Star Trek Beyond, the third film in the franchise reboot, starts fast and furious– which shouldn’t be a surprise, since director Justin Lin also helmed Fast and Furious three through six. Capt. James T Kirk (Chris Pine)is attacked and chased by ferocious aliens until saved by the transporter.

The scene ends with a joke, as Kirk steps from the transporter saying, “I tore my shirt again,” a reference to the many times Kirk’s golden tunics were torn in the original series. Both the fast heart pounding action and the humor foreshadow the tone of the film as a whole.

I remember the very first Star Trek episode I saw way back in 1966. Kirk, played by William Shatner of course, faced the Gorn in an episode called “The Arena.” He tore his shirt in that one, too. I recognized the story as an adaption of one by science fiction and mystery writer Frederick Brown. Wow! I thought, real science fiction on TV.

One of the things I loved about the original stories and its many spinoffs is that it introduced the pleasures of science fiction to a huge media audience.

Although the current reboot was originally marketed as “Not your father’s Star Trek,” it really is deeply indebted to the original series. Co-written by Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty, the humor leans heavily on our knowledge of these characters. Pegg also has a juicier role than he had in the preceding films.

Star Trek Beyond avoids the once trendy but terribly distracting lens flare in the second film in the series, Star Trek Into Darkness, directed by J.J. Abrams. The pace is also faster than either of the other two films.

Relationships deepen

Spock (Zachary Quinto), is having relationship problems with Uhura (Zoe Saldana), which is not something we saw in the original series. He also delivers a brief and touching tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy.

We see the relationship between Spock and Kirk deepen in this film, as does the interaction between Spock and Bones McCoy. In fact one of the best jokes in a film occurs when the two are stranded after escaping a disintegrating Enterprise.

The plot pits the enterprise crew and the alien Jaylah against the evil Krall, who wants to destroy the massive Yorktown Starbase with a biological weapon. An essential part of the weapon provides what Alfred Hitchcock used to call “The McGuffin,” the thing everyone in the movie is after. Like many action plots, it’s a bit short on logic at times, but the action moves so quickly, you barely have time to notice.

The special effects are spectacular, particularly those showing the Yorktown Starbase, a virtual space colony enclosed in a giant bubble. The battle and action sequences are also spectacular. Like it or not, CGI adds an incredible dimension to the special-effects world.

More than a few people in the audience got misty eyed in the brief tribute to Nimoy and the original crew.

This is the best of the three since the franchise was rebooted, and the next installment has already been given a green light. With a new series coming as well, it looks as if the Star Trek franchise is still headed into the future..first star to the right and straight ahead until morning.

I’ll say this, when I saw that first episode in 1966, I had no idea I’d still be watching Star Trek in 2016.

In addition to writing about technology and science, Allan Maurer reviewed movies for three publications in Charlotte during the 1990s and wrote about film for OMNI, Starlog, Charlotte’s Best, and other magazines and the ncflix.com web site.