Today, the legions of diehard Star Trek fans get their first official peek into the new-look Trek universe. Curious outsiders may be enticed too. Lost creator JJ Abrams makes no pretence at being steeped in Trek lore - as many of his predecessors have been - and has made a thrill-packed science fiction action movie intended for a new generation of moviegoers rather than the Star Trek faithful.

"I want fans of Star Trek to come watch it, but the truth is I made the movie for future fans" says Abrams, who appears to have taken a few liberties with the established Trek canon. The trailers shows a distinctly emotional Spock, the Enterprise taking shape in some earthly desert rather than a space-dock, and the young James T Kirk hotrodding across Iowa in a sports car that must be (within the continuity of the film) at least a couple of centuries old.

There are scenes of wild space battles and exploding starships too, but Abrams is insistent that it’s about the characters, not the craft:

“Nobody is going to care about the ship if they don't care about the people inside"

Times Archive, 1976: Star Trek

What is the Starship Enterprise but America's unflawed vision of herself?

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The film is set in a period after the action of the last, rather poorly-received, Star Trek TV series Enterprise but before the first episode of the original 1966 show. The original series creator, Gene Roddenberry, was keen to demonstrate that mankind had advanced beyond the violent confrontations of the 20th Century and tried to show Kirk and his crew resolving issues peacefully rather than just storming in all phasers blazing, although there was a little of that too.

There’s certainly enough action and excitement in the new trailer to tempt those who enjoyed Abrams’s TV spy saga Alias and his cinematic take on another venerable 1960s TV series Mission Impossible. Whether he has remained faithful enough to the Roddenberry blueprint to please the countless fans of the original franchise will only be known in May next year.

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