If you’re even half the Trekkie I am, then you’re absolutely starving to see something from the upcoming Star Trek movie. Aside from that teaser trailer we got awhile back, Paramount continues to keep a lid on things, shutting fans out as much as possible.

A few days ago though, the infamous folks at AICN posted the first detailed photos of the movie’s sets, uniforms, and general production design. Three seconds later they were attacked by Paramount and forced to take them down. No surprise there, and if you’re like me you didn’t click over there in time to see what was up. So I’ve been scouring the internet looking for an alternative image source, and they are indeed out there. In fact, here they are over at cooltidbits.net. What I’m getting at is that they’re out there, and as usual the practice of forcing sites to remove stuff like this just doesn’t work. Once it’s out there, it’s out there, and no matter how many lawyers you send to scour the internet they’ll never completely stop it.

Actually there is one way to stop it, and it’s a method I’ve suggested to Paramount’s reps in the past. Here’s how you do it Paramount: Release your own photos. The only reason people are bothering to circulate stuff like this is that you continue to show us nothing from your movie. This is Star Trek. One of the original fandom’s, it’s been around for decades. People are rabid over it. The way you control what people see from your movie is to be the first to show it to them, not by cease and desisting. Sadly, they aren’t listening.

While I can’t actually show you any of the set images released from the film (and I’m sure any place link to will have to take them down within minutes... sorry cooltidbits), I can at least tell you most of them look good. I’m especially happy with the uniforms, which look like a variation on the “Penguins Greys” used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture… except not ugly. There may be a scarf involved with these new Penguins Greys though, and that would be weird. The shuttles look like a variation on the classic Trek designs, but with a slightly modernized twist… and less blinding white. Actually, everything pictured looks that way. Like a variation on those old, classic Trek designs, but in the best way possible. So maybe JJ Abrams and Paramount aren’t exactly reaching out to Trek fans with their movie, but it looks like in the production design at least, there’s an effort to pay homage to what went before. Now if only Paramount would show it to us.