I was never a Trekkie, a real pity considering that the original series aired on my watch. As a kid I preferred Rat Patrol, Combat, Hogan's Heroes and Wild, Wild West. I cozied up to science fiction with the Outer Limits, Twilight Zone and Lost in Space but somehow I just couldn't wrap my head around Captain Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Starship Enterprise crew. Like all good tv watchers of the time I tuned in, but chose to drop out and forget about it after a few viewings. The series cancellation pretty much washed over me and I went onto other things, other shows. Apparently I really missed out on a pretty big cultural deal.
Fast forward a million years or so. The new Star Trek film was coming up and I just couldn't get excited about it. Come on, wasn't all that Trekkie stuff passe? Maybe it was just me. Ok, I confess: I never went to a Star Trek convention, never bothered to plug in old VHS tapes of the series, never caught up with any of the new series on tv and only caught two or three of the older Star Trek films when life was at it's most boring around the house. Face it, Ricardo Montebalm pretty much ruined any hope of a Star Trek revival for me. Tell me I wasn't the only one.
So, this summer my Estranged One took the two oldest to the Rodeo Drive-in to catch a double feature: Transformers II and the latest Star Trek. I can't say that I envied them as it didn't get dark until almost ten. That meant a double bill lasting until damn near three in the morning, if not later. What got back to me later the next day was that I missed out on what was considered by those three hearty film goers to be pretty much the ultimate drive-in double bill. Once the Estranged One threw in a pizza, some popcorn and ample amount of caffeinated beverages they were all good to go. A partially drained battery was about the only real problem that resulted from such a long slog in the van. Sleep, well, it was put to me that we can pretty much sleep plenty when we're dead.
I caught up with Transformers late last year and loved it, but put off JJ Abram's flick until tonight. "Wow!" is an understatement. It was truly a film lover's kind of movie. Pure escapism. A true stand alone kind of flick that said to me that I didn't have to feel bad about missing out on that seminal Roddenberry series when I was a kid, that I could turn my sci-fi jones on full blast and groove accordingly and that I could feel good about wishing and hoping for more of the same later on. This movie had "franchise" written all over it. I do hope for a summer or two up the road with more of the same crew and the same kind of action that was doled out on my tv screen tonight. Goodness, wasn't that what it was all about to begin with? A television voyage on a small screen to a place that I had never been to before?
Huzzah JJ Abram and your new Star Trek! Hopefully it was the beginning of a grand new frontier.
Action!
A really great Allmovie.com film review: Star Trek:
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