Star Trek Film Takes Inner Journey

It's been a month and a half since its release, but no summer film has yet to rival the masterpiece that is Star Trek, the 2009 reboot. What makes this such a remarkable film is that it takes the old franchise and completely rewrites it, while maintaining the integrity of the original characters, the sense of fun and the triumph, often, of human ingenuity over mere technology.

The film has a sort of Biblical beginning, starting with the birth of Captain Kirk and the death of his father in dramatic martyr-like fashion, the first of many actions that show these characters would give their own lives to save others. Without hesitation.

I have to admit here that I have seen the film three times. First, for the sheer pleasure of it, the second time to experience it with my son while in New York and the third time because my husband wanted to see it again, and there were aspects of the screenplay I was still mulling over. As in most action films, the faulty dialogue and holes in the plot don't really become apparent until the second or third viewing, but this film holds up rather well in spite of them.

Without giving away too much of the plot for those few who have yet to see the film, the relationship between Uhuru and Spock didn't work for me at all, no matter how many times I saw the film. I think, however, the filmmakers are probably setting up the story for the next film when Spock evolves into the monk-like character familiar to fans. It's one of the unsettling deviations from the old storylines.

In an interview in Script magazine, the screenwriters, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, admitted that Spock was the focal point of this film, and they were influenced by the themes in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in writing it. The villain Khan was avenging the death of his wife; the villain Nero in the new film is avenging the death of his wife and unborn child. They cited the theme of Spock's struggle between logic and emotion as pivotal in the storyline. To me, it's similar to how many protagonists in the Bible struggle between living according to God's law, as opposed to living according to ego, or id. Spock's inability to control his anger makes him practically homocidal -- potentially a Cain to Kirk's Abel -- until he is reined in literally by his father.

I happened to catch the end of Star Trek II the other night and was struck by the homage to that film in the new one. When Capt. Kirk explains how he defeated the Kobayashi Maru test by cheating, he does so cavalierly while eating an apple. In the new film, the young Capt. Kirk actually performs the described feat while eating an apple.

As pointed out on a screenwriting website I sometimes surf, a scene in the new film in which Capt. Kirk is jettisoned onto a planet and then accidentally stumbles onto the Spock of the future does seem a bit far-fetched. However, there's a sense of destiny in the story, of these characters having a divine purpose, that makes it possible to suspend disbelief and embrace the improbable.

Like a blend of the strange, wondrous and improbable in the Old Testament and the blend of the human and divine in the New Testament, this Star Trek burns away any of the sentimental dreck that remained in the old series and creates a shiny, new version with much to commend it.