Stardate 05-12-09
When I first heard that JJ Abrams was going to be behind a Star Trek reboot, I was ecstatic. Then when I heard that they were going to be doing a prequel and that the story would be about how Kirk and Spock met each other at Starfleet, I was deeply disappointed. I was not disappointed about hearing the story of how Kirk met Spock, but rather, I was disappointed in what would come after that. How would they move the series forward and keep it interesting when we already have a clear time line of most all the major events that take place in the characters lives.
***Major Spoilers Ahead***
Now that I have seen the movie, my disappointment and fears of how they will move the series forward have been washed away. Here is what I understood from the movie. When Nero was sucked into the black hole, he and his ship were transported through time and space. They arrived 153 years into the past and proceed to attack a nearby Federation ship, the USS Kelvin. This act changes the continuity of time, thereby creating an alternate reality/dimension. Now the series can move forward with a clean and unknown time line of future events. They have paved the way for original stories that don't necessarily have to be consistent with Star Trek cannon. It will be crazy to see what happens in this new Trek dimension. Lets just hope that Nero didn't bring a Sports Almanac from the year 2387 with him.
There were some things that I really liked about the new Trek movie, and some things that I didn't like. My biggest disappointment was Nero. He was a pretty lousy bad guy. Not much to him.
For sure my favorite part of the movie was when young Kirk met future Spock and asks him who he is. Spock responds by saying, "I have been, and always shall be, your friend." I totally got goose bumps at this point. These are of course the famous last words from Spock to Kirk before he dies at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Another thing that many of the original fans are torn about is non appearance of The Shat in the new movie. Here is a
link to a very interesting interview with the writers of the new movie. They talk about an alternate ending that they were planning where The Shat would have made his way into the movie. The article goes into more detail, but in case you don't want to read it, here is a video of the writers talking about how they would have worked him in. I think they had an excellent idea and that their alternate ending would have really added to the film.
