As a child, there weren’t many weekends when I didn’t enjoy syndicated episodes of the original Star Trek series. Both it and Star Wars were a way of life. I was eight or so when The Next Generation premiered, and it furthered my love of Trek. Although as I grew into adolescence I cared less and less about both science fiction and fantasy. They just weren’t cool. Then one thing happened that I thought put the nail in their coffin: The Star Wars prequels.
Although I watched all three of them, they turned me off of sci-fi completely. For years, there were no films or books in the genre I cared about. George Lucas was akin to a Saddam Hussein or Adolph Hitler in my eyes. He still is, truthfully, but there is now hope.
Quite frankly, the man knows both movies and television. He is the man behind Lost and Alias, two great TV shows (that I didn’t watch all of, admittedly, but good nonetheless). His movies include Mission: Impossible III, which is a fantastic first effort, and Super 8, or the best Steven Spielberg movie not directed by Spielberg.
In 2009, he rebooted the Stark Trek franchise to much-earned praise from myself and most people except for the most serious of trekkies.
The movie brought the modernized franchise to the masses, trading the science-oriented and oftentimes campy appeal of the original series for more action and excitement.
Normally, I’m against the premise of a reboot and decry the ruining of the much superior original in favor of box office profits. However, in this case it was warranted.
Star Trek was dying. There hadn’t been a series first-run, syndicated television show in years with no interest in reviving the franchise. Sure, there are the dedicated fans, but there wasn’t really any new blood to bring in the new ones.
The sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness furthers the cause of making the franchise viable again.
Abrams takes the best single bad guy from the original movies/series and makes him bigger and badder in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch as Kirk’s arch nemesis Khan. Cumberbatch is mostly unknown, but has starred as the title character in the BBC’s Sherlock for two seasons now.
He is the perfect choice for the lead villain, as he excels in playing cold, calculated characters and fills the role without flaws.
The Enterprise crew returns in its entirety from the first film, carrying on that bit of perfect casting from the first. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto excel as Kirk and Spock. The chemistry between those two is something unseen in today’s filmmaking. Other highlights of the crew include Zoe Saldana as Uhura and Pegg providing comic relief as Scotty.
As you can tell, I believe Abrams is the next big thing when it comes to the Hollywood blockbuster, which I normally rally against at every chance.
Trek has been so successful that he is now on board with the biggest science fiction series in the history of science fiction: Star Wars. Of course, Episode VII is several years away still, but I, for one can’t wait.
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