Live Long and Angry? Star Trek Trailer Upsets Fans!

How have we never heard the term "internerds" before? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tina Fey uses our new favorite new word to describe the hordes of opinionated internet commenters who have become an extremely vocal minority in the last few years. Brilliant, Ms. Fey! We're totally stealing that... starting now: the trailer for J.J. Abrams' reimagining of Star Trek, which premiered in front of Quantum of Solace this weekend and is now available online (in HD!), has made the internerds very, very unhappy. To put it another way, hell hath no fury like a Trekkie scorned!

A quick scan of Ain't It Cool News reveals that the natives are not only restless, but also kinda pissed. Things like "terrible trailer," "it doesn't inspire much confidence," and the ubiquitous "raped my childhood" are written with passionate fervor and the caps lock firmly engaged. Even a Trekkie that actually liked the trailer had to write that he/she wouldn't consider the upcoming film "canon".

While we happily consider ourselves part of the nerd community, we never succumbed to the Star Trek phenomenon. We always felt like Star Trek was Dungeons and Dragons but pushed into the final frontier--the whole "dressing up like your favorite character" thing is a case of nerddom run amuck. Plus, James T. Kirk was never as cool as Han Solo, even if he did come first. Yet, that being said, we think the trailer looks pretty badass. Mr. Abrams has molded his vision of Star Trek into part origin story, part Star Wars and part Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer summer action blockbuster. There are car chases, explosions, and though we could do without the Phantom Menace-style space dogfight, the presence of Simon Pegg almost makes up for it. How could we not want to see this?

And that's where the disconnect lies. Mr. Abrams has made a movie for nerds like us, not nerds who still debate the merits of Star Trek: The Next Generation against Star Trek: Enterprise. But for Star Trek to be a success, he needs everyone to come out and buy a ticket, not just guys dressed like Klingons.

So if you're a Trekkie (or, if you prefer, Trekker), perhaps stardate May 8th, 2009 isn't something you're looking forward to. For the rest of us, we'll set our phasers to stun and give Mr. Abrams a chance to show us if he's the next Steven Spielberg... or Michael Bay.