Star Trek XI

Well folks, I finally saw Star Trek XI! It premiered this weekend and I went on Saturday and really enjoyed the movie, the time went by so fast while watching I couldn't believe it. The movie was fast paced, very colorful, true to the characters of Spock, Kirk, Bones, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov and Capt. Pike was a wonderful character to have so prominantly in the film. My family enjoyed the movie even though they have limited knowledge of the history of Star Trek. Before seeing the movie, I had avoided all comments, reviews, and blogs, Sci Fi Gene made me chuckle with his post about the movie and I did read it after I saw the movie and agree 100%. I wanted to walk into the theatre with limited info about the movie so I could have no preconceptions about the plot and I am glad I did so because when I left the the theatre after having watched the film I had mixed emotions. One being that I loved the movie and the other was WHAT happend to Vulcan and the human mother of Spock (wonderfully played by Winona Ryder by the way)? They were in the movies and the other series, WTF happened? I was so confused because throughout the movie I kept waiting for young Kirk and Spock with the aid of Spock Prime (I loved that in the credits) to go back in time and restore everything to the way it "should be" in true Star Trek fashion because I had the idea this movie was to be the story of how Kirk and Spock joined Starfleet. Boy was I mistaken! This was no ordinary prequel because the alternate time line stayed in place up to the end of the film and I guess we have to assume that the other adventures that took place throughout the entire Star Trek series and movies continued in an alternate time line. This concept reminded me of the episode Yesterday's Enterprise from TNG which happens to be one of my favorite episodes, and the fact that a single event changed the time line in that episode but of course everything was restored to normal in the end.
So if in the movie everyone began living an alternate time line from the point in time Kirk was born, how do we know that all the characters would still persue their paths into Starfleet? I could go on and on about the nuances of an alternate time line in the movie but the bottom line is that the writers left open the option for fresh new stories for movies or even a television series that are not constrained by the original series and the subsequent series that follow. That idea I liked a lot. The movie was much fun and when it comes out on DVD of course I will add it to my collection.
I thought this video about the Star Trek movie from The Onion was hilarious.