So... Star Trek

As many of you may know and well... I guess all of you will after I say this...

I am a HUGE Star Trek nerd.

Ok, let me define "huge Star Trek nerd" for the official record.

It does NOT mean:

1. That I speak Klingon.
2. That I go to cons.
3. That I engage in Trekkie cos-play.

I never did grok that shit.

It DOES mean:

1. I have seen every episode of Star Trek, Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I've seen most of Voyager and uh... I caught most of the 1st and 4th seasons of Enterprise.
2. I occasionally delve into the novel scene, especially Peter David's New Frontier and novels about the original crew and Deep Space Nine.
3. I watch a few of the fan productions online, especially New Voyages and Hidden Frontier.

Basically, I love Deep Space Nine and the Original series (in that order- DS9 is my favorite but TOS is close behind).

However, unlike many of my fellow Trekkies, I was on board with this JJ Abrams reimagining from day 1.

Why? Because I knew it was inevitable the original series would be recast and I just hoped I'd be there to see it.

Despite my love of DS9, I think TOS has the better crew, filled with iconic characters. They were the originals.

Heroes that people couldn't get out of their imaginations to the point that they resurrected the show into the movies.

For a kid who devoured every episode of the show in re-runs, where it was shown right after Saturday Morning Cartoons, the continuing adventures were a revelation.

The first two movies especially blew my mind in a way no movie other than Star Wars did as a youth.

I believe that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are the King Arthur/Robin Hood folk heroes of our generation.

You can also add Conan, James Bond, Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Wolverine to that list.

These characters will ALL be recast.

They are immortal. Actors, unfortunately, are mortal.

Eventually, they will move on, get too old to play the characters in their primes or just die. It's the world.

But folk heroes don't die.

So either these heroes would remain tied to their actors until they ALL died (which was always my personal prediction) or someone would have the steel balls to recast them while many were still alive.

But either way, they WOULD live again.

Now, if all this frou-frou talk about immortal folk heroes makes that little muscle under your right eye twitch, I'll also offer this:

If you don't recast them you're leaving money on the table.

So we have a mythological collective unconscious reason to recast, AND a cold, numbers capitalist reason.

In short, it was going to happen.

But as I said, I thought folks would be afraid to do it while Shatner and Nimoy were still with us.

But I was glad to see I was wrong.

Now, at the end of all that, what did I think of the movie?

Of COURSE I saw it. I skipped school to watch Wrath of Khan on opening day in the 80's, I certainly wasn't going to miss this.

Basically, I thought this movie nailed it.

The technology all looks different. That stuff changes all the time.

But every one of the original characters was perfect. Instantly recognizable icons who were cast flawlessly and did an amazing job of reminding me what was so great about that collection of characters.

If you are a fan of outer-space adventure in the sword and planet vein, with a dash of military sci-fi thrown in (which is what Trek has *always* been despite pretensions to the contrary on the part of many creators and fans) then you should see this movie, whether you are a Trek fan or not.