Star Trek • 11.17.08
I come to the new JJ Abrams reboot of Star Trek as a longtime Trek fan. I started watching Star Trek, The Original Series in elementary school. I’d set the VCR to tape it from channel 2 and get up early enough to watch it before school. I was geeky enough to keep a little log with which episode I’d watched, and what the stardate was on the show in question. I’d feel ashamed about this, except that…well, a) look at our URL, and b) ask Mahar about his movie journal.
I gladly followed Trek into The Next Generation. It started my first year of high school, and continued through college, and in hindsight, represented the peak of Trek. Sure, the even numbered movies were also great, but could Khan, Whales, Russians and Cochran really make up for bald chicks, faux-Saavik, abomination-we-won’t-speak-of, little bit TOS, little bit TNG?
The last two movies mixed it up some. Insurrection would have made a good double episode, and Nemesis should have been odd-numbered. Regardless, I was always more of a Trek fan than of Star Wars. There seemed to be more thought behind everything, and it seemed to actually be science fiction, instead of just an action movie set in space.
Then, there was the downfall of the TV shows. Deep Space 9, I have heard really good things about, but I bowed out after season 2. I lasted one season of Voyager, and 2 episodes of Enterprise. It wasn’t looking good, and Nemesis didn’t help.
So, I come to the new trailer with mixed feelings. Above all, it looks like an action movie set in space. I don’t like that. Oddly enough, the Enterprise being built on earth bugs the crap out of me. How the hell are they going to get a saucer and three cylinders connected by tissue paper out of earth’s gravity well? Yeah, these are the stupid question trekkies think of. But, I’m older, and I don’t have the conviction of my ways that I had in high school and college. Mostly, at this point, I just want to see my old friends back on the screen, even if they’re completely different actors. As it stands right now, I’m on board. Simon Pegg can do little wrong, and dammit, the Enterprise is exciting you little British man!





