Star Trek 2.0 (Spoiler Alert!)

About the Star Trek movie; as far as the franchise is concerned, it doesn’t fit. In the first place, Uhura speaks three dialects of Romulan? Spock speaks of Romulans and Vulcans sharing common ancestors? Until TOS is well under way no one (on Earth) suspected that. (Remember the shock on the Enterprise bridge the first time Romulans were actually seen? Everyone looked suspiciously at Spock, as if he might be a spy.) Vulcan and Romulus destroyed? Amanda gone? There goes “Journey to Babel,” ST: III, IV and…well…countless novels. From the get go, young Kirk driving that “antique” car like an ace, when in “A Piece of the Action” (as a grown man) he is clueless (doesn’t know what a clutch is until Spock tells him). The whole Spock/Uhura thing was pointless (poor Scotty).

“Spock Prime” said that in the proper timeline George Kirk lived to see Jim take command of Enterprise. What happened to that? There wasn’t any attempt to resolve the deviations in the timelines which were setup for just such a thing. There were just too many holes in the storyline that are irreconcilable with the official ST canon, even taking time travel into account. Bringing in Leonard Nimoy was a desperate grab for coherency that didn’t work. Sorry. They’d better do a sequel ASAP (before Nimoy dies) to plug the holes or it is destined to be an asterisk (like a bar room tale one night on Risa).

I liked the actors. Kirk and young Spock were fine. McCoy was very likable, as was Sulu. Uhura was a doll and Scotty, “spot on.” The most pleasant surprise was Chekov. Goof seekers will notice a shuttle bearing the call sign NCC-1701-A, which had to be a joke, but was pointless and inexcusable. For thrills and splash I’d give it a 7, but for overall story I can only give it a 3, or less, considering what it does to the credibility of anything springing from that mucked up setup. Still, I’ll probably see it again, though not for another $8.