The new trailer for Star Trek is out. I’ve watched it a bunch of times. More than I want to admit. It’s exciting and flashy. It’s not the Trek I grew up with. The new movie caters to a new audience. And why not bring in a new audience? Catering strictly to the old school guarantees that Trek dies with the old school.
The old Star Trek hasn’t gone away for the purists or naysayers. In fact the original series look better than ever in restored versions that I can watch any time. We can have both new and old existing together.
I’m looking forward though to a new take on the Trek mythology. New actors, new people, and a fresh take on the franchise can be a good thing. Star Trek on TV died in large part because of what I saw as fatigue with the same old same old. Enterprise purported to bring us something we hadn’t seen before, but it was the same tired plots in large part that Voyager had borrowed from its predecessors and contemporary series (Deep Space Nine and Next Generation). So bring on the new movie.
What I’m hoping for is a vision of the future that has the old series’ optimism. I want something that says going boldly is a journey worth taking.
Dispatches from Obscurity 