If you somehow missed the deluge of TV ads, in-theater trailers, magazine covers, action figures, cereal box giveaways, and automatic transmissions stamped with the logo, in just a week there’s going to be a new Star Trek movie. This film is intended as a “reboot” of the franchise, featuring a young Kirk, Spock, Scott and company in their earliest days with Starfleet. Apparently, this new film is somehow going to be in-continuity with the classic series, even though much of what we’ve seen so far drastically contradicts a lot of the classic series. (This is the reason that some geeks, like my good buddy Chase, have pre-emptively declared a jihad against the film pretty much from the moment the first teaser trailer was released a year ago.)
Unlike many of my Geek Brothers, I actually feel guardedly optimistic about the film. Let me explain — there are many different levels of Star Trek fans. There have been five television series, ten feature films, and a cartoon, and every one of them has its fans and its detractors. I liked the original series. I loved The Next Generation. I actually thought — and still think — Deep Space Nine was the best series in the franchise, because it successfully told a story with a long-term arc, something that’s commonplace in genre television today, but was still pretty rare then. Voyager was terrible, and Enterprise was pretty good, but never good enough for me to remember to watch it every week.
So while I like Trek, I do not (as Chase puts it) “bleed green.” I’m allowed to be interested in the movie.
IDW Comics recently released a four-issue comic series called Star Trek: Countdown, a “prequel” to the new movie. Based solely on the characters that appear on the covers, it seems clear that there’s going to be a time-travel element to both the comic and the film, which again, I’m fine with. Plus, the comic got surprisingly good reviews from reviewers whose opinions I trust. It sounds like this is a solid comic and one worth reading. But here’s the thing — I really want to go into the movie fresh. I don’t want any preconceived notions. I want to go in and absorb it for what it is and see if what it is is something I like. I want someone to diagram that last sentence, I dare you.
I have got a copy of Countdown. But as it sits in my pile of comics from this week, I cannot for the life of me decide if I should read it or not. Or rather, I can’t decide if I should read it before I see the movie, or after.
So, friends, I put the question in your hands. If you’ve read Countdown (or even if you haven’t), convince me one way or the other. Do it in a spoiler-free fashion. And by the time the movie comes out next weekend, I will either read it on Friday, before I see the film, or Sunday, after I see it. And either way, I’ll give you my thoughts on the comic and the movie.
Fair enough?
Get crackin’ in the comments.
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