I am old enough to remember Star Trek during its first run, but only barely. I really came into the original series when I went to university and lived in a dorm. The show aired in reruns every Saturday afternoon, and it became a tradition to go into the TV lounge and watch it as a group. When the first motion picture was released that year, I was among those who saw it during the first weekend. I’ve seen all the movies and kept up with some of the TV shows, though some more than others. I watched The Next Generation, and most of DS9, but started drifting away with Voyager and didn’t even bother with Enterprise.
I’ve been to a couple of conventions, but only to see what they were all about–and I was greatly disillusioned, mostly by the way the dealers didn’t care about the show at all and seemed gleeful at the way they could gouge people for drek. Compared to most of those in attendance, I was a lightweight in terms of fandom. This I discovered in line waiting to register, when the people closest to me in the queue carried on a protracted discussion of what Spock was up to between the first movie and Wrath of Khan, complete with backing information and virtual footnotes. I was out of my league, I decided.
I got a huge kick out of the recent CSI episode, which was based at a Trek-like con and centered around fan outrage at a reboot of a classic TV series that was Trek in all but name. I was probably the ideal audience member for this new movie–conversant with the show but not zealous about it to the level that anything would offend me. As such, I thought the movie was terrific on many levels. The idea to come up with a way to erase from the board all the Star Trek canon that everyone knows is terrific. Now, the writers can pick and choose what they want to keep and what can be ignored as they move forward, and I sincerely hope that they do. The new movie is grittier and more “realistic.” The phaser fights include ricocheting sounds. The space ships are crowded–characters have to dodge other crewmembers when rushing from point A to point B. The battles are more vivid. I loved a moment when a crewmember was sucked into space after a noisy explosion–the POV shifted external and suddenly there was only the silence of space. The contrast was stellar.
I’m not familiar with most of the actors. I wouldn’t have recognized Winona Ryder if not for the credits, and it took me a while to figure out that she was Spock’s human mother. I know Bruce Greenwood and Simon Pegg, who was delightful. I only wish he had entered the movie sooner. It’s hard to believe that little Anton Yelchin from Hearts in Atlantis is now big enough to be Chekov! The others are mostly unfamiliar to me, though one of the Vulcan Elders looked familiar With the exception of Chris Pine, the actors all managed to represent the familiar classic characters in a way that subtly brought them to mind. The guy who was Bones was the best at that–his voice had the same gravelly, southern-tinged timbre of Deforest Kelly. (I liked the explanation of how he got his nickname, too.)
Pine isn’t Shatner, and he rarely brought Shatner to mind. When he slumped comfortably in the captain’s chair, you could see it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but his was the one performance where I had to do some work to remind myself: this is Kirk. The others came naturally.
There were several nods to classic show and film. Using Christopher Pike was the most obvious, followed by the brain-numbing creatures similar to those in Wrath of Khan. The romance between two major characters was the most jarring revelation of the reboot, but I loved the interchanges between Spock and his father as they grappled with what it meant to have emotions. And the reappearance of a classic character was just the touch the film needed to connect with the past. I thought the little character on the snowy outpost was perilously close to being an Ewok, but he wasn’t too disturbing.
The legacy of Lost is clearly discernable in the plot, and it’s clear that causality is at the forefront of JJ Abram’s mind. That makes him the ideal person to handle the Dark Tower series, should he ever choose to do so, and he has King’s stamp of approval to give it a shot.
All in all, the movie was a totally enjoyable viewing experience. My wife and I both enjoyed it immensely, and I would consider buying the DVD when it becomes available, too. Hell, if I had the opportunity to go see it again in the theater, I probably would.
