Star Trek: 100% Fresh!

The early reviews are only just starting to come in, but just couldn't resist the current reading of the "Tomatometer" over at Rottentomatoes.com (the best place to check film reviews before spending the cash) for the new Star Trek film, coming out May 7 in a theatre near you.

You can read the early reviews here. In case you missed it, here's an official trailer:



And here's the international trailer:



And here's a great early-release scene of Kirk's first meeting of "Bones" McCoy:



And here's another clip, of a not-so-happy meeting of Kirk and Spock:



Yes, it's true. I've been a Trekker since I was six, or maybe seven. Actually, I was banned from watching Star Trek after my grandmother (who was the first Trekker in the family and actually, years later when she was eighty, went with me to a Star Trek Convention, but that's another story) let me stay up when I was either six (on November 10, 1967) or when I was seven (July 19, 1968) when I was visiting her "in the country" of Buckingham County, Virginia - I'm not sure which date (and will need to consult The Papasan) -- anyway, she let me stay up with her to watch the original episode of Star Trek Classic called Metamorphosis. I enjoyed it very much, or I thought I did. Unfortunately, it appears I had a terrible nightmare that same night that was based on that episode - which I still remember to this day (the nightmare and the episode) and so was banned by my mother from watching Star Trek again until it went into syndication, showing in reruns every afternoon starting in 1970 (and apparently continues in reruns to this day).

From 1970 on I became a Trekker. I had a brief disillusionment some time after Season One of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which included even walking out of a Star Trek Convention during a speech by Gene Roddenberry. But half-way through Season Three of The Next Generation my brother, The Methodist, talked me into giving it another chance (turns out Gene Roddenberry had been fired and Michael Piller brought in) and so I dove right back in. In fact, the first episode I watched that season was Yesterday's Enterprise. That was that, I was back in!

I tracked the other series that have come along as well (Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise) - though not quite as enthusiastically as Classic and The Next Generation. My uncle loaned me DVDs to watch the rest of the series Enterprise, which apparently picked up a bit before it got cancelled (my favorite thing about that series, quite frankly, were the opening credits). I felt that these other three series suffered from the miscasting of the COs - but that can happen in real life, too. I've collected all the films and some are even on my iPod, as are favorite episodes of Classic Trek (including Miri, Naked Time, and the best episode of them all - The City on the Edge of Forever).

But Star Trek has sort of faded away over the years (killing off Data in the last Next Generation film Nemesis was so not cool), only now to be rediscovered with the release of this new film simply called Star Trek. The "grownups" who will go see this film in May will be the children who first discovered Star Trek, and the children today will rediscover what is still a character-driven series, or as Roddenberry himself described, a "Wagon-Train to the stars."

UPDATE: You can watch a selection of Star Trek Classic episodes anytime online at the CBS Video Gallery - for free! This one, the Man Trap, was probably another episode banned in our household until afternoon syndication. Here's Balance of Terror, another favorite episode - and other ones, including Miri are included. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah ...