Boldly splitting infinitives

Sometimes I will go off-topic in this blog and talk about other things that on are on my mind …

I have worked with embedded software for a very long time, but there are other things that have featured in my life even longer. Even though I am not a big TV watcher or movie fan, I have always enjoyed Star Trek. Each of the spin-off TV series had its appeal and some of the movies were excellent (4, in particular, IMHO), but it is the original series that is really special. When I saw it, we did not have color TV in Europe, so it was in black and white. Later I saw the bright color shirts of the Enterprise crew and was amused by the story that they were designed to show the (limited) capabilities of color TV in the US. There was a reason why many people say that “NTSC” stands for “Never Twice the Same Color”.

As you might guess, I have just been to see the new movie, “Star Trek”. I thought I would share my impressions, but try not to give anything away.

Bottom line, I think it is well worth going to see. If you know little about Star Trek, you will just experience a fun science fiction adventure, with lots of action, a bit of humor and a clear delineation between goodies and baddies (the space ships of the good guys spare nothing on interior lighting, whereas the bad guys are more environmentally friendly in their gloom – we are never quite sure about the Vulcans …). If you do know about Star Trek mythology, you will enjoy how they have stitched together lots of historical story-line threads and mostly, but with one gaping exception (which I will not detail, as it would be a spoiler – email me if you want to discuss), stayed true to the original. I really liked the portrayal of all the main characters in their early life – particularly McCoy, Spock and Chekov.

Go see it, but please do not dress up in a federation uniform – they only suit a certain kind of person. Live long and prosper.