By GustavoLeao / 14:32, 6 April 2009 / Star Trek: Nemesis

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Star Trek The Last Generation comic book writer and former IDW editor Andrew Steven Harris posted in his blog an extensive non-spoiler review of the new Star Trek movie script by J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Here are few excerpts of the review :

Having read the script in a single flourish, is it any good?

The answer is: Oh, my, yes. You're goddamn right it is.

The Supreme Court has powered up all its storytelling weapons and-paraphrasing Nero-fired everything. Action, drama, mythology, philosophy, characterization, romance...literally, all here. Pulse-pounding action sequences, so well choreographed that they actually unfold right on the page. More in-depth characterization than some players receive during entire seasons of Trek. And, most importantly, such elements used not in place of the story, but in direct service to it.

Let's start with action. As a writer, I use a couple of rules when crafting action scenes: #1: Good action is cool shit happening in interesting places. #2: Everything is more exciting when it's airborne. And #3: Never pass up the chance to explode a helicopter. The script exploits the first two with consistent and often breathtaking effect; and, while there obviously aren't any copters in Star Trek, Orci & Kurtzman blow up nearly everything else, again always in service to the story, and not merely CGI showpiece for a picture-frame plot.

The drama? There are a couple of rules when crafting drama as well. #1. Desperate characters struggle against rising stakes; #2: External conflict should be matched by internal conflict; and #3: Get the hell out of the helicopter, douchebag, it's about to explode.

Here again, the script utterly nails it-especially #3, in which (once the story goes to warp) characters find themselves in almost constant jeopardy, either through action itself or the tension leading up to it. That alone speaks to the skill behind the script, since it keeps moments stretched drum-tight even when we're all well aware-because, of course, this is the relaunch of the franchise-that most characters aren't about to get cut in half by a lightsabre midway through the second reel.

OK, enough with the rules-numbering. Let's talk about the characterization. Having written and edited licensed Star Trek, I can tell you that it's really not that dificult to get Kirk's voice onto the page or make Spock sound like Spock. Even Slash/fanfic'ers can do it; we've all seen the episodes and movies dozens of times and know exactly who they are and how they talk. The challenge for this film is to deliver an origin story about how those characters came to be.

On that level, it's a story that will appeal not just to Trek fans, but universally to any fans of good storytelling, who can connect with individuals and the relationships that develop between them, with their character arcs of growth, failure and sacrifice, and their authentic human experiences even amidst the backdrop of exploding photon torpedoes.

You can read Harris full review of the script here.