Star Trek Magazine – July 2019

I

t’sa hellofa responsibility,bringing

a belovedfranchisebackfrom

thedead.Whileit wasStarTrek:

DiscoverythatfinallyrelaunchedTr e k

on“television”(a somewhatredundant

termintheageofstreaming)a dozen

yearsafterthefranchise’sexitfrom

broadcastin2005,it wasJ. J. Abrams’

successfulbig-screenreboot/prequel/

sequelin 2009 thatfacilitatedthat

small-screenrenaissance.

Butthatwasn’tthefirsttime

thecinemasavedStarTrek– and

01 The

Enterprise

remade,in

StarTrek

(2009).

02 Spock

(Zachary

Quinto)and

Kirk(Chris

Pine),together

againforthe

firsttime.

theparallelsbetweenAbrams’Star

Trek(2009)andRobertWise’sStar

Trek:The MotionPicturearestriking.

Released 30 yearsapart,bothwere

bornintoanentertainmentlandscape

whereTr e kwasdormant.Where

Abramsventuredtothefinalfrontier

fouryearsafterStarTrek:Enterprise’s

cancellationandsixyearsafterStar

TrekNemesiscompletedtheNext

Generationmovieseries,Wisefaced

anevenbiggertask: 10 yearsafterthe

originalserieswasaxedandfiveyears

afterStarTrek:The AnimatedSeries’

lastepisodeaired,StarTrekwasdone

anddusted.

Butinboth 1979 and2009,Tr e k

wasreborninspectacularstyle,with

scope,vigor,cutting-edgevisualeffects,

andmorethanenoughantimatterin

itswarpcoreforfuturevoyages.No

matterwhatanyonethinksof Gene

Roddenberry’screation,StarTrek’s

enduringappealandalmostlimitless

possibilitiesarebeyondreproach.The

MotionPictureandStarTrek(2009)

01

02

THE MOTION PICTURE / STAR TREK (2009)