star trek

i don't know what to say about star trek. it's a crowd pleaser. there's a younger version of scotty, of kirk, of spock, of sulu, uhura, and so on. i liked the addition of the elder version of spock. of course with two spocks you have to have time travel, but other than that i won't give away the plot. i thought it was worth seeing, but in some ways it was just what it could be predicted to be: each character has certain ways of speaking based on the original character. it's a pop culture phenomenon, and that's where the same old patterns come up again and reappear. there is also a sense in which the enterprise and the federation are portraying themselves as "a peaceful armada" yet they go out in ships outfitted for war. well, you might say, they have to defend themselves. and in our time america, as an idea, is a purely democratic society, the last best hope for mankind on earth, you might say. well, there's always two sides to a story. the victor gets to write the history books. empires grow until they run up to other empires, then they struggle and one becomes weaker, one becomes stronger. the idea that the federation is a purely peaceful armada seems to be at least partially based in propaganda. still, i appreciate the idea of a perfect society set in the future where money itself is no longer in existence.