Right off the bat I'd like to state for the record that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a 'Trekkie' or a 'Trekker' or anything even remotely like someone who might be considered a fan of Star Trek. This despite my overwhelming geek cred, the record of which I would argue with anyone. You'd lose, so don't try to argue with me. Point being, Star Trek has not been a big part of my life, I've never dressed up as a character, or been to one of the conventions. However, I do own the entire original series on DVD and the Wrath of Khan, the only previous film in the series that I consider watchable. I can quote dialogue from the series and I have always liked the IDEA of Star Trek. I hated the Next Generation and virtually every episode of every series since then that carried the name, even though a few episodes here and there showed some promise. This is where I stood on Star Trek before yesterday.
I am a huge science fiction fan and I've always wanted Star Trek to succeed. Mostly because I liked the IDEA of Star Trek. There is that phrase again, I even made it bold so you'd notice it. The "idea" of Star Trek... what is that exactly? It is something that even the original series, while it came as close as possible, never really captured in its totality. That is one of the reasons why the show failed when it originally aired and only became successful later on, on reruns and over time. The idea persisted and grew. The idea became bigger than the material it was spawned from. The idea of Star Trek became its draw, based on more than was actually ever there. This isn't a unique phenomenon, it happens all the time with cult movies, genre films and shows, musical artists, and others. The idea of the concept, the material, the experience, becomes much more than is really actually there. The idea becomes the reality.
Star Trek's idea, while different for everyone, is really based on several factors. First of all the entire concept is a positive one, the universe of ST is based on a hopeful outlook of the future. This is great and different from much of science fiction in films and television. It isn't unique in the genre, but we don't often get that and it makes you feel good, optimistic and uplifted. Emotions which are good and empowering. That's one thing. The next thing is unique to Star Trek and that is the chemistry of the players involved. Whatever led to the original casting of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty and the other main cast members was... well, perfect. The chemistry that group of actors, dominated by males, managed to create is unique to ST. And when I say "unique" please note that I mean within the genre of television shows that were cancelled, became popular in reruns and turned into a multi-billion dollar franchise of films and spin-off television series. It isn't a very crowded genre.
But it is an extremely powerful force. So powerful that a few words can evoke tremendous and powerful emotions. So powerful that they have exceeded iconic stature within our popular cultural psyche and become entrenched within the shared gestalt. Ok, maybe that is a bit overplayed, but you get the general idea. Star Trek was never really all that great, moments of greatness surrounded by meh, blah, and lots of talking, bad effects, bad dialogue, kids flying starships and holo-deck tomfoolery. That's because the idea of Star Trek isn't the ideals of Star Trek. They have to live together, the chemistry was missing. It was like trying to recreate a laboratory mistake that resulted in the creation of lead turning into gold, you kept getting close, but you could just never really get it to work again.
Until now.
The new Star Trek is not just another remake, it is the IDEA of Star Trek realized in its complete form, for the first time on screen. And not just in our heads. Granted, the new ST would not work or even exist, without all that has gone before it. That is an important point, the new ST works so well because of the history of the franchise, the emotional connection, the blah blah psycho stuff that permeates our heads... the IDEA is a powerful force, the stuff I talked so much about in the previous paragraphs. Without it, the new movie would just be a new movie. Because of it though, this new relaunch, reboot, remake is the textbook example of why remakes are not always a bad idea. 99% of the time they are, but that still leaves us with that 1%. Star Trek is that 1%, the reason why remakes are sometimes just what the doctor ordered.
This isn't a review of the new movie. I will tell you that I enjoyed it and I thought it was, for all intents and purposes, perfect. I thought that it was the realization of the idea of Star Trek that has been living in my head for four decades. I thought it had more emotional impact in the first ten minutes than the entire last Star Wars Trilogy had in its entire three-film running time. I think JJ Abrams has written the textbook on remakes, reboots and relaunches. And I am actually looking forward to the next one. Hopefully they'll boldly go where no one has gone before in the next movie.
