How I'm Dealing with this New Movie

[Greg Cox]

Here's why I think the new movie is just what the doctor ordered:

There's an episode of VOYAGER--I can't recall the title--where Chakotay and Seven of Nine get marooned on a jungle planet. Okay, not the most cerebral plot idea, but, back in the Sixties, TOS would have known how to have fun with it. There would have been exotic alien beasts, deadly venom-spewing plants, quicksand, and a little steamy hanky-panky around the campfire.

But on VOYAGER . . . Chakotay and Seven traipse around for awhile, Chakotay sprains his ankle, and they eventually stumble onto a harmless tribe of indigenous stone age humanoids. They then spend the rest of the episode having earnest debates about the Prime Directive and the risk of the cultural contamination. And Chakotay doesn't even seem to notice that he's stranded in the jungle with a beautiful cyborg in a skintight costume . . . .

That's when I realized that STAR TREK was starting to forget it was supposed to be fun. That it was in danger of losing touch with its snazzy pulp sci-fi roots. That it had possibly become too conscious of its own dignity and profundity.

That it was getting old . . . .

Thank God the new STAR TREK doesn't think it's beneath itself to be entertaining. I wanted to cheer when that damn lobster monster appeared. When was the last time we had a gratuitous space monster on STAR TREK?

Somewhere Janos Prohaska is smiling . . . .

 

[agordy85]

I can't get over how great this movie is. I can't find one thing wrong with it, which is why I wonder why people are trying to find reasons not like it by hating "nothing". It's a fun, exciting Trek film that I believe Gene would be proud of. I'm especially assured that he is probably smiling at these ticket sales as well.

 

[Timefire1986]

Experiencing this movie was surreal. I was really into this movie--it was funny and exciting. For all intents and purposes it was a solid entertainment. Yet, I emerge conflicted. See...the thing is...from the moment the Nerada enters the picture (basically, Scene 1) we're in an alternate timeline. So, this is an alternative history of STAR TREK where Kirk's father was killed and he was raised by a series of step-fathers, possibly making him turn out to be an even more untempered, hot-headed youth than he originally was, and in which Spock's mother Amanda is killed...and the entire planet Vulcan is destroyed.

Like I said, my experience was surreal. I loved the movie, enjoyed it immensely. But the proceedings were clouded over by the destruction of Vulcan and innumerable other deaths from the intervening Nero. I went through this 23 years ago when the Transformers universe got attacked by Unicron. <g>

I'm left torn. I like the new movie, but those who say it isn't STAR TREK are actually correct. This is a movie that requires long-time fans to swallow many caveats. You can like it, but only if you accept this, and this...and--oh!--this....

And yet, STAR TREK has always asked us to open our minds. One could say we're in new story-telling territory, where what was once written is rewritable due to the innate inclusion of time travel as a component of our beloved universe. We accepted time travel in the past. Do we not have to accept the consequences that come pre-packaged with it? Fascinating.

 

[cwalrus2]

While I respect the original poster's opinion, I actually think that the movie was entertaining and that's the only thing that matters. It's impossible to capture the heart of something that nolonger exists. TOS is gone. There is no way to go back in time and recapture what was lost.

I understand why your upset. The focus on this film was more on action and not the scifi concepts and philosophies that made TOS great. As a fan, I totally see that this is not TOS but something different. If you watch this movie expecting the same kind of storytelling and drama of TOS then you'll be disappointed, but if you just watch it for entertainment value and for some innocent nostalgia of watching classic characters in a new light, then you'll enjoy it.

With this incarnation, Star Trek is now like James Bond. No one expects the new James Bond movie to follow the same rules and plotlines of the last 40 years of Bond movies. If you like James Bond, you watch the new one, to be entertained and if you're a fan, you can appreciate some of the inside references that are made, but the bottom line is that you are watching something new and different not to compare it to the old version but to be entertained again by how its been repackaged. It may not suit everyone's taste, but it's all a fanatsy anyway. Sometimes you just have to let go and enjoy yourself.

As for the new timeline: the characters are not living their lives constantly thinking that they are in a new timeline so neither should we watch it that way. Star trek is ultimately a story that depends on drama and characters like any other story. As long as we get the sense that the consequences of the story have certain "real" implications to the characters, then the entertainment value of the story has not been broken. The original timeline still exists because otherwise old Spock would have disappeared from history or would not have knowledge of the events of the original past which has been altered. This is just a new timeline where the destinies of all the characters are now open to anything, which I think is a good thing because the whole point of storytelling is having the characters dealing with a conflict. Now since it's been changed, there are infinite ways that stories could resolve themselves without having to conflict with cannon. It actually makes the prospects of new stories with these characters exciting again.

 

[tfarr]

I can't get over how great this movie is. I can't find one thing wrong with it, which is why I wonder why people are trying to find reasons not like it by hating "nothing". It's a fun, exciting Trek film that I believe Gene would be proud of. I'm especially assured that he is probably smiling at these ticket sales as well.

I'm glad that you and others like the movie. But just because others have an opinion that differs from your doesn't mean that their opinions are based on "nothing". From their point of view, they have formed opinions based on tangible / perceivable flaws or issues.

 

[seigezunt]

OP: I felt the same way when Voyager premiered. And I dealt with it.

Luckily, thanks to the reboot, none of that dreck ever happened.

 

[Kelthaz]

OP: I felt the same way when Voyager premiered. And I dealt with it.

Luckily, thanks to the reboot, none of that dreck ever happened.

Sure it did, in the original timeline. This reboot might even launch another Voyager, so we get 2x the dreck.