Movie 47: Star Trek

The Vger probe is heading towards Earth and….wait, I didn’t just watch the one with the bald chick.

JJ Abrams 2009 of the original Star Trek series featuring the first missions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy et al. That’s the one.

I’m not actually sure if I can put a plot synopsis that’s more than that up as it could be a spoiler. I’m unsure whether the nefarious deeds of the bad guy are revealed all that early on so I’ll just skip it. What I’ve said is kind of the big deal anyway.

And it is a big deal. Star Trek is 44 years old this year. That’s a LOT of continuity which frankly is all over the bloody place at this point. Just be glad the 100’s of novels aren’t considered cannon or there would be a shit load more contradictions and logic errors. Frankly it’s a bit of a mess. So what do you do?

Wipe them out. All of them.

The thing that annoyed me most in Enterprise, the last of the TV shows, was the stupid bloody time travel plot and the flippin terrorists. Fuck that. The first season was good old pulp sci fi and I loved it before they screwed everything up. So time travel had me a bit iffy about this film. For once they use it correctly.

Eric Bana’s Nero, and old Spock for that matter, travelling back through time create and alternate time line. Because they change stuff. Mainly Nero killing Kirk’s dad. The time line’s diverge and what we’re watching literally ISN’T your parents Star Trek kids. This is a very smart move on there part as it lets them do whatever the hell they want while keeping the classic characters. So there can’t be any fan boy bitching. Although I’m not actually aware of any so they didn’t have to worry.

There is actually a fan production called “Star Trek: New Voyages” which does basically what this film does. They are making season 4 of the original series, with new actors in the parts. But the actors aren’t doing impressions, they are just treating the characters as characters. After all, you don’t go and see someone doing an impression of whoever the first guy to play Macbeth was do you? It would be bloody ridiculous.

Here we have the same classic characters, the same characteristics, but with slightly new spins. Chris Pine’s Kirk has some mannerisms like Shatner’s, but not quite the same stilted speech paterns. He’s still an adventurous rebellious womaniser, possibly more so, but it’s not an impression. Simon Pegg’s Scotty is smart and enthusiastic, which is actually quite close to the young Doohan’s. Karl Urban nails McCoy’s grumpyness, but isn’t quite as gritty as Kelly’s. This probably reflects the fact that he’s a bit younger. They all do a good job basically. Except maybe Anton Yelchin as Chekov. Yes Chekov sounded pretty bad, but the acting wasn’t quite up to it. If they make him less of a parody in the next one it would be an improvement.

And there will be a next one, which is great. Unfortunately I can’t say whether people who don’t like Star Trek will like this as I grew up with it. I’ve seen everything bar Nemesis, the later seasons of Enterprise and a couple of Voyager episodes. I used to be a major Trekkie. I can say that original fans will love this though. There are a lot of little nods in here, and they treated it correctly while bringing plenty new. I for one look forward to Star Trek 2.

It won’t be Wrath of Khan, few things are, but it should still be good

Next up: Nine