A More Thoughtful Star Trek Review

My friend Poodles has her review posted on her blog.

I left a lengthy comment on her post which I realized was turning into a post in it's own right, so I'm copying it here.

What really coalesced my thoughts after seeing Star Trek was a particular comment she made in her review.

“I LOVED how they made it into something fresh, new and malleable.”

I think "malleable" is exactly right. The premise of the movie, the choices they made, the fresh new cast, the hand off, all serve to give them freedom.

They can choose to pay homage to the past whenever they want, wherever it fits, and wherever it will make the hardcore Trek Fans cheer.

But they aren't weighed down by 45 years of TV, movie and paper canon.

That's what killed the "old Trek". Like the Soviet Union, it collapsed under the weight of its own bureaucracy.

Writers, actors, directors, set designers, make up artists, costume designers...everyone was constrained by decades of consensual reality that dictated how things had to be. It stifled the imagination. Anything new damn well better be consistent with All That Had Gone Before or there would be hell to pay.

Not anymore. It's a new Star Trek universe and the future is wide open. For the first time in 45 years, movie makers truly are free to "go where no one has gone before".

It's all very exciting.

Oh, one last thing.

Uhura?



Yeah, I'd tap that.