C3PX said:The whole old Spock contrived bit of continuity management annoys me to no end though.
It would be like Casino Royale, if Casino Royale had felt the need to explain why Bond was going on his first mission in modern times, when he has been a kickass spy since the 50s. It was a reboot, didn't need to be explained. We knew we were starting over from scratch, back at the beginning, none of that stuff from the other films has ever happened.
I get that there are differences with regard to the respective time lines. I'm speaking in a more general sense - just as a 007 film & a Star Trek film to see and enjoy the stories of.
Where continuity is concerned during the span of 40-year-old franchises, unless you use the same cast, it can't really be addressed correctly anyway. You can bend the rules a little with Trek because the series were only vaguely connected and because it's science fiction. With 007 - reboot or not - continuity went out the window a long time ago. If it hadn't, 007 would be a 90-year-old man struggling with these blasted cell phones, trying to navigate the interweb, and complaining that he's only allowed to smoke outside.
As a fan of certain franchises, I definitely want, and expect, some continuity. However, I'm much more concerned that the continuity be in the premise, not so much every plot point. There are guys going off on how Kirk shouldn't see a Warbird yet because it conflicts with a 1966 TV episode. I don't care if those bits are conflicting. There's a much bigger message & ideal to be conveyed. What I want is for Kirk to be a good guy who can handle the pressure of the assignment - that Spock is a guy struggling with his emotions - that McCoy is a little pessimistic - that Uhura is an intelligent woman - Scotty a little left-of-center, etc, etc.
I want to be excited to go on the journey again and to give a damn about what happens to the characters. I didn't have that anymore with the last few entries in both franchises. Casino Royale fixed that - even to the point of becoming my favorite 007 film ever (by far). I'm hoping Star Trek does something similar.