Our nerd side unveiled

“The Rise of Skywalker” is the ninth and final episode of the saga. One should consider, though, that episodes 4,5 and 6 refer to events happened some 20 years before 1, 2 and 3 (that’s 20 earthly years; I’m not sure how many that is on Tatooine).

Morally and culturally, our allegiance goes to the Star Trek saga with its very human and slightly “western movie” science fiction created by the spiritual father Gene Roddenberry, optimistic and lay in its imagination of a future when humanity will simply resolve all its self-inflicted problems, just with the power its own mind. However, we have been recently seduced by the many prequels, sequels, spin-offs, returning characters and actors (how could we be indifferent to the return of  Billy Dee Williams and his iconic Lando Calrissian or footage of the late sorely missed Carrie Fisher), by the intricate, bildungsroman-like plots of George Lucas’s legendary  Star Wars saga, now in the capable hands of J.J. Abrams (script writer, director and producer of some of the Star Trek episodes, as well).

It’s a serious matter; more serious than we can imagine and the duality is not only a formal one. We like Star Wars because it does not talk about us; it is actually very far from our sensitivity, sheltered in its remote dimension like a fairy tale. Star Wars forgives us all and makes us feel light hearted in our lack of moral responsibility.

Star Trek is different. Start Trek pins you down to your responsibilities, to the dark side in your human heart hellbent towards the future with all its imperfections and always striving but failing to catch up with itself and overcome its limitations; forever projected towards that ideal infinite comprehension towards which humankind naturally tends but which is always precluded.

We weren’t able to get our hands on a ticket for the premiere and we would not have been dressed up like Skywalker, anyway; we are not THAT type of nerds. But we have certainly enjoyed the movie knowing that we are “away from home” , from the human-centric vision that our orthodox Trekkian upbringing has given us.