Star Trek

Kristie and I went to the new Star Trek movie Friday night.

We both had read good reviews in Entertainment Weekly, which is usually a good sign. And the film surely didn't disappoint.

In fact, it was quite excellent.

It was an odd experience though. We were maybe the third couple in the small theater. But soon more arrived. However, we had to be the youngest couple there. That doesn't happen that often. I suppose all the younger viewers caught it the first few days when it came out in early May. So it was just left to the elder statesmen to catch it. At least there were no trekkies in attendance. It's bad enough that RLF was once home to the Klingon (not sure if I'm spelling that right) language festival. One of my former high school teachers was fluent in Klingon and helped host it. All I really recall of the nonsense was one night while I was jogging I saw a Jeep drive by with several people dressed as Klingons hanging all over it. Damn near gave me a heart attack. You just don't expect to see a Jeep full of people dressed up as alien monsters around 9 o clock in the evening in a town the size of RLF.

J.J. Abrams, the director, did a magnificent job choosing the cast. I thought the actors who played Kirk and Spock were excellent choices. In fact, the whole crew was great. The plot got a little confusing at points with the time travel element. But the action and suspense kept those finer plot details in the back of our minds.

I recall watching the Star Trek movies when I was younger, and they all were pretty disastrous. This, though, was what Star Trek should have looked like all along.

Things certainly have come a long way since the late '80s when I used to watch re-runs of the TV series Star Trek on old KVRR. Hey, there wasn't much else to watch given that we lived in the country and got roughly five channels. Mom and I spent quite a few late winter afternoons watching that series.

I think the one with the furry little Tribbles was our favorite.



The one where Kirk had to battle the lizard guy on a desert planet was pretty good too.



Of course, as Mom and I caught on, you never wanted to be the sorry no-name officer beamed down to a planet with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. You just knew that none of the named actors were going to get blasted by an enemy or gobbled up by some exotic alien species. But that poor unknown officer was doomed.

Watching the updated version has me feeling a bit nostalgic. I might just have to download a couple of those old Star Trek episodes from iTunes and watch them late in the afternoon this winter (which could be next week given how cold it has been).