Embracing the New Star Trek

I get it. I really do.

Like Mr. Spock himself, the new "Star Trek" is a half-breed. The film mixes old and new, dialogue and action, character-driven ideologies and coolly modern visuals into a popcorn-muncher of a hybrid. It's apparent from reviews and early movie-goer reaction that director J.J. Abrams' vision of Gene Roddenberry's 45-year old baby is gonna make trouble (or is it "tribble?") for "Wolverine" at the box office this weekend.

Old trekkers (some believe a trekkie is someone so obsessed with the series that he has “no life,” while a trekker is simply a big fan) like myself can't help but be curious (and maybe excited) at the reboot/renewal of out favorite Sci-fi pleasure.

Back in the day, I would tape record right off the TV speaker and play them late at night through my headphones as I went to sleep.

The result: Instant memorization of every single scrap of Star Trek dialogue, sound effect and music cue.

The application: Humorous prologging while my family watched the show. It was sheer delight watching the pained reactions after I spouted out a Captain Kirk line just seconds before he spoke it. It was my little power trip, a photon torpedo to the psyche of my household.

Anyway, it wasn't long before I began seeking out my own kind. Some friends and I would explore Star Trek Conventions, you know, the ones that William Shatner would later parody on "Saturday Night Live." It was the last one of those get-togethers in 1976 at New York's old Commodore Hotel (now Trump Tower), that all of our "trekking" finally paid off. Three of us entered and won what was billed as The National Star Trek Trivia Contest. A poll of "Trek" fans in New York determined that the toughest trivia question on that quiz was "What was the exact number of tribbles that fell on Kirk from the storage bin in the episode 'The Trouble With Tribbles." The answer (as quoted by Spock): 1,771,561.

I may forget my own social security number, but I'll never forget those "Trek" digits.

So, when I see the new "Star Trek" this weekend, I'll go into the theatre with an open mind as to the youth movement, the changes in Star Trek Canon and the transformation of a 1960's cult classic into a 2009 way cool hit.

I'm already beaming.



 

Contact Us