The Human Adventure is Just Beginning

With only four days until the arrival of JJ Abrams "Star Trek," it seemed fitting to start my first blog with a line from the original "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." I can't be sure if that's a quote verbatim, but I imagined it would be close enough for my purposes and the purposes of the many (oh so many) readers I have.

Over the past six months, I have gone from sick to my stomach at the thought of this film, to somewhat tolerant, to vaguely interested, to thoroughly invested, to "Let me see it already!" Although Abrams has been quoted as not being a Trek fan growing up, I keep hearing the right things come out of the production. Sure, they may rewrite some of the cannon. And sure, there will be plenty of liberties taken. But maybe, just maybe, "Star Trek" had become so burdened with trying to stick to the cannon that it had found itself trapped in the corner of a room it started painting on the wrong end.

The options in a case like that are only two: 1) wait for the paint to dry and then finish up the remaining portion of the room, or 2) forget this room and let's just paint another room in the house, learning from our mistakes. I honestly don't believe that the first option would have come for years. It was twenty years between the inception of the Original Series and "The Next Generation," and that only came out because of a very successful set of movies.

Would I have been willing to wait twenty years to see the rebirth of "Star Trek"? I guess that depends. I grew up on "The Next Generation," and I remember how worried my Dad was that they were simply going to ruin it. And lo and behold, they created the show that revitalized the entire franchise! Do we have another franchise maker on our hands? Is a television show possible?

I will say that nothing is impossible, and with this set of actors already signed on for three films, it seems like we may boldly be going for another many years to come. And so I will go into this with an open mind, but unwilling to forget about the past. "Star Trek" was optimistic about the future of mankind in a time when people were protesting in the streets, a young charismatic president had been assassinated, and war was everywhere. At a time like this, I think we need all the "Star Trek" we can get, whether it's by the book or not.

"First star to the left, then straight on til morning..."