Star Trek 90210

I guess I’m just showing my age.  I look at the new Star Trek movie with zero interest.  Before, if it was a Star Trek movie, you can bet that I would be there within the first week of its release.  But this latest movie looks like an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 shot in space.  The new Captain James T Kirk is played by Chris Pine who is in his late twenties.  He looks a little younger.  He looks pretty typical for today’s Hollywood.  He could’ve stepped right out of an episode of Lost or American Idol or just about anything you care to name that involves a younger audience.  And it’s not just Mr. Pine.  All the actors in this show are pretty much the standard fare for what passes as today’s eye candy for the silver screen.

So while the movie looks like the perfect summer fare for young movie goers and people who have never shown any interest in the Star Trek phenomenon, people who love the traditional Trek formula will have to decide whether or not they like this new Trek amalgamation or not.  But I can say for sure that this new Trek simply does not appeal to me.  Even the new Romulans look like something reworked and formulated to be the modern version of a bad guy.  Tattooed and looking like the ultimate galactic thug, the new Romulans look like caricatures of the Romulans I’ve come to know.  And so it’s hard for me to let go of the Trek I found familiar.  I’m just not ready to accept this new Trek. Maybe I’ll come around later.

So I’ve decided to take Captain Kirk’s advice from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, arguably the best Star Trek movie ever.  In the opening scene the cadets performing the Kobayashi Maru simulation destroy the bridge simulator.  Captain Kirk walks in, passes judgments, and dismisses the crew.  Before he walks away he tells Doctor McCoy that galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young.  And so too is the world of Star Trek.  Old farts like me need to step aside and let Star Trek morph into what it needs for the next generation.  It doesn’t have to appeal to me.  Trek will be fine without me.  I just need to face facts and realize that I’m not the target audience for this new era of Star Trek. Watching movies about people galloping around the cosmos is a game intended for the young.