Warp Speed Convert

I walked into the Star Trek preview with almost no expectations and came out a convert. J.J. Abrams made something genuinely exciting—the action lands, the visuals are gorgeous, the score carries you through without announcing itself, and the whole thing has an energy I wasn’t ready for. The story is thin, the kind of plot mechanics you’ve seen in every origin film, but that matters a lot less when the ride is this good.

Full disclosure: this was my first Trek film. Some people will use that to dismiss my enthusiasm, as if you need a PhD in Kirk-versus-Picard discourse before your opinion counts. But I’m not a complete outsider—Voyager was one of my favorite series for a while, and I was genuinely gutted when it ended. The kind of sad that surprises you because it’s just a show until, one day, it clearly isn’t.

The hardcore Trekkies online are furious about the reboot, and I understand the feeling in the abstract. But what Abrams made is alive in a way that matters more to me than faithfulness to canon I don’t know by heart. It could have run another hour. I wanted it to. If they ever bring this crew back as an ongoing series, I’ll watch every episode.