Movie of the Year: Star Trek

I only saw one movie this year, but I saw it four times: twice in a theatre, once on an airplane, and once on DVD. (Caution: Spoilers ahead.)

The Star Trek universe had been in disarray for several years. The last movie, Star Trek Nemesis, was a critical and financial mess. Star Trek Enterprise, the last series, went off the air in 2005. The Las Vegas Hilton even decided to close down the Star Trek Experience (thank goodness I went before it closed). The word was that the new Trek movie would not be a Next Generation flick, but instead would be an “origins” story about Kirk and Spock. I groaned. I had two main concerns. First, moviemaking technology continually advances. Filmmakers can produce more dazzling special effects, usually more cheaply. Consider the computer displays on the Enterprise training bridge at the beginning of Star Trek Wrath of Khan (1982): they look like something out of an old Pong game. By choosing to produce a movie about an era (Kirk-Spock) that is less technologically advanced than the one we are used to (The Next Generation), producers may have to reign in their creativity. Second, if not crafted well, origin stories can be disappointing (e.g., Wolverine).

I was wrong on both counts.

First, the producers made space travel seem more frightening and real than it had previously been depicted in the Trek universe. The sleek bridge of the Enterprise D (Captain Picard’s Enterprise) is gone. Instead, we see pipes, pumps, and cramped spaces on the new Enterprise. During the battle between the USS Kelvin and the Narada, an explosion rips a hole in the hull and a crewman is sucked out into space. The shuttlecraft used to take the cadets to the Enterprise is visibly worn and scarred.

Second, the producers didn’t just give us an origins tale, they ripped up our old universe, as well. Romulus and Vulcan are both destroyed. Spock’s mother fell into a black hole. The Star Trek universe as we knew it is gone (unless it exists as a parallel universe, of course). That took guts!

The movie is both a tribute to the old Trek, as well as a dramatic rewrite of the Trek universe. Nowhere in the film’s score do you hear the classic eight note prelude of the Alexander Courage theme (although the theme itself runs over the end credits). The new theme, Enterprising Young Men, starts off mournfully, builds with hope, then explodes into triumph.





The first 10 minutes of the film, which tell the story of Kirk’s birth, are stunning. The opening is filled with interesting details. As Captain Robau makes his way from the bridge to the shuttlecraft, the ship seems to be falling apart around him. In the midst of the chaos, a crewman stops and snaps to attention as he walks by. Two crewman rappel down to get to their shuttles. Plastic sheeting seems to separate the main section of the shuttle from the cockpit.

Go check it out.