Tags: "star trek sex"

05/08/09

Movie Review: Star Trek 2.0, the alternate universe

Let me get the most troublesome aspects of Star Trek out of the way first:

1. If you remember the original series (TOS), Chekov is a young rookie out of the academy, and one gets the feeling that McCoy and Sulu are of different ages. Captain Pike is barely a little older than Captain Kirk.

In this Star Trek, everybody's about 24, except for Pike who's pushing 55. It's ridiculous.

2. Uhura's character creates massive illogic hurdles. Why is she a lieutenant in TOS and Kirk a captain, a full three grades and 15 years of career higher, if they went to school at the same time? Did Uhura get busted? Are there still remnants of racial prejudice in the future? And, she's from Africa. In the future, do all Africans speak English with a New Jersey accent? I know, but the original Uhura speaks with the careful diction of an English learner.

3. There's the complete impossibility of the whole situation: One ship comes to invade earth and they already have to call in the reserves, from the academy(!)? I don't think that's happened since Southerners left West Point to fight for the Confederacy. Note to Starfleet: increase recruiting budget.

When those cadets get on board the ship, they take over the most important jobs. Was the rest of the crew that awful?

4. I originally thought that what happens to Spock's mom in this Star Trek represents a huge continuity problem, as well as the fact that it's clearly stated in TOS episode "Balance of Terror," that the Federation had never encountered the Romulans; but then I realized that things in Star Trek happen in a different reality (Spock, in his dotage, failed to save the Romulan world from a super nova) so it's OK.

As to the movie itself, only hard-core Trekkies and sticklers for movies making lots of sense will find Star Trek offensive.

In fact, inoffensiveness is Star Trek's greatest attribute.

Gone are the original series' social commentary and psychological themes, a groundbreaking attribute of TOS which I realize becomes somewhat tiresome by its third season. Thus, this Star Trek has no evil corporations, exploitation of alien races, unenlightened war mongers, environmental destruction. There isn't any search for ultimate meaning or any human self-reflection at all. Nobody must "learn to live together." It's a clear good-evil fight. Everything seems right with Starfleet and the future world except for some bitter Romulans.

Plot: Aliens come to destroy the world. Out of control boy finds his true calling. Logical dude learns to let go. That's it. Pretty simple, huh? Nope. There's time travel. Time travel is a heavy sci-fi weapon to wield and one should do so with caution and only in an emergency. Does wanting to create a new series with the original characters, but sans Roddenberrian baggage, qualify? Perhaps.

I found the story boring, but some didn't, judging from the reviews.

The characters are uncomplicated and likable. They're not exactly funny- a lot of the jokes are just allusions to TOS, a common tactic when remaking beloved and quirky TV series; Scooby Doo does the same thing- but they're enthusiastic and easy to watch especially Uhura who rivals her predecessor in ebon hotness.

Tough choice.

There it is, then. For better or worse: brisk, not quite MTV, unintellectual, and "fun."

Errata:

They couldn't have made William Shatner a bartender or something?

The Starfleet dress code hasn't changed. That means we still have completely impractical, but morale-boosting mini-skirts.

Politics/Message:

We haven't seen an unrepentant Flint/James Bond-style skirt-chasing bad-boy heterosexual male chauvinist (Starbuck from BSG doesn't count as she may be a girl) in such a long time that James T. Kirk is kind of refreshing.

George "Papa" Kirk is lauded for doing his duty. You can see good bit of dialog on it in the trailer above.

This is the least political Star Trek since "Trouble with Tribbles." They don't try to make any "inevitability arguments" by presenting current cultural issues as long-ago settled examples of past cultural silliness, as TOS does with racism and international conflict, for example. We don't see Sulu marry a guy, for example, even though we know he wants to.

Image from Amazon
Scooby-Doo (Widescreen Edition)