As a techie I loved the new Star Trek movie, As a Trekkie I thought it was below par.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, lots of incredible special effects, pretty good story line, lots of beautiful people – everything a movie needs to succeed. But being a die hard Trekkie I thought it could have done much better. I get the alternative time line and all, as soon as Nero come through time and met Kirk’s father the correct time line had been polluted and with events as substantial as what happened there was no way for those events not to contaminate and distort the original time line. But we have become accustomed to a specific sequence of events and a already established timeline, to alter, or pollute, it now would force us to believe in something, in our time and lives, that is only theory, hard to compute. And if it were actually that different of a time line why did so many events still follow the course that the original time line followed? Part of who Jim Kirk was is based on who he was growing up, are we supposed to believe that growing up in the absence of his father allowed him become the youngest Captain in Star Fleet? Reaching Captain was not a feat he accomplished until he was 31 in the original timeline (OT from now on), and he was not the youngest when he did it, and his father was present when he received the command.

So what is this red matter anyway, without which, Nero would not have been so pissed at Ambassador Spock anyway? Some say that the volatility of red matter is liken to the theoretic properties of red mercury, a material whose properties are very troublesome -- and with good reason...that is, if this stuff is really as nasty as they say it is. References to red mercury began to appear in major Russian and western media sources in the late 1980s. The articles were never specific as to what exactly red mercury was, but nevertheless claimed it was of great importance and was used in the building of boosted fission weapons. I suspect red matter is a similar hoax. When you compare such a theoretical substance to say a Dyson Sphere (or shell as it appeared in the original paper) is a hypothetical mega-structure originally described by Freemon Dyson, it does not hold up. He postulated a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar powered satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the long-term survival and escalating energy needs of a technological civilization, and proposed that searching for evidence of the existence of such structures might lead to the detection of advanced intelligent extraterrestrial life. A Dyson Shpere is at least based in scientific theory, not tabloid speculation. Even the ancient Hirogen communication grid, which included a great number of arrays all built around quantum singularities was at least somewhat believable.

I remember speculating with Bride the day before watching the movie that it may be somewhat weird, the first of 11 movies where we do not know and have not seen these actors playing Star Trek characters from one of the five television series. No William Shatner, no Brent Spiner, no Kate Mulgrew, no Michael Dorn, and certainly no Lenard Nimoy, sure these new folks would be playing characters we knew but we would not have come to know them over time and did not have any idea how the actors and actresses would inhabit the characters. I was not sure how that was going to work, part of the joy that comes from a Trek Movie is that familiarity, at least for me. Someone let it slip right before I got to see the movie that Lenard Nimoy had a cameo, at first I thought OK time travel it is possible. I was stunned on how much it appeared they leaned on Nimoy, the whole story seemed pinned to the old Spock and I thought they could have done better so I was disappointed in that regard. Another thing I found strangely insulting was the continuous use of the lingo from the original series. I understand these folks are playing the same characters but it seemed odd to hear someone playing a young Doctor McCoy saying damn it Jim. I also did not like hearing Lenard Nimoy referencing back through the movies for comments – I am, and always will be your friend from the Wrath of Khan for example cheapened it for me. This was an opportunity to start a new franchise, which I have been waiting for since the “Enterprise” came on television, not even Scott Bakula playing Jonathan Archer could save that terribly written mess. I had pinned my hopes on a collapsing star. I was seriously bummed because I loved Quantum Leap.

I am not sure what I expected when I went to see the movie and in some ways I wish I did not know what Sto-vo-kor was and who went there when the died or who guarded it sacred halls. I wish I did not know who the Jem’Hadar are or know who they were slaves too, or why the Jem'Hadar attacked through the wormhole and I wish I did not understand why ketracel-white was important to them. I wish I did not know of the temporal cold war or the mysterious entity from the 27th century who used the Cabal, a group of genetically upgraded Suliban, to manipulate the timeline and change past events. I wish I knew nothing of the Continuum or the omnipotent beings who called it home. I wish I knew nothing of Tom Parris’s fascination with old hot rods or anything about the hot headedness of B'Elanna Torres. I wish I had never heard of Shakari or Sarek or know that the fal-tor-pan is a risky ceremony. I wish there was no formula for clear aluminum and I wish Dr. Tolian Soran was never born or at least never got ripped from the Nexis. I wish I did not even know what a Reman Praetor was let alone that when Shinzon held the post he was actually the product of a failed experiment using cloning technology. I know the episode, Plato’s Stepchildren had the ground breaking first interracial kiss ever on television, it was between Jim Kirk and Nyota Uhura so to see her and Spock sucking face in this movie was disconcerting for me. I so wish I did not know any of those things, but I do and so do lots of loyal Trekkie’s.

So how do we die-hards address the inconsistencies of the new movie? We don’t, maybe our day has past, maybe this is a movie series for a new demographic, maybe we true Trek fans no longer fall into the category of “desired demographic” and we are being replaced by a younger more affluent group. I am not sure how they can go back to the original timeline with the next movie, don’t they know the reason for the success of the franchise is based on the extreme attention to detail and ensuring they follow the original story lines, something that will now be hard to go back to. If this new time line (story line) is allowed to continue it invalidates everything else we already know about Star Trek.

Who knows for sure where this odyssey will take us?

I did really enjoy my first IMAX movie and overall I did enjoy the movie, being a Trekkie just made it harder for me.