Star Trek Reboot: The Next Generation or Nemesis?

C: I think Abrams is a great choice. The last Star Trek series, Enterprise, wasn't as good as it should have been and the whole franchise needed some fresh blood. Not sure if casting new actors for Kirk, Spock and the rest of the original series crew is a great idea or not. I would have preferred going forward in time, say 40 years after Nemesis, with a new ship and crew, but I’m optimistic the new film will be good.

J: First off, when I heard they were doing a reboot of Trek, I set phasers to kill. They're doing it at an unfortunate time where it seems there are nothing but remakes and reboots coming out. It makes me think they maybe should just create a new sci-fi property and leave Trek alone. When I heard Abrams was directing it, I started to have a little hope for the project! I've enjoyed most of what he's done so far, and if anyone could at least TRY to make it a smart movie, he could do it.

L: I am hooked on Lost so was all for it – more mind-bending mind-melds. Also, having barely survived Cloverfield's shakycam I was confident he's the man to give those "brace yourself for impact" wobbly bridge shots an extra boost. I suppose we could have predicted the whole time-travel theme though.

Having seen the trailer, what do you like about it?

C: Nimoy, which means a time travel story and watching how they weave around the continuity of the series. Also, it looks like there’s going to be ton of action and interesting environments.

J: Hmmm, I've watched the thing a couple dozen times and can't find something I'm totally in love with. Maybe it'll bring in a new generation of Trek fans? The Next Generation, you could say? They seem to be keeping the ship design pretty faithful to the originals, though. So I guess that's nice.

L: To be honest, not that much. On initial viewing it was exciting just to feel that the franchise is coming back to life. And it did satisfy my Vulcan deprivation – the Nimoy cameo is exciting! But since when does Spock get angry and start fights?

Hate about it?

C: “My name is James Tiberius Kirk!”

J: Remember when I said earlier that I thought Abrams would at least try to make it a smart movie? Well, that hope was blown out of the main shuttle bay as soon as I saw a young Kirk joy riding an antique car across the desert, Tokyo Drifting the car off a cliff only to stand to his feet and say his entire name when asked... Really? That's the first thing you want to release for the newest Trek movie? Really? THAT? Okay I can look past that...

Then we meet an obviously more mature and grown up Kirk like the one we know and love...no wait: motorcycle, several days unshaven, facial wounds (which we can assume came from a bar fight, or something else equally as badass) and wearing a leather jacket. Oh I get it! He's a take-no-nonsense-from-the-man badass!

Now, Young-Spock has me somewhat confused. I understand that one of the best aspects of the Spock character is his inner conflict between his Vulcan and human sides, but why is it that he seems more condescending and arrogant in the trailer rather than calm and emotionless like the Spock of yesteryear? He seems more like Herbert West of Re-Animator than Spock. Oh I get it: badass. Every character must be a badass.

Fast forward to the end and it seems like they've made a paint-by-numbers science fiction movie. Which is why I ask again: why does this need to be a Star Trek movie? You mean the guy who came up with Lost and Cloverfield couldn't pull an original big spaceship battle movie idea out of his a**?

L: Car chases. Action sequences. More action. More blasting. A little more running. What is the story? Please tell me it's not a treatise on "buckle up!"

Thoughts on the cast? For example, that Nimoy appearance gives me chills, and while I like John Cho and Simon Pegg as comedic actors, I don’t know I can take them seriously here. And Chris Pine – Kirk or Jerk?

C: Too early to judge fairly; I think it is one of those things you just go with or not. Either you accept the idea of new actors playing characters you already know, like in a Shakespeare production, or not. Qunito as Spock seems like a good choice, but will Pine have the right mix of cockiness and smugness that Shatner had? We’ll see.

J: The addition of the comedic actors made me happy because all the previous Trek movies and TV series had a lot of humour in them. When they tried to be TOO dark and brooding with no lighter element of comedy, no matter how brief, is where they would fail. One of the highlights of TOS was Spock and McCoy's constant bickering of pure logic vs. human emotion. Hopefully they included that in the new movie, oh, but bickering might not be bad-ass enough. Maybe they'll have Spock and McCoy kung-fu fight it out.

Chris Pine? Jerk! Seems like he's be more at home in a frat movie.

L: Not being a follower of the original series (I know, I know...), I don't share the reverence for these characters that some fans might -- to me they are caricatures that should be played for laughs. Still, Kirk IS William Shatner. If they can turn Brad Pitt into a hideous old man child for Benjamin Button, surely they could have just, um, cast Shatner and fixed him in post?

Does the trailer suggest a serious breach of the Star Trek space-time continuum? Should Scott Bacula be in this movie somewhere? Why?

C: Yes, Chekov wasn’t on the bridge until the second season, so I imagine old Spock time travels and mucks up the space-time continuum gathering the bridge crew together before they were assembled in the original series. Should Scott Bakula be in this series? No. God no.

J: Well from what I've read the entire plot is a Romulan (with facial tribal tattoos, because they're badass) has gone back in time to assassinate Kirk's parents, which explains new-Kirk's apparently badassness. Breach of the Star Trek space-time continuum? Most definitely. Though, some of the better episodes of Trek dealt with that, so we'll see how the movie plays out. While I loved Bakula in Quantum Leap when I was a kid, I could never get into him in Enterprise.

L: It suggests the biggest breach in a Trek feature since the humpbacks in Voyage Home.

To conclude, after watching the trailer, what do your sensors indicate?

C: Phasers set to jizz.

J: Sensors indicate no intelligent life, Captain! They seem to be catering to the lowest common denominator, when they're dealing with a property that was known for its forward thinking and intelligence. I know that the point of remakes and reboots is to tap into a pre-existing market, but what happens when you ignore that market?

But no matter how much I bitch, I'll be there in line to see it. Hopefully it's just a case of "lets throw all the action-y stuff into the trailer to get a great opening weekend haul" syndrome. Dammit I want a good Trek movie!

L: Anyone loyal to the Star Trek universe who doesn't yet realize this about selling action figures to young people who've never cared about Star Trek should be prepared to set their emotional phasers to "stunned."

Thanks, Colin, Justin and Liisa, you're all a bunch of Starfleet Troopers in my books.

-Dave Alexander