J.J. ABRAMS PREVIEWS 30 MINUTES OF 'STAR TREK' FOOTAGE AT NEW YORK EVENT

The very first scene we watched introduces the young adult Kirk, who naturally, is trying to pick up Uhuru in a Starfleet bar with limited success (she does smile at his intense flirting despite turning down his advances). But things take a more violent turn when other Starfleet cadets horn in on the action, and after Kirk tells their leader, "to get a couple more guys and make it a fair fight," they proceed to beat his ass like an Andorian stepchild before Captain Pike bursts onto the scene. He recognizes the young Kirk, and during an intense sit-down (where he clearly lets on he knows a lot about Kirk's background) tells the young upstart: "Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes, and saved 800 lives—including your mother. I dare you to do better." WIth that pep talk, Kirk's on board the next shuttle flight to Starfleet cadet training, where he boasts to Pike that he'll be an officer in three years instead of the four normally required.

The next segment picks up three years later, with Kirk now a Starfleet officer, albeit one who's constantly in trouble because of his disregard for authority. After finagling his way onto the Enterprise—in a great comedic bit, McCoy shoots him up with a vaccine that causes massive swelling of the hands and tongue, forcing Kirk to be brought aboard for the mission—Kirk convinces Pike and the bridge crew, including a reluctant Spock, that a seemingly natural event on Vulcan is actually an attack by Romulans. When Pike brings the Enterprise out of warp speed, the ship materializes in the midst of a furious space battle that nearly grounds the newly christened starship before their mission can begin!

The third segment confirms what many Internerds have already thought, that there's a time travel subplot that revolves around Spock as played by Nimoy. He and young Kirk find themselves on a frozen planet as the Enterprise speeds toward Vulcan. In order to rendezvous with the ship, they'll need help from an expert engineer—enter Montgomery Scott, who's been exiled to this frozen Starfleet station for his crazy theories on engines and transporters, including his idea about beaming aboard a ship at full warp, which is exactly what he must do to get Kirk back on board the Enterprise. After giving Scotty the formula he'll one day invent, Spock gives Kirk a dire warning: He must take control of the Enterprise from young Spock, and force him to step down for being "too emotionally involved in the mission" on Vulcan—an ominous sidebar considering the Vulcans' mastery of logic and their abandonment of all emotion.

In the longest segment of the evening, Captain Pike has been summoned to discuss terms with the Romulan commander Nero, and while preparing to take the shuttle for the meeting, gives Spock command of the Enterprise and promotes Kirk to his First Officer. Kirk, Sulu and an Abrams-described "red-shirt" must make a perilous "space jump" out of the shuttle and into Vulcan's atmosphere, where the Romulans have installed a device that's drilling into the planet's core and to deliver a doomsday weapon.

After an intense, futuristic parachute scene that makes "Point Break" look like child's play—Kirk and company freefall from space, through the atmosphere, at terminal velocity for a long time before nearly splattering into the drilling platform (the red shirt gets burnt to a crisp by the unit's propulsion device)—Sulu and Kirk survive, but have no way to destroy the device because their explosives were destroyed with the red shirt.

When they're attacked by Romulans, the two team up for some badass hand-to-hand combat, where Sulu—whose combat training consisted of fencing—flourishes after pulling a collapsible samurai sword from his pack, carving up the alien invaders like so much sushi. But will all their efforts be for naught when Spock leaves the Enterprise to help rescue his parents during the Vulcan evacuation? Can you say, "Kirk's taking command of the Enterprise?"