It’s been a while. Again. If you haven’t been looking at my Facebook page, you might have wondered what was going on. I’m supposed to review books, movies, talk about public appearances . . . yep. Stuff is coming.

I figure, though, I should give a quick no-spoiler review of Star Trek Into Darkness. It’ll be quick because I basically cannot say much without giving spoilers at all. 

The movie is very much a sequel. It’s both better and worse than the first one. I had much more fun, and many more complaints, all at the same time. It’s witty, and yet almost every joke is perfectly in character — including Spock.

Spock might be the best part of the film, particularly since Vulcans have always been my biggest worldbuilding issue with Star Trek. See, Gene Roddenberry destroyed the use of the term “logic” in ordinary speech, because Star Trek Vulcans don’t use logic. I thought there was something weird about it even before I took a logic class in college; after that, I just constantly facepalm while watching any attempt at Spock or anyone else at presenting a logical argument. And yes, I know the “Vulcans wouldn’t have studied Aristotle” argument. I’m saying no one would confuse a rock for an orange, and I would never confuse Vulcan  logic for, well, logic.

So I honestly loved the first Star Trek installment where both Spock and other characters actually did use logic. Real logic, not some sort of Hollywood “first conclusion” version of logic. The writers may have even less of a clue than Gene Roddenberry when it comes to interstellar distances, communication difficulties, or how to extrapolate changes in society, but they got this part right. I’ll complain about the rest, but I’ll take what I can get.

And I did like the examination they gave for the Vulcan thought-process when it comes to emotions. I didn’t really care for how emotional Spock was, of course (for values of emotion; but we’re not talking about Leonard Nimoy’s occasional slip or struggle not to smile, and rather about something deliberately included by both actor and writer). However, I did like the extra rounding to the Vulcan philosophy, which seemed to show a Star Trek written by people who actually thought about the franchise. Too bad that thought didn’t extend to other worldbuilding aspects.

In the end, it’s worth seeing. If you’re a Trekkie, it’s a must-see. It has its problems — lots of them — but if you grew up with the franchise then this is the movie for you.