After the triple disaster of two mediocre films and an Enterprise TV series that failed to go anywhere, Star Trek needed a reboot. Badly. It had long-since sucked every single good creative idea out of the creative team that had made Next Gen, Ds9, and Voyager. Not only was new blood needed, but new everything.
So when word came down that Star Trek was being rebooted, I was both skeptical and intrigued. First, the fact that it was JJ Abrams. Up to that point, I had thought of Abrams as a little bit hit-and-miss. I still hadn’t forgiven him for making Kari Rusell cut her hair in Felicity or those last few seasons of Alias. But I liked his work on the pilot for Lost and thought he’d done an amazing job rebooting another franchise, Mission Impossible III.
Then I hard about the cast. Chris Who? Pine? was going to play Captain Kirk? Sylar from Heroes was going to be Spock? Eomer from Lord of the Rings as McCoy? One of the stoners who went to White Castle was going to be Sulu? Eric Bana was going to be the bad guy? More skepticism. Well, at least I knew Simon Pegg would be great as Scotty.
Then some other great geekiness started to leak out. There was a prequel comic book, which was pretty amazing. It helped fuse the Next Generation crew and Spock and set up a story involving time travel, and which had the potential to completely rewrite the Star Trek universe.
And then it did. And just as it exploded the planet Vulcan, so too did all misconceptions and pretense get blown away. JJ Abrams wasn’t f@#$ing around here. He was reinventing Star Trek, not just to make it pretty enough to make us think the Enterprise bridge had been designed by the same people who made my MacBook, but to get rid of all the nerd rage, all the pretense, all the baggage. He immediately had what seemed completely impossible for Star Trek: a tabula rasa — a blank slate — on which he could do whatever he wanted.
And what he did was nothing short of amazing. Hands down, this is my favorite Trek movie. Not just because it is so different, but because so much of it is the same. We get to see Kirk cheat the Kobayashi Maru. We get to see how amazing a pilot Sulu is, and that he can break out the fencing skills. We see a nameless redshirt get inexplicably and brutally killed. We get to see Spock being both logical and human. And anyone who doesn’t get a little choked up at George Kirk sacrificing himself to save his wife and newborn son. . .I’d have to check to see if you’re part Vulcan. Ditto for Spock losing his mother. Oh, and who didn’t get excited for Thor knowing that this new guy Chris Hemsworth who played Kirk’s dad was going to fill that role?
Which isn’t to say it’s a perfect movie. Nero is a weak, forgettable villain. I’m still not sure that his backstory or where he got that huge ship is explained well enough in the films, or what he was doing for 20 years out in the neutral zone — just doing nothing? There are a couple of moments which seem a little forced, a little too precious, a little too winky-at-the-audience, but are ultimately forgivable. But, if we just go with it and relax — pass the popcorn — it’s really too much fun to get overly excited about.
The thing I loved the most about the Star Trek film was how fresh it made everything. Suddenly, Star Trek wasn’t some silly show from the 60’s limited by their technology and budget. It was the pure essence of what made that show (and ensuing movies) great and making it relevant to a wide audience, and not just a “loose collection of nerds with skin problems” to quote Nichelle Nichols on Futurama. This was a Star Trek movie that my wife loved. You don’t understand how uncommon and how great that is.
The other thing I loved was how much nerd rage it caused among all the right kinds of nerds. If you are the kind who gets so caught up on the continuity and the intricacies, then go have fun with yourself. The key word there is “with yourself.” For those of us who like our favorite franchises becoming accessible to civilians (non-nerds) everywhere, this is a godsend. And it allows us to pretend that, essentially, we have two timelines. The prime timeline that follows the original series’ continuity– enjoy it! Bask in its nerdy goodness! And then we have the rebooted timeline. One which allows us to make wild assertions, like, say, Voyager never happened.
And we can only hope that Into Darkness brings us the goods even more.
Vagabond Prime will be getting us a review as soon as his embargo is lifted. And if any of you are coming to the Star Trek / Into Darkness double feature tonight, I’ll see you at the Alamo Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane. We’ll drink some Romulan Ale together. Until then, live long and prosper, and thanks for joining us for Two Weeks of Trek.