Or at least he bloody well should be.  It took me a few days to decide just how I feel about this Star Trek news, but I have finally come down on one side of the fence or the other... on all counts.  First, for the love of all that is holy and good in the universe, could we please stop beating the Star Trek story line into the dirt, dust, crust, scalding magma, melted outer core, and superhot inner core?  I mean, if nothing else, Enterprise firmly demonstrated just how tired, dead, expended, and generally lifeless the Star Trek storyline has become over the years...  For God's sake, they had to completely rewrite the entire gorram storyline and history of Star Trek just to give Enterprise something even remotely approximating a good story.  If that is not an indication that a story should be stepped away from for a little while, I honestly do not know what would be. 

And here comes another movie... when the last one (Nemesis) was certainly nothing to write home about...  Oooh, the deformed, even-more-malicious bastard cousins of the Romulans have a cloned Picard and are going to take over the galaxy!  Scary!  And they killed Data!  That, alone, makes the movie capable of jump starting a bloody fleet of Hoovers.  Regardless, over the years and decreasing quality of shows/movies, it has become painfully obvious, at least to someone like me, that the writers and producers of Star Trek desperately need to step away from their keyboards and go frolic in the flowers, or go on a trip (vacation or chemical, at this point, I really do not care), or just stop beating up something that used to be grand and enjoyable.  Voyager was nothing more than one evilly destructive spatial anomaly after the other.  Deep Space Nine was literally stuck in place, and due to the very construction of the show, there was no way to change it, even with the introduction of a galaxy-sized war and one hell of a combat ship.  It is kind of sad when one hell of a war, complete with dominating aliens, shape-shifting assassins, and entire fleets being annihilated cannot save a scifi show. 

In short, people everywhere, especially the people responsible for Star Trek, need to take a break from it.  A nice, lengthy break from it until they can start making original ideas again. 

Second, Kirk is not Star Trek.  Now, we could go 'round and 'round and 'round about which Captain is the better one, to pretty much no end, purpose, or conclusion, but even the most blind William Shatner fan will have to confess at least an inkling of knowledge about the other Captains of the universe.  So why do we have to keep resurrecting this guy?  Let him die in peace, conquer all the crinkly-forehead-lacking Klingons in the afterlife, and leave it at that. 

Third, what kind of crack was J.J. Abrams smoking to come up with the idea of including William Shatner in a movie concerning the childhood of William Tiberius Kirk?  Newsflash:  William Shatner is seventy-five years old - turning 76 this year.  Just how, exactly, are you going to explain to the young, still-in-the-Academy Kirk that his 50-year-older clone is running around the Academy, shadowing/haunting him?  Is that the most ludicrous idea you have ever heard, or is it just me?  I suppose if they were trying the ghost angle, it might work a little... looking back to check up on himself or something, but good Lord.  Try and think before you come up with these half-assed-only-made-because-we-want-to-include-a-big-name ideas! 

Fourth, the story itself...  I hate to point out just how poorly other "The Young..." stories have failed over the years.  I admit that I am vaguely curious to see how they play it out, but it really does seem as though they are desperately stretching for ideas, concepts, and excuses. 

*sighs*  You know, I grew up on this show... a random mishmash of The Original Series and The Next Generation, and enjoyed every minute of it.  However, it seemed as though, with every new iteration, something was lost.  I had been hoping that after the relative failure of Enterprise, that the writers and producers would let the storyline sit for a while, if not retire it entirely.  Unfortunately, it seems as though the draw of money became too much.  Figures. 

Will I go see it?  Probably.  I will still rip it apart afterwards.