There are so many good sub-threads in this thread that I'll add about 8 cents (4 sets of 2):

I think Ebert's distinction that the latest Star Trek movie represents good ol' fashioned Space Opera (as opposed to the world of ideas that TOS strived for) is right on. JJ Abrams was out to develop a prequel setting up the main characters, he did this through excellent casting and a plot that never stood still, barely cohered, through pretty much everything at the screen from parallel worlds to time travel, and didn't have a moral thought in its head. It was for me entertainment that moved quickly through the ears without leaving much there to stick. Clearly the main characters were chosen for their resemblance to TOS characters, and were encouranged to speedily adopt the speech pathologies of the timeless dialog of sci-fi in the sixties.

I enjoyed it for what it was and I don't think it put on airs of being much more than that.

JJ Abrams is an interesting character. He is capable of originality, as in "Cloverfield" which I loved, and he is capable of some pretty blatant re-framing of other folks' ideas, as in the television show "Fringe" being an attempt to warm over "X-Files", (and not fully successful).

As for racism, TOS was an obvious attempt to transcend both racism and nationalism. The episode about the two races with coloring mismatched left-for-right ready to fight to the death was an attempt to show the stupidity of racism and its persistence in spite of the stupidity. There was an episode where one of the most brilliant scientists of the age introduced robotic control to the Starship Enterprise which put the crew in fear of being replaced by machines. The brilliant scientist was played by a black actor. In another episode Lincoln is revived for some reason and he addresses Uhura as a 'negress' at which there was a brief discussion about words no longer in use.

I preferred STNG for the effects, sophisticated story lines, and of course, Jean-Luc! I also liked DS9 for its darker themes and variety of characters, Ferenghi included, and of course, Sisko.

In the new movie I enjoyed the Chekhov character exchanging 'Vs' for 'Ws' just the way the original Chekhov character does (and the OPPOSITE of what real Russians do!).

As for alien depictions of 'Jews', everyone who KNOWS TOS knows that its the Vulcans who are the Jews. Star Trek NG had an alien race who made commerce their chief raison d'etre. They have characteristics that have been aimed at Jews but they are not depicted as Jews in any other sense. Therefore, saying that the Ferenghi are 'Jews' is more a judgement on the person who makes the association, less a perception of Ferenghi as Jews. If you yourself associate Jews as people dominated by the acquisition of wealth, then you will associate Jews with Ferenghi.

In actuality, the Ferenghi represent the greed inherent in all us humans. And as mentioned by McGrath, Quark's nephew went against type and enrolled in Starfleet thus demonstrating that great Trek theme that no one is excluded from redemption (though all his relatives thought he was nuts).


Now, if you want to go after some real depictions of aliens with Jews, you have to exonerate Star Trek and go over to Star Wars. Star Wars Episode I the Phantom Menace had two, no, three, pretty nasty human race associations. The first, as everybody knows, is that horrible character Jar Jar Binks, who was interchangeable with early movie depictions of persons of various colors as cheerful brainless ones, (not to mention a downright offense to Gungans everywhere, but presumably they're too cheerfully inane to register the insult). Then there were the nasty ambassadors who appeared early in the flick in the snoozy delegation scenes to be downright Nipponese stand-ins of the sort that killed Jimmy Cagney in "Blood On The Sun". And finally we have Watto, the fat, elephantine nosed junk shop slave-owning cheapskate with an accent that sounded like jackie mason with a headcold. There's your sci-fi nazi scapejew!

Getting back to JJ's Star Trek. I think it is a valid introduction of the 'next generation' of young moviegoers to the characters if not the ideas of the Roddenberry universe. And the effects were head and shoulders above those of any other ST movie.

Two and three quarter stars.