More Geekery

Since Watchmen opens tomorrow, I think it's time we move on to 2009's other big geek movie, Star Trek.

J.J. Abrams ("Lost;" Mission Impossible:3; "Fringe;" Cloverfield) directs a big budget re-boot of the Paramount franchise with this origin story of James T. Kirk, Spock, Ohuru, Scotty, McCoy, Chekov and Sulu and how they came to be shipmates aboard the starship Enterprise.

I was not exactly a fan of the original series. I certainly knew it existed, but I was never one to be caught up in the hype. That is until the series' big screen debut in 1979. As bad and boring as the original movie may have been, it inspired a series of alternately brilliant (The Wrath of Khan) and lame (The Final Frontier) movies, as well as four additional TV series. What hath Roddenerry wrought? If nothing else, a racially inclusive Sci-Fi franchise which not only featured network TV's first interracial kiss, but a starting point for today's scientists, who created (and are still envisioning) many of the modern electronic conveniences we take for granted today. Do you own a flip-phone cell phone? You can thank "Star Trek" for it.

I, for one, am excited to see Abrams' interpretation, starring Chris Pine and "Heroes'" Zachary Quinto, as well as Winona Ryder and Eric Bana. And especially so after having seen the latest trailer:

Though I seriously doubt anything could ever match this moment from The Wrath of Khan.

On a side note, a science teacher at my high school was invited to attend the 1979 premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I never got to talk to her about the movie, and while I don't know if she is even alive today, I hope that she is looking forward to the reboot as much as I am, even if it's only as a movie fan.

More, anon.

Prospero