Star Trek: In which I boldly go where I didn’t realize I’d gone so often before
ByI’ve never thought of myself as a huge Star Trek fan. As much as I like fantasy stories, I’m not into space dramas. So imagine my surprise when I found myself loving the shit out of the new Star Trek “prequel” movie.1
I would never have guessed how big an impression the original television series made on my brain.2 True, it was probably due more to sheer repetition than personal preference - if you had a t.v. in the 70’s you couldn’t miss the ST reruns that ran every two hours. But for me the show was just OK, something to watch until Little House or The Bionic Woman came on.
How could I have known that Spock was making such quiet in-roads in my heart that I’d get a tear in my eye when a really old Leonard Nimoy showed up on screen thirty years later?
What I like most about the movie is that they managed to pay homage to the original show and characters without either pandering or mocking. The actors have uncanny resemblances to the characters yet don’t resort to doing impressions. They managed to pull off the classic lines (”Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a scientist!” and “I’m givin’ her all she’s got, Captin!”) without sounding campy. They even replicated camera angles and postures - stuff I didn’t even realize was iconic until I felt the squee! of recognition.
And best of all, they used all the original sound effects - the bwong!s, bwip!s and chirpy noises that made the USS Enterprise so far out. Oh, except for the chshhhhhh-chah of the double-doors, but maybe that was the unintentional sound of cardboard sliding across concrete in the original.
All the actors did a great job, especially Zachary Quinto as Spock, who pretty much steals the show. Loved my Brit-crush Simon Pegg as Scotty - not enough screen time for him. My one WTF: Winona Ryder as Amanda Grayson, Spock’s mother? Not that she did a bad job - I just didn’t recognize her at all.
Very few complaints over all. I have to say I felt the villain was a big yawn. I like my bloodthirsty bad guys to have a little personality. This one had tattoos. Where’s Ricardo Montalban when you need him?
Only other complaint is (you guessed it): How is it that with all the amazing discoveries humans have apparently made in the far distant future, the fact that miniskirts are impractical for work is NOT one of them?
And I don’t mind a little gratuititty as long as it’s equal opportunity exploitation - so if we’re going to see Uhura in her underwear, I’d better see Kirk drop trou next time.
Uppity out.
——————————————
Update: Five minutes after I posted this, I remembered that Kirk did drop trou in the movie. Maybe I wouldn’t have forgotten if it had been Spock.
- Yes, I know there is much debate among hard-core Trekkies about whether the film is or is not a prequel, reboot, or what have you. Blah blah blah. Seriously. Geez. [↩]
- I guess I should have gotten a clue when a few weeks ago, before I even knew the new Star Trek movie was coming out, I had a dream that Dr. House could do the Vulcan paralysis shoulder-pinch. [↩]
2 Responses to “Star Trek: In which I boldly go where I didn’t realize I’d gone so often before”
Leave a Reply
I loved this movie too, tho I did have a little head shaking over the women’s costumes as well. And I didn’t even know it was Winona Ryder till my kids told me later. A little scary how much Star Trek seeped in by osmosis back in the day, considering we never purposely watched it either.
It IS scary how much pop culture we absorb without realizing it. The power of TV. No wonder they can charge so much for advertising.