The Star Trek community is abuzz over the newly released Star Trek Teaser trailer that is now running with J.J. Abrams’s newest film, Cloverfield. The video is available at the movie’s website:

http://www.paramount.com/startrek/

Although I am excited about this new trailer, overall my feelings are mixed. The imagery in the trailer is obviously very symbolic, and there are many messages and interpretations that can be gleaned. However, I want to exercise caution. In my opinion, one of the things that eventually turned many of the fans off from Star Trek, or at the very least dumbed it down significantly, was its emphasis on groovy 24th century technology, starship armadas, and battles, battles battles. Of course, the fact that Star Trek takes place in the future is one its most intriguing premises, but the Star Trek future was always a device for unique storytelling, rather than the story itself. The best episodes of Star Trek always used the fact of technology to tell what was ultimately a human story: Picard losing his humanity in Best of Both Worlds because he is assimilated; Tasha Yar struggling to find meaning in her death when the Enterprise-C travels through time. Star Trek is so captivating because it tells poingant stories about the human condition and uses technology to enhance that drama. What Star Trek is not about is cool space battles in the 24th century. It is not about the bad guys creating a doomsday weapon to destroy Earth.

I understand that it’s only a teaser trailer, but I’m a little concerned that the entire trailer focuses on the building of the ship. The ship obviously has a special place in our hearts and is practically as much a character as any of the cast; however, I hope that this trailer doesn’t mean that Abrams thinks Star Trek is about starships, and technology, or space battles and doomsday weapons. In other words, he should be fascinated by the people of Star Trek, not its starships. It would be a huge let down if he shortchanged the franchise by turning this movie into another space battle.

One last thought: I listened to portions of an interview Abrams gave that is posted on TrekMovie.com where he says that he’s making the film for the fans, but the truth is that it’s for people who don’t know anything about Star Trek. Fine. But I’d just like to say that when you have a franchise with over 40 years of history, and when many, many fans have poured time and energy into immersing themselves in that mythology, you better be respectful to it! No matter how much hype develops around this movie, Star Trek is and will remain far bigger than anything we see on the big screen this December.

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