Star Trek 2009 movie – The Reboot Review

I grew up with Kirk, Spock and McCoy as a devoted follower. On Friday night, I’d be parked in front of the TV, in my uniform (Feety PJ’s) with my plastic Enterprise, Klingon Battlecruiser and Romulan Warbird, ready to join the crew and take on all comers. Same thing on Saturday Mornings with the animated series. As I turned 11, I dragged my dad and was first in line at the cinemas when Star Trek: The Movie(1979) came out. Did any of you wonder why it looked like someone glued a horseshoe crab to the Klingon’s heads? Oh Well, It didn’t matter. I had a new Star Trek to devour. As I read through the hundreds of books…and movies…and spin off series in the years that followed, I reveled in the adventure and escapism. And the video games, Oh my. Star Trek Armada 2 video game….That’s another review. Anyway, The strong continuity of the old familiar storyline formed a bulwark that I along with the characters could explore and adventure through the universe together, like old friends. I understood the Star Trek Universe as well as my own.

Like most dedicated science fiction fans, I consider myself a third class geek. You know the first class – people who get married in their Klingon uniforms or other paraphernalia. Do you have an “I speak Klingon” bumper sticker? Me, Neither. I’m not that far gone. I’m not quite the second class geek who can look at battle damage and say, “Hey, The Dilithium Chamber isn’t where that torpedo impacted. Why did they lose warp drive?” I know a few though and they’re awfully fun to have a Star Trek DVD Marathon with. Nope I’m a Geek - Third Class. I eat it all up, as much as I can get, but don’t get too serious about it. I just love the ride.

 Me? I’m a traditionalist. I went into the movie totally unprepared. Normally, I’d read the book first or look at online reviews, but, this time, I wanted to be completely surprised. Oh, was I surprised. I’ve found that Star Trek fans either loved this movie or hated it. There seems to be no middle ground. Traditionalists seemed to favor hating it.

The Controversy? They changed the whole @#$%&!!!!! Story. They scratched 30 years of multiple TV Series, several movies, and hundreds of books. Hours and hours of watching and dreaming down the tubes. All of it, I forked over a ton of money on over the years too and they started from scratch. The characters weren’t themselves, either. My grandmother knew that Kirk, Spock and McCoy were buddies. In this, Kirk and Spock hated each other. In free association tests, If I say Kirk, Most people’d say Captain or Enterprise. Kirk was a Lieutenant, here, not a Captain and wasn’t even assigned to the Enterprise, which was redesigned too. UHURA KISSED SPOCK…What’s up with that? Heathens! Heretics!  Who thought this up? He owes me…BIG TIME!

I was slammed over and over again by the “It didn’t happen that way.” And the, “That’s not right.” I was finally up to an angry “WTF!!!” (Where’s The Feeling? – You, Dirty Minds.), when I took a look around. The crowd had quite a few totally confused people, slowly turning purple, just like me. It was literally packed though, with wide eyed kids, heads bobbing to avoid a fist or phaser strike, fingers itching to grab the nearest toy and start having their own wild inter-galactic adventures in this new world.

It hit me then. We had our own Star Wars. Our kids have their own Star Wars. Two different stories in the same universe. The cast and crew of this new movie used their imaginations, took the initiative and created a whole, new universe and story line for my kids, with enough similarities, after I got over the shock (VULCAN WAS DESTROYED?!), to really get us, set-in-our-way old folks,  into the new story line. Just like I mindlessly forgave the makers of the first movie for their artistic license with the Klingons, my kids could care less about the myriad changes made to this new world. Just like me, they ate it up. We’re all sweating it out until the Star Trek Sequel comes out next year in 2012.

Yep, I’m a traditionalist. I still read and reread my old Star Trek Library. I still watch the movies, so often that my wife’s eyes can now literally roll all the way around in their sockets. As a defense mechanism, she learned to sleep anywhere, at any time, as well. It works too. 

I’m not alone though. I have three companions enjoying the continuing adventure and the old ones. Three companions parked in front of the TV, in their PJ’s (Nobody wears feety’s anymore.) with plastic Enterprises, Battlecruisers, Warbirds and tons of other ships, eager for new adventures, to seek out new life and new civilizations. Boldly going where old traditionalists haven’t gone before and loving it.