Going boldly where no filmmaker has gone before
Beth Clothier
Issue date: 6/17/09 Section: Opinion
Most often when you think of Hollywood "re-imagining" something, you get a sour taste in your mouth and a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, not unlike a bad case of the flu.
These reworkings of classic films or television shows can range from alterations of the originals to capture the director's "true vision" (I'm looking at you, George Lucas) or something so far distant from the original that it can barely be called by the same name (the recent and utterly forgettable Bewitched).
However, such is not the case with the recent update of the classic TV show Star Trek.
I admit, when I heard a new Trek movie was being made, I had no interest in seeing it. Because of their almost iconic status in popular culture, it was hard to imagine the familiar characters played by new actors, thus I anticipated a parody, 120 minutes of a non-stop Shatner impression with pretty new faces and lots of big explosions. True, the faces are pretty and the explosions are big, but underneath the infinitely more believable effects and locations was much of the same interaction and ideals that initially made the show such a hit, with enough updating to draw in a whole new generation of fans and enough references to the original to give long-time Trekkies that little tingle you feel when you get the inside jokes.
From its inception Star Trek, created by the late Gene Roddenberry, was a show meant to do more than just entertain. It was meant to make its viewers think more critically about humanity, both in terms of its place and impact in the grand scheme of things as well as its flaws, social, political and otherwise. Kirk and Spock were great characters, but they were also the embodiment of their main virtues, emotion and logic, and their interaction and friendship was an in-the-flesh example of how these two qualities could balance one another and work together to make the best decisions and create a better future.
It was a future without mindless violence, without prejudices against creed and color, without greed and poverty. A future of advanced medicine, of diplomacy and of exploration without the intent to overpower and colonize, but rather to learn and experience and reach out beyond our own existence. A future where beehives and bouffants would somehow come back into fashion.
These reworkings of classic films or television shows can range from alterations of the originals to capture the director's "true vision" (I'm looking at you, George Lucas) or something so far distant from the original that it can barely be called by the same name (the recent and utterly forgettable Bewitched).
However, such is not the case with the recent update of the classic TV show Star Trek.
I admit, when I heard a new Trek movie was being made, I had no interest in seeing it. Because of their almost iconic status in popular culture, it was hard to imagine the familiar characters played by new actors, thus I anticipated a parody, 120 minutes of a non-stop Shatner impression with pretty new faces and lots of big explosions. True, the faces are pretty and the explosions are big, but underneath the infinitely more believable effects and locations was much of the same interaction and ideals that initially made the show such a hit, with enough updating to draw in a whole new generation of fans and enough references to the original to give long-time Trekkies that little tingle you feel when you get the inside jokes.
From its inception Star Trek, created by the late Gene Roddenberry, was a show meant to do more than just entertain. It was meant to make its viewers think more critically about humanity, both in terms of its place and impact in the grand scheme of things as well as its flaws, social, political and otherwise. Kirk and Spock were great characters, but they were also the embodiment of their main virtues, emotion and logic, and their interaction and friendship was an in-the-flesh example of how these two qualities could balance one another and work together to make the best decisions and create a better future.
It was a future without mindless violence, without prejudices against creed and color, without greed and poverty. A future of advanced medicine, of diplomacy and of exploration without the intent to overpower and colonize, but rather to learn and experience and reach out beyond our own existence. A future where beehives and bouffants would somehow come back into fashion.
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posted 6/26/09 @ 6:04 AM CST
Same with me when I heard a new Trek movie was being made, I had no interest in seeing it. Because of their almost iconic status in popular culture. this does not attract me as much. (Continued…)
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