Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek, the new film. Premieres May 8.
Some will grumble that I didn't place the new film higher on this list (below a DSN episode?) and some will grumble that I include it at all. Here's our official review, but my fan review is this: the new film is the most polished Trek product ever created. It is sleek and scary; the actors are gorgeous; the pacing is flawless. As a fan, I can't wait to see it again (and again, and again). Zachary Quinto, brilliant as a young Spock, perfectly manages the trick of coiling his emotions under a carapace of logic. Chris Pine — well, I could look at that man every day and twice on Sundays and not grow bored with his adorable aw-shucks-ness. And Eric Bana, who plays the villain, is an actor steely enough to withstand the extreme, frightening close-ups that director J.J. Abrams draws onto his face. Still, as an ensemble cast, this one fails; the actors don't seem to have spent much time together. Also, more important, this new film presumes to create a giant disruption in the established Trek canon that I'm not sure was necessary. Suffice to say that it (again) involves overly complex time travel. I know this is sacrilege, but I'm not sure we really needed to see Leonard Nimoy again.