I am a big Star Trek fan. Ever since I first saw the series, in syndication, when I was eleven or twelve, I was hooked. My friend Mitch Markow and I would make starship intercoms out of colored paper and tape them up around my house. My Aunt Noppie almost had me in tears when, during a visit to her in west Texas, she told me that William Shatner was old and fat and doing commercials selling margarine.
Undaunted, I watched the original series time and time again until I literally had most of the scripts memorized. When Star Trek - The Next Generation first came out, I was uncertain, but gave it a try. Yep. They nailed it again. I haven't seen all of Deep Space Nine, but I'm working my way through the series (as soon as I finish Angel, though). I've heard mixed reviews from my serious trekkie friends about Voyager and Enterprise, but I'm sure I'll give them a try as well.
With the new Star Trek movie, taking place prior to the events in TOS, I was looking forward to it. It didn't hurt that they cast Sylar (Zachary Quinto), Eomer (Karl Urban), and Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead.
So, being the total geek/nerd/dork, I went with my fellow sci-fi dorks to see the film. In Klingon uniform? You betcha. That's me on the left.
(SPOILERS FOLLOW SPOILERS FOLLOW)
As the film drew to a close, I came to the shocking conclusion that the Star Trek as I knew it had been altered forever! Vulcan, the planet, and 99% of its people, were gone. Spock's mother was dead. This means that the TOS ep "Journey to Babel" never existed . . . Spock never went back to Vulcan during "Amok Time".
Wait, I thought. This isn't the end of Star Trek as I knew it . . . rather, it is the beginning of new journeys, unencumbered by the events of the original series. See, if the Star Trek movie hadn't changed the timeline, then subsequent movies (of which I am sure there will be at least a few) would have to honor the events of the original series. This would have meant that every scene, every shot of the subsequent films would fall under the intense scrutiny of trekkies who make me look like a lightweight. Now, J.J. Abrams doesn't have to worry at all about who originally beamed down to Cestus 3 in "Arena", or who the tribunal was in "The Menagerie", for fear of getting something wrong which, no doubt, would have been pointed out by the aforementioned trekkies.
J.J. Abrams is a freakin' genius. He made a spectacular film, and at the same time, secured his ability to make future films without having to make sure everything is one hundred percent in sync with the original series.
