Star Trek XI

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Friday, May 8th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

If you’re in your 40s, there’s a good chance you’ll have grown up watching original runs of the original Star Trek episodes. In fact, “The Devil in the Dark” episode was the very first program on TV I saw in color!

The Star Trek series you like the most seems to be the one you grew up with. For those born in the 70s and 80s, it was Next Generation and/or Deep Space Nine. Those born a few years later favour Voyager. And Enterprise was favored by those born in the mid 80s and after.

Most people who watched the original run of TOS (The Original Series) have fond memories of it and feel its morality tales still have resonance in today’s world. Those growing up on later series have a less favorable impresssion. It’s interesting that because TOS was shot on film, Star Trek is being released on Blu-Ray in high definition whereas Next Gen was shot on video and so it will never appear on Blu-Ray.

The only other series likely to make an appearance on Blu-Ray is Enterprise. This series received a lot of criticism from Star Trek fans for palaying around with Trek history. Historically, Spock was the first Vulcan to serve in Starfleet, yet T’Pol served as First Officer 150 years earlier in Enterprise. since she wasn’t a Starfleet officer, the apparent dichotomy was solved. Enterprise saw other rewrites of Trek history as well. Actually, this didn’t annoy me that much as Enterprise was much closer to the spirit of TOS than the intervening efforts.

The first Star Trek movie appeared 30 years ago. The last movie, Star Trek: Nemesis, out in 2002, was a dismal effort and put paid to any future Next Gen movies being developed. And now, seven years later, Star Trek XI lands on May 8th, 2009.

I’ve looked at the trailers and hmmm…I have a lot of reservations about this movie. But that’s because I grew up with the old crew and I don’t think Trek history should be messed with (despite not being put out by what Enterprise did). The problem for me is that Star Trek XI messes with the histories of the characters, takes liberties with their relationships and will fundamentally change how those characters will be perceived.

I can see that this is being tailored for a new, younger audience, but (not having seen the movie), perhaps it would have been a better idea to use a different crew and ship, but set in the pre-TOS years. I’m not enamoured with some of the casting choices either. Okay, I agree I’m something of a curmudgeonly old fart on this.

Time will tell. There’s only a couple of weeks more to wait till Star Trek XI hits the theaters. Of course I’ll go along to it. I really hope that I’ll be applauding at the end of the movie and wanting more instead of holding my head in my hands dismayed at the sacrilege of a beloved icon.

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