Hopefully, if you were one of those who were watching it coming in cold to Trek, you liked it. I have too much history watching it to really feel how it would play to a non-Trek fan. I sort of think you would have to have some sort of background idea what Trek is for it to work for you; probably more than the marketing and hype would have you think.

But I’m more writing this to lay out my thoughts as an almost forty-year fan. So I am going to feel free to drop spoilers in whenever it fits my narrative. So if you haven’t seen the movie yet, run away now.

I mean it.

Really.

OK. Here goes.

The movie was interesting to me. It came across like an invitation to the fan of the “original” Trek to join the party launching the new one. RSVP to Leonard Nimoy, guest of honor.

Last time, I wrote that I was definitely not ready for this changing of the guard. But such a change was clearly the way of the future, ready or not. I suspect that if you were not ready and willing, there’s no way you liked this film. Maybe you did if you took as a neat speculative diversion and then you turned back to the latest novel from Pocket Books. But that’s about it.

Otherwise, this movie basically says to you that your day is done and here comes something new. Some interviews I read pre-release involved the writers noting that there was a conscious effort to make it clear that the “original” Trek and its history is not gone; that what we see in this film is the creation of an alternate timeline. The “original” lives on and is still available for stories and stuff.

I thought the discussions amongst the characters of this idea really didn’t play up this point adequately. At least not as I recall them right now after one screening. What discussion there was came off very academic and all “could be interesting but it doesn’t really matter to our current problems.” Indeed, after many episodes/movies where time travel derails the “proper” course of things and our heroes move heaven, earth, space, and time to “fix” things, there’s basically no one even thinking about trying another repair effort now. I mean, did Spock at least say to Nero after being captured ‘hey, let’s take the red matter, blow up the supernova-star now years ahead of the big boom, and save Romulus’? This whole plot thread had a sense of too-easy-acceptance of change for my taste.

I feel like Paramount wanted to have it both ways. They wanted to make it clear that they’re not throwing old Trek out, but also they want to be all BOOM LOOK WE JUST BLEW VULCAN UP. Either don’t screw with the old fandom that way, or just do a all-out reboot and don’t try to cater at all to the old history.

But once again, this new incarnation is the chosen path by Paramount for future Trek productions. So in the end, I can’t really roast the movie for not pursuing plot points that would undermine that. So instead I’ll walk down the path and look around at various sights.

I loved the entire cast. Everyone found that sweet spot between capturing the look and feel of the character without drifting into imitation or caricature. I do wish Anton Yelchin (Chekov) hadn’t adopted the V-W mangling that Walter Koenig did originally, because it really stood out awkwardly. Maybe that’s just me. Besides, if that’s my biggest complaint, things aren’t so bad.

The Enterprise herself, looking at the exterior, looked better in motion that in the publicity still pictures. She’s still a sweet-looking ship. I had more mixed feelings about the interiors. The really high-tech areas looked great, like the Bridge. The Bridge was another place I wasn’t sure of from still pictures, but it too works better “in action.” It also feels like a more professional operation. Tons of data literally at your fingertips. By contrast, I got so tired in the previous shows/movies watching the captain constantly having to order someone to put “on screen” this week’s object of interest.

Some areas of the ship were designed to not look so high-tech. Those didn’t work as well for me. In particular, the more I think about, the more I really did not like the Engineering set. This is the heart of this 23rd century ship, and it looked outclassed by the Engineering section on the last TV series, Star Trek: Enterprise. And that show’s Enterprise pre-dated the current one by many years. Engineering in the movie looked like something you’d find in the Battlestar Galactica remake. While that show has its own merits, it’s not where I look to for Enterprise design ideas.

Onward.

The story basically works, once you get over the “end of Trek as you know, here’s the new one” thing. Since I basically liked the story, I’ll just look at things that still stick in my craw about it.

I really hated killing off Amanda. It smacked of Women in Refrigerators Syndrome. To be honest, if killing one of Spock’s parents had to be a plot point, I would’ve picked Sarek:

• Sarek dying would’ve paralleled Kirk’s father’s death.
• It’s a more interesting contrast for any future stories if Spock’s surviving parent is a female human, not another male Vulcan.
• The impact of the Vulcan genocide would be heightened if we actually knew one of them personally.

(As an aside, I find the Vulcans’ plight has a Doctor Who “last of the Time Lords” vibe to it, which is interesting.)

(As another aside, I like that the transporter is a lot less magical now that it turned into over 40 years of previous stories.)

Unfortunately, female characters were generally not well-served in my opinion. Uhura’s storyline did not really impress me either. While I like the idea of a Spock-Uhura relationship (particularly in the first season of The Original Series, you can find small moments between them that sort of play very generally in this direction) and welcome the story continuing, it felt like the plot suddenly parachuted into the movie. And without it, Uhura really didn’t have much to do but be a target of Kirk’s flirtation. Also, I got annoyed in this movie by people running off the Bridge repeatedly. Uhura runs off at least twice to be there for Spock in the turbolift; Chekov runs off to do transporter voodoo. It creates an undisciplined atmosphere that’s hard to believe.

Meanwhile, the whole “origin story” basically works (it’s not really that complicated a plot), but some moments feel really forced in order to make it work. The whole idea that Kirk goes from cadet on academic suspension to captain of the flagship of the fleet is the main offender. Clearly no one wanted to spend multiple movies assembling the crew on the Enterprise, and I wouldn’t want to watch those movies either, so I’ll give it a pass.

I’m more curious now about future stories. There has been some punditry of late that Trek may be resurging just at the right time. That Trek’s general theme of optimism about the future fits in with the general optimistic air created by the election of Barack Obama. (Here’s one example.) That may be so. But there is also the theme of “seeking out new life” and the lessons it sometimes taught the viewer along the way. Trek got away from that when it moved into movies and became more about the Big Event of this movie. (The Voyage Home and to some degree The Undiscovered Country were exceptions, with their broader environmental and political themes.) Frankly, telling an “origin story” was the easy part. It’s been done before. (The novel Enterprise: The First Adventure is still worth the time to read.) The question now, if this version of Trek is to be the version, where will it go from here? Can and will it tell stories that are more than just big summer movie adventures? It’s hard to know. The original was something “more” than a TV show. And I say that even though I liked this film. I quibble with some of its details — and don’t get me started on some of the science in it — but it captures the spirit of its predecessor.

But the original was many things. It was that diverse group of characters that you didn’t see put together on television at that time. It was stories that tried to say something about humanity, about the issues of the day, and about our future. (Slate just ran a nice piece looking at how past Trek stories resonate with today’s debate about torture.) I don’t know if this new incarnation of Trek can have the same impact, especially in the once every few years movie format. If it can, it will have truly earned its place. If it can’t…if it’s just a big summer adventure every couple of years, only with a different cast, it will be seriously time to ask why anyone bothered with the effort. (Besides the quest for the almighty dollar.)

For the here and now, I opened the invitation to check out the party. Assorted misgivings aside, I liked it. I loved that my son Owen loved it. His excitement reminded me of being a young boy and first discovering Trek. Miriam saw it with us too, and was very pleased by it. So, in the optimistic spirit, we look forward to the future of Trek. It’s certainly not a sure thing, but hopefully it will be bright.