Executive Summary
- Original Star Trek = Baby Boomers
- TNG/DS9/Voyager = Generation X
- Enterprise = Outreach to Millennials
- New Star Trek = Millennials
- If it’s too loud, you’re too old
- Star Trek feels exciting again
Review
I said I was going to have a Star Trek review for you all yesterday, but I decided to spend the night sketching designs for a new site, watching an Ed Wood flick, and then going downstairs to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with my wife. I mean, a guy’s gotta have priorities. So, here it is, my “review” of this year’s summer blockbuster “Star Trek”, in which I say very little about “Star Trek”. IT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, so those of you who worry about this kind of thing should leave this post up on your screen, and go to a theater NOW to see the new movie. My post will be here when you get back.
I’m going to use the name “Star Trek” a lot, becuase this is a review of “Star Trek”. And, I’m putting it in quotes when I talk about the new movie, not to denigrate it, but to draw a distinction between it and the entire history of the franchise up to 7pm May 7th, 2009. Star Trek (see, no quotes) is a media empire, spanning TV shows, books, movies, comics, board games, video games…and that’s just the licensed stuff!
Also, I should include a disclaimer. I took one sociology and two psychology classes in college. I’m basically talking out my rear end here. However, I have been a Trekker for pretty much my whole life. With that out of the way, let’s get on with the show.
My review starts in 1967, ten years before I was even born. This was the heyday of the Baby Boomers, and they were sick and tired of mom & dad always telling them to get a haircut. They heard their fathers, the “greatest generation”, telling stories of their wartime glory days, and they watched as the old men sent their friends to fight and die in Vietnam. A show called Star Trek debuted, and was beloved by many. Here was a young crew, led by Captain Kirk, the youngest Captain in Starfleet history. They dressed like young people (gotta love those go-go boots and mini skirts!), and they didn’t carry the previous generation’s prejudices. This was the how the “military” would be if they were in charge. The “star fleet” would still have ranks, discipline, and some bad-ass weaponry, but their primary mission would still be one of peace & love, exploration & friendship.
For the past forty years, the original Trek crew has traced the Boomers’ own lives. The movies dealt with getting older, and saw characters not wanting to get stuck with a desk job, the untimely death of a son, buying a boat and selling a house…all leading up to forced retirement in Star Trek VI and one last adventure in Star Trek: Generations.
Star Trek VI, released in December of 1991, sees Kirk and a Klingon named Chang discussing their increasing irrelevance, as they are two mortal enemies whose races are now at peace. The Klingons always represented the Soviets in the days of the Cold War, and Boomers must have felt much the same way after the fall of the Berlin Wall just a few years prior. This film really marks the end of the Boomers’ trek, a point accentuated by Gene Roddenberry’s death four months before the film’s release.
Kirk & Chang make reference to the next generation taking over, but in our reality the next generation had been tooling around the galaxy for four years already. Star Trek: The Next Generation started out with Gene Roddenberry and a stable of veteran Trek writers spinning tales of humans, now practically gods of technology and morality, encountering bizarre new life forms and vanquishing threats with grand speeches and photon torpedos. Gene Roddenberry’s health was going downhill by the start of the third season, and he passed his role on to Rick Berman and Michael Piller. This is also when the show started showing more of a Generation X influence, with a much darker tone. The Borg, symbols of the relentless march of technological progress over humanity, replaced the Klingons as the Federation’s biggest threat.
This generation didn’t just explore the galaxy in the Next Generation series and films. They explored daily life and the tragedy of war in Deep Space Nine. Likewise, Star Trek Voyager featured Federation and Maquis crew members, sworn enemies, putting aside their differences to fight the Borg and make their way home. At the end of the first season of The Next Generation, Picard tells people from the 20th century that humans in the 24th century have evolved beyond the need for money. But, a post-Roddenberry Deep Space Nine shows humans gambling, buying drinks, and booking time the holosuite at Quark’s bar.
By the time Star Trek: Enterprise hit the airwaves, the writers had to deal with 30+ years of history. Keeping continuity was a pain, and we all know how nitpicky Trek fans can be. Also, technology was progressing inside the Star Trek universe. Plots were starting to involve far-out things like transwarp drive and quantum torpedoes, natural progressions of Trek technology, but things which threatened to change the Trek universe completely. Time travel starting coming up as a way to the crews interact with the past or send someone from the crew’s future back to save the day. Enterprise took the franchise back to a simpler time, and even took a few liberties with continuity in order to go back to telling good stories. It just wasn’t enough. Generation X was tired of Star Trek, and the Millennials weren’t that interested to begin with. The show was moved to a crappy time slot after the third season, and cancelled after the fourth.
By this point, I’ve used over 800 words to summarize fourty years of television and movies as the tale of two generations, and I haven’t said a thing about “Star Trek”, the movie I’m supposedly reviewing here. I thought it was important to lay things out like this because the torch has been passed once again. “Star Trek” is the Millenials’ first exploration of the Star Trek universe.
So, when people complain that this isn’t enough like the Star Trek they grew up with, I can only say “this is not for you”. This incarnation features a Captain Kirk who grew up without a father, a gray-area villain who was a decent, honest man who lost everything due to the Federation’s inaction, and a hell of a lot of action including EXTREME SKYDIVING TO THE MAX!!!!! Also, the destruction of the USS Kelvin in the film’s opening scenes establishes a new timeline for the lives of the Enterprise crew right out of the gate, throwing 40 years of canon out the window and giving the writers some room to breathe again.
I’m finding it hard to put together thoughts on this new “Star Trek” film because I keep wanting to frame everything in terms of the previous series, something I wont let myself do. And that’s the point, really. The criticisms I see — that there’s too much action & special effects, that there’s the Beastie Boys on the soundtrack, that scenes are short and it just bounces from thing to thing — everything sounds like the typical complaints about the Millennials and their tastes.
Furthermore, the series was in desparate need of a reboot, or “a kick in the pants” as I keep referring to it. Enterprise proved that the old guard had lost its magic touch. And, while having 40 years of canon was great for the writers of the “The Nitpicker’s Guide to…” books, I’m sure it left the Trek writers’ hands tied plenty of times.
This new, rebooted “Star Trek” made a big impression on me. It was exciting and relevant. It had green coeds and classic lines from most of the characters. There were obvious attempts to make the old-school fans feel at home, while giving new fans a reason to sit up and pay attention.
As a sci-fi action movie, it excelled. As the first outing of a new Trek generation, it took a gamble on throwing Trek history out the window, and created a compelling new mythology. I really want to know where this is going to go. After watching the heavy-handed role the Vulcans took trying to control Earth’s first steps into space, what backlash will they face now that there are only 10,000 of them left? Where will the Spock/Uhura relationship go? How does Scotty earn his commission aboard the Enterprise?
The future looks bright for the Star Trek franchise, and there are many new tales to be told. They’re looking at $70M in ticket sales this weekend. People are excited about Star Trek again. It looks like J. J. Abrams might have saved Star Trek. What’s next? There’s a Star Trek MMORPG coming out soon, and I’m guessing at least one more movie in the works already.
I just hope that Corvette didn’t die in vain.