Trek fans are currently being doused with Star Trek XI photos, coordinated with professional intent via select media sources that quickly spread to the film and science fiction communities. This method bypasses a substantial fan effort previously established with just that purpose in mind, highlighting a need in someone's mind (or corporate department) to micromanage the publicity through the months before release. Reportedly a preview trailer for the new movie will be presented at the premiere of the upcoming new James Bond film. Apparently someone at the switch woke up.

The photos fell upon fans like meat falls on a hungry pack. (Since when does Star Trek fandom ever agree on anything except to need more?) A little disgruntlement arose regarding the new cast, some involving the act of recasting with some regarding the new actors specifically. This can be ignored. Also, with few exceptions the new uniforms were well accepted, the costumes powerfully invoking the original series.

Received more tempestuously were physical aspects of the production. For a movie named after a show named about space travel, where's this vessel NCC-1701? Why does a blinding-bright bridge broken by Lucite blocks need a hostess station complete with barcode reader? It became obvious that, like comic book heroes and the Bond series, this film seeks to "reboot" its franchise instead of remaining entirely cohesive with earlier forms.

True to a reboot, the plot as assembled to date resembles a large crank to establish a framework for future films. The painted villain Nero and generic "nemesis" Romulans seem like a vestige of early elements thrown into a primordial script. Without worrying enough about that critical oversight, director Abrams instead invokes cinematic parody as the reason to cleave his film from earlier work. (That position is understandable though overblown, seeing as much of that satire is aimed at and fueled by stereotypical "get a life" fanaticism that provides our little obsession with such color.)

But despite any temporal tampering employed to contort the new from the old, Abrams is determined to preserve the more important elements of Star Trek: Peace, and Hope. "I think a movie that shows people of various races working together and surviving hundreds of years from now is not a bad message to put out," he said. "It was important to me that optimism be cool again." Endorsing that view is no less than Leonard Nimoy: "My only regret is that the movie can't come out sooner. I think the world could use it."

That has my vote also.