My Obligatory "Star Trek" Rant

After much controversy and anticipation, JJ Abrams' new Star Trek movie is here. And, since my Star Trek fandom is no secret, I went and saw it as soon as I could. I saw it two evenings ago, and now that the experience has had a little time to sink in I thought it only right to put down some of my thoughts about it.

First of all, I really liked the movie. Abrams deserves a lot of credit for making a very entertaining movie, probably the most entertaining Trek movie since at least First Contact, if not Undiscovered Country. Despite fears to the contrary, it was also much more identifiably Star Trek than I was expecting. Sure the look is a bit different, and the back stories for the characters have changed quite a bit, but the key to Star Trek has always been people, particularly the chemistry between the main characters. This aspect was nailed really well. I'm pretty happy with all the casting choices they made to replace the old cast; the new actors all seem to fit their roles very well, while at the same time adding a bit of their own interpretation to the mix. Make no mistake, the cast of this new movie does far more than simply offer wooden imitations of the original cast.

That being said, there are a few nits to pick with the movie. First of all...did it really have to be another time travel story? Without giving too much away, the story is basically a Back to the Future style alternate reality created by a time-traveling Romulan. So many Star Trek episodes and movies have featured this trope, I wish that Abrams had gone another direction.

Next of all, the interiors of the ships left me a little cold, especially the engineering sections. I've always been a bit particular to the technical aspects of Star Trek, a proclivity that I honed with many countless hours of pouring over the Star Trek the Next Generation Technical Manual and Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. The sets for this new movie were a bit unconvincing to me. The bridge and transporter rooms looked okay, but the shuttle bay on one of the Federation ships in the movie featured riveted girders, giving it an almost Steam Punk feel. Apparently Star Fleet has yet to discover welding in Kirk's day! On a similar note, the engine room of the Enterprise looked like a factory or brewery, and didn't convey the sense of a ship that was capable of FTL travel (although it did lead to a humorous Willy Wonka-style moment between Kirk and Scotty!).

I'm not as bent out of shape about the ship exterior changes as some people are. The Enterprise design is growing on me, although I think it might be a bit too curvaceous for its own good. The Kelvin design is a bit odd to me, especially since it supposedly has a crew that is twice as large as the original Enterprise's and almost as big as the Enterprise D's. Speaking of the Kelvin, apparently she had families including children on board, which is something that was previously assumed to have occurred sometime well after the original series.

Nimoy's contribution to the film was well done. I felt it struck a nice balance between being non-existent and overbearing. His presence definitely lent a certain gravity to the events in the movie, and I felt it helped to anchor the whole thing.

So, in the end, the new Star Trek movie has turned out to be a decent entry in the franchise. It is a summer action movie at heart, with plenty of explosions and hand-to-hand fighting, but it still manages to capture the essence of Trek and set up a new cast in what is now an essentially new universe; by the end of the movie, everyone is in their expected places and ready to seek out new life and new civilizations. Really, that was more than I was honestly expecting, and I am genuinely looking forward to the next movie to be made with this cast!

By: Andy Rucker

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