Colored Fan
Star Trek XI
If your’re a child of the 60s, there’s a good chance you’ll have grown up watching The Original Series (TOS) of Star Trek. 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. It was Next Gen or DS9 for those born in the 70s and early 80s. 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 airing of TOS (The Original Series) remember it fondly 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 the original series 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.
Enterprise is the only other Trek series incarnation that’s likely to appear in high definition on Blu-Ray. 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. As she wasn’t actually a serving Starfleet officer, the apparent dichotomy was solved. Enterprise contained other rewrites of Trek history too. Actually, this didn’t annoy me too 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 watched the trailers and hmmm…I’m ambivalent about the movie. But that’s down to me growing up with the old crew and I don’t think Trek history should be messed with (despite not being put out by what the show’s producers did in Enterprise). My problen is that Star Trek XI plays around with the characters’ own histories, alters their relationships and will fundamentally change how those characters will be perceived.
I know 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 a different ship and crew, but set in the years leading up to the original 5-year mission. I’m not taken with some of the casting choices either. Okay, I agree I’m something of an old fart on this.
Time will tell. There’s only a couple of weeks more to wait till Star Trek XI hits the theaters. Naturally, I’ll go to watch the movie. 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 as another icon is destroyed.
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