it apart from other Star Trek. Just as the space ships, uniforms and sets, the aliens have a different style. Although sadly the majority of alien designs barely made it into the final movie, appearing only in far away background shots, the few major aliens and the behind-the-scenes features show very elaborate  masks with moving parts, sometimes even combined with post-production digital effects. Most of the Star Trek movies have used their larger budgets to create more alien looking aliens than the television shows could afford. But it’s also true that in nearly all cases, these aliens appear only in the background, and we never really get to admire the wonderful designs in much detail. I hope we’ll get more information on the weird and wonderful aliens in this Star Trek, but until then, we have to rely mostly on blurry screengrabs for a lot of them. As this post intends to list new Federation aliens, I’ll limit myself to aliens seen in Starfleet uniforms.

Monchezke

Alnschloss K'Bentayr of Monchezke

The first alien we see is an officer on the bridge of the USS Kelvin in the opening act of the movie. According to the script this is Alnschloss K’Bentayr. The Intel viral website Starfleet Shipyard states that comes from the planet Monchezke.  And yes, it appears to be a male. The Aliens feature on the DVD explains that, like the Talosians in “The Cage”, this alien was played by a woman yet intended to be a male alien. Physically, the Monchezkeans (Monchezkites?) appear to be be slender humanoids with webbed hands and a large head.

The making of Alnschloss K'Bentayr

Alien doctor

The Kelvin doctor

Another alien crewmember of the Kelvin is the doctor that accompanies Winona Kirk during the evacuation. This particular alien is largely human-like, with the exception of her enormous CGI-enhanced eyes.

Orion

An Orion science officer.

Together with the Vulcans and the Romulans, the only other recurring alien race in the movie are the green-skinned Orions. Surprisingly, they appear to be regular Starfleet crewmembers. Gaila, Kirk’s fling, is in enrolled at the Academy, and a deleted scene (where the above image is taken from) features another Orion lieutenant in a sciences division uniform. We must assume that something happened to make this possible in the alternate 2250s. Either relations with the Orions are dramatically different in this universe, or, as Roberto Orci suggested, these may be Orion slave girls that found a way out. Or, keeping in mind the revelations in Enterprises’s “Bound”, the Orions may have actually succesfully infiltrated Starfleet.

Enterprise bridge officer

Enterprise bridge officer

On the Enterprise, we actually see very few aliens outside of the Vulcans. One of the aliens we do see is a bridge officer with a dark, almost metallic like skin. This alien is known as ‘Madeline’ in behind-the-scenes material, and in the Aliens featurette, the actress under the mask, Kimberly Arland, mentions her homeworld has four suns. She’s playing the character, so I suppose she would know these things!

Keenser

Keenser

Keenser, Scotty’s engineering buddy, is an “oyster-faced small alien” (description by Simon Pegg) with small, moving rods in place of eyes. He appeared to be in Starfleet service. We know very little about Keenser, apart from the fact that he apparently eats very little and has a tendency to sit on things.

.. and the rest.

Various aliens

The rest of the aliens are quite hard to identify in the final cut of the movie. Most of them appear in the background multiple times however. The above 12 I could pick up, although I now believe that #9 is the same as #6. I will come back to this once the Art of the Film book comes out, and maybe shines some more light on these. In conclusion, it appears that we can add around a dozen new candidates for the Federation to our lists. On the other hand, nearly all of these appear only in very minor background rolls, leading to a Starfleet that still seems to be almost entirely human (although a clear effort was made to include many different types of people). And although I admire the extremely intricate designs in the movie, I would like to see some ‘classic’ aliens return for the sequel. I still feel that the Andorians and Tellarites are underused, silly as their concepts may be.

An Antaran male

• Federation Member: Beta Antares IV
• Member since: 23rd century
• Rationale: Star Trek: Star Charts and several earlier novels indicate membership.

The Antares system is the source of such items as Antarean brandy and Antarean glow water.When Captain Kirk of the Enterprise invented the game fizzbin, he claimed it was played on Beta Antares IV. The Beta Antares Ship Yards are mentioned on the dedication plaque of the USS Prometheus in Voyager’s “Message in a Bottle”.

In a nutshell, that is all to go on for Antares in televised Star Trek until the Antarans were featured on Enterprise in “The Breach”. These Antarans, who we can presume to come from the Antares system, and likely from Beta Antares IV, had a history of warfare with the Denobulans. In the later Titan novel Sword of Damocles, one of these Antarans named Loolooa Tereshini serves aboard the USS Titan in the 24th century.

In other novels Antares is also frequently portrayed as a Federation world. The 1981 TOS novel Death’s Angel features the Antaran ambassador Marmaluke, who heads the Federation Diplomatic Corps. In Prime Directive, the Antares Corona Worlds is the government of the Antarans, and is represented on the Federation Council.

In conclusion, Antares is generally portrayed as a Federation world in novels, and canon works seem to indicate it is an allied planet. For the purposes of this list, I’d go with the novels on this one.

Well, what a blast that was. My first impression is that this is just a very good and entertaining movie. There’s action, space battles, comedy, and even a bit of romance and drama. While the last couple of movies were often regarded as “okay”, and “one for the fans”, this one seems to succeed at connecting to the mainstream public. It’s generally very light on technical things, and focuses mostly on characters and story. I honestly think this movie hits all the right tones, and is a new beginning for Star Trek in the 21st century.

Plot

The plot of the movie is generally easy to follow, even if you have no knowledge of Star Trek or haven’t read the Countdown prequel comics. There a are a few cases of surprising coincidence (Kirk, Spock and Scotty all being on Delta Vega), but nothing that really takes you out of the story. One thing that seemed a bit unnessary was that once again, there’s was no-one “in range” except the Enterprise. We’re told that what appears to be the whole of Starfleet is tied up in the Laurentian Sector. It seems a bit unlikely, and I’m not sure that they really needed to state that so outright. It’s a minor issue, though. Ending a movie is, as usual, always a bit of a difficult moment. I didn’t really get the feeling that Nero’s story was over. Yes, he was vanquished, but I would’ve liked something more of a closure for Nero’s character.

Continuity

Abrams and co. have often said that this isn’t a reboot of contuinity, and after seeing the movie I finally understand what they meant by that. The time-travel of Nero and Spock-Prime actually starts changing things from 2233 onwards, starting with the death of George Kirk, and presumably a number of ‘butterfly effects’ that cause other changes from the TOS universe. The only remaining character that really has knowledge of the original timeline is Spock-Prime. Interestingly, he already has some previous experience with alternate realities and timeline changes from “Yesteryear”. He was not afraid to change history then by saving his own life at age 7, and he is not adverse to mention and influence the new timeline now.

You’d have to read the Countdown prequel comics to really appreciate the link to post-Nemesis Star Trek. From how it looks now, the 24th century continues as in the Countdown comics and the “Star Trek Online” setting. In this “prime” setting, the Romulan Empire appears to have been destroyed, and Spock is missing. Spock and Nero have in the meantime created a new alternate reality, splitting off from the prime timeline in 2233. At the end of the movie, in this timeline, there’s an Enterprise under command of Captain Kirk in 2258, and an wheelchaired Ambassador Pike. Vulcan has been destroyed, but Spock-Prime, Sarek and around 10,000 other Vulcans survived. The Klingons suffered a massive loss of 47 warbids in their fights with Nero, and the Romulans from this era are potentially unaware of the events. The appearance of Nero in 2233 apparently does mean that the Federation already knows they are similar to Vulcan, as is evident from Uhura having learned 3 Romulan languages in the 2250s.

Since the new timeline is created in 2233, we can probably excuse some of the changes from the prime timeline, although it’s not immediately clear why this would be so. To name a few changes: there is no Enterprise launched in 2245, nor is there a Captain Robert April or, for that matter, any of the “The Cage” or “Where No Man Has Gone Before” crewmembers like Number One and Doctors Boyce and Piper.

Logically speaking, we do actually see a bit of the prime timeline. The movie starts with the USS Kelvin encountering the Narada as it exits the black hole from the future, so logically the Kelvin itself exists in the timeline prior to the changes. Luckily, the Kelvin appears to be of a design that works quite well as an actual prequel to TOS. Even the Kelvin bridge seems more like TOS in its color scheme, altough it obviously has very advanced graphical displays that do not really appear in TOS.

Nero

One of the better bad guys, although you probably have to read the comics to fully appreciate his working man background and his relation to Spock. He is not obviously evil, and the way in which he first addresses the Enterprise is actually a pretty funny scene (”Hello, Christopher!”). He’s maybe not a Khan, but certainly better than a Chang, Soran, Shinzon, and those other bad guys that I don’t even remember the name of.

But like I said before, Nero never really gets a chance to finish his own story. He’s basically just destroyed by Spock and the Enteprise, but maybe it would’ve been nice to have a face-to-face with one of the Spocks or Kirk. After all, both Spock and Nero were one of the the last survivors of their homeworlds. Of course.. I don’t think we really saw him die, just being pulled in a red matter induced black hole.

Spocks

All three spocks (Young Spock , Prime Spock and err.. Spock) are good, and they show a nice progression from a troubled youth being bullied (Jacob Kogan), to a Spock trying a very strictly logical Spock (Quinto) to a Spock that is more balanced between logic and emotions (Nimoy). It was especially nice to see Nimoy as Spock again, and how lovingly he speaks of his friendship with Prime Kirk. He’s the lifeline to the original Trek, and the one that knows what is going on. Nimoy’s Spock seems almost to vindicate the new direction Trek is taking, and gives some credibility to the ‘new’ characters.

Kirk

I think Chris Pine did a very believable young Kirk. He may lack a bit of the leadership and intelligence of the TOS Kirk, but he definitely has the sense of humor, the bravado and self-confidence of him. Especially in the bar scenes I could see the ‘real’ Kirk in Pine. And his nonchalance during his Kobayashi Maru was just fantastic.

We don’t actually see Kirk in command as Captain throughout most of the movie, however, so it will be interesting to see where this character is going in the future. The experience and judgment of Prime Kirk weren’t entirely there yet in Cadet Kirk, and the friendship with Spock is still young.

The crew

The rest of the crew was mostly good. Uhura and McCoy get a lot of screentime, but Chekov, Scotty and Sulu are more like supporting characters. Chekov’s accent was pretty heavy to the point of being almost incomprehensible, and they even actually pointed out his “V-as-W” pronunciation. I didn’t think making fun of a Russian accent was the original intent of the character, and that scene felt a bit strange. Still, Anton Yelchin is a Russian, so I guess he drew from his own experience and the accent made some sense. Sulu was a real action hero type of guy, with most of his screentime spent swordfighting. Scotty was a bit of a comic relief role by the wonderful Simon Pegg, but he did get to be the miracle worker we know a few times. I’d love to see Scotty being developed as the “fourth man” that he was on TOS, in command of ‘his’ ship when the Big Three do their missions.

Uhura had a surprisingly large role in this movie, compared to the “Hailing frequencies open” role she had in TOS. In fact, there’s something of a romance brewing between her and Spock, with a somewhat jealous sidelined Kirk. Spock in a romantic relationship!? Well, it’s only after his homeworld is destroyed that he finds comfort in Uhura’s interest in him. It’s a similar role once played by Nurse Chapel in TOS, and really isn’t out of place in this movie. Surprisingly, we actually learn Uhura’s first name (Nyota).

Finally, McCoy. In my opinion, the best of the new characters. I don’t know how, but Karl Urban really seems be Bones. It’s maybe a bit of a cheat that we don’t see the actual friendship developing (that happens during the “Three Years Later” break), but since this movie focuses more on Spock and Kirk, it’s good to have Bones in the role of Kirk’s adviser and loyal friend early on. There weren’t that many Spock-McCoy face-offs yet, so again, looking forward to seeing the whole ensemble in action in the future.

Special Effects

This is where the new movie really takes a leap forward compared to what came before. Never have Star Trek ships looked so big, and so real. They do not zip about like fighter planes, but they do a lot of maneuvring, with beatiful shots ranging from extreme close-ups where you can look through windows to extreme wide shots where the Enterprise is silhouetted against a massive black hole explosion. And rarely has the 3D element of space been exploited so well in Star Trek. The movie begins with a fabulous pull-out shot of the Kelvin, and my favorite shot is where the camera pulls out of the Enterprise bridge, through the window/viewscreen, and then turns around and moves back across the saucer, ending with a close-up shot of the upside-down bridge. Fabulous. There are also fantastic shots of the Enterprise in Titan’s atmosphere, with Saturn as a backdrop.

There’s a lot of subtle CGI going on in scenes. A majority of aliens is now a mix of prosthetics and CGI elements, leading to all sorts of creatures with strangely shaped eyes, mouths, etc. The computer screens are all full of movement, and my favorite addition to the bridges of Kelvin and Enterprise are the viewscreens that are also windows.

There is just one element of special effects that is a bit annoying at times. We all know Abrams likes lensflares and other filming artefacts to bring a sort of realism to his shots. The 99% of the movie these things aren’t particularly noticable. But during combat with the Narada, there are around 3 cases where the screen complete whites out on the Enterprise bridge. That was just one step too far, in my opinion, and seems just pointless.

Design

The design aspect is perhaps the most controversial of the whole movie, at least as far as the fans are concerned. There is certainly a whole new aesthetic going on in this movie. I think that in the end, the new Enterprise works quite well. Even after the seeing the movie though, I still have some reservations about the interior sets. The bridge is very, very bright, and the lensflares and white-outs only accentuate this aspect.

One curious design decision was to film the ‘lower decks’ representing Engineering and the shuttle hangar in industrial locations. I was quite apprehensive about the idea, and I don’t really like it in the end. On the Kelvin it seems to work okay, with engineers rapelling down from the cavernous engineering deck. But on the Enterprise where a lot more time is spent in those areas, it just seems a bit strange. It still isn’t enough to take you out of the movie, but I think more should’ve been done to at least make it look like it fits inside the ship, both stylistically as well as physically. I think I would’ve appreciated a newly designed Engineering set a lot more than these industrial locations. The impression of size and the large tanks were okay, but the pipes and big welded iron beams just seemed out of place on a spaceship.

On the other hand, things like uniforms, props and the aliens were very good. Maybe it would’ve been nice to see some more recognizable aliens alongside the Vulcans, but it’s always nice to see aliens that are more than just forehead appliances. The uniforms are perhaps the most faithful to TOS element in the movie. The Academy uniforms even have the hats and military stylings that were glimpsed in “The Cage”, and the Kelvin uniforms seem like a good design between the ENT jumpsuits and the two-piece Enterprise uniforms.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the fact is that this is just a very enjoyable movie, even if you’re not into Star Trek. You have to be cynical not to enjoy the spectacular visuals and the entertaining story. At the same time, I’m sure the things that Star Trek fans are passionate about will be under very close scrutiny, and some decisions may not fall into favor. The real question is probably “Where to go from here?”. This movie looks to become a success, and there’s at least 1 sequel planned, as far as I know. I’ve always been in favor of a reboot or revitalization of the franchise, and this looks to be a very good starting position.

The big question.. is it better than “Wrath of Khan”? It’s not easy to compare movies like that, but I’d be willing to say this movie is in the top 3, with First Contact and TWOK. But in terms of what it does to the franchise as a whole, it may turn out to be the best thing to happen to it in decades.

So much for my first impressions. I’m sure there will be a lot more discussions in various places over the next couple of weeks, months, years to come over this movie, and I’m looking forward to that!

Bits and pieces

• Stardates seem to be of the form .. The Kelvin scenes take place in 2233.4, the Enterprise stuff around 2258.43, if I remember correctly.
• Spock could see Vulcan explode from the Delta Vega surface. Delta Vega is then likely a planet very near to Vulcan, almost certainly in the Vulcan star system. Although lithium is mentioned, I would reckon it’s not the same as the remote Delta Vega from TOS.
• Starships appear to be much larger than before. There were 800 people on the Kelvin, and the engineering and shuttlebays appear to be huge. The Kelvin has a “medical shuttle 37″, and apparently enough shuttles to evacuate 800 crew, and there’s mention of a “shuttle 89″ on the Enterprise, indicated that these ships have far more shuttles than the 4 or 5 of the original Enterprise.
• We hear a good number of names for other Federation ships. I can remember the USS Hood and USS Farragut, but it is unclear if there are any ships like the Enterprise. We do see a few Enterprise-era ships: A four nacelled “double Miranda”, a three-nacelled ship, and even a few Klingon warbirds in the Kobayashi Maru scenario.

Angosian Prime Minister Nayrok.

• Federation Member: Angosia III
• Member since: Late 24th century
• Rationale: The Angosian membership bid was postponed in 2366, it’s possible they joined at a later date.

The Angosian Senate petitioned for Federation membership in 2366. Although seemingly a peaceful society, the starship Enterprise revealed a scandal involving Tarsian War veterans. These soldiers, genetically enhanced and conditioned, were being held prisoner at a camp on the Angosian Lunar V colony. Former Angosian subahdar Roga Danar escaped the penal colony during the Enteprise’s visit, and was eventually held in the Enterprise’s brig. Danar escaped again during transfer to Angosian custody, and managed to make hostages out of several Angosian senators. By recommendation of Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard, Angosian membership was postponed until these internal affairs would be solved.

The Angosians were near-humans seen in TNG’s “The Hunted”. They did however have a very distinct symbol, seen above on the Angosian uniforms.It’s not entirely clear the Angosians had warp drive, but they did have police shuttles and transports capable of travelling between the Angosian moons. 

In the Strange New Worlds short story “Orphans”, Roga Danar and a team of Angosian soldiers are recruited by Section 31 to defend the Guardian of Forever from Dominion forces in 2374. Roga Danar, after asking the Guardian what it desires most, allows the Guardian to depart its planet.

Enterprise XCV-330

The ringshipEnterprise appeared in The Motion Picture along with a US Navy sailing frigate, the WWII aircraft carrier Enterprise, the Space Shuttle Enterprise and the original starship Enterprise.  The ringship was the only new design in the sequence, appearing to depict a predecessor to the TOS Enterprise. 

It turned out that the ringship Enterprise was originally created by Matt Jefferies for a new concept for a television series called Starship by Gene Roddenberry. Lincoln Enterprises ran the following advertisement in the 1980s to sell a poster and blueprints of the ship glimpsed in TMP:

Gene Roddenberry’s imagination brings you “Starship”. The vessel of the future as only he could picture it. This could be the forerunner of a new TV series, a Starship operated by an enormous computer which is a lifeform itself. Each human aboard is a genius, a highly trained science specialist, part of a team of Galactic trouble shooters. A brand-new concept in future space travel. We also have three different views of the Metatransit system, side elevations of the systems analysis unit, and the Metaflier section of the Starship. Imagine yourself on a mission in space aboard this luxury cruiser. You’ll be spellbound! 
- Full Color poster
- Blueprints (3 different)

These blueprints show the ringship exterior and interior in some detail. The interior ‘blueprints’ appear to actually be outlines for sets for the Starship. They depict the bridge of the ship, called the Command Deck, with a viewscreen and a single computer console dubbed the Omniputer, presumable providing communication with the “enormous computer” described above. The aft of the Command Deck exits onto a circular stairwell, providing access to the top and bottom cylinders. Beyond the stairwell is the Metatransfer Deck, which opens into the spherical module (the Metafier) and long neck leading to the engines. The whole Metatransit System appears to be a kind of virtual environment to remotely explore planets with, sort of a reverse Star Trek transporter. The spherical module is like a precursor to the Next Generation holodeck.

All in all, this provides an interesting glimpse at an idea for a show that appears to have been thought out to some detail, but wich seems to have been lost to obscurity for the most part. The ringship’s appearance in TMP could indicate that the whole concept of the ship as thought out for Starship could have existed in Star Trek’s past. Alternatively, we might choose to just take the outer appearance of the ship at face value, and discard the somewhat high concept idea of the virtual exploration/sentient computer equipped interstellar explorer.