Boldly Going to 11

Nigel Tufnel:	The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi:	Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel:	Exactly.
Marty DiBergi:	Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel:	Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi:	I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel:	Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi:	Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel:	Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi:	Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel:	[pause] These go to eleven.

I was really worried about over-hyping Star Trek in my mind that I would be let down and disappointed. Why not? George Lucas released a less than satisfactory prequel to Star Wars. Indiana Jones’ last adventure probably should have remained in the “gee…wouldn’t it be neat to do another Indy movie?”

But Trek, what can we say about Trek? The TNG films have been, how shall I say this, very unadventurous (I liked First Contact the best).

The TOS crew had a hit-miss pattern with the even movies being the better of the six. Although Khan is the best, I really enjoyed Voyage Home (I remember seeing this with the guys at o’dark thirty at the original Dutch Square theaters).

For years, there had been some rumors of a “Starfleet Academy” movie, recasting all of the TOS characters. I never thought it would work. A few years ago, the rumor resurfaced, but this time, JJ Abrams was associated with it. I like JJ’s work on Lost and Mission Impossible 3. Fringe, which he produces, is very good TV, much in the vein of X-Files.

What was really neat in the movie was that each character “emoted” the original performances. I use the word emote just to indicate that the actors weren’t imitating – they blended the characteristics into their acting and made it their own. I loved seeing little bits of Shatner’s Kirk showing up in Pine.

The movie itself looks NOTHING like any previous Trek. Perhaps what it needed was someone unconnected with the previous incarnations to really spin it off. I have seen the future, and, it has a lot of lens flares.

There was a moment when Spock looks over at Kirk and says “I have been and always shall be your friend.” I choked up. What can I say?