05 May 2009

We interrupt the normal technical content of this blog to bring you an important news flash.

The Star Trek movie is awesome!!

Through a fortuitous accident, I and my sons were able to see a pre-screening of the movie this evening. We literally snuck in at the last minute.

I am a long-time trekkie. I love TOS and ST:TNG (with the usual caveats). DS9 was a sad rip-off of Babylon 5, Voyager was “Star Trek does Space 1999”, and Enterprise got good only after it was canceled (the last half-season was totally on track). And really I’m not really going to talk about the movies. Khan was great, and IV was fun, otherwise not so much…

So having watched the universe and characters I loved so much slowly dwindle and fade into utter drivel over the past many years, I had serious reservations about this new movie. Of course it is hard to imagine they could do more damage to the Star Trek universe, so I suppose there was nothing really to lose either.

On the upside, my hope was that this movie would do for Star Trek what the new Doctor Who did for that show, or the new Battlestar Galactica did for that show. There is evidence that the beloved content of my youth, when handled by competent, respectful and loving hands, can be given new and often better life now, with today’s special effects.

And my hope has been realized.

This movie treats the characters, the universe and the overall content and setting with respect. They took the setting and characters and breathed new life into them – capturing the humor, the interplay, the drive – the very essence of the original concept – and they created a movie for me.

A movie for the little kid who sat three feet in front of my Grandfather’s TV (because we didn’t get that channel at my house). But a movie for the person I am today, remembering what it was like to be that kid. Just like the new Doctor Who and BSG shows did with their original inspiration.

It has been many, many years since the words “These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise…” had the power to send chills up my spine. To make me smile, and to think that the future really is bright and wonderful.

At the end of this movie, when Leonard Nimoy speaks these words I felt these things like I did so many years ago, sitting on my Grandfather’s floor.