My dad is definitely an old guard Trekkie. He came in when the show was on in its original incernation in the mid-late 6s.

I first really came aboard with the Next Generation although I was always more of a casual fan. I like the original show and TNG, could bnever really get into any of the follow-up series (my dad considers Deep Space Nine to be his favorite of them), liked the movies for the most part (have gone into more detail about that elsewhere).

I liked JJ Abrams 2009 reboot. My dad hated it. My stepmother who, like me, is a casual Trekkie, liked it. That's how it seemed to work with that one. Casual Trekkies enjoyed while acknowledging its flaws, while core Trekkies saw it as blasphemy. My dad and I went to see ST 2009 together. If I go to see Into Darkness in theaters (and I probably will) it will be either alone ro with a friend because he has vowed he will not see it.

I'm a Rebooter. I never watched any of the original Star Trek series, saw none of the movies before the reboot in 2009 and saw bits and pieces of the Next Generation show. Perhaps one day I'll give the movies a look, but for me, it was always Star Wars growing up. I enjoyed the 2009 Star Trek and will definitely see INTO DARKESS.

I've heard that the new film doesn't feature much of the Enterprise--and that's in comparison to the previous film, in which the Enterprise is mostly a mess of blurry background detail.

You cannot claim to reboot a classic series and omit its best character.

Here's hoping the director's chair was furnished by Q-Labs...

James,

Out of curiosity, what are your favorite/least favorite episodes of Star Trek?

"Nemesis, the last of the pre-reboot films, was a box office disaster when it opened in 2002."

To be fair, Nemesis went up against the juggernaut known as LOTR: The Two Towers.

On a different note, I know Paramount wants another Star Trek film in 2016 to capitalize on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.

My mom is a "Young Guard", every year I buy her something Trek related(she has almost every season of "Voyager" and I just bought the 2009 film for her as a mother's day gift), she likes every era of Star Trek, even "Enterprise". I'm going with her to see Into Darkness this weekend, can't wait!

As for me, I got into the series around 2008, the first Trek film I ever saw was Nemesis and it's one of my favorites(my least favorite being the first film). I haven't decided which of the TV series I like the best yet though.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was one of the very first movies I saw in the theaters. I think the second (the first being Ghostbusters II).

I grew up watching Star Trek: TNG. And from Final Frontier and on, never missed watching a movie on the big screen.

With respect to making Star Trek more successful internationally, I read a depressing article in which Paramount's head of international distribution made the following comment about the marketing driving ST:ID's international success - "Basically, it was more action, more of the adventure elements and less of the real Trekkie stuff." (source: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/s ... fice-91006)

As a fan of DS9 especially, but having also enjoyed the other series, that is the most depressing thing I have ever read. I don't know if he was characterizing the international market or the new generation of movie-goers, but the "real Trekkie stuff" to me was the desire to explore and the commentary on the human condition. I wasn't a fan of the 2009 reboot - I felt that they had destroyed any possibility of being able to tell the small, intimate stories in a TV-episodic format because it would be completely incongruent with the spirit of the reboot. We can't move backwards, so I think this is the end of the line for "Trekkies". I doubt that mainstream fans for the rebooted Star Trek today would want to be called that anyways.

Does this mean that you've seen Star Trek Into Darkness but can't write a review yet? If so, can you give us a hint of your opinion?

And I'm in the reboot group. Tried watching the original, but got bored during the pilot.

I feel that into darkness is not just a step up from the 2009 film but possibly one of the best movies ive seen in several years. There's a lot more of the Enterprise, for those who feel it's important to see it, and Benadict Cumberbatch... enough said.

As a straddler of The Movie Generation and The Next Generation, I was a big fan ST:TNG and ST:DS9 and even had a soft spot for Voyager. Not to keen on Enterprise though and not a impressed so far with the new (imo not really canon) J.J. Abrams movies.
I suspect (and hope) Star Trek will eventually be rebooted on TV with an all new show, like was very successfully achieved with Dr Who 2005.

Here's what I wrote about that issue in my review of the 2009 film:

A few of my favorites: "City on the Edge of Forever", "Arena", "The Doomsday Weapon", "Balance of Terror", "Mirror Mirror", "Journey to Babel", and "The Enterprise Incident."

Least favorites: "The Alternative Factor", "Hippies in Space" ("The Way to Eden"), "The Apple", "Spock's Brain", and "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky."

No one asked but the first episode I ever saw was "Return to Tomorrow" (when I was about six years old, although I may have seen others while in my crib).

I haven't seen it; the same is true of many U.S. critics (especially those who primarily write on-line).

Paramount hosted advance screenings on May 1 for select critics. To go, you had to be specifically invited by Paramount. The invitees consisted mainly of high-profile print critics and hand-picked on-line reviewers (such as those who write for STAR TREK and sci-fi sites). Everyone else was blocked.

The official "advance" screening for everyone not invited to the May 1 screening is at 9 pm on May 15 (tomorrow). However, there is an 8 pm IMAX public showing on the same day, meaning that the "press" screening occurs after the film opens. (This has implications beyond STAR TREK that I'll write about soon.) So, to get the review up as early as possible, I have paid my $17 to get a ticket to the (now sold-out) IMAX showing. I'll take an aspirin beforehand to fend off the possible headache that sometimes accompanies IMAX 3D. I expect the review to be posted between 11:30 pm and 11:59 pm, depending on how much I have to write and how fast I write it. I know of two other critics who are going to this showing. One is a high profile print critic who couldn't make the May 1 screening but needs to see the movie so he can do a radio show the next morning.

I am definitely Old Guard. I was 16 when the first TV episode appeared, and it was an epiphany. It was the first true serious science fiction in an episodic TV series. But by the third season, I was almost glad to see it go. The script quality had declined badly.

I understand it when people say the first movie was boring, but for Old Guard like me, it was almost a religious experience. Seeing the old crew back again, and those long slow shots of the approach to the Enterprise, brought goosebumps. But over the years, after all the series and movies, Star Trek has become just another show. It still has interest for me, but nowhere near the passion it once had.

I had mixed feelings about the Abrams reboot. I liked what they did with the characters: the casting was excellent. But the story was beyond stupid. Full of plot holes, deus ex machinas, and inconsistencies; an insult to fans of serious science fiction. I'm cautiously optimistic about the new movie, but if the writers continue to assume their target audience is 12 years old, I will be disappointed.

I'll be waiting for the review...being checking daily! I have a sense the studio is nervous and if JB gives it a 2 or 2.5 stars I am not sure if I'll stick to my 3 stars+ only movies rule.

Last year I thought it was going to be a toss up between ST2 or Hobbit2 for most anticipated movie...but what I really can't wait for is Catching Fire!

I might have misunderstood but Star Trek fandom surely isn't an American phenomenon. I am German and know many causal fans, some Trekkies, have once visited a monthly meeting of Star Trek nerds who would compare their starship models and come dressed in full regalia (including facial prosthetics) - I didn't go again, these guys took Star Trek as a religion - and there have been regular Star Trek conventions in Germany. All Trek-related TV series had decent ratings. I know that it is the same in Great Britain and I expect that it is the same elsewhere in Europe.

Much as I love the Enterprise, it's not a deal breaker for me if it's not in the film much, I can live with that.

STAR TREK is fairly popular in most English-speaking countries and Germany. Not so popular in non-English speaking countries (outside of Germany).

Non-U.S. fandom didn't pick up speed until the '70s. The show was first shown outside of the United States once it went into syndication and was erratically distributed.

Although there are pockets of devoted fans all around the world, STAR TREK has largely been viewed as a North American "thing." Looking at the movie grosses, most of them have done well in the U.S. and abysmally elsewhere. STAR TREK 2009 made about $260M in the U.S. and about half that across the rest of the world, so there is a strong U.S. bias. One of the things Paramount is attempting to change with STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is to give the film a stronger worldwide appeal. The fear is that this means "dumbing down" the entire STAR TREK concept and transforming it into a generic space-based action series.