Star Trek
Picture of the Day ( 68 )
Six members of the pop group AKB48, holding their USS Enterprise boarding passes, stand in front of the cast and director of the new “Star Trek” movie in Tokyo on Wednesday. Back, from left: John Cho (Mr Sulu), Eric Bana (Romulan villain Nero), Chris Pine (Capt Kirk), director JJ Abrams, Zachary Quinto (Mr Spock) and Karl Urban (Dr McCoy). Abrams said he was taken to an AKB48 concert last time he was here in February, which he called a fun experience. The girls asked Abrams if they could be in the next “Star Trek” movie, hopefully as aliens who have a dance session with Capt Kirk. “Star Trek” opens in Japan on May 29.
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68 Comments
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metto
Look at Karl Urban, I bet he's like "yummy!".
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Mittsu
Bet the after party was fun.
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soldave
What are the girls holding? The guys do have that kind of "72 more hours of this and I'll be on a flight back to LAX, hopefully with my plane not having a cargo container stuck in the engine".
Moderator: They are holding Enterprise boarding passes given to them by Abrams.
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dennis0bauer
Beam me up Scotty!
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nisegaijin
May 29? I am there! hotties, btw!
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Altria
Hey baby wanna 'klingon' to me back at the hotel?
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Den Den
The guys look out of place, they should be wearing shorts and singlets, so we can check out their legs too.
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Yelnats
They should be in those little skimpy outfits like in the old TV series. I wonder if Kirk got one as he always did. Going to one of their concerts probably had him rolling on the floor laughing.
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notimpressed
dimpled knees aplenty haha. Interesting to see so many non americans in the crew, Eric Bana from Aussie and Karl Urban from NZ. Too bad they will have to fake an American accent though. I think the girls having a alien strip party for Capt.Kirk is a great idea too. Oh and that dude from Heroes has Spock written all over him don't you think?
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smithinjapan
notimpressed: The idea of accents should be all but non-existent in the Star Trek world... they are beyond those things, remember? haha. Anyway, even in the original Star Trek they had Scotty and Sulu, both with noticeable accents, and lest we forget Kirk's jerky... way... of... speaking...
As for Zachary (the guy from Heroes), he's the reason I'm not going to see the movie and don't care to. Heroes season one was good, but it's been gawd-awful since then and his character is one of the worst on it. He'll never live that character down.
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notimpressed
true that smithy but he does look like a vulcan. I havn"t caught any of the second series of Heroes so... I guess we just have to wait and see what happens with the new hollywood version to see what they do with the accents. But will anyone understand Karl Urbans West Auckland Drawl? I have trouble getting through a particular West Auckland series called Outrageous Fortune even though I'm born and raised in Auckland. Actually Im bot even sure where in NZ Karl is from so never mind >.<
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notimpressed
Who's playing Lt.Uhura? She was hot.
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Apsara
Wikipedia says Karl is from Wellington. He's come a long way since Shortland St...
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Coolasapool
what? no spandex?
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teleprompter
twitter feed for those of us who couldn't care less -
'I can't wait to see the new Star Track movie! I like the new guy playing Luke Skywalker. "Beam me out, Scooter!" ' #annoyatrekkie
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northlondon
Six members of AKB48 dressed in maid outfits and there are guys on here discussing Star Trek ?
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soldave
Moderator - No they are not. The Enterprise is not real and cannot have boarding passes. "Promotional material" would have been good enough.
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Nessie
Beam me up, hottie! Actuall, not so hot.
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Nessie
I imagine they'll get some frequent-flier miles at the afterparty.
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Nessie
Shatner's from Canada. They...all...talk...like that...there. Or they will.
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rogerbentham
i have a hard time thinking that zachary quinto looks like the real mccoy. when these guys age, it'll be interesting to see who looks like who then. whoever plays uhura is miles better looking than the original.
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teleprompter
To boldly go where no compa party has gone before
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smartacus
soldave
Haven't you ever heard of make believe? Of course, there is an Enterprise. I think you need some time off on Rigley's Pleasure Planet.
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Patrick Smash
Does anyone else know that the AKB48 actually has 51 members as well as 14 research students? It's a bit like the 100 years war, which lasted for 116 years, only without the guns. Or the French.
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imacat
The Star Trek guys must be wondering why the organizers of this event invited a bunch of idiot little girls along.
The two groups seem so incongruous... it's ludicrous.
Japan seems to specialize in making these movie promotion events completely ridiculous.
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northlondon
99.9% of guys in Japan must be wondering why there are a bunch of idiots discussing Star Trek when there are members of AKB48 in maid outfits.
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herefornow
northlondon -- lol.
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combinibento
imacat is spot on. There was a disconnect here. The Hollywood stars showed up here in Japan, probably expecting a routine promotional event; photos, interviews maybe, etc. And then all of a sudden a Japanese PR guy wearing a headset shows up and ushers in this group of little girls - each one holding what appear to be credit cards while wearing a hybrid private-school-uniform-slash-maid-outfit getup, (along with the inexplicable random Crayola socks), and this explains the baffled look on each of the movie stars.
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fairyprince
What else has John Cho (Sulu) been in before?
I know I have seen him somewhere.
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imacat
The wonderful Emiri Miyasaka would have been much more appropriate at this event. I could see her as a female Sulu.
But to get an idea of the ludicrousness and incongruity on display here, just imagine these AKB48 little girls as members of the Star Trek crew. They'd be spending hours mailing each other on their mobile phones, err, I mean communicators, or be screeching "kawaii" about Spock's ears, or else day dreaming about having a cute half-child... half Vulcan that is.
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Nessie
Allahu AKB48!
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combinibento
fairyprince, John Cho was the vastly superior "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." Good catch.
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soothsayer
JT should start up a funniest speech bubble competition with Eric Bana's obvious aside to Chris Pine.
"It's life Jim, but not as we know it." springs to mind.
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soothsayer
Not that that one of mine is going to require a change of seats, of course.
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TexasAggie
All of the cast and director look like they had lost a bet. None of them seem very happy in this pic. Guess that can be expected if you travel 8,000 miles for a photo op with a half dozen jail bait teenyboppers.
Bet they can't wait for Scotty to beam them up off that island Disney Land.
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TexasAggie
JT should start up a funniest speech bubble competition with Eric Bana's obvious aside to Chris Pine.
"It's life Jim, but not as we know it." springs to mind.
More like Bana saying to Pine: "You know,Chris, I used to be somebody."
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fairyprince
combinibento:
> fairyprince, John Cho was the vastly superior "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." Good catch.
Ah ha!!! Thanks chief!
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Disillusioned
That shouldn't be a problem if they wear those ridiculous outfits.
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onewrldoneppl
john sulu in guantanomo bay. with the guy from slumdog. he is the most widely respected chinese-american on earth. he's not gay like the original sulu. AKB69? meh ... i've seen worse.
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Freddy5
This is probably the least ridiculous photo-op they were in.
I expect there are photos lurking elsewhere of them posing with some muppet dressed as a 'mascot' or with some 'ist' or 'ambassador' such as 'Banana-ist of the Year 2009' or 'Mascara Ambassador 2009' or some other such crap.
Poor bastards. Beam me up Scotty.
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aelieth
"as aliens who have a dance session with Capt. Kirk"... it definitely sounds like something out of the original Star Trek. Hahaha, awesome.
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Sarge
10 perfect knees and Star Trek - what more could you ask for?
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wanderlust
Lt. Uhura is played by Zoe Saldana - Maria from Pirates of the Caribbean - one very attractive lady...
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metto
"Lt. Uhura is played by Zoe Saldana - Maria from Pirates of the Caribbean - one very attractive lady..."
And talented if I may add.
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Sarge
I wonder if Zoe gets to slap anyone in the Star Trek movie, ha ha ha!
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imacat
Looking at it once more, the Star Trek guys really do look uncomfortable, and understandably so. They are all cool guys, here to promote a movie they've worked hard on and which has a rich heritage... but yet they've been stuck behind a group of idiot little girls.
Obviously these little girls have simply been roped in to try and attract the attention of the 20,30,40-something male Japanese otaku who would be probably be the target audience for this movie, as well as to try and make the movie appealing to other similarly idiotic young Japanese women who want to see a kakkoi gaijin in the movie or whatever.
I can't put my finger on it but it almost seems disrespectful to the Star Trek series and heritage.
It also gives the impression that Japan is a completely dumb and childish country... an impression I have had from previous movie presentation events pictured on Japan Today.
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daisan
The actors look so puzzled, they might be having a hard time trying to understand how things work in Japan. No local tarentos next to you and nobody will watch your movie. The actors doing the voices for the japanese version would've been better.
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namabiru4me
the actors are probably dazzled because it took 10 min to get the girls in the color coordinated sock order.
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zurcronium
Reminds me of the famous tribble episode, only I think the tribbles were a little bigger and they could sing.
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northlondon
Obviously. Otherwise the 20/30/40-something Japanese male demographic and young Japanese women would be struggling to recognise the 'kakkoi' non-famous actors on display. Zachary who ? Karl ha ? Yep, the little girls of AKB48 are much more famous in Japan than the non-faces lined up here buddy.
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TexasAggie
Ok, if AKB40 is so famous, perhaps someone can explain why JT failed to include the names of the six kids from that group in this picture.
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imacat
Heroes has been quite big in Japan in case you haven't noticed. Eric Bana is also quite well known from Black Hawk Down and more recently The Other Boleyn Girl.
Hey, maybe you could get a job with a Japanese movie promotion company. Thats about the depth of their thinking... "AKB48 are cute and famous in Japan so we'll put them in front of the Star Trek crew"
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airrunwesker
I wonder, how much blood wa spilled to go down from 48 girls to the chosen six?
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GAYMAN
earth to scotty. things are getting pretty bad down here...
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gamera
Star Trek was good. Karl Urban was perfect as McCoy.
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CultureChange
Ok, the third girl from the right is the cutest, but they are all beautiful.
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Weasel
Think someone asked about who is John Cho - go watch "Harold & Kumar" series of movies
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knowitall
AKB48 is, like the name says, a group of 48 girls. I doubt their manager, let alone JT, can keep track of all of them.
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Airurandojin
Anyone notice how short those girls all? Barely reach the guys' chest!
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Good_Jorb
I doubt the percentage is that high but then again there is no accounting for some people's tastes, especially in Japan.
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nigelboy
Oh please. Trekkie=Nerds=Otaku. Peas in a pod.
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Sarge
This reminds me of the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
"Trekkie=Nerds=Otaku"
Trekkies are visionary people who are optimistic about humanity's future.
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Sarge
Finally saw Star Trek. Quite excellent. Zoe Saldana is excellent ( and hot! ) as Uhura, and Anton Yelchin is excellent as Chekov.
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