by Michael VonFabian

Created on: February 24, 2009

If you're like me, an avid Star Trek fan, you always looked forward to seeing next week's episode. Unfortunately, as the series matured, the average intelligence rating of the plots and story lines dropped to the intelligence level of a piano stool.

As the years progressed and the series, ad nauseum, came forward, they all had an underlying flaw. The series would start off strong with lots of plot and character development and then, somewhere along the line, the writing and characters would fall apart instead of becoming more cohesive and developed.

The new Star Trek movie looks to satisfy one thing that all the series did not do well, develop the characters of James Tiberius Kirk, Mister Spock, and the myriad of other regulars from the original series. We will get to see how Kirk got his command of the Enterprise, snippets of his youth and development of his devil-may-care attitude, but, in my opinion, one of the most important elements of any good story...how the characters from strangers to friends.

The preview has a certain edginess to it. It is reminiscent of the feeling that was present in First Contact when the Borg took over Picard's Enterprise. First Contact, in my opinion, was the best of the Star Trek movie franchises, bar none. I am hopeful that the characters are also more developed and not as comical as their TV counterparts became and meet or exceed the quality of First Contact.

What else can we expect? Well, one thing that will be interesting to see is the use of technology in the movie. From the trailer, it seems that the Enterprise has a more futuristic feel than the TV series. Also, noticeably missing are the red bridge doors. I am curious how they will explain the differing technological aspect from the series when the movie is supposed to be a prequel.

Overall, I think that the new Star Trek movie will be a fun time for fans of the original series as well as anyone who enjoys a good science fiction fare. I will be electrified as the oboes start off the main theme. Will there be the familiar 'Space. The final frontier.', or will we be caught off guard in our expectations? I imagine we will have to wait to find out. I don't know about you, but I refused to ask the gender of our children before they were born. I kind of feel the same about this movie. It is as if a new child will be born. We know the due date and we know the name. How big of a baby will this project be?

Until May 8, 2009, live long and prosper.

Beam me up, Scotty.

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