Star Trek XI: The Search for a New Audience

The very first movie I ever went to was Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

"Well, you were about three months old," my mother says, as she retells the story. "We took you during naptime so you would just sleep during the movie. And you did! I fed you during the previews and you slept through the entire movie... even when the Enterprise blew up! It was an odd-numbered movie though and not very good... sorry your first Star Trek movie wasn't a good one."

Although the original series had been cancelled for years before I was born, I watched an awful lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and some of Voyager. I loved the television shows, but I have a special place in my heart for the original cast movies, most of which have been released in my lifetime. I don't remember seeing The Search for Spock as an infant, but let me tell you about two of my earliest memories.

1. The scenes from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in which the pink Klingon blood floats around the ship.

2. The scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in which Khan places brain-controlling worms into the ears of Chekhov and his captain.

I had nightmares about those worms for a LONG time. Seriously. And for a long time I didn't know what earwigs were, but I thought they were the creatures from Star Trek and I was terrified of them.

So clearly Star Trek has always been a part of my life. B and I went to see the new movie on Friday night. We had a great time! There were people dressed in Starfleet uniforms in the crowd, and you could tell it was a nerdy, nerdy bunch. Anytime there was any sort of reference to the original series or the movies, or anytime a beloved character appeared for the first time there was all sorts of clapping and screaming. I usually hate boisterous crowds, but these guys were great. Nerd factor of 100%.

I loved the new movie. I won't go into details, mostly because there are about three people who read this blog who would really care about such things. It certainly wasn't a perfect movie, but it was incredibly entertaining and fun and the casting was great and the acting was amazing. And new Spock is hot. But mostly, I'm just thrilled that Star Trek has been resurrected. It is true that I watch Wrath of Khan probably once a month, and I still love it each time, but damnit, Jim, we need something new! And I know that some people are upset about, um... let's say, the consequences of some time travel issues in the movie. But I'm frankly relieved that we've broken from canon and can now boldly explore new plots and new character development without being weighed down by chronology problems and the like. I'm very excited to see Star Trek films in the future, and, here I'll admit it, even more excited that a new Star Trek film could be a first movie theater experience for B Junior and/or C Junior in the next decade!

Reynolds Family Fact #2: My sister's first movie theater experience was The Fox and the Hound. I win.
Reynolds Family Fact #3: Despite Fact #2, my sister is almost as dorky as I, and bought us matching Star Trek shirts for Christmas last year. Yes, I wore mine to the movie on Friday.