Trekkies 2

Scott Hardie: “It ruled.”

If you're going for the direct comparison, this film has much better production values than the original, but it's uneven, with an excessive amount of attention paid to filking, fan films, and Trek-themed rock bands simply because they make for good footage. (And if those are the best moments pulled from those rock concerts, I won't be buying tickets any time soon.) But there's no real reason to make a direct comparison, because this material simply exists on its own terms. Roger Nygard could make ten more of these and they'd all be more or less the same, and whether there are celebrity interviews or not, the films are funny and eye-opening. I liked the international theme here, especially the Serbian segment, where the values of Roddenberry's federation took on special meaning to a frightened, war-torn people. It was also good to catch up on the major participants in the first film and find out they've only gotten wealthier and crazier.

If the film has a real weakness, besides the fact that it's directed exclusively at Star Trek fans and would have almost no value to outsiders, it's that it doesn't find a real answer to the question that it poses constantly and is even printed on the DVD: How much is too much? Fans are asked again and again whether they are normal, and no matter how elaborate their Enterprise-themed apartments are and how many Borg implants they put on their cats, they always agree that "some fans take it too far, but not me, I'm normal." Watching the film at home, it's easy for us to conclude that these people are the extreme fans, but the film never does find out who they think the extreme fans are. I could assume it's each other, but it would be nice if the film could provide that answer for itself.

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