I think I've done enough conventions to know how to spell "Melllvar."
Really, it doesn't make sense that I'm this excited for Star Trek.
I've never liked Star Trek. I don't know who I have to blame for that. Probably my dad--science fiction was much more his deal than my mom's. But while he brought Star Wars into the house when my sister and I were wee and let me borrow some of his sci-fi books, Star Trek never came up. I can't even remember the first time I heard of it. As far as we were concerned, it didn't exist. And, though I was definitely friends with lots of nerds growing up, nobody tried to get me into it even throughout high school. Even now, I don't know if I have friends from high school who were trekkies. I'm sure Anne was, and I know Rayme had an autograph picture of the Dax/Whorf wedding (but Anne might've gotten that for her), and Amanda admitted to watching it in the Berkshires when they couldn't get any other television stations. That was about the extent of my Star Trek awareness.
Then, in college, Scott made me watch three episodes of The Next Generation. (He's also the one who made me watch Buffy.) There, I finally learned that I don't like Star Trek. I gave it a fair shot. I watched it for three whole hours. Mostly, I was bored. I watched the episodes that introduced the Borg. (I never thought in my life that I'd type out the word "Borg," but here we are.) The Borg doesn't really seem that scary to me. Sure, it would suck to lose your individuality, but at least it's not painful. Getting assimilated is probably worse for your family and friends than it is for you. (I've thought the same thing about devil possession.) The other episode I saw was Data-centric, and that reminded me why emotions are so integral to good storytelling. You kind of need them to keep things interesting.
With all of this history, I don't know what changed me from "I don't care about Star Trek, even if it is J.J. Abrams," to "this actually looks okay," to "I am now genuinely excited about this." Sure, the cast looks hot, but a hot cast can only get you so far. (Right, Wolverine?) Fine, it's not just a hot cast. It's a lot of people I genuinely like. (Simon Pegg!)
Since I'm now actively excited about the movie, I haven't been avoiding everything Star Trek like in the past. I haven't really been studying up on it, either, since I don't want to be invested in the way things were only to be disappointed by the reboot. I feel like this movie is aimed at me right now, and I don't want to spoil that. But I did want to know who the characters are and what they do, so I did a tiny, slacker-sized bit of cramming. Namely, I watched Star Trek IV: The One with the Whales, the episode of Futurama about Star Trek, the videos of Kirk fighting that Nathaniel forwarded to me, and Attack of the Show's list of the top ten "hotties" from the show. (Their red-shirt deaths are pretty good, too.) There, that should do it.
From that completely ineffective education, I have a few stray thoughts:
*I hate, hate, hate Kirk's captain's chair. It doesn't even look comfortable. It reminds me of one of those hanging rattan chairs from the '70s. It encourages spread-legged bad boy posture. Seriously, you can't sit up straight in it and keep your legs closed. I think that when they updated the series, they should've redesigned the chair to make it more like an aeron chair. Now that's something you can look powerful in.
*Since the only real original-recipe Star Trek product I've seen took place on Earth in the '80s, I'm really, really at a loss when it comes to the alien races. But even so, Romulans seem cool. In fact, I have kind of a mathematic proof about it. (I tried it out on Nathaniel. I can only imagine how hard he was shaking his head at me, since he actually knows about this stuff.) Here goes: 1) Eric Bana is pretty awesome. 2) In the movie, Eric Bana plays a Romulan. 3) "Romulan" sounds like "Romulous and Remus," the founders of Rome. 4) Rome is pretty awesome. 5) Conclusion: Romulans must be pretty awesome! I think I might be on their side now.
*Even though I'm definitely uninitiated, there are certain characters in the franchise that everybody knows: Kirk, Spock, Scotty, etc. I'd literally never heard of Chekov before. Dude needs to raise his profile.
*I think if I were to ever watch another one of the original movies, it'd be No. 6. Why didn't anyone tell me that Christian Slater was in that one?
*Speaking of commenting on the movies I haven't seen, if we're ever on some kind of space adventure and you guys make me do some kind of fan dance, I'll hate you forever. I don't care if it saves our lives. You'd never ask Sulu to do that.
*On the other hand, in this movie do you think that Kirk and Spock will have to get out of a jam in a way that somehow involves kissing?
Photo Credit: Industrial Light & Magic Copyright © 2009 by PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
I've never liked Star Trek. I don't know who I have to blame for that. Probably my dad--science fiction was much more his deal than my mom's. But while he brought Star Wars into the house when my sister and I were wee and let me borrow some of his sci-fi books, Star Trek never came up. I can't even remember the first time I heard of it. As far as we were concerned, it didn't exist. And, though I was definitely friends with lots of nerds growing up, nobody tried to get me into it even throughout high school. Even now, I don't know if I have friends from high school who were trekkies. I'm sure Anne was, and I know Rayme had an autograph picture of the Dax/Whorf wedding (but Anne might've gotten that for her), and Amanda admitted to watching it in the Berkshires when they couldn't get any other television stations. That was about the extent of my Star Trek awareness.
Then, in college, Scott made me watch three episodes of The Next Generation. (He's also the one who made me watch Buffy.) There, I finally learned that I don't like Star Trek. I gave it a fair shot. I watched it for three whole hours. Mostly, I was bored. I watched the episodes that introduced the Borg. (I never thought in my life that I'd type out the word "Borg," but here we are.) The Borg doesn't really seem that scary to me. Sure, it would suck to lose your individuality, but at least it's not painful. Getting assimilated is probably worse for your family and friends than it is for you. (I've thought the same thing about devil possession.) The other episode I saw was Data-centric, and that reminded me why emotions are so integral to good storytelling. You kind of need them to keep things interesting.
With all of this history, I don't know what changed me from "I don't care about Star Trek, even if it is J.J. Abrams," to "this actually looks okay," to "I am now genuinely excited about this." Sure, the cast looks hot, but a hot cast can only get you so far. (Right, Wolverine?) Fine, it's not just a hot cast. It's a lot of people I genuinely like. (Simon Pegg!)
Since I'm now actively excited about the movie, I haven't been avoiding everything Star Trek like in the past. I haven't really been studying up on it, either, since I don't want to be invested in the way things were only to be disappointed by the reboot. I feel like this movie is aimed at me right now, and I don't want to spoil that. But I did want to know who the characters are and what they do, so I did a tiny, slacker-sized bit of cramming. Namely, I watched Star Trek IV: The One with the Whales, the episode of Futurama about Star Trek, the videos of Kirk fighting that Nathaniel forwarded to me, and Attack of the Show's list of the top ten "hotties" from the show. (Their red-shirt deaths are pretty good, too.) There, that should do it.
From that completely ineffective education, I have a few stray thoughts:
*I hate, hate, hate Kirk's captain's chair. It doesn't even look comfortable. It reminds me of one of those hanging rattan chairs from the '70s. It encourages spread-legged bad boy posture. Seriously, you can't sit up straight in it and keep your legs closed. I think that when they updated the series, they should've redesigned the chair to make it more like an aeron chair. Now that's something you can look powerful in.
*Since the only real original-recipe Star Trek product I've seen took place on Earth in the '80s, I'm really, really at a loss when it comes to the alien races. But even so, Romulans seem cool. In fact, I have kind of a mathematic proof about it. (I tried it out on Nathaniel. I can only imagine how hard he was shaking his head at me, since he actually knows about this stuff.) Here goes: 1) Eric Bana is pretty awesome. 2) In the movie, Eric Bana plays a Romulan. 3) "Romulan" sounds like "Romulous and Remus," the founders of Rome. 4) Rome is pretty awesome. 5) Conclusion: Romulans must be pretty awesome! I think I might be on their side now.
*Even though I'm definitely uninitiated, there are certain characters in the franchise that everybody knows: Kirk, Spock, Scotty, etc. I'd literally never heard of Chekov before. Dude needs to raise his profile.
*I think if I were to ever watch another one of the original movies, it'd be No. 6. Why didn't anyone tell me that Christian Slater was in that one?
*Speaking of commenting on the movies I haven't seen, if we're ever on some kind of space adventure and you guys make me do some kind of fan dance, I'll hate you forever. I don't care if it saves our lives. You'd never ask Sulu to do that.
*On the other hand, in this movie do you think that Kirk and Spock will have to get out of a jam in a way that somehow involves kissing?
Photo Credit: Industrial Light & Magic Copyright © 2009 by PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.