Loved this film from start to finish - and I’ve seen most that Trek has to offer. I drove back from the movie grinning from ear to ear.
I loved the amount of nods they gave to existing Trek fans, stared in disbelief at the first on-screen application of red matter and knew right then that they were not messing around.
At the same time, I marvelled at the Twitter messages from non-Trek fans saying how much they enjoyed the film, with two notable examples even announcing themselves as Trekkies.
You take all this with a pinch of salt, of course. They’re not going to be able to give you a plot synopsis of “In The Pale Moonlight” any time soon, but forty years of continuity is a lot to expect of new fans.
It’s a start. Hell, it’s more than that. It’s an unbridled success - which is exactly what Trek needed after too many TV episodes where “random character is afflicted with sudden malady for about 40 minutes”.
Make no mistake, Trek had been in a bad place for quite a while. There are exceptions. I’ve a lot of time for the Xindi arc of Enterprise, but spent too many Voyager eps thinking “is that it?”, yet still tuning in next week. And this is from a fan - someone who is committed. How impenetrable is some of that technobabble going to be for new viewers?
Previous posters may be right. The next movie may well be make or break.
The /only/ reservation I have with this one is that it’s too damn successful, meaning we won’t get another TV series, and won’t get to see some of the great arc Trek we’ve had in stuff like DS9 and Enterprise.
