I was recurited to write for Gear Live by an old friend of mine.  Gear Live was starting a section on comic books and they needed writers.  As I searched for things to write about, I began writing about things such as Star Trek that although were not comic books, they did fit in to the genre of geek stuff that we all know and love.  After talking things over with Andru Edwards who runs things here at Gear Live, it was decided that I should post my review of the new Star Trek film over at the movie section of Gear Live which is called Film Crunch.  You can read my review here.

My review was pretty general and I didn’t go into any details.  I decided to write about those details and give my opinion about them here.  I also want to go into the current state of the Star Trek universe and what the future may hold.  If you’ve read my review or already seen the film, you know that from here on out things will be different in the world of Star Trek.  Lets begin….............

Spoilers!!!! If you haven’t seen the movie, go no further as I am about to talk about everything!

Okay. Spock and Uhura are dating! Vulcan has been destroyed! Spock’s mother is dead! These are probably the three biggest changes that were made in the new Star Trek film by JJ Abrams. As mentioned in the film and if you read the official comic book prequel “Countdown,” you know that Romulus was in danger of being destroyed. Spock warned everyone, but like Jor-El in the origin of Superman, no one believed him until it was too late. Romulus was destroyed and at the end of the “Countdown” series both Nero, his ship, and Spock disappeared. Both traveled through time with Nero arriving further back in the past than Spock. (Nero spends the next 25 years waiting for the arrival of Spock.) The beginning of the film shows Nero’s arrival and its attack on the USS Kelvin. The starships first officer is George Kirk, James Kirk’s father.

The Kelvin’s captain is killed by Nero. Nero’s ship is too powerful for the Kelvin and all hands abandon ship. First Officer Kirk makes the decision to stay on board and steer the disabled Kelvin into Nero’s ship as it is unable to do so on auto pilot. A moving scene takes place with Kirk saying goodbye to his wife who is on one of the shuttles as she gives birth to his son James Kirk. As a father of two boys (my eldest is named James), this was an emotional scene for me as I could only imagine the type hardship a father would go through there. This incident with the Kelvin however sets off the chain reaction that completely changes the Star Trek timeline from here on out.

According to Star Trek canon, Jim Kirk didn’t simply go straight to the Enterprise after Starfleet. As referenced in various episodes of the original Star Trek series (TOS), Kirk served aboard some ships prior to assuming command of the Enterprise. Jim Kirk served on board the USS Republic and on the USS Farragut. In the film, all of that has now been erased. Kirk spends three years in Starfleet Academy along with McCoy and Uhura. When a distress signal comes from Vulcan Starfleet “promotes” the academy cadets and assigns them to various ships. Kirk is under suspension for cheating on the Kobayashi Maru and is not given an assignment. He is however smuggled on board the Enterprise by McCoy.  Where by the end of the film he is the new captain of the Enterprise.

So this is now the new origin of Kirk and his rise to captain of the Enterprise. Also, new to the canon of Star Trek is the destruction of Vulcan. Nero wants revenge because he blames the elder Spock for the destruction of Romulus. He returns the favor and destroys Vulcan. Billions of Vulcan inhabitants are now dead including Spock’s human mother who fell to her death just before she can be beamed to safety aboard the Enterprise. This was a pretty ballsy on the part of JJ Abrams and his writers. As I mentioned in my review, the world of Star Trek was in a crisis prior to this movie as the last two films failed and the TV series “Enterprise” failed as well. In order to resurrect Star Trek in this film, big things needed to be done and changing the timeline and killing off billions of Vulcans is big.

An interesting change in continuity that threw me for a loop was the pairing of Spock and Uhura. When Vulcan is destroyed and his mother is killed, Uhura follows Spock into the turbolift to comfort him - then she kissed him!  Whoa!  I like this change. It kind of reminds me of the pairing of Troi and Worf in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG). It was unexpected and worked well. I wish they would have kept them together instead of putting Troi with Riker back together. Zoe Saldana does a great job as the new Uhura. She’s able to play the character with much more strength and itelligence than Nichelle Nichols was able to do so in the 60s.  I hope they give her more to do in the next film.

Another surprise is the character of the old Spock being able to stay around. With the future changed, Spock decides to stay in the past and help the few remaining Vulcans who are still alive rebuild their society on a new homeworld. Which means the old Spock could very well still return for the next movie and with the timeline altered so could William Shatner as Kirk. I doubt they do this though. I think since they have this new cast of characters, it’s time to move on with them and leave the old guard behind. What could they do for the next film?

Well since this would be a new “Star Trek II,” how about a new Khan? That would be pretty wild. A new updated version of the old “Space Seed” episode for the big screen. Khan was supposed to be a Sikh from India so maybe Abrams can get his old buddy Naveen Andrews aka Sayid of “LOST’ to play the new Khan. Andrews is of Indian descent and is also a great actor. That would be very cool.

So what does the future hold for Star Trek besides more movies? What about a new television series? A new version of TNG with new actors and a new timeline to work with. The possibilities are endless. So although I feel a bit sad to see the old timeline go, the new one has a lot of promise and we should be able to more Star Trek for many years to come.