Star Trek

This afternoon, I was sitting in a movie theater waiting to be wowed. And boy, was I wowed.

I have seen the reboot. And it is good.

I was a Trekkie for a long time. I got started by reading novelizations of the original episodes that I found at my local library. The Next Generation hooked and reeled me in. I loved the Dominion war on Deep Space Nine. Voyager, while not as great, was still a great ride. Enterprise cured me, in spite of Scott Bakula. My Trekkie-ness waned thanks to the final, lackluster spin-off.

But it still lurked within me, waiting for the right moment to come out. And thanks to J.J. Abrams's reboot, I can say that my Trekkie-ness came out to play this afternoon and did it ever have fun.

This was a magnificent movie. Lots of great special effects, some very powerful story telling, and plenty of nods to the original canon to keep even a waning Trekkie like me having fun.

Notice I said there were only nods to the original canon. That's because this script tossed the original canon out the window from the very start. Nothing too major at first but then, about halfway through, we had a major moment. A "they didn't really do that, did they?" moment. One that was followed by another in very short order. I was stunned. I was aghast. And no, I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you've seen the movie and you know anything about Star Trek, you'll be able to figure out what it is.

But here's the thing: they knew we'd object. And shortly after the canon-breaking moments, they had Spock explain it all. And I had to nod and say, "Well, duh. I should have realized that. It's an excellent point."

Because of their canon-breaking, be ready for huge surprises. Big ones. Enough to make a half-Vulcan science officer raise one eyebrow. Come to think of it, most of the big surprises centers around Spock. Including one of the best ones. I wish I wasn't against dropping spoilers, because I'd love to revel in one of the best twists toward the end of the movie.

The cast was excellent. Well placed, well acted. Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy killed me (especially with the revelation of where he got his nickname). Simon Pegg as Scotty? Absolutely wonderful! And Zachary Quinto as Spock? Holy cow! My only problem with that bit of casting was that I kept expecting him to saw open someone's head with telekinesis.

I think we have a rebooted franchise on our hands. And with any luck, we'll be going where no one has gone before with them again very soon. Yeah, I know, that last sentence wasn't all that great. But I had to work that in there somewhere, didn't I?