… but enough about me

Who cares if the new Star Trek doesn’t make sense? I still love it. This is not academic science fiction. The less sensical, the better.

OK, love Zachary Quinto and John Cho. My crushes on those two boys has gone into warp drive. The guy who played McCoy was brilliant. And Uhura gets some strong screen presence. We have Leonard Nimoy to titillate all the old-school fans. Chris Pine as Kirk, however, was probably the weakest part of the film.

What troubles me more, though, is this whole time travel thing.

By Nero accidentally going into the past and killing Kirk’s father, and Spock haplessly following him in, haven’t they changed the conditions that would have led to Romulus exploding, thereby eliminating the circumstances that led Nero to seek revenge and Spock to seek redemption in the first place? Maybe, maybe not. Clearly the future that Spock is from will no longer happen. So every interaction he has in the past might actually negate his existence in any point in history.

Back to the Future handled this in a handily visual, albeit simplific, way by disappearing people from a photograph from the future after the conditions leading to their birth in the past were eliminated.

But these temporal paradoxes are not to be contemplated.

The important thing is that we now have an alternate reality. The writers have free reign to deviate from the know story line, to boldly go where no Star Trek writer has gone before. They’re already on their way toward a sexier, more dangerous iteration of the beloved franchise. Spock is in love with Uhura. Vulcan is obliterated, and its people are now an endangered species. There are two Spocks — for now. (Bad news for George Takei.) And the elder of the two can still make references to the orginal film series to thrill the old folks.

One thing is for sure, though. These actors have landed themselves a money-making franchise.