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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Movie Review: STAR TREK

This film totally changes the established Star Trek universe by utilizing the time travel story. As a result of Spock's failure to stop Romulus' star from going nova, Romulus is destroyed, a black hole opens up from Spock's belated attempt to minimize the damage, and both he a group of Romulans are sent back in time, first them, then him. As a result, they arrive 25 years apart.
When the Romulans arrive, they are comfronted by the ship that has Kirk's father on board and he dies ramming his ship into the invader's. This means Kirk grows up without a father.
After Spock arrives, they destroy Vulcan as retribution for the destruction of Romulus that they blame him for. This parallels a similar alternate reality story, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men directed by Tim Russ (Tuvok/Star Trek Voyager), produced by Renegade studios on the set made by the fans producing Star Trek: New Voyages (now Star Trek: Phase II).
What is left unclear here is why a star going nova threatens the entire galaxy as Spock Prime claims. Since events prior to the arrival of the Romulans, then Spock, in the past would've remained unchanged, where were the guys who were watching over the timeline in Enterprise? They also showed up on Voyager to council Janeway about meddling with the timeline. Did something happen after the supposed conclusion of the temporal war in Enterprise? Were some nefarious aliens behind the nova of the Romulan star? And wasn't Delta Vega the name of the planet out near the galactic barrier on which Kirk intended to maroon Gary Mitchell after he became a power-hungry esper in the original series' episode Where No Man Has Gone Before? (It was the elimination of Kirk by Charlie of Charlie X fame that allowed Gary Mitchell to take over the Federation in the aforementioned ST:OGAM.) How then is it now a neighboring ice-bound world of Vulcan? Spock famously told Uhura once that "Vulcan has no moon, Miss Uhura," but something similar was pictured in the animated series episode Yesteryear, which recounted Spock's Kahs-Wan ordeal on Vulcan's Forge. A second planet near Vulcan was mentioned in one of the original series' novels, I forget which.
Suffice it to say, the whole Star Trek universe is ready for a rewrite bringing the original cast of characters to a whole new generation of fans unfamiliar with any of the original 5 TV series. What remains to be seen is whether it will be confined to the big screen, or make the jump to television. Time will tell . . . or will it?