Star Trek Babies Vs. the Hard Rock Romulans

Seriously, they’ve got shaved heads, tattooed faces, and they wear Army green bomber jackets. These Romulans are effin’ metal.

I just returned for an unhoped-for opportunity to see Star Trek before its ostensible opening day tomorrow. Being a huge Star Trek nerd for as long as I can remember, I’ve been looking forward to this movie with an uncomfortable mix of excitement and trepidation for well over a year, and while I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, it was definitely not what I expected.

What I expected, at the least, was a sort of analog of the recent superhero movies: an introduction to the characters, against an impending calamity that introduces them to each other. This it was, right down to John Cho as the slightly less baritone but kickass younger version of Sulu. Also on par with my expectations, and awesome, was the look and feel of the film. Unlike the six movies starring the original cast, much of the visual and sound design was clearly inspired directly by the original TV show. That, and the ludicrous hand-to-hand fight scenes.

As much as the film was true to the source material, however, it mangled up canon in an enormous way. I won’t say much more about it, because if you care enough to be reading this post, you’ll be seeing the movie anyway, but trust me. J.J. Abrams and the lot mean a lot more than you think when they call this a “franchise reboot.”

Lest I confuse, I loved the movie, and I’ll likely be seeing it again. Having said that, I wouldn’t be a true fanboy if I didn’t rant for a while about some minor glaring inconsistencies with canon and reality for a few paragraphs. You’ve been warned!

First off, I wonder if I’m alone in thinking that Spock’s dialogue was a bit wooden. Of course Spock has always spoken in a formal manner, but with precision and a characteristic distinction. Either this was missing with Quinto’s Spock, or I’m just not used to the new voice and I want to make more of it than that.

Next, red supergiants go supernova. Big, big stars that have already depleted their fuel. Not pristine, yellow stars in the primes of their lives.

Third, what in the heck is an “inert reactant?” Didn’t anybody tell the set designers that that’s an oxymoron?

Fourth, I don’t know the requisite mathematics, but I would think that a black hole massive enough to devour an Earth-sized planet in under a minute would have a larger event horizon than the one in the movie. But I could be wrong.

And lastly, what’s with that thing that hangs around Scotty?

That’s enough for now. I’ll probably pick up more things to bore you with when I see it again, as I inevitably must. Let’s hope the next one has them boldly going where no one had gone before Picard came along.

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George Takei is awesome

I don’t know why I never knew how awesome George Takei is before. I’ve always been a Star Trek fan, and Sulu’s always been high on my list of favorite characters (not least for his bit in the epised “The Naked Time,” in which he storms the bridge shirtless and brandishing a foil.) For that reason, I’d always suspected George Takei is awesome, but I never learned the true extent of his awesomeness until yesterday. Let me try to break it down for you.

1. His father named him after King George VI. That’s awesome.
2. He spent much of his childhood in a Japanese American internment camp. That isn’t awesome, of course, but despite the fact that such an experiment would make most people bitter and angry at the United States, Mr. Takei and his family continued to participate in public policy after they were released. George himself served as student council president in junior high, and later served for eleven years on the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit Direct. That is awesome.
3. He recently announced that he will be marrying his partner in September. George Takei has long been active in fighting for gay rights, and now that California has acknowledged the right for gay people to get married, he will be able to enjoy some of those hard-won rights by marrying his boyfriend, Brad Altman. That’s awesome.

If you still doubt that George Takei is awesome, check out the Wikipedia article in his name, and his official website. Also check out this humorous public service announcement, clearly from a comedy variety show, though my efforts to find out which have been thwarted.

You can’t tell me that isn’t awesome.