A lot of conservatives think I'm beyond it because I quit watching the X-Men series because I believed they turned into an endless series of "coming out of the closet" sequences.
Probably the only thing remotely liberal was the "youth in rebellion" meme attached to Kirk. I saw the movie as being a little disjointed, and relying a little too much on coincidences (particularly ****SPOILER**** select the following to read it!!!!when Spock gets hacked at Kirk and has him shot off the ship and he ends up on a planet about a quarter mile from the Spock that went back in time.) Aside from that, the characterizations are good, and there are quite a few references back to TOS, without the show being a parody of the series.
The show is extremely apolitical. I think this was a conscious decision, as they desperately wanted a successful reboot. Patrick Stewart showed his remarkable sexual prowess by screwing the entire franchise in Nemesis (more suckage than any movie should be allowed to have) and they dumped most of the new age, a woman can be a starship captain, Ferangi (loosely based on the Jewish stereotype) are the EVIL capitalists, etc., etc.
It's fun, it's loud, the chicks are in short skirts again, there's no cursing or blatant nudity, Sulu comes across as straight.
Enjoy it and have fun.
Richard, that’s COOL! How did you do that little piece of fancy formatting that makes you “select to read the following”?
Regards,
I haven't seen this movie yet, but plan to.
I loved the old Star Trek, and the Next Generation. Voyager left me cold. But....
I'll duck because I know that what I am going to say next will get me flak:
The whole Star Trek premise, from its beginnings until now, was built on the idea a Socialist Utopia. Forget "one world government" -- this is "one universe government"!
The Federation is an intergalactic multi-world UN with military "teeth". No one in the Federation every talks about money, except the Ferengi and they are "greedy capitalists". No one comes from "a country", although main characters clearly had accents. Spock's "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few --or the one" is the antithesis of individual rights.
I've always been able to enjoy Star Trek purely as fantasy, because the life that they describe could never be -- it is a utopia. But I am not so sure that other people (especially kids) raised on it have been so unaffected.
Pushing 40 I grew up on those old series re-runs and always loved the JFK idealism of the show and the charachters as well as the subtle social commentary: “He’s black on the right side and I’m black on the left!”
In the last 3 decades I have remained loyal to the original series and tolerated some of the iterations better than others:
The Next Generation- “Welcome to Federation Cruises”
I pretty much ignored this while in college. The major problems I had with it was that it was too PC. Add a French Captain, A full time therapist, The Galaxy’s most sentient dildo (Data), a Handicapped Chief Engineer, an annoying bartender, Doogie Howser and the Ridiculous Plot Device (Hollow Deck)...I thought it sucked.
Every episode involved either some moral dilemma for one of the crew, The emotional growth of Robots or a dandy named Q. Every problem was solved by altering the ships engines to emit Tachyon particles or the power of debate.
Deep Space 9- “Hope you didn’t see Babylon 5”
Political intrigue and interpersonal conflict in outer space was never more boring. The major problems I had with it was that it just wasn’t Trek enough. Plot was almost entirely driven by conflcts between a Captain and his teenage son, a tackless doctor who has given mental steriods to keep up with his peers, a “shapeshifter” who can appear as the guy from “Benson” at will, a woman with freckles on her back and a parasite that gives her IBS and makes her incredibly interesting and a race of short, greedy loats named the Ferengewitzes.
Star Trek Voyager- “You’ve Come a Long Way, Janeway”
The mission of this crew is to Boldly go where everyone has been all along- nuff said. Major characers include: an annoying Hologram, a sexy Borg, a Chicana-Klingon with hair problems, A proud Tribal Leader who sheds a single tear whenever the crew throws anything away,a waif and her boyfriend, a part-time chef from the planet Pedophilia.
Star Trek Enterprise- “Vulcan Girls are Easy”
Should have been better. Forgettable charchters, Ship looked weird. No Robots.
The Movies- “Avoid odd numbered films”
First watch The Wrath of Khan and then watch The Wrath of Khan.
Full disclosure: I also nearly cried when Spoke died.
Star Trek 2009 was awesome!