I just realized I’ve missed the opening of the new Trek film, an unprecedented event in my adult life.
I took my first high school date to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture (proving conclusively that trekkies do get dates, by the way) cried my eyes out when Spock died in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan; in fact, I watched it two days ago after watching a full day of Biography tribute to Star Trek. (should have known the new film was coming out) Cried that time too.
Watching Star Trek first run in 1967 introduced me to Science Fiction. Since that time I have tried to watch and read everything SF and SciFi (there is a difference) that I had time for. I’ve read the Larry Niven story that the animated episode Slaver Weapon was drawn from; started reading Niven because of that linkage. I have a fondness for ‘hard’ SF, exhibited in my interest in series like Babylon 5, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. But Star Trek, with all it’s quirkiness, remains my alma mater, my raison detre, my first love.
One of the first films The Wife and I watched together was Star Trek: The Search for Spock; which was also the first time I witnessed her assault a fellow movie patron for being loud during a film; she hit a friend of ours with her purse for cheering when the Enterprise blew up (That’s nothing, she’s since punched a total stranger for talking during a film. If you see us in a theater, you better be quiet) we’ve watched every Star Trek film together since that one.
…until now. She’s not going to see it and she’s liable to punch me if I suggest it and I’m not going until next week. I may not be going even then. I can’t seem to get up the urge to care about it.
I was opposed to a Star Trek Babies film as far back as the original announcement for the 11th film in the series; and having been burned by Paramount twice before, I’m not inclined to trust their decisions this time. The first one being the decision to hire J.J. Abrams to direct the film. While Abrams insists he didn’t shoot a Star Trek Babies film, he did say this on Colbert’s show this week;
I made a film that was supposed to be entertaining [and] not necessarily for Star Trek fans
…11 films, 5 series, countless books, and he’s not doing a film (necessarily) for the fans. Clearly, he doesn’t need this fans $8.50 on opening weekend.
Now, I like J.J. Abrams, in general. I’m a LOST watcher (it stumbled a bit over the last few years, but this season has been very good) and his film Cloverfield was probably the best creature feature I’ve seen (not that that’s saying much) Still, if you start mucking around with people’s fondest memories you better be ready for one hell of a backlash. Because it’s J.J. Abrams at the helm, I’ll concede to viewing the film at some point. But with the impact Star Trek has had on the world in the last 42 years, that’s a lot of pissed off fans to deal with. For his sake, the film had better be entertaining, at the very least. Otherwise, he might consider finding a different career.
