Star Trek Message Forum

Okay, I know there are lots of people who didn't care for the 2009 version of Star Trek.

Let me just say it, right up front: I thoroughly enjoyed the film. My reasons are numerous, and I hope you don't mind if I state them here. I welcome anyone's response, and I would love to hear different takes. That said, onward!

I think that the script was excellent, in that it sets up the idea that an alternate reality has been created, through a devastating failure of the elder Spock. This enables fans to re-visit the entire young lives of the Enterprise crew. It ties the previous continuity in, yet leaves the field wide open for anything they want to do in future sequel films.

JJ Abrams did an excellent job of directing, in that he was very faithful to the dramatic interpretation of the milieu, and the casting choices were phenomenal. From the very first scene, where Kirk's father sacrifices himself to save the crew and his family, and Kirk is actually born in the last seconds of his dad's life, I was hooked.

Kirk was fabulously edgy, a very believable permutation of the original, considering that, in this altered milieu, he didn't have his father's influence in the formative years of his development. 

Spock was very well portrayed, and the resemblance between him and Nimoy, even when they stood face-to-face, was both obvious and delightful. 

Bones, Chekhov and Scotty were all very reminiscent of their previous incarnations, and a real hoot, as well. Sulu was very Bruce Lee. I even liked the relationship between Uhura and Spock, and the way Kirk kept hitting on her; I thought it added yet another dimension to the antagonism between them, that made their eventual joining forces very satisfying. True, the age difference between the senior and junior officers that was obvious in the original has been re-written here, but such things are well within artistic license, in my humble opinion.

The Romulan villain, Nero, was well thought out, too; he had excellent motivation, that ties in so well with Spock's motivations from the previous continuity - the reunification of the Vulcans and Romulans - that the transition to the alternate reality was seamless. I even thought his name was well-considered; Nero, the Roman emperor who oversaw the burning of Rome by the barbarian hordes.

Destroying Vulcan was a stroke of genius; it surpasses the poignance of Alderaan's destruction in Star Wars. Because we have so much history with the world - over 30 years' worth - we are, I think, much more struck by the tragedy, than we are with Princess Leia's loss. At the time, both she, and the whole SW milieu were brand new to us, and we humans are more affected by the loss of someone we know - of a friend - than by the loss of a stranger, or even a planet-full of strangers.

Some people are upset because of the divergence from continuity; they seem to want the future to be a faithful regurgitation of the past, as if it were still the 1960’s, and the audience of today were still the same audience. They argue, rightly, that many of the events of the original 5-year-mission are as yet untold. They see this as ample evidence that there is no need for what they see as a ponderous and cheap trick - a shift in the time-line.

I believe they fail to take into account the fact that today’s audience is vastly different than the audience of the sixties. With the exception of the aging baby-boomers, who have themselves lived through thirty-odd years of growth and development since Star Trek first premiered, it’s a brand-new audience, with brand-new sensibilities.

I think the film strikes a balance between the need of the older theater-goers to feel the connection with the original, and the need of the younger audience, many of whom have never seen the original series, and many others who have, and think it’s hopelessly hokey and out-dated. I believe that most of the character-driven interplay that made the original series work has been preserved, and enhanced by the fresh renditions of talented young actors, and that the shift in the milieu itself is subtle enough to preserve the flavor of the original as well, while offering much-expanded room for creativity.

Personally, I look forward to seeing what they do with the new dynamic they've set up. How will the Romulans react to the destruction of Vulcan? Will the Federation reveal its foreknowledge of their star's supernova? If so, how will the Romulans react? If not, how will our heroic Enterprise folks react to the guilt of concealing such vital information from a people in jeopardy - whether or not they are enemies?

And that doesn't even take into account the Klingons... or all the other stuff the Enterprise encountered on its 5-year mission that we do know about. Every one of those stories can now be retold, if desired, without being too tied to the original continuity, so the flavor of the original can be maintained - much as they did with this one - while the story can be retold in whatever way works best for its new, 21st-century audience.

May the Star Trek franchise live long, and prosper.

Best regards,
CeruleanSon

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