Space, The Final Franchise

Oh my god, I can not wait! I love the Star Trek universe. Gene Roddenberry and his Star Trek were way, way ahead of their time. It premiered in 1965, the year Black Americans gained the right to vote, nationally. At the height of the Cold War. Yeah, James Tiberius Kirk was a little too quick to fight, and some of the moral lessons of the show seem like "just so" naive plays by today's standards. But still... there was a Black woman officer, a Russian helmsman, an Asian navigator, and a fucking pointy-eared Pan-devil alien chief science officer on the bridge. In 1965. And their mission (their 5-year mission) was to explore strange, new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations, and to go boldly where no one had gone before (cleaned up the sexism and the split infinitive in one fell swoop).
I love Trek for the same reason (I think) so many others do: It's inspiring and hopeful. It suggests the very best of humanity and even points the way. That goes for the original series and perhaps even more so in the Next Generation. Not that I want to fight over that. It's all encouraging and inspiring. That goes for Voyager and Deep Space Nine, and Enterprise. It's an enduring franchise. It's a universe that speaks to so many of us. But Hollywood is fickle, and it's hard to keep mining the same vein and expect to hit gold.
That's where JJ Abrams comes in. This guy is the hot new thing. Creator of "Alias." Creator of "Lost." He singlehandedly saved the Mission: Impossible series, in my opinion. Here is a man who can give us a fresh, exciting look at familiar friends. If you don't like LOST you haven't seen it. If you've seen it and still don't like it you're an idiot. Why am I talking to you? Go see Trek when it comes out, fool.