By Jill Keppeler

jill.keppeler@gnnewspaper.com



More than 40 years since it started its original five-year mission, the starship Enterprise carries on.

On Friday, a new “Star Trek” hits theaters — a sleek revamp directed by “Lost” guru J.J. Abrams that nonetheless has the weight of five TV series (with a collective 28 seasons — more if you count the animated series) and 10 previous movies behind it.

The movies hit their apex in 1982 with “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” and dipped from there — by 2002, “Star Trek: Nemesis” pulled in a meager $43.3 million. After “Enterprise,” the latest of the “Trek” series, was canceled in 2005 due to poor ratings, it seemed possible that the “Trek” phenomenon had ran its course.

Enter Abrams. And Gene Roddenberry’s vision of future looks like it just might have a little more new life to it after all.

“After the first film, I felt that ‘Star Trek’ was a beached whale, and the second movie put it back in the water,” Leonard Nimoy, the original series’ Spock, said in a recent Associated Press article. “This film hopefully will do the same thing.”

The new movie treads old territory in a different way. An alternative history timeline (a “Trek” oldie-but-goody theme) features Nimoy reprising his role as Spock … but Christopher Pine playing a young James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto of “Heroes” infamy as a younger Spock and other, younger versions of the familiar “Enterprise” crew.

“The key to this movie was to be inspired by, embrace and honor everything that’s come before, but with the first scene in the movie, we say we are going somewhere else,” Abrams said in the AP article. “It eliminates that prequel dilemma of having it be just exposition because you know who lives and dies and how it plays out.

“This history has not been written, so it is beginning anew, and it is existing concurrent with the ‘Trek’ that fans love.”

Abrams is hopeful, but only time will tell if Trek fans … some of whom have been squawking online about changes to characters and canon … accept it, and if non-“Trek” fans turn out to see a movie from such a storied — but often stereotyped — franchise.

For some fans, of course, the film marks a way to give their favorite franchise of breath of fresh air — and hopefully, a splash of new blood into the dedicated fan base.

Glen Diebold, rear admiral and commanding officer of the USS Niagara, the local chapter of STARFLEET, The International Star Trek Fan Association, has high hopes for the movie and its ability to draw new fans.

The chapter has members from throughout the area, including Niagara Falls, the Tonawandas, Kenmore, Orchard Park, Rochester, Batavia and even Canada. Its parent organization boasts thousands of members from around the world. New blood, however, would always be good, Diebold said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be the same older crowd; it’s going to draw some new people,” he said. “It’s more of an action-based thing instead of the old familiar stuff that we got used to. I think that will be good for it.”

Some fans have looked at the Abrams’ handling of the familiar and beloved material with some trepidation. Not Diebold.

“Not from what I’ve seen on the previews and the Internet about it,” he said. “It looks like it might be a good restart. Sometimes, things get too common and you need to get a new view on it.”

Diebold got involved with Star Trek during the Vietnam era as “kind of an escape.”

“It’s something where people still have that imagination that things could be better,” he said. “It was a look at what man could do above and beyond what he was doing then. It showed that we didn’t have to be self-destructive. People with an imagination wanted to see something a little further than what was going on.”

Decades later, Roddenberry’s ideals are extended to the fan group’s activities. A major part of USS Niagara activities include fundraising and promoting charity work. They’ve supported Ride For Roswell, the SPCA, the American Center Society, the Food Bank of Western New York and more.

Diebold said he hopes the new movie will continue the ideal.

“It was just the idea that man could be better,” he said. “They weren’t just out there trying to battle aliens, but trying to figure out what’s going on, to help, to explore.”