Came out: 2009

Directed by: J.J Abrams 

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, 

           Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin,

           Bruce Greenwood, Leonard Nimoy, Chris Hemsworth,

           Jennifer Morrison, Winona Ryder, Ben Cross

   In 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled, leading to four Trek-free years on TV. This was before i was that into Star Trek, but I can imagine how empty life must have felt for those who had followed Star Trek since 1987, the year TNG started airing. Any new TV- series set in the universe of Star trek hasn´t been airing since, which is a shame. But in the future it´s not impossible to start producing a new series, and that´s much thanks to J.J Abrams- who not only rebooted Star Trek in this film, but who also remade it in his own way. 

   This film works both as a prequel and a sequel to the Original Series- adventures. We get to see how Kirk was born in the middle of a history-changing event, involving a crazy romulan who, by mistake, was sucked into a black hole some years in the future, and ended up... there. Several years back in time. And by doing so, he completely changed the whole way of Star Trek, creating a new timeline where anything can happen... This fact prooves that the original timeline did exist, untill this romulan went back in time and changed it. So this is not a remake where they changed the story, but a... or wait... it is a remake where they changed story, but not without showing respect to the old timeline. 

  Having ruined all the adventures in all of the six TV series and ten previous movies, mr. Abrams can do his shit in his way, breaking the hearts of many old fans, but still introducing a lot of younger viewers to the series. So this film has both a good side, and a bad side (which most movies have). 

    The film begins with a familiar sight: space. And a space-ship. Fans of Star Trek will know that they´re watching the right shit. The space-ship is USS Kelvin, and it´s picking up a signal (surprised?). From what appears to be a "lightning-storm in space", a giant, Romulan ship comes out and attacks Kelvin. It´s captain Nero (Eric Bana), orders the captain of Kelvin (Captain Robau) to come over to his ship, in order to negotiate. It turns out Nero wants to know where Ambassador Spock is. Since Robeau doesn´t know the answer, he is brutaly murdered by Nero, and the Kelvin is attacked again. Acting captain of the Kelvin is George Kirk (Kirk´s future father), and he manages to save the whole crew (and his pregnant wife), paying the heroic deed with his own life. His wife gives birth to James Kirk, and by that the amazing opening-scene is over. 

   25 years later, James Kirk has grown up to be a real little bitch about everyone and everyting. He is a real pain-in-the ass to most people, but the legendary Captain Pike of the USS Enterprise sees something in the young man- something that makes him offer Kirk a possibility to join the Starfleet and live up to his name. Kirk decides to follow the advice, and aventually (after a brilliant white lie from Dr. McCoy- played by Karl Urban, who is the star amongst the new actors) ends up on the Enterprise. Soon, the ship gets a distress-signal from the planet Vulcan (Spock´s homeplanet). The signal tells about a "lightning-storm in space". Kirk recognizes those words from the stories he´s heard about his fathers death, and hurries to the bridge in order to stop captain Pike from warping to Vulcan. He says there might be romulans there. Pike decides to ignore Kirks warning, and goes to Vulcan anyway. Kirk was right, ofcourse. Nero is about to drill a giant hole in the planet and blow it up from the inside (we´ll find out why later in the review). Kirk, Sulu (who shows of some sword skills, "The naked Time"-style) and a red-shirt who dies before the mission even begins, tries to save the planet, but they fail, and Spock looses his mother. Somewhere in all this mess, Pike is taken prisoner by Nero. Kirk, who is no longer wantet aboard of the Enterprise, is sent of to the planet Delta Vega by the new casptain, Spock. (Delta vega was also   used in one of the Trek-films featuring the original series crew, "The Undisvcovered Country", 1991). On the dangerous ice-planet, Kirk is saved by Leonard Nimoy, who returns to his character Spock. In this film, he is mostly recognized as Old Spock. Old Spock had also done some timetraveling, which had resulted in that he aswell had been sucked into the black hole, and ended up at the same spot Nero did... only 25 years later. Nero had been waiting at that same spot all the time, only so that he could capture Old Spock when he came through the black hole, put him on Delta Vega and make him watch his home-planet blow up. All of this the mad guy went through becaus Spock tried to help him in the future, and failed- causing the planet Romula 5 to blow up. Nero wantet revenge.  Old Spock so tells Kirk the whole story about the messed-up time-line thing, and also convinces Kirk that he must take command over the Enterprise, if history shall ever turn out good again. But first, Kirk must get of Delta Vega. While visiting a Starfleet outpost on the planet, Kirk and Old Spock meet Scotty- played by the funny actor Simon Pegg. Scotty helps Kirk get of the planet and they both return to the Enterprise, leaving Old Spock behind becaus he doesn´t want to ruin the way of history more that he already did. 

   While back on the Enterprise, Kirk insults Spock emotions, causing him to sign of and give the command over the ship to Kirk. So, kirk and the crew saves Pike, Becomes friends with Spock again, and kicks Nero´s ass. And now, the new Star Trek adventures may contineu.

   As you probably understand, it´s all a big mess. But it´s not a bad movie, and the new acors look convincing. And some Leonard Nimoy is never wrong either. The film succesfully introduces the wonderful world of Star Trek to younger people, but that doesn´t change the fact that if you call yourself a Star Trek-fan and doesn´t know who plays Old Spock, you´re probably not a Star Trek fan at all. When i saw this film, I didn´t know who he was- but I found out by buying a DVD-set including the first season of The Original Series. That makes it a complete different thing. Moahaha.

   One of the parts I doesn´t like about this film, is the explosions. Star Trek had always been quite calm compared to other sci-fi giants like Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. This film was everything else than calm, but there´s still much less explosions in here than it was in Into Darkness, which sometimes reminded me of a Michael Bay-film...

   I have choosen to screw all the thoughts about this film ruining the series. it´s entertaining as hell, and the people involved surely knew what they were doing when they made it. It makes way for a new TV-series and new adventures, and

it´s way better than Into Darkness.

I don´t recomend you to start with this film- I´d actually say you should watch it last, after you´ve seen The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock, The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Counry. Theese are the five good Trek-films featuring the cast of the original series. The Final Frontier is not good film, but it´s quite fun if you´re a fan. 

Came Out: 1982

Directed By: Nicholas Meyer

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly,

           Richardo Montalban, Bibi Besch, James Doohan, Nichelle            Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Paul Winfield,

           Kirstie Alley, Merritt Butrick

   "The Wrath of Khan" is a sequel to the classic Original Series-episode "Space Seed" (1967), in which Capt. Kirk and his crew finds a ship- the SS Botany Bay- constructed on Earth in the 1990s, drifting around in space. While investigating the old ship, Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and Lt. McGivers finds the whole crew and their captain frozen in small chambers. With the help from Dr. McCoy´s God-knows-what-they´re-for tools, they manage to wake the captain and several other crew-members up. The captain introduces himself as Khan.   Khan seems to be a calm guy with no intentions to harm- but Kirk gets suspicious. Later in the episode, Kirk and Spock- by the help from the ship´s computers- finds out that Khan once was an evil dictator who ruled big parts of Earth. As the episode goes on, Khan develops a tense relationship with Lt. McGyvers- who yet doesn´t know of the man´s evil plan to hijack the Enterprise and start taking over planets around the universe, making himself the dictator he once were. When she finds out, she decides to help him. But Kirk and the gang saves the day ofcourse, and at the end of the episode, he deserts Khan and his crew on the planet Ceti Alpha 5, in the company of McGivers who decides to follow them into exile on the planet. 

    When "The Wrath of Khan" begins, several years has passed since this incident. A great step for mankind is about to be taken: the construction of The Genesis Device. The powerful devise has the power to create new planets, and it´s developed by none other than Kirk´s son David. Kirk himself worries about getting old, and has probably no memory of his old nemesis Khan. But when one of Kirk´s crewmembers, Pavel Chekov- now stationed on the USS Reliant, explores the planet Ceti Alpha 6, he sees a familiar sight: the SS Botany Bay. Together with Commander Terrell, he explores the ship while remebering the incident with Khan that took place so long ago he can hardly remember it. Worth noting is that Chekov first came into the show in the second season- "Space Seed" is ep. 21 (22 if you count "Tha cage" in) of the first season, meaning Chekov actually never met Khan before. Anyway, Khan arrives at the ship, and he seems to recognize Chekov pretty well. So I guess the writers either hadn´t seen the old episode, or they just thought nobodody would care... It´s a small detail, and I didn´t mind about it at all. So let´s contineu... Khan takes control over Chekov and Terrells minds, by using scary worm-like creatures that eats into their brains, making they obey every order they´re given. This is how Khan takes control over the USS Reliant, and later chases Kirk in search of revenge... and the Genesis-device. The epic final battle between Kirk and Khan results in one of the best chase-scenes in movie history including two huge space-crafts (the USS Reliant and the USS Enterprise). At the end of the film, Kirk defeats Khan, and the Genesis-Device creates it´s first planet. 

   But the victory was´nt free from sacrifice. In a dramatic and touching scene that makes every Trekkie or Trekker cry like a baby every time they watch it, Spock- after succesfully saving the whole crew- dies. This was a major twist in the series. No one so close to the main cast had ever just died before, so I can only imagine the audience beeing pretty chaken when leaving the cinema. Kirk and the crew decides to send Spock´s body to the Genesis- planet. What happens there, remanins to be seen in the next film in the series: "The Search For Spock".

   If you walk up to any fan of Star Trek- and now I mean (almost) any- and asks her or him what their favorite Trek-film is, they will most likely respond that this, The Wrath of Khan, is the best of them all. Possibly they might respond First Contact or maybe even the reboot from 2009, but most people would probably say this is the best. Why is that? Well, the most logical explenation would be the fact that this is not only a great Trek-film; it´s also one of the better films ever made on the planet. It´s got an action-packed story of revenge, meanwhile it takes up strong subjects like the relationship between father and son and the feeling of growing old. It also got powerful character-development, a great villian, many great heroes, and ofcourse the drama and love between the main-characters (mostly between Kirk and Spock, that is).

   What do i think? I must agree with the people- this is the best Trek of them all. This movie is just perfect- everything from the music and editing, to the acting-performances. Despite the fact that Lt. McGivers isn´t in the movie, which she should have been, the characters and their adventures feels real and touching- a fact that proves the obvious: this film is a piece of art. Kahn as a villian might be a bit overused, especially since Into Darkness came up, and later on the announcement that Benedict Cumberbatch (who was great as Khan in Into Darkness, but still was no match to Montalban in The Wrath), maybe will return for the next Trek-movie (2016). But I guess a great captain (Kirk) needs a great nemesis- and Khan is, without the slightest doubt, the ultimate nemesis for Kirk. But I still hope that Khan one day will be put aside in order to make room for a new "super-enemy". 

   Star Trek contineu to boldly going where no one has gone before, and the adventures of the crew(s) of the USS Enterprise contineu to amaze and touch us. The future of Star Trek stretches far on into the unknown, leaving us wondering what will happen next. It´s a constant feeling of excitement, and we can just hope that nothing like "The Final Frontier" will ever happen again...