Star Trek - The More Original Motion Picture
Despite the hundreds of positive reviews surrounding the new Star Trek movie I didn’t watch it tonight expecting to see a good movie. I didn’t have expectations of failure (although I wouldn’t be surprised given the franchise’s history), the quality of the movie was simply irrelevant. I wasn’t going to see the movie, I was going to pay respect to an institution that has been with me for as long as I can remember.
Like so many geeks my age, I grew up watching Star Trek. For my family it was a weekly tradition to catch new episodes as they aired and I remember being annoyed at football season (which often displaced episodes) and being downright pissed when George Bush (senior, not junior) interrupted the show with his boring speeches. In retrospect this was far better than the later Bush who annoyed my simply by talking, but my younger mind didn’t understand those things. Star Trek was an important part of my life, and I remember our weekly episodes with my father with as much fondness as our shopping trips and the rare chance to get dinner from the hot case at the deli they entailed.
Our family had the the entire Original Series on VHS and most of the Next Generation episodes as well. Columbia House would ship them to us every so often and seeing that package in the mail was a definite high point for me. I remember the cost of the subscription being an issue and I remember that it seemed important to continue even when we were living a modest lifestyle. The franchise is embedded into my consciousness in a way that matches so few other things.
So from all of that, I should be identified as a trekker (trekkie, Star Trek enthusiast, take your pick), but I’m not. The entire franchise produced an absurdly small amount of really good material for the amount of air time it earned. The Next Generation and The Original Series both were full of boring lectures and poorly developed characters and plot holes the size of very large things. The science was horrible and there was absolutely no continuity. Despite the impact it had on my childhood, I don’t feel comfortable identifying with it.
Still, if you plop me in front of a The Next Generation episode I will watch it. I’ll also know exactly which episode it is and everything about that episode within seconds. I did have a communicator, tricorder, AND a uniform at one point. Oh, and a tribble, although that was technically my dad’s. I also follow Wil Wheaton’s blog and twitter.
So I don’t identify as a fan but I was compelled to watch this movie. Even if the reviews had been universally horrible I would have watched it.
The scenes were Star Trek through and through with blatant nods to key elements from The Original Series down to a nice pan of the hull and the designation NCC-1701 (no bloody A, B, C, or D) painted across it. The ship felt like the Enterprise as it would be if it were built today (ignoring NASA’s reliance on technology developed when the The Original Series was first aired), with bright large LCD displays and glass everywhere, without giving up the pipes and LEDs and switches that make it believable.
The characters were unmistakably younger versions of their Original Series counterparts to the point of being almost obnoxious about it. Chekov’s accent was over the top and an obvious comedic gag, and, yes, we get it, Kirk was a hot-head. Still, overall, the elements were there with characters like Bones and Sulu being spot on. Kirk, especially, felt like Kirk with his various quirks showing through (like the way he sat when using the intercom). The voice acting, thankfully, did not follow the famously Kirk style. It was great to hear Majel Barrett in her role as the computer again.
So there was a lot of pandering, but that was expected. A movie based on an institution this well ingrained can’t ignore the history of the franchise without significant backlash. J. J. Abrams (and the writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) got that exactly right.
It was a movie brilliantly done and it feels right. It has moving drama (both my girlfriend and I shed tears for characters we barely knew just minutes in), awesome action, impressive fighting, and a pace that meant I didn’t feel bored once throughout the entire movie (a rarity for me). They pull it off and you don’t even care that they kill off the entire future franchise and explain it all away with a time travel paradox. Hey, that’s Star Trek, too.
So thank you to those who made it happen. For tonight, at least, I am a Star Trek fan again.
