Trek Remakes

Weird science site of the day: Hole in the Water answers the unasked question, Why do people get sucked into the vortex of a sinking ship?

By the way, filk radio has changed over to holiday music - but not your average holiday music. So far, Santa has gotten arrested, and now the song is about why (and I quote) Christmas sucks. The Trekathon is over, but Trek is eternal.

While waiting for The Twilight Zone to come on last week I was subjected to part of an Enterprise episode clearly ripped off from the TOS classic, “Elaan of Troyius”. I understand that TNG also stole Elaan for “The Perfect Mate.” I never cared much for TNG, and ENT is too similar for my tastes, with its bland cast, milk-run diplomacy, and recycled TOS plots.

Nemesis spoiler space…

Don’t make me say I told you so.

Tonight, I saw a remake of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. I’m a sucker for a handsome, genetically-engineered genocidal maniac with a Captain Ahab complex. Joachim wasn’t nearly cute enough this time around, but the doomsday device was lovely, complete with the requisite unusual waveform and yet another new kind of Trek radiation. Is there a list of those (and the particles - oh, the particles!) anywhere? Best of all was when the semi-human first officer designate sacrificed himself to save the ship, conveniently leaving his katra behind.

Speaking of first officers, I have to ask: is there any character more universally hated in Trek than Will Riker? The audience groaned whenever he did anything (or anyone), and I can’t believe there was anyone there besides me grossed out simply because Troi belongs with Picard. (If you don’t believe me, go read Lori’s Captain and Counselor series.) That being said, it wasn’t an ensemble movie the way The Wrath of Khan was. Nemesis was about Picard, the Anti-Picard, Data, and the Emergency Backup Data (so Veronica dubbed him), with a touch of Geordi for technobabble and some beating up of Riker to satisfy everyone’s deep-seated urge to punch the idiot’s lights out.

All-in-all, it was an even-numbered Trek movie.

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