The New Star Trek and Why I Will Always Love Trek

The new Star Trek movie, Star Trek: Beyond, is set to be release next summer. Its trailer was released today.

I don't think it betrays much information about the plot, but Trek purists are all in a Twitter, nonetheless. But they will go to see it and so will I.And even if it sucks, I will watch it more than once. There are two reasons for that.

From Day One in 1966, I have been a huge Trekkie/Trekker/whatever. As was so for most black Americans, the presence of Lt. Uhura on screen--not fat, not cooking, not cleaning and not wearing a rag on her head--was very uplifting to me. But, there was more about Nyota Uhura that caught my attention.

The name of her character indicated to me that she was from my father's neck of the woods: eastern Africa. Yes, I used to catch a lot of crap from other blacks for being a real, live, spear-chucking African and Lt. Uhura, as portrayed by the still-beautiful Nichelle Nichols, eased some of the pain of my childhood. I was a smart enough kid to imagine myself as being her N^th great-grandmother. Trek for life, baby!

But, leaving that aside, I like Trek and always have because I care what happens to all of the people set in the Trek universe(s). As a counter-example, I am not a Star Wars fan because I don't care about its characters, as evidenced by the fact that I have never been able to stay awake during any of the movies. Yes, I said it.

Well, at least there's one thing to look forward to in the upcoming year.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I have absolutely no problem with Zoe Saldana's portrayal of Uhura. But if Ms. Saldana were to step down from the role, I think it should be offered to my kinswoman, Lupita Nyong'o--a bit of type-casting, to be sure.

LOL: I had no idea that Lupita was cast in the new Star Wars movie.

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