J.A. Fludd
The nouveau Star Trek of JJ Abrams. I will confess that the first time I saw the 2009 film I applauded at the end. I think in hindsight I was applauding the energy of the thing more than anything else. As reboots go, this was certainly an energetic piece of work. Then, as it sometimes happens with a given movie, I had some time to think about it. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized…no, this flick was not quite “it”.
Now the problem wasn’t the cast. They could not have found better avatars for the roles of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, et al. But the characterizations, I realized, were a bit troubling. Kirk hitting on Uhura? Spock SLEEPING with Uhura–when it wasn’t even his Pon Farr? Really?
And the problem wasn’t the production–it was unquestionably a beautiful *looking* film. Well, there was an issue about the new Engineering section of the ship, which looked like (and was apparently shot in) a brewery. Seriously? Who was teaching Engineering at Starfleet Academy now–Samuel Adams? And who the hell was this little alien character running around behind Scotty supposed to be? And did they really need to destroy the planet Vulcan and kill off Amanda, Spock’s mother?
The more I thought about it, I realized that even that “energy” that I applauded was problematical. And therein lay the heart of the problem: for the nouveau Star Trek SAID it was about exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, and boldly going where no man/one had gone before. But what it appeared to be about was chases and fights and battles and explosions. I’m not saying there was never any of that in the Star Trek of Gene Roddenberry and the shows and films extended from it, but Star Trek was always about science, and intelligence, and compassion, and friendship, and a curiosity about the mysterious and unknown things in the universe. And a certain pleasure in the differences between different beings and different forms of life. I wasn’t getting any of that from this nouveau Star Trek.
What I was watching, I began to understand, was the result of following not the vision of Gene Roddenberry, but the vision of marketing. What had been done to Star Trek, I realized, was something that marketing gurus would describe as “repositioning Star Trek as an action-movie franchise for the 18-49 demographic.” This thing that Abrams had done had Star Trek characters in it, and Star Trek ideas in it, and it bore a very superficial resemblance to the universe of Star Trek. But it was not built on Star Trek thinking. What I was seeing, I finally understood, was not actually Star Trek. It was “The Faster Than Light and the Furious.”
It reminded me a bit of the “Spam” sketch in Monty Pythons’s Flying Circus. “Well, it’s still got a LITTLE Star Trek in it…” But no…this wasn’t really quite “it.” And from what I’ve been reading about Discovery–and judging by that one episode that was on CBS–that show may or may not be quite “it,” either. I don’t know; I really have not sat down with Discovery for a proper watch yet. I will tell you, though, that I am right now about five episodes into The Orville by (and starring) Seth McFarlane, and in spite of its frat boy sense of humor, it has begun to resemble Star Trek more than the things they call Star Trek do lately.
Well, there’s still the upcoming Picard series. Perhaps I may yet find a bit of Star Trek there.
