…and I don’t know whether to despise him or move him to #1 on my all-time heroes list.
Note: don’t read any further if you haven’t seen Star Trek yet!
He, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman are diabolical! They’ve used our love of the Star Trek universe and its continuity against us! He used Spock to anchor this new reality to the previous one, holding us hostage to it by our love for the old one. We can keep the flame of our love for the old alive by embracing the new. But the carnage is immense – by sending Spock back in time, and not resetting the timeline to what it was before Nero’s plan, they have wiped out four out of the five TV series – Enterprise is the only series spared from the fallout. Also, by completely destroying Vulcan and turning that planet’s race into refugees, they have guaranteed that the course of the new timeline will be radically different from the one we know and love!
If they wanted a free hand to completely remake the franchise, they couldn’t have set themselves up better. They have absolutely no restrictions, no sacred cows – everything is on the table! I’m equal parts impressed and furious.
The movie itself is spectacular – brilliantly executed and a terrific start to a great series of movies. However, I do take a bit of issue with the idea that James T. Kirk goes from callow Academy cadet straight to captain of Starfleet’s flagship, no matter how great a service he performed for the Federation, or that Christopher Pike promotes him from cadet on suspension to First Officer. Other than that, pretty sweet!
Move him to number one!