As it happens, we went to see this again last night. Still good the second time.

I’d've been more okay with the Spock/Uhura thing if she hadn’t jumped his nonresponsive bones in an elevator directly after his planet exploded. (It creeped me out so much.) I can understand wanting to give him a hug of sympathy. Patting him down with kisses? Not so much. (The make out on the teleporter pad though? I was totally down with that. Especially the Kirk-Spock exchange directly after it. Hilarious.)

And my favorite character by far was Scotty, followed by Bones (sort of…definitely not Kelly but that scene with him going “I can fix that!” cracked me the hell up).

Did not like the Uhura/Spock thing. Was weird for me but I can see how they could want to toss things around.

So overall- not too bad but still not the originals for me.

Additionally, apparently Lithuanian (a Baltic language, not Slavic, but still..) has [w] and not [v], and Walter Koenig’s parents were Lithuanian-Jewish. If Koenig modeled his accent off listening to his parents and other Lithuanians speak English, and if they constantly used the [w] that they were familiar with, I would find that a plausible explanation.

(The discussion that put me most at ease is at http://volokh.com/posts/1242082715.shtml . When are you going to give us a preview function so I can check my html? :3 )

Re: Chekov’s accent, you might be amused by what the actor has to say about it.

Last Sunday a bunch of us from work trekked down to Orlando to see it in IMAX! It was excellent. Then I saw it again here this week, and I want to watch it a third time.

All I wanted to see was the McCoy-Kirk-(Spock) relationship, and it delivered everything I hoped for. It’s always been a character-driven story, to me.

There were also dozens of nods to the original series, from the senseless death of the redshirt, to the tribble (watch for it!), to Chekov’s incorrect Russian accent (though one *could* argue that it’s an overcorrection issue, which you do see in some native Russians speaking English as a second language…). Half the audience kept roaring with laughter and confusing the rest of the audience. XD

I also LOVED the cinematography. I know that not everyone is keen on the “Star Trek: Lens Flare Edition”, but I really enjoyed it. It was lovely to watch.

I look forward to your babble!

I think possibly, no offense to Roddenberry- but the fact that he and his wife have both left for the final frontier may have given that room that Abrahams needed to play. I think Lucas is too close to his universe and a little too controlling. Seeing things through fresh eyes can help (as long as those fresh eyes don’t think themselves better simply for being ‘young and hip!’)

But I will probably babble more upon seeing the movie.

The reason it doesn’t quite work as a parallel is that with Trek, there wasn’t a specific event that we were picturing; we were just left to imagine how everyone met each other in a general sort of way. I think I assumed that Kirk and Spock probably took a while to figure each other out and warm up to each other, but Abrahms had plenty of vagueness — and happily, he was able to use it to good advantage.

I do love a few of the old Trek movies (2, 4, and 6), but there is something awfully fun about having a cast who are full of youth and vigor!

P.S. If any of my regular readers are confused: the above poster isn’t the JC who is my husband; it’s another friend with the same initials.

I think this is the biggest success of the film. It’s going to bring in tons of new fans.