So it looks like J.J. Abrams is directing a new Star Trek movie, which means everyone and their brother is going to make a Lost in Space joke so I reached further back with the title for my post. If you got it without going to IMDB, nice job.
As any self-loathing self-respecting nerd can tell you, Star Trek is at the top of the mountain when it comes to being a nerd. Oh sure, you can argue for your Star Wars or your Dungeons and Dragons, but it is all just talk. Prove it? Well . . . most nerds I know HATED every episode of Voyager, and they still watched every week. Now that is devotion. As for Enterprise, any nerd can tell you it went in the tank because they put words in the theme song didn’t respect the timeline.
What really ruined Star Trek? A lot of people point toward Rick Berman, and they may be right. I hate to point at one guy though. In my opinion, it wasn’t the show that changed so much as the world. Television has become more complicated. A simple morality story with an inspiring/cautionary message at the end just doesn’t hold up anymore.
Look at the shows nerds care about today: The Sopranos, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Battlestar Galactica and yes . . . Lost. These are complicated shows with large, emotionally diverse casts and long storylines that play out with energy, drama and wit. These shows are a far cry from the simple stories with well-groomed, cookie-cutter heroes that have populated most of the Star Trek universe. Deep Space Nine came the closest to capturing that diversity and plot complexity, but even it was a little too shiny and self-satisfied.
The problem comes when you try to satisfy the nerds who want the shows to stay the same and the ones who want it to grow into something greater than what has come before. You aren’t going to satisfy both camps. Abrams appears to want to address the early part of the legend, when Spock meets Kirk. It may turn into a good movie, but in my mind it is a bad idea. Going back to Kirk and Spock is living in the ass end of the future past. Star Trek needs to pick back up at the top of the timeline. Even then, it has to be bold enough to reinvent itself the way Battlestar Galactica did.
Suffice to say that although I am excited to see some fresh blood come into the franchise, I’m not excited about the story. Will Kirk and Spock survive? Obviously. Will some anonymous redshirt get killed? Almost certainly. Will the timeline get screwed up yet again? You know it. Everything is predictable. There’s nothing more to say about Kirk and Spock. As great as they were (and they were great) their story has been told.
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