The Final Frontier

Space...the final frontier..these are the voyages of the starship Enterprise...What is it about those words that always make my geek heart pump faster? Some of it is nostalgia from childhood...I loved watching Star Trek after school. But Star Trek continues to be a regular part of my television viewing (thanks to DVD's). While the original series is the standard bearer, my absolute fave Trek incarnation is Deep Space Nine. But I watch them all (and enjoy some more than others...I'm looking at you Enterprise and *yawn* Voyager). But it was Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the whole cast of the original Star Trek that opened up my young mind to explore new worlds and civilizations.So imagine my delight when this picture ya see here in this post made its debut on the net yesterday....it's the first sneak peak of the Enterprise from the new J.J. Abrams Trek film coming to theaters this Xmas. She looks fantastic.

The teaser trailer to Abrams film, titled simply "Star Trek" hits theaters today with the Abrams directed Cloverfield. We don't see much...a shot of a man wearing what appears to be a welding mask working on the Enterprise....and a voice over from Leonard Nimoy, back as Spock (the future Spock..more on that later) reciting the famous opening..."Space..the final frontier..." We also get a bit of the original series theme song and then the transporter sound effect reveals the title of the film.

Details of the plot are being kept hush hush. But here's what the plot seems to be...Spock, in the Next Generation era where he has been living on Romulus working towards reunification between the Romulans and Vulcans) learns of a plot to alter history. So Spock goes back to his Starfleet Academy days where we meet the young Spock (played by Heroes star Zachary Quinto), Kirk (played by Chris Pine), McCoy (Karl Urban of Lord of the Rings fame) and the evil Romulan bad guy played by Eric Bana. Those are really all the details on the plot I care to know...I'm avoiding spoilers on this one kids.

While all the characters from the TOS are in the flick, the only actor making an appearance is Nimoy. William Shatner has made numerous comments about wanting to be in the flick but from what I understand the writers couldn't find a way to work Kirk into the story. Hmmm..wonder if it has anything to do with the fact Kirk died in the first Next Generation flick? I like Shatner and it might have been nice for him to have a cameo, but I'm thrilled that Nimoy is rumored to have a large presence in the movie. While the Star Trek universe is filled with memorable characters, no one tops Spock (tho I am a big fan of Sisko and Worf).

Maybe the thing that keeps me coming back to Star Trek is that when things in the real world look bleak, like they are right now, its comforting to see that in Gene Roddenberry's universe, man is still around and he's boldly going where no one has gone before (in search of green skinned Orion slave girls). So for me Christmas can't come fast enough this year. Even a cynic like me needs something to look forward to.