Star Trek 11 2009

Look up front - I've been a life long trekkie this will not be an un-biased review - you have been warned!

I know the JJ Abrams isn't a trekkie - and in a lot of ways that's good- he has a tricky balancing act which is to persuade new viewer into the new Star Trek series - oh yes there will be a sequel no surprise there! But at the same time there is probably more "back story" to Star Trek than any other series anywhere in the universe - get that wrong and he will need protection orders out! He cannot afford to fail on that one!

Is Star Trek 11 Any Good?

Well luckily I am not a movie critic so I don't have to cover ever aspect - instead I am going to go straight to the heart of it - is Star Trek 11 a believable prequel to the original Star Trek which ran on US TV from 1966-1968?

Lets face it there are some issues - the original is 43 years old! Some of the technology has been and gone - my cellphone is a great deal smaller than Kirk's communicator and communicators didn't even text. My laptop has more computing power than the entire on-board computer of the original Enterprise! So to be true to the technology you'd have the 21st century characters using 1960's technology - amusing but hardly likely!

So they can do what they like with the technology, the Enterprise can be better, and the special effects. But there are several things they can't mess with: Kirk, Spock and McCoy are the three main ones.

Kirk, James T., is an interesting mixture. In the original Shatner hammed him up- particularly in the bad third series. But at his best moments Shatner's Kirk was real because he was a mixture. He was a strong leader -the youngest Capitan of a Starship at 30 he must be bright and charismatic leader of men. He's the only cadet to have passed the Kobiyashi Maru test, he changed the rules because he doesn't like losing.

He could border on arrogant though from time-to-time. And he's a womanizer - big time- its a rare episode when Kirk doesn't get the girl! He's got a great sense of humour too - when he lets himself go he is quite the comic - but we don't see often in Shatner's Kirk - probably because he doesn't think it becomes his leadership role.

From the original series we want to know how Kirk made it Captain the fleet's flagship at only 30. We know his father died serving - does that have something to do with it? Why does he treat women so badly- did a girl break his heart?

Over the years of the movies we have seen Shatner's Kirk get older and heavier so young Kirk has to be a skinny hyper-active kid and Chris Pine is certainly that. The face isn't quite right but and he doesn't seem to use some of the classic Shatner facial expressions of the 1/2 smile and squint.

But he's believable as a raw, unformed Kirk - though it seems that this new Kirk won't be doing quite as well with the ladies as in the glorious star dates of the 1960's. You have to feel for an actor taking on the Kirk legacy but I think Pine has managed to blend Shatner and himself reasonably well - though its not as "pure" as some old treikkies would ilke I think this character will grow with the new actor. But he's not doing too well on the girl front - this is big new development for the character !

Leonard Nimoy as Spock is a legend really. The first time that an alien was included as part of a TV series this "half breed" Spock's mixed Human Vulcan heritage intrigued many fans from the original series -myself included. He's the son of a Vulcan diplomat Sarek and earth women Amanda Grayson - who presumably met on earth, and where was Spock brought up Earth or Vulcan? There is only one time that Spock ever shows emotion (Amok Time) - was he always like that. We know Vulcans can have really violent emotions but choose to supress them - why did Spock choose to go the Vulcan way and the not the human? Has he ever regretted it? We know that Nimoy's Spock loves his mother but was at the start of the original Star Trek had been estranged from his father for many years {Journey to Babel) because of his decision to join Star Trek - the first Vulcan to do so.

Then there is Spock's relationship with Kirk - obviously Spock could command - but doesn't and chooses to plays second to Kirk's Captain - why is that? From the start they are a close team - obviously have been together for a long time - but we know that Spock is a lot older than Kirk - Vulcans age slower than humans. They show signs of more than a professional respect too - Spock is emotional when he find's KIrk alive after thining he had killed "my captain, and my friend" - why is that - they are lilk chalk and cheese why do they trust each other so completely?

Quinto's Spock gets to meet Nimoy's Spock and of all the new crew he has the closest physical match. The mannerisms come as the movie progresses and by the end we can see the future for this Spock.

But there are twists and turns in the plot which i can't mention here without giving the game away - suffice to say there is room for a an interesting development or two in the next movie....

Initially seeing Urban as McCoy I couldn't see the likeness - but when he talks its like DeForest Kelly still has the part - the guy has the southern drawl down to perfection - which is fascinating because he is actually a New Zealander - as I am and I it sounded just like Kelly talking to me. Urban has Kelly's timing and of course some of the classic one liners - its going to be interesting to see he further develop the role.

Yes it is - in this trekkie's opinion - yes it has the expected fight scenes, the explosions the grand space opera - which you'd expect. But it has avoided the self-indulgent navel-gazing of too many earlier Star Trek films.

This Star Trek has the humour, the charactes and the potential to Live Long and Prosper and boldly go where no one has gone before for quite a while I think. See it!