For example, the viewer is introduced to a young bullied Spock, who quickly retaliates with violence against his cheeky schoolmates. Later, just past the mid point of the movie, Spock and Kirk argue over tactics… to rendezvous with the fleet or chase after Nero. The fight could have been resolved with Spock acting in a logical manner (he was raised as a Vulcan after all) and having Kirk placed in the brig for insubordination. But instead, Spock acts from anger, and displaces Kirk to an ice world where Kirk may very well have died. So in ignoring the brig option, Spock not only looks incompetent as a Commander, but has devolved from a punk to an immoral officer willing to strand and abandon a fellow officer, at the potential consequence of that officer dying. Spock further makes the crew of the Enterprise look immoral for complying with this asinine decision. At the film’s climax, Spock completes his transformation to an all out psychopath when he objects to Kirk offering Nero aid.

The same could be argued for Kirk, whose arc can be summed up in the climax. He only offered to help Nero, not because he actually made any progression, but because he thought it would please Spock (are they gay in this universe?). As soon as Spock objected, Kirk was only too happy to unload torpedoes on Nero’s vessel, which was already being destroyed by the black hole. Instead of wasting resources, Kirk should’ve ordered the Enterprise to a safe position before the black hole’s gravitational attraction became too great. But that would be too logical for these morally lacking and logically impaired characters. And so as predicted, the Enterprise nearly gets sucked into a black hole, because Kirk would rather eat an apple and make hand gestures than perform a remotely logical action.

In the end, Kirk and Spock learn that they can combine their destructive talents to be an even greater destructive force in the galaxy. Is that Star Trek? Is this suppose to be the mirror universe from “Mirror, Mirror”? Despite Nero’s shallow motivations, I can’t help but find him the most relatable character in the whole movie for wanting everyone and everything in this new universe dead. It was as if he realized his alterations to the time line altered the cosmological constant to retarded.

Abrams’ movie was written for a shallow audience with ADD, and is depressing for portraying a future closer to that of “Idiocracy” than staying true to the philosophy of Gene Roddenberry.

From a writer’s standpoint, this is fantastic. In connecting the old to the new, opportunity abounds to write other – possibly even better – interactions with characters we have known and enjoyed. This is a *continuation* of what has gone before not a negation. There is a wide vista of Trek to draw from, to see what might have been. Regarding Khan and the Whales, as Kirk said about the glasses McCoy had given him – “The beauty of it is that they will be again.”

It is a writer’s dream (and a lot of fan-fiction authors are already jumping on that bandwagon). What wonderful opportunities for them and us (as fans/writers/viewers). Because Spock’s arrogant mistake has ‘rebooted’ the universe, Spock himself is continuing to manipulate the time-stream. He thought he could control something uncontrollable and as a result he set in motion a series of events that would negate everything he had known. How mind-blowing for him. He feels he must make it right – what perfectly fallible character wouldn’t – so after insisting that Kirk must be Captain he makes sure to get Scotty back to the ship as Engineer. What else might he try to accomplish? I would not count out such a significant character’s influence on the future installments of the franchise and you can bet JJ Abrams isn’t either. The story isn’t over yet, it has barely begun.

Old characters are not gone, nor all their back stories destroyed. Kirk’s history was changed and all the lives he touched, yes, as was Spock’s. Yet there were others who are as yet untouched, like Khan. He’s out there, waiting to be found all over again. How will the Spock who knows this deal with it now that he is living in his own past? It is all in Spock’s head and he refuses to forget! How will the alternate reality Kirk deal with Khan – if the writers choose to go there? “There are always possibilities,” someone said – remember? And “more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Star Trek has always been about characters in a fictional setting based on science. Science has always been another of my loves. I don’t have the talent for it, though, so I married a scientist instead. Clever of me, don’t you think? The wonderful thing about Abrams version of Star Trek (and I submit that it IS Star Trek through and through despite what I will call the little discrepancies Siri, Paul and Athena have noted) is that the characters hold true to the heart and soul of Roddenberry’s vision when he was sitting in his back yard as a child imagining the adventures of Christopher Pike. The Enterprise herself is a character and a marvelous one! Like her captains, I loved the ship as much as I loved her crew.

The Ship’s construction began on Earth, not in space, in the heads of Roddenberry’s made up scientists. The wonder of a show that was science based fiction is that as more science was learned, more science was employed. When Gene was a boy, there was much less factual information available to him for the creation of his “Fleet”. As he began the production of the show, there was more, but still far less than is available to a man like Abrams today. A ship that large, while the nearly finished product was indeed shown in space dock in the movie, is still not too large for parts of it to be built planet-side. THAT is the marvel of Star Trek, to adapt, to innovate.

Kirk was never one for conformity – this was made clear many times in the Original Series. With the radical changes in background that Abrams has introduced, he is that maverick magnified and it is utterly fantastic. I love the new life that has been breathed into the old franchise – but more than that, I am very satisfied how Abrams (a fan like me) has been able to stay true to the essence, the very soul of the Original and the scientific mind and adaptation of the characters of Star Trek.

In this version, humanity still fights it’s own baser nature. Let me remind Athena that the Federation always thought too highly of itself. For Gene it was a writer’s platform for social engineering. He was very active politically. The Federation was made up of “good Americans” trying to spread their politics to other worlds with the Prime Directive overlaying their actions in an almost always failed attempt at non-interference. Non-interference is essentially impossible once you’ve actually made contact. You’ve changed the people you’ve met just by meeting them! The viewpoints of the various alien characters throughout the Original Series show this.

The Original Series dealt largely in a reactionary way to the issues of the Vietnam War (which had polarized a nation) with the notion of a Utopian State – the Federation. Which was a fallacy even within that constructed universe because there were people within the United Federation of Planets who did not agree with what their leaders were doing. This is how it was in the ’60s. Johnson and his Social Experiment was not agreed with by all but at the time it was believed by its creators that “if you experienced it, you’d get on board with the idea.” This is what the Federation was doing throughout the quadrant and Gene as the creator of it was very good at showing the political side. Abrams is effectively carrying this through in the new Star Trek and he has intimately connected it with the old. Regardless of whether JJ is trying to make a political statement with his film (I think there are many within the context of the story, btw) or just have fun, it is writing at its best and it is most certainly Star Trek.

On that note, it’s why I love my new obsession: H2O. I know, it’s a teen show but I love how each character has a flaw. In particular, I like the dynamic of Zane and Rikki. Zane is just crazy about Rikki. However, he can’t seem to do anything right but he’s trying. Though he has questionable morals, there’s something about them that makes me want to root for them.

Also the live action of Sailor Moon. Once you get past the costume changes (that turns a lot of people off), it rips my heart to see Mamoru and Usagi fall in love–but they can’t be together. If they did, the world is going to end. I was rooting for these star crossed lovers who can’t seem to get a break. All they want is to be together but it seems like destiny keeps on pulling them apart.

Love The Fifth Element! What a wild movie.

Having said all that, the character arcs and action (and, well, what Kristen said) pulled me along while I was watching it — I didn’t think of most of my objections until afterward. My main problem during the movie was trying to accept new actors in the familiar old roles.