On The Advantages Of A Youthful Star Trek ...

[johnconner]

Taking ST:TMP out of the equation - because I think it really was it's own equation, entity, whatever - the rest of the movies with the original crew, no matter how good, entertaining and satisfying, had an overriding theme of aging. Which was cool, because none of them were spring chickens anymore. And, it enriched Wrath of Khan - that one in particular was rife with the notion of "getting older."

What I'm saying is that it made sense in the context of the movies, and provided a nice counterpoint to the natural complaint of "who wants to see a bunch of old geezers trying to kick ass in space?" (Yeah, yeah, I don't feel that way either; Kirk's leadership and canny strategies notwithstanding, though, any true physical action was truncated and weird - take into account the Kruge/Kirk fight in ST:III - and Kirk's womanizing was severely diminished. ST:IV's peck on the cheek, anyone?)

Now I love those movies, don't get me wrong, but it always seemed to me that some of the elements of classic Trek were missing. And those elements mostly had to do with the fact that we all fell in love with Trek - us old guys, ironically enough - with the original series. And what the original series had, that the movies didn't, was the right actors playing the right parts at the prime of their lives.

This isn't a rant on agism. Rather, it's an endorsement of the idea of the new movie.

Why? Because we'll finally - for the first time since 1969 - see the characters we love at the time of their life that we loved watching them. In essence, original-run TOS excitement.

Stuff like Voyager and especially Enterprise couldn't fill this void because - IMO - they were not the characters we loved. The larger than life characters that drew that drew us with fanboyish excitement to the original series.

Kirk. Spock. McCoy. In their prime.

That's the stuff.

Now, can they do it? This new, modern breed? Well, that's another matter entirely. But to me, the fact that they're trying to fill that original void is cool enough for me to remain optimistic.

Or maybe I'm just a sentimental old Trek fool.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well, as someone who's geezin' I can tell you that the much-vaunted "dealing with aging and moving on etc. etc." themes of Trek movies like TWOK are mostly superficial, sentimental and inauthentic.

So yeah, let's at least go back to the stuff they're good at - flying around in their spaceships, struttin'.

 

[ancient]

Good point, none of the Trek movies have really focused on a crew in their Prime. FC (the first TNG-only movie) kind of did, but not fully.

It should put a whole new tone on the movie.

 

[SeamusShameless]

The fact that the characters are younger wil also draw the younger crowd. I'm stoked that Kirk and crew are so much nearer my age.

 

[Proximity_Phaser]

What if they stick in a whole bunch of coping with youth stuff?

 

[SeamusShameless]

I doubt it.

 

[ancient]

Proximity_Phaser said:
What if they stick in a whole bunch of coping with youth stuff?

Such as what?

 

[MANT!]

Ohh...probably..rap punk and death metal...followed up with American Pie like tryin to get laid..(except for Spock) Gettin drunk (perhaps Scotty can help with that) just your typical Hollywood gettin to the youth tricks...

 

[Christopher]

I think maybe this is a reason that a lot of people are interested in the film... although we may have reservations about whether a new cast can pull it off, the idea of having new onscreen adventures set in the TOS era is intriguing. Which may be why those fan films are so popular.

It's interesting -- for a couple of decades now, there's been a fierce debate in fandom about whether the TOS movies should be recast, whether anyone else could ever play the roles. Now it's finally happened, and there doesn't seem to be that much controversy over whether it should happen, only debate over who'd be the best choices. I guess it's because the original cast is either increasingly old or gone, so recasting is the only way to go anymore.