Personally I think this move was about the very best thing that could have happened to Trek. I am a fan of the original crew's films and I was entertained by TOS, although it was a bit hokey for me.
I generally liked TNG, although it wasn't dramatic enough nor was the action really exciting...oh man did I get sick of seeing those recycled Bird of Prey shots pummeling the Ent-D again and again.
DS9 I generally dislike with a passion. Only saving grace was that Sisko is a cool captain and Dax was smoking. Everything else yuck.
Hated Voy I found entertaining, and the closest thing to TOS although they constantly overexaggerated things. But I found their crew the most tolerable, captain aside, of the post-TOS crews. And their finale was actually exciting versus "All Good Things" and the DS9 one which had a promising first part and dull second.
Ent was ok mixed with meh. I like Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap fyi) as much as the next scifi fan but I don't think he made a good captain tbh.
In any case I think it really isn't Trek without the Enterprise: I love hearing the old intro of "Space, the final frontier...these are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise". As for the design I think she looks great, a hybrid of TOS conny and TMP conny, I really dig it a lot. The only thing I dislike about the new movie is they went with those horrible TOS shirt uniforms.
But if the absolute worldwide reviews are any indication, Abrams has revitilized and redifined Trek in a way no one thought possible. Most Trekkie and non-Trekkie alike that have seen it can't praise it enough particularly where everyone thought it would fail: the story is extremely strong and the cast has proven itself more than worthy of their characters.
Yeah time travel is old and cliched, but even that is used in a way that services the story instead of being the focus of it and just has that fancy rewind button at the end that makes everything back the way it's "supposed" to be. BAH! I think it's awesome this movie rewrites history and is unapologetic about it! I think it's awesome to hear we are getting at some point a new incarnation of the events of Space Seed and Wrath of Khan while still having the originals to watch if I want! And most of all, no freaking Star Trek Generations with the Nexus of joy and lame dead Kirk which is about the same as if they kill off Optimus in Transformers 2...wrong, wrong, wrong.
Trek has been stagnating for years now, becoming duller and duller. Sure every episode is a public service announcement of the week, but the magic has all about faded and gone. Trek forgot the cardinal rule that while you can have important messages every single time, you need to also entertain and motivate, you need things like strong character development and storylines, you need to move people and awe them. For this see Babylon 5's arc and cast which surpasses any of Trek's easily.
I'm thrilled with what JJ and crew have accomplished and I can't wait for next week's official opening!
