My Star Trek Year

Movie - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

From what I can tell, Wrath of Khan is generally considered to be one of the better Star Trek movies. I won't quibble with that notion. There's not too much to grumble about in this one, except maybe that Ricardo Montalban plays it a bit over the top and his crew of fashion models apparently traveled around the galaxy with their own hairstylist. And Khan's fake chest. 

Observation: Given that a retina scan was used for security purposes in this one, why were spoken passwords and security codes such a fixture in other series and movies? 

(viewed 10/13/2008)

Movie - Star Trek: Nemesis

Romulans, Remans and a Picard clone who's ready to wipe out the Enterprise and then the Earth. Passably entertaining, with a noteworthy special effects scene where the Enterprise rams a warship. Shinzon's death scene in Nemesis and Mordred's in the movie Excalibur - compare and contrast. 

(viewed 09/25/2008)

Movie - Galaxy Quest

Of the five Star Trek movies I've seen since beginning this project (III, IV, First Contact, Insurrection, Galaxy Quest), I'd have to rank Galaxy Quest near the top of the list. Okay, so it's not really a Star Trek movie. Duh. But it at least deserves an honorable mention. 

I avoided Galaxy Quest until now based on the assumption that it would be a silly, insubstantial SF spoof. Which it is. But it's a rather well done silly, insubstantial SF spoof, where much of the humor works and the adventure aspects and effects are right up there with many "serious" SF movies. And unlike so many other SF flicks, most or all of the stupidity was intentional.

(viewed 07/10/2008)

Movie - Star Trek III

Spock's a goner and the Enterprise limps off for repairs. However, Spock's brain (more or less) resides in McCoy and his body is regenerating on the Genesis Planet, a kind of instant terraforming project. Off go the Enterprise brass, commandeering the old ship and setting off in pursuit of their old pal. Some Klingons stick their nose in and Enterprise is destroyed, but things are all sorted out in the end.

(viewed 07/05/2008)

Movie - Star Trek: First Contact

Those pesky Borg. The Enterprise gang jump back in time to fight them and also to hook up with Zefram Cochrane to make sure that first contact is achieved. Action-packed stuff and passably entertaining, for the most part.

McCoyism: I'm a Doctor, not a doorstop.

(viewed 06/02/2008)

Movie - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Whales. Okay then.

Whimsy and fish out of water (no pun intended) humor reign supreme as Kirk and his top brass go back in time to save the whales. Some of the humor works and sometimes it falls flat, but overall it seems that this movie as a whole has dated worse than many of the TOS TV episodes.

(viewed 05/09/2008)

Movie - Star Trek: Insurrection

Picard: How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong?

If memory serves me right, it was Isaac Asimov who stipulated that a good science fiction yarn may require one major suspension of disbelief. In Insurrection's case the leap required is believing that there's a humanoid-friendly planet whose rings emit regenerative powers. Okay, we'll give 'em that one.

The problem here is that the 600 smiley-goofy Luddites who have settled on this planet and created an agrarian utopia are getting in the way of those who'd like to take these powers and spread them around for the greater good. With this in mind, a Starfleet contingent has secretly undertaken to relocate them, over the considerable objections of Picard and company, who stage a you know what.

Which is a fairly entertaining piece of Star Trekian yarn spinning, although the portrayal of the utopian yokels might as well have been lifted from a toddler's picture book.

If I had gone about things in a somewhat less ass backward way, I probably wouldn't have watched the ninth Trek movie before the first eight and I probably wouldn't have watched a TNG movie before tuning in to any of the other TNG movies or TV episodes. But things seemed to stand on their own well enough that I didn't feel like I was wandering in the wilderness too much.

(viewed 04/19/2008)