I'm a Trekkie.
I know what you think of me.
And I don't care.
I'm in too good a mood to be sensitive about it, because this weekend I got my wish.
I grew up with the original Star Trek series. To me it evokes Sunday afternoons watching reruns, enraptured by massive ships zipping through space, brave, interesting characters, and unapologetic camp. Sure, for a while there I was taken with The Next Generation and the follow-up series' and films. Since I've grown, though, my affection for the original series has only grown with me. Frankly, I love the uniforms trimmed with gold lammee. I love Shatner's physicality (affectionately known at our house as "Kirk Fu"), DeForrest Kelley's cantankerousness, and Spock's cool professionalism.
Well, folks, I have seen the rebirth of Star Trek, and I have my wish; IT'S BACK.
And people, like it!
The new cast and writers build on what went before without destroying it, and often improve on what's been done. Chekov is younger, chirpier, more brilliant, and more endearing. Uhura is smarter, stronger, and delightfully stubborn. Scotty is funnier, brighter, and much less buffoonish. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are each well played, not allowing their performances to devolve into impersonations.
Beyond writing and casting, "Star Trek" sports fantastic sound design, partaking of the drifting "sonar" beeps on the bridge, the eerie singing of the transporter, the whiz-bang fun of firing phasers and retools them all for an audience ranging from the seasoned fan to the disinterested outsider. The Enterprise herself is gorgeous; plausibly futuristic for today's audience and authentic enough to be indistiguishable from the original at a distance, right down to the swirly lights in the nacelles and the deflector dish defiantly protruding from the drive section.Best of all, the brightly-colored uniforms are back, both updated and unafraid of their 60's roots. Both the costume designer and the writers did their research, referencing not only the origial series, but the latest series called Enterprise through a line mentioning "Admiral Archer" and making the primary command uniforms blue in a recent flashback. You fans will know what I'm talking about. Good, good stuff.
My hope is that this will draw fresh blood into the ranks of Trekkies, an infusion of new enthusiasm the franchise has long needed. Lately, Star Trek fandom has become a stiffling echo-chamber filled with knit-picking dweebs, incurably cynical toward new ideas, suspicious of fresh blood, and all myopically staring at the back of the cave watching the shadows outside pass them by. Well, turn around you guys, and scoot over. There's room in here for everybody!
-Tom
