paperandglue

I grew up on Star Trek; I was five when The Next Generation premiered, and my early memories of that show involve me being annoyed that my dad was watching it instead of playing with me on Friday nights (he had become a fan of The Original Series watching televised reruns of it in the '70s). However, by the time the early '90s rolled around, I enjoyed the show as much as he did, and while it took me awhile to warm up to Deep Space Nine, eventually it became my favourite Trek TV series of all. For most of the '90s, remember, there were two Trek series airing new episodes each week, and my family (Mom, Dad, little brother) would watch them every Saturday, often eating pizza for dinner in front of the TV. My dad and brother and I would line up to watch each new Trek movie in the theatres. So this is the kind of role Star Trek had in my childhood -- quite formative and associated with the warm security of my immediate family. INTENSE.



My short review of the movie is that it is a really enjoyable action flick with an engaging cast that is fully accessible to people who are totally new to the Trek universe without alienating people who are longtime fans and rather attached to the universe's continuity.

Given that my Star Trek fandom is more centred around what I consider to be the pinnacle of televised Trek, Next Gen and DS9, I don't have as much of an emotional investment in Kirk & Co. (I like them, don't get me wrong, I just like Picard and Kira better). Therefore I'm not as sensitive to any perceived changes to the characters who have occupied the pop culture imagination for 40 effin' years. (Forty years!!! That is serious business.) I'm not going to get too upset that the new movie's Kirk was more obnoxious jackass than iconoclastic maverick.