Ooo... Sci-Fi-y...

This may come as a bit of a surprise to you folks, but Mustafa and I are fans of the Star Trek franchise. Yes, yes, it's shocking, I know. But Star Trek has been around nearly as long as we have. It's been a constant in our lives. Given our love of all things nerdish and sci-fi, it's no wonder we're fans. TV shows? Seen 'em. Movies? Watched 'em. Books? Read 'em. Comics? Got 'em. Games? Played 'em. Models? Built 'em. Yeah. We're trekkies. When the movie franchise was started in 1979, it was a new era for us. When The Next Generation started in 1987, it meant a weekly fix of entirely new Trek. But the saturation of Trek on TVs and in the theaters was a bit much, even for us. Suddenly, the question of whether Star Trek was even relevant became an uncomfortable question in our lives. A question we really didn't want to answer.

Chris Pine as James Tiberius Kirk

When Enterprise went off the air in 2005, it marked the first time in 18 years that there was no new Trek in our lives. And honestly, we really didn't miss it. Even the most hardcore fans can get burned out. When news of a new movie with an entirely new cast playing the original characters was announced, we got excited. It was a chance to inject new life into a tired old franchise. With J.J. Abrams directing, we knew that at the very least, it would be competently directed, and at best stood a very good chance of being so kick-ass it might actually collapse in on itself into a black hole of awesomeness. But most likely somewhere in between.

Zachary Quinto as Spock

It takes a lot to get me into a movie theater. The hassle of the crowds and the noise and the rude patrons have turned me off from movie-going. But this definitely was worth the trouble. Mustafa and I ended up seeing it not once, but three times. The first time we watched it, we were so excited, we could barely contain ourselves. The second time allowed us to see a lot of what we missed the first time because we were geeking out so much. The third time allowed us to really enjoy the performances of the new cast, to see what they took from their predecessors, and that they brought to their roles on their own.

Karl Urban as Leonard "Bones" McCoy

The first thing we noticed was the music by Michael Giacchino. We became fans of his movie scoring after enjoying The Incredibles. His clever, swinging soundtrack was gorgeous. For Star Trek, he borrowed Alexander Courage's iconic theme, but then he added his own ideas and themes to make a soundtrack that thrills nearly as much as the movie itself. The movie's plot is fairly straight-forward. An elderly Spock, still living on Romulus and working towards Vulcan/Romulan reunification, learns that the Romulan sun is becoming unstable and threatens to turn into a nova and destroy the planet. He attempts to fix it but fails, and Romulus is destroyed. The shockwave reacts with Spock's ship, sending it and a huge Romulan mining ship back into the past. The mining ship arrives first, in fact arriving on the day of Kirk's birth. It then waits for decades for Spock's ship to arrive, to exact revenge for the loss of their home-world.

Zoe Saldana as Uhura

All of this is preamble and backdrop for the main focus of the story, which is following Kirk's entry into Starfleet Academy, and the various characters as they slowly form the nucleus of the show's core. Because of the direct impact the time-traveling Romulan ship has on Kirk's life, he grows up much differently. Instead of the gung-ho officer we know, he grows up a punk without a direction in life. Highly intelligent, self-assured to the point of arrogance, but unmotivated and listless. Then the captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike finds him in a bar after a brawl. He goads Kirk into joining Star Fleet, telling him "Your father was captain of a star ship for 12 minutes, and he saved 800 people's lives. Including yours. I dare you to do better." He is alluding to the first 8 minutes of the film, an emotionally-charged roller-coaster that will hit you like a sucker-punch to the gut.

Simon Pegg as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott

The most clever thing about the time-travel element of the movie is that it changes the history of the characters, and therefore the show. All the talk of "canon" and continuity can be tossed out the window. The franchise is free to go in any direction they want, now. This is especially important since we have an entirely new cast to portray the characters. Abrams allowed the actors to play their roles as they saw fit. They could take as much or as little from their predecessors as they wished. That doesn't mean these are entirely new characterizations. Kirk is still Kirk. But now it's Chris Pine's Kirk, not William Shatner's. Pine does not speak with Kirk's well-known disjointed delivery. But it's clear he's based a large part of his characterization on Shatner's performances. He's very confident and completely in charge. There are moments, such as walking on the bridge, that seem very Shatnerish. It's the ability to walk into a room and command the attention of everyone there. That's what makes his Kirk so successful.

John Cho as Hikaru Sulu

Zachary Quinto as Spock hews close to Leonard Nimoy's performances. Like Kirk, Spock is a character with total confidence in himself. Like Nimoy, he portrays extraordinary depth of emotion without looking like he's emotional in the least. When he does allow those emotions to show through the cracks in his armor, it's powerful and shocking. The chemistry between Kirk and Spock is still there, but in a new combination that adds life to the duo. This Spock and Kirk aren't close friends, more like adversaries who respect each other. It's fresh and it's fun, just like the original characters.

Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov

The supporting cast is equally impressive. Of all the actors, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy is the one whose performance most closely mimic's his predecessor's. His McCoy is crusty, charming, wise and just a little stressed out. Zoe Saldana as Uhura brings Nichelle Nichols' considerable dignity to the role. She's a more integral part of the bridge crew as an exolinguist rather than a glorified telephone operator. While it has nothing to do with her acting, it's worth noting that Saldana is every bit as beautiful as Nichols, as well. John Cho plays Sulu with all the charm of George Takei. He's also a master swordsman, getting to take part in one of the more exciting action sequences in the film. Anton Yelchin is a Russian-born actor playing the 17-year-old Chekov, a mathematical genius. He keeps Chekov's tendency to replace "v"s with "w"s, and shows great eagerness to be a member of the crew.

Eric Bana as Nero

Honestly, all these actors were new to me. I'd never seen them in anything before. So it was great to see a bunch of new (to me) actors jump into these characters I've known for 40+ years. The only actor I was familiar with was Simon Pegg as Scotty. I've seen Pegg in the movie Hot Fuzz and the tv series Spaced. In the first, he was the best, most dedicated police officer in London. In the second, he played a slacker comic-book shop employee and occasional artist. Both were great performances and terrific fun. So I was very intrigued to see his Scotty. He takes almost nothing from James Doohan's performance, other than the Scottish accent and a sense of humor. When his Scotty breaks a tense moment on the ship by shouting "I like this ship! It's fun!", that's when I fell in love with his performance. He was the only actor who didn't audition. Abrams invited him, and he agreed. Pegg's wife is Scottish, so she helped him with his accent, which he tried to portray as a bit East Coast. In one of the show's great ironies, Pegg's character in Spaced claimed that every odd-numbered Star Trek movie being shit was a fact of life. Pegg says he was cast in the eleventh Star Trek film "to show me I was talking out of my ass."

The new Enterprise

Of course every action movie needs a great bad guy, and Eric Bana as Nero, the Romulan set on destroying Vulcan and Earth to satisfy his thirst for revenge, is just what the movie needed. His Nero is driven, focused and frightening. There are other excellent performances, such as Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike. Surprisingly, he was the character that anchored the film, providing the adult presence in the cast of mostly youngsters. And then there is Leonard Nimoy himself as the elder Spock. He exudes grace, charm and dignity, as well as enormous pain for failing to save Romulus.

Look forward to more of this

Abrams was not particularly a fan of the show. That's probably why he was able to make such a good Star Trek movie. He wasn't saddled with hidebound canon and continuity. That doesn't mean he didn't observe certain conventions. A red-shirt dies. Kirk makes it with a green-skinned alien. Kirk gets in no less than five fist-fights. Spock and McCoy bicker. It's all the stuff we fans love. But rather than make a good Star Trek movie, Abrams made a good movie. There were one or two plot holes, but it's the sort of stuff you can forgive, because the film provides fun for old fans and non-fans alike. The Star Trek world is much different with the release of this movie. The franchise is boldly going where no Star Trek movie or TV series has gone before. More importantly, Star Trek is relevant again. And that's a good thing.