Jeremiah Tolbert

I have never been a Trekker. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever picked a side in the great “Wars” vs “Trek” debate but I’ve always leaned more toward the “Wars” side due to my expo­sure to that fran­chise at the right age. My father watched the orig­i­nal Trek on Saturday morn­ings when I was very, very young, and my only mem­ory of that series until a cou­ple of years ago was of red­shirts being turned into bul­lion cubes. Then I got my hands on the Original Series and watched it to com­ple­tion and my atti­tude changed. I thought it was very much a prod­uct of its era, but also very thought­ful in ways I hadn’t expected. And the char­ac­ters were won­der­ful, human, and lik­able to a fault.

In the same way,Star Trek (2009)  is very much a prod­uct of our times.  It should come as no sur­prise that it has con­nected with me and with younger audi­ences around the globe like no other Trek before it.  Next Generation is the only other ver­sion I ever had much inter­est in, but the char­ac­ters here are just more iconic.  They have emo­tions and they act on them.

You’re going to read a mil­lion words about this film, and about how the actors embody the roles with­out imi­tat­ing the actors that came before them.  All true.  Here’s the hereti­cal thing I am going to say:   the new actors are bet­ter actors than the orig­i­nal cast, who, hon­estly were mostly work­man­like.  Pine in par­tic­u­lar will be remem­bered more for Kirk than Shatner will be one day.  An excep­tion will be made for Leonard Nemoy  who rocked it in this pic­ture with I think one of the most amaz­ing per­for­mances of his career.   I felt like this was the  very last time we’ll ever see Spock.  And despite not being a Trekker, I felt a loss at that.  But then, Quinto’s Spock comes along and the pain is less­ened.   The char­ac­ter will live on embod­ied in a new vessel.

It’s been tragic to see the orig­i­nal cast pass away one by one.  Such is life.  But the char­ac­ters don’t have to die, and they can still speak to us.  Their mes­sage of an opti­mistic, hope­ful and more impor­tantly human future is one that I think per­haps we need now more than ever.  I hadn’t real­ized just how long I’ve been wait­ing for a movie like this.  Adventure, excite­ment, laughs, nos­tal­gia, and new­ness all rolled into one expe­ri­ence.  I started grin­ning in the first 10 min­utes and I didn’t stop until the cred­its rolled.  Sheer, child­like joy is the only way I can describe it.  Giggles of glee.

Silence in space.  Twice!

Sure, a lot of the sci­ence is wonky, but Star Trek’s never been a hard SF con­cept.  It’s about human­ity, cen­trally.  And this movie has that in spades.

I wanted to dream about it last night because I wanted more of these actors in these roles.  Not two years from now.  I want them every week on my LCD TV.  It’ll never hap­pen, so I will make do with yearly out­ings.  But I was so excited at the end that I wanted more desperately.

I can’t believe it, but this movie has turned me into a Trekker.

Forget Joss. JJ is my Master now.  These guys are the best SF guys in Hollywood.  Between Star Trek, Fringe, and Lost, they are the undis­puted kings.  And they’ve done more to bring SF to the main­stream so far than any­one else in years.