the extra in the red shirt always dies

It was 40 years ago that the original Star Trek series was canceled due to poor ratings. Now, after 40 years, 716 television episodes, in five live-action series – and one animated series – the eleventh film is about to be released, May 8. I remember watching the original series as my dad worked on real rockets at NASA in the 60’s. In the era of Lost In Space and The Time Tunnel, Star Trek offered sci-fi fans something special, which they’ve held onto through the years. I’ve even been to a couple of Trek conventions; most of the people are still rooted in reality.

This new movie, Star Trek, is directed by J.J. Abrams who is new to the Star Trek family. The trailers and film-rating (PG-13) promise an edgier thrill ride aimed directly at adults – this movie is not for kids. I wonder how this will play with the died-in-the-wool “trekkers” whose well-lit, super-saturated color world appears to be a distant echo of this film’s style. By the way, the title of this blog article refers to the original TV series - someone was going to die, and it was probably an extra wearing a red shirt.

I’m looking forward to the film, although I’ll be waiting a week after release to see it… Jessica has requested that I wait until she comes home from college so that we can see it together. As for the cereal boxes? Anne, who has soaked up hundreds of Star Trek TV episodes, and many of the movies, purchased them. She can even tell you about P4X639… but that’s a different tale altogether.