Any Star Trek fans?

[D-Ball]

I hate Trekkies and Trekkers. I cannot stand the bastardized version of a television show that is so concerned with the setting. Costumes and aliens are for Star Wars and other such science fiction - which I do enjoy on occasion. This was about a philosophy of life and the human race growing out its infancy; what we could be versus what we are. It was literate, not just in terms of science, but also in the characters and situations that faced the members of this ship. It took the next logical step from the romanticism of the sea in literature. So when I ask ‘are you a Star Trek fan?’ I am not asking if you have attended conventions or what your favorite alien species is. I am asking, instead, did the show appeal to you on an emotional and intellectual level?

It did to me. I like Wrath of Khan; my favorite in the genre. It, at times, is over-acted, but I still felt a slowly visceral darkness that haunts the movie to the end. It is right on the target emotionally with where the film should be. Ricardo Maltoban (sp?) is a classic villain out for revenge. For the first time in the history of his character, we see Kirk question himself. His actions—Khan, Carole Marcus—have finally forced him to face the consequences. He has no purpose. And in the end, only in finding his son and losing his best friend does he find that purpose. Structurally, the stories are all relevant to the themes—the passage of time, the consequences of actions, needing and finding purpose, the many vs. the few, old vs. new, life and death as one force—nothing feels like a plot device to inject an emotion or to placate the fans of the show.

My least favorite of the genre? Anything made after 1996 -- First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis, Star Trek: Voyager, the last seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Enterprise (I watched it very little).

Nemesis is probably the best of those products, but it still feigns old story arcs (Data dying, B-4, marrying Troi and Riker with no real purpose, and Picard's growth), became clunky in its adventure (a chase scene lifted straight out of Star Wars, ramming into another ship?), and created a 2-dimensional villian in Shinzon that left me with the urge to spank him more than anything else. Every important scene in the movie was treated accordingly and the action waned otherwise. The mood is obvious, lacks the slow unwinding of something like Khan. That's not exactly high praise for being the best product in 10 years. The only way I could fully enjoy that movie is if I had never seen anything else up to that point.