When they said “reboot” they weren’t kidding. This basically flips the Star Trek mythology on it’s ears and pushes it in a whole new direction. The way they do that is thanks to the old Star Trek friend – time travel.
Star Trek has always had a pretty cozy relationship with time travel. And I always appreciated the way the Next Generation handled it in particular. After the cancellation of the most recent Star Trek television series and the less than spectacular performance of the last Star Trek movie 7 years ago, many considered the franchise to be dead. The Next Generation cast wasn’t getting any younger and the Original Series cast is dying off slowly. And without a bankable new television show, where could it go? Well time travel can solve everything.
Technically this is a sequel to the last movie, Star Trek: Nemesis. But by sending some of the characters back in time, the Original Series characters are spun off into an alternate reality. They even go as far as to say that “this is a new alternate reality” rather explicitly in the film. Basically all bets are off now because this new cast is free from the past mythology, which has now been made irrelevant.
Is this a good thing? Ultimately it’s a good thing for the franchise. The new cast is good, it’s got action, it’s got humor, it’s an enjoyable movie with some style. But I can see Star Trek purists not being into this. And my personal preference was always for the Next Generation, which was already very different from the Original Series, and is very different from this cast. However, judging this separately from the rest of Star Trek, this is a very enjoyable movie. The goal here is to win over new fans and I think this Star Trek will do that. It’s a much better fit for our current culture than the previous films and much more inviting to non-Trekkers.
If you like Sci-fi, you’ll like this movie. If you are a Star Trek fan, watch this with fresh eyes. It’s a bold step and I think it pays off.
