Posts Tagged Star Trek

Two of the first sci-fi fandoms I grew up with and embraced with fervor early in life were Star Trek and Dr. Who – primarily because they were the two that I had the easiest access to via network television.  Cable was unavailable in our rural area, and satellites were, at that time, prohibitively expensive.

As I grew up, I moved on to other fandoms and other shows – particularly the ones springing from the mind of Joss Whedon – and while I didn’t forget about those shows I’d grown up with, I wasn’t so excited about them anymore, beyond the usual haze of nostalgia.

The new Star Trek reboot brought the excitement back in a big way.  It was almost like returning to the embrace of an old friend.  Shortly after the movie, I discovered that the entire Star Trek Original Series was available streaming direct from the CBS website, and took the opportunity to watch it all over again – this time in order. I’d never seen it in order – the shows were reruns shown in syndication by the time I watched them as a child.

The magic of the internet has enabled me to reawaken my interest in Dr. Who as well – watching the new BBC production on  Netflix. It took me a bit longer to warm to the new Doctor than it took me to embrace the new Kirk and Spock, but after a few episodes I was firmly hooked.

I’ve rediscovered the fandoms of my childhood and found them new and fresh.  The reboots of each helped this, of course, but it occurred to me that it couldn’t have happened in such a way without the internet. The web gave me both the old and the new versions and ways to compare the two almost side by side through streaming media, websites and communities to renew my participation in, wikis to research, fanfiction to read and write, and of course, the inevitable visits to TV-Tropes.

You know, I kinda like living in the future.

But it left me wondering: Is there some fandom that you’ve had a reunion with thanks to the internet? Something that you’d almost forgotten existed and then suddenly became excited about again upon finding something in some hidden corner of the web?

It’s just over a week to DragonCon, and I will be liveblogging the Con via my twitter feed as well as blog posts here.  I’m still working on getting up the schedule of the events we’re going to attend as the DragonCon schedule still isn’t final, but as of right now, the schedule we’ll be using as a guideline looks something like this (of course, whether we actually make it to everything is very iffy. Things marked with ♣ are our “Definite, don’t Miss” events.):

DragonCon Schedule:

• Friday, September 4:
  • Arrival and Registration sometime Friday Morning
  • ♣ 2:30-3:30 PM:  Panel with Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict (Yay, A-Team!)
  • 4:00 PM: Tom Felton Panel
• Saturday, September 5:
  • ♣ 10:00 AM: DragonCon Parade – Expect lots of Pictures!
  • 11:30 AM: Browncoats Redemption Panel – About the fan-produced movie coming out soon.
  • 1:00 PM: The Signal LIVE! – The best Whedonverse Podcast, casting live from DragonCon.
  • ♣ 4:00 PM: Leonard Nimoy Panel on the Trek-track.
  • ♣ 8:30 PM: DragonCon Night at the Georgia Aquarium
• Sunday, September 6:
  • 11:30 AM:  Adam Savage – Stealth Science and Critical Thought aka How to Teach Science by Blowing Stuff Up
  • 1:00 PM: Patrick Stewart Panel on the Trek-Track
    • Eeeee!  Patrick Stewart Panel starts during the Adam Savage Panel! However will we Choose!?!?
  • 2:30 PM: Lou Ferrigno
  • 7:00 PM: Terminated: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Monday, September 7:
  • 10:00 AM: The Guild Q&A with Felicia Day
  • Home again, home again….

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The review in a single short burst:  Star Trek was Awesome. <Insert Geeky Fangirl Squee Here>

Spoiler Free Review:

We had here a new cast, playing old and very beloved characters. There were some very large, difficult shoes for them to fill and it would be extremely difficult to do so without making a parody of them, particularly the more, erm, unique qualities of, say, Bill Shatner.

So the new cast/writers/etc. had a lot to live up to.  I don’t exaggerate when I say that they did so in an absolutely phenomenal fashion.  Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban were, in particular, absolutely spot on as Spock and Bones, about as perfectly played as anyone could have asked for.  McCoy was appropriately grumpy and complaining about something every time you saw him.

Spock was as you would expect a very young Spock to be – still fighting the conflict between his human and vulcan self.  I particularly appreciated this treatment of the character, watching how he became what he became later on where he had resolved his two halves.  Quinto simply could not have done a better job even if he had been Nimoy himself.

There were plenty of nods to the originals that only a fan would notice, and those done with a respect for what had come before.

The real test of it was that it felt like the original Star Trek’s felt.  Not with sad nostalgia (a la Indy IV) or with some sort of vague imitation.  It felt like Star Trek, not something trying to pretend to be Star Trek.  Not only that…it felt like one of the best of the movies with the original cast. Wrath of Khan quality.

Even the most devoted Trekkie shouldn’t be disappointed with this movie.

And now come the Spoilers:

This is a complete reboot of the series, complete with alternate timeline.  I’m not quite sure how I feel about that, though I realize that this allows them the opportunity of creating sequels without worrying about stepping on the toes of the movies and shows that have come before.  Since it is an alternate timeline, the stuff that happened before has no relation to this timeline.

However…it rather means that the stuff that happened before, on the original timeline…didn’t happen, and likely will not. I think that this is where my uneasiness about it comes in.

Time travel stuff always gets a little wonky.  However, it didn’t seem like they were using it as a crutch here, it made sense and fit well into the universe they were creating. This isn’t the first time Star Trek’s gone time travelling, after all.

The sets were wonderful. The Enterprise actually looked like a battle-ready ship rather than a cruise liner, complete with independently firing gun turrets and defenses.  She was beautiful, as Scotty would proudly proclaim. His engine room, too, was huge – exactly the sort of scope you’d expect on a ship that size.  And that’s exactly the feeling you got from it – that feeling of size and scope, that this wasn’t a dinky little boat they were flying about in but an enormous fighting vessel.

You really could not have asked for a better cast of characters to replace the ones that had come before. They do a wonderful job and honor the people that had played these characters previously without making a parody of them.  No, Kirk doesn’t have his …. familiar …. and …. infamous …. Shatner-speak, but he is most undoubtedly James T. Kirk with all of his reckless rulebreaking and lack of respect for authority.  Though not as perfect in character as Quinto and Urban were, Chris Pine did a wonderful job in the role.

And yes, I’d use the word perfect for Quinto’s Spock, particularly.  He was, without any doubt whatsoever…Spock. Young and unsure and emotionally conflicted, yes, but Spock nonetheless. It would have been unrealistic to expect a Spock that young to have fully resolved his human and vulcan sides, to not be fighting his emotions.

That conflict is the real story of the movie.  Nero and his vendetta provide a vehicle, a villain to fight against, but it is Spock fighting with himself, and how his friendship develops with Kirk, that becomes the central plot.

It would be a lie to say that I didn’t get a little misty-eyed when Spock (Prime) reached out to Kirk and said, “I am, and always will be, your friend.”