Anything but dead, Jim

I figure I have about 10 minutes. That's how much longer it will be cool to be a Trekkie, following the unprecedented success of the latest movie, titled simply Star Trek (what more do you need?). The previously geeky few have been joined by the temporarily-geeky masses on a multimillion-dollar, blockbusting bandwagon. Even the chronically snarky movie site Rotten Tomatoes awarded the newest Trek a whopping 96% rating. 'Who knew?' the site's blog proclaimed as the glowing reviews poured in.

Well, some of us knew.

But this is not where I stand up and act all righteous about liking the trend of the moment long before the creator of Lost decided to gussy it up. This is about why I am a dyed-in-the-wool, second-generation Trekkie who literally watched re-runs of the original series at her mother's knee and was such a purist at the ripe old age of 13 that I almost didn't give the Next Generation a chance.

Sure, time travel conundrums, world-saving heroics, creative costuming, and the humor contained in one, well-timed raised eyebrow make great entertainment. But that's not why I love Star Trek. I love Star Trek because it is...wait for it...a literary geek's dream show. Yes, folks, that's right. Star Trek is not just for the pocket-protector set. This show has something for every geek out there, even those of us who couldn't calculate our way out of the inner solar system.

Where else in the Hollywood galaxy do whole plots revolve around references to Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, Greek mythology and the epic Gilgamesh? When was the last time your favorite character quoted Shakespeare or spoke Latin? How about your favorite villain? (Both do on a regular basis in the Trekverse.) Some of you may know the language of the Klingons, perhaps Star Trek's best known alien race, has its own dictionary. But did you know someone sat down--at the request of the show's producers--and came up with Klingon grammar, which makes it possible for there to be a Klingon translation of Hamlet and the Bible? In my favorite episode ever, the phrase "mytho-historic" is uttered four times in reference to a race of aliens who speak exclusively in cultural allusion and metaphor. I am not making this up. Abraham Lincoln turns up in one show, Mark Twain and Jack London in another. As the characters are realigning the warp core and setting phasers on stun, they are also pondering what it means to be human or free or faithful to one's cultural beliefs. The series is widely known for its 1960s hippie ideals, but its progressive lens has been aimed at the heart of more than one era. Although the social commentary can get heavy handed, it is just as often prophetic, as episodes on the psychological effects of torture or the dangers of religious fanaticism show. Star Trek has been going in some form for 43 years now. Given the success of its latest iteration, it has a least a few more decades left.

And it'll need them because, thanks to several plot twists in the new movie, the Trek timeline we all know and love--the one that encompasses the 10 previous movies to say nothing of four television series--has been completely wiped out. Dontcha hate it when that happens? Nonetheless, I count myself among the fans who are OK with it. Because the characters remain--as emotive, logical, curmudgeonly, earnest, classy, goofy and universal as always and consistently at the heart of the whole narrative. Despite galatic disasters, a fresh batch of foes and the constant pitfalls of the human experience, they presumably will go on to inspire generations to come, in a parallel/alternative timeline and in this one. I look forward to watching them prosper.