The New Star Trek Movie - My Review

The movie is good, it grabs a hold of the viewer and doesn't let go for a roller coaster of high speed space travel. Two hours rushes by and you feel like you haven't seen enough. The actors do a fine job of portraying the characters, and as promised, they do not parody the original actors in doing so. The effects are phenomenal and the action is blindingly fast.

The only real criticism I can make about Star Trek (aside from diverging from the continuum of the Star Trek fans know) is that it lacked good character moments for the auxiliary crew. Despite its aspirations to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, screen time and character moments for Sulu, Scotty, Chekov, and even Uhura are somewhat slim. The movie focuses on the main trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and even McCoy isn't as prominent as the other two. Still, everyone is introduced and has a bit of something to do. One assumes they are waiting to expand these roles in future Star Trek films.

The question remains, what does this altered timeline mean for the domain of Star Trek? In other episodes and films where the timeline is disturbed, things are usually put to rights. In this instance the changes are implied to be permanent, and they are not small events, neither for civilizations nor characters. Ambassador Spock does not even get to return to his own timeline; he stays in the past in an altered universe to live out his days.

Another question, for fans like myself, is there room for both timelines of Star Trek to co-exist? Can we have future movies or shows that build on the timeline we know? Can there be movies that involve the cast of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager? If there are, will they have to conform to the new J.J. Abrams universe or will they be part of the old one?

It is much as I thought when I heard that there was time travel involved in the plot of this film. Writers Ocri and Kurtzman use the change of history so that they wouldn't have to trouble themselves with the lengthy (and possibly conflicted) history of five series and ten movies. Without that baggage they could write whatever they wanted.

It's not that what they wrote was bad or not enjoyable (as in the case of the Star Wars prequels). What is bothersome is that they could have simply done their homework and created a story that didn't involve destroying the timeline. I wouldn't have begrudged them fiddling with the look, and avoiding little nuances of the continuity.

Still I suppose I really don't mind if there are two timelines, but my prediction is that Paramount will not continue with two timelines. There will be this new version, and no other. I doubt we will see any of the other crews on the big or little screen now. Paramount will be focusing their money on the rebooted series. They are stepping back and rewriting history, when they could have moved forward and expanded further into the universe that has more than forty years behind it.

I am bothered by the reboot aspects of the film, but I enjoyed the movie as an entity unto it self. I think many fellow long-time fans will feel the same way. The general public and new fans will probably love the movie unconditionally. Producers have always perceived a tug of war with the Star Trek movies. On the one hand they want to please the fan base, but often they feel the need to draw in non fans is more important. This film will probably finally accomplish the latter goal. The franchise will now have a new yet different life.