For: sexual scenes and sensuality, language, evolutionary cosmic pluralism, moral confusion, and some humanismStar Trek, aside from being an inherently problematic idea from day one, voluntarily takes on in its 2009 incarnation the task of searching the known universe for bigger and badder jerks to promote, more perverse sexual acts to joke about, even more problematic spiritual impossibilities, and a spaceship full of actors who are really bad at swearing but apparently had to get their cuss-quota filled somehow. Yes, Star Trek is full of action. So are a lot of other, better movies.
NOTE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF AND QUOTES FROM Star Trek WHICH ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR READING BY PERSONS UNDER THE AGE OF THIRTEEN
Sexual Scenes and Sensuality
A girl sarcastically accuses the main character, James Kirk, of having “sex with farm animals”. He jokingly admits to it.
Kirk makes a suggestive comment about a woman having a “talented tongue”.
Kirk is shown, undressed down to his underwear, on top of a buxom woman undressed down to her underwear, on her bed. The two are groping and kissing each other with the lights out.
A female character undresses down to her underwear. Kirk, hidden from view, watches with pleasure. She ends up being more affronted by his presence in her room without her permission than by his seeing her undressed, and stands there in nothing but her underwear telling him off.
During a fight, Kirk ends up falling with his hands on a girl’s breasts. She is indignant. He smiles.
Kirk is seen hitting on girls, and it is implied to be a habit.
Scotty the engineer personifies the starship Enterprise and describes it in a combination of mechanical and sexual terms.
All of the female cadets wear mid-thigh skirts.
Language
G-d
G-d
G-d
G-d
f-cking
G-dd-mn
d-mn
d-mn
d-mn
d-mn
d-mn
d-mn
d-mn
d-mn
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
a--
a--
a--
a--
a--
b-stard
b-stard
bullsh-t
Evolutionary Cosmic Pluralism
Star Trek is entirely dependent on the concept of non-human alien life forms. The sole mission of the spaceship is “to seek out new life forms and new civilisations.” The extraterrestrials that have already been found are humanoid, have human thought patterns and moral consciousnesses, and can interbreed with humans, but are consistently differentiated from them in both nature and origin.
Problem number one: every last one of these non-human creatures is obviously sinful. Not being human means that their sin nature doesn’t come from the first Adam. It also means that they cannot be saved by the second Adam. Jesus Christ could only atone for human sin by virtue of his being fully God and fully man. Humans can believe on Christ unto salvation. Categories of beings who do not have that option include angels, flees, alkaline batteries, and non-human aliens. For a morally-responsible alien, it’s either hell, because there is no atonement for aliens, or heaven because they were a basically nice person and God just winks at their sin. Hell or heresy. There is no third option.
Problem number two: the half-human, half-alien individuals. Mankind was made in the image of God. The Vulcan race was not. While the human-like appearance of the aliens may make this weird mixture seem natural, ethically and philosophically it’s exactly the same as genetically melding a half-human, half-rhinoceros. Or, for that matter, breeding one “naturally”.
Moral Confusion
Throughout the movie, Kirk is portrayed as a complete jerk. He’s also portrayed positively.
A ten year old Kirk is seen joyriding, speeding, fleeing the police, and driving someone else’s antique car off a cliff. He then cockily asks, “Is there a problem, officer?” This is the hero of the story, and he doesn’t change much between the early years and the main part of the plot. If he had been caught driving drunk at that age, it wouldn’t seem so cool or so funny, but what he did do is just as criminal, and just as dangerous.
An adult Kirk cheats on a military academy test, and not only gets away with it but is praised for it.
Kirk, who is known to be a “repeat offender”, and who is not only in disfavor with the military, but violated clear military orders just to get on the ship, is rewarded by being made first officer and ultimately captain.
A very positively-portrayed alien people, along with a positively-portrayed human, are seen in a time of great peril gathered around a giant statue of a female, holding hands in a circle and staring up at it. Best case scenario, this is idolatry light.
Kirk’s girlfriend of the moment tells him (as they’re tumbling around in bed together, mostly naked) that she thinks she loves him. He replies, “That is so weird.” She gets mad at him for it, but her only thinking she loves him after she gets him into bed just exacerbates the problem of their illicit sexual relationship. And while she may be upset with Kirk for treating her like a prostitute, the audience is supposed to, at best, think he’s funny, and at worst be on his side.
Some Humanism
After coming out on the other side of a black hole, an aged version of the popular character Spock finds himself face to face with… himself. Having disrupted the time continuum, Spock has not only altered reality and literally changed everyone’s destinies to the theoretical extent that people who existed and were born in the original reality no longer exist in this alternate reality because their parents died a lot younger this time around. In addition to the theoretical annihilation, Spock has created another self. There are now two Spocks living at the same time, with two different fates. If the two of them cycled back through the black hole together there would be three or four Spocks. In Star Trek, the time continuum is the key to existence. To manipulate it is to control the existence and nonexistence of anyone in the universe. And they can manipulate it.
