Sometimes, an important part of what makes a movie great is what isn't in the film. "Star Trek" is no exception. There are many things that could have in the movie but weren't... and I am thankful for that.
10. Techno-doublespeak neo-sciencey bullshit talk. When technical terminolgy was actually required, it made sense in context and wasn't just a random string of complicated-sounding syllables.
9. Whoopi Goldberg. Her empathic bartender character from TNG is apparently immortal or, at least, very long-lived, having been in San Francisco in the 1870's. Some meddling executive could have thought it would be really cute to have some stunt casting with her character working the bar where Kirk starts a fight. Fortunately, that executive, if he ever existed, was taken out and shot for suggesting such a stupid idea and we didn't have to suffer through it.
8. An after-credits bonus scene where Samuel L. Jackson shows up, snubs Kirk and Spock, and offers Sulu a job with S.H.I.E.L.D. based solely on his fencing skills. C'mon, it could happen.
7. Klingons for the sake of having Klingons. The plot and storyline got along quite nicely, thank you, without Klingons. Their existence was acknowledged but their on-screen presence would not have helped at all and so they were never seen.
6. Cheese.
5. An explanation of why everyone was wearing Aquaman shirts. It was more apparent with the mustard-coloured uniform shirts, but there was a tiny scale-like pattern showing. Nobody questioned it, much like Batman's rubber nipples back in the Tim Burton era. It simply was. I assumed it is in deference to the water-breathing aliens from the planet Atlanticus, who will play a major part in the next movie. Or not.
4. Denial of the curse of the red shirts. When Kirk, Sulu and Olson are assigned a stealth, high-risk, Navy Space-Seals-style, seek-and-destroy mission, there was no doubt what colour Olson would be wearing. In fact, the curse was kicked up a notch. Instead of shirst, the three of them were wearing high-tech, mission-specific, paratrooper combat suits. Kirk in blue, Sulu in white and Olson in, you guessed it, red from head to toe. Olson's inevitable demise was, in fact, his own damned fault and his stupidity put the mission at risk, showing that the Red Shirt Curse isn't simply a cannon-fodder attitude among the higher ranks in Starfleet.
3. Jar-Jar Binks. Lucasfilm and ILM handled some of the special effects on this film and the orchestral music playing under the closing credits sounded disturbingly similar to the Imperial March. Scotty's little Oompa Loompa sidekick could easily have been portrayed mainly for the cute, kid-oriented factor like Jar-Jar, but he wasn't. Thank Tribbles for that.
2. Tribbles. Once again, this film was not the proper forum for cute. There will be plenty of time for cute later, five or six films from now when the whole franchise is getting old and tired again, but not now, not yet.
1. The Prime Directive. Yes, I'm sure it still exists; it's an established tenet of Starfleet philosophy. That doesn't mean that it has to be dragged out and bandied about, slapping people over the head with the xeno-moralistic superiority of it. It had nothing to do with the story and so it was left out. This film is a chance to bring in a new audience, to grow a new fan-base, without over-burdening them with 40+ years of backstory baggage. Give 'em the basics to follow the story and focus on making it a hell of a good story.
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