If your're a child of the 60s, chances are you'll have grown up watching original runs of the original Star Trek episodes. In fact, "The Devil in the Dark" episode was the very first program on TV I saw in color!

The Star Trek series you like the most seems to be the one you grew up with. For those born in the 70s and 80s, it was Next Generation and/or Deep Space Nine. Those born a few years later favour Voyager. And those people who appeared on the planet in the mid-80s and after, seemed to go for Enterprise.

Most people who were there for the original run of The Original Series (TOS) have fond memories of it and feel its morality tales still have resonance in today's world. Those growing up on later series have a less favorable impresssion. It's interesting that because TOS was shot on film, Star Trek is being released on Blu-Ray in high definition whereas Next Gen was shot on video and so no high-def copies will ever become available.

Enterprise is the only other Trek series incarnation that's likely to appear in high definition on Blu-Ray. This series received a lot of criticism by the Star Trek community for palaying around with Trek history. Spock was supposed to have been the first Vulcan serving in Starfleet, yet T'Pol served as First Officer 150 years earlier in Enterprise. since she wasn't a Starfleet officer, the apparent dichotomy was solved. Enterprise saw other rewrites of Trek history too. Actually, this didn't annoy me too much as Enterprise was much closer to the spirit of The Original Series than the intervening efforts.

The first Star Trek movie appeared 30 years ago. The final movie, Star Trek: Nemesis, limped out of movie theaters in 2002. So here we are, seven years later, awaiting a reboot of the series that started it all. Star Trek XI lands on May 8th, 2009.

I've watched the trailers and hmmm...I'm ambivalent about the movie. But that's because I grew up with the old crew and I don't think it's a good idea to tinker with Star Trek history (despite my being okay with what Enterprise did). The problem for me is that the new movie messes with the characters' own histories, alters their relationships and will fundamentally change how those characters will be perceived.

I understand that this has been designed for a new, younger audience, but (not having seen the movie), maybe it would have been a better idea to use a a different ship and crew, even if still set in the pre-TOS years. I'm not taken with some of the casting choices either. Okay, I agree I'm something of a curmudgeonly old fart on this.

Time will tell. There's only a couple of weeks more to wait till Star Trek XI hits the theaters. Of course I'll go to watch the movie. I really hope that I'll be applauding at the end of the movie and wanting more instead of holding my head in my hands dismayed at what may become Star Trek heresy.

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