Paging Captain Picard

I love previews. If I'm running late and I think I'll miss the previews, I'll chose to see the movie at a later date or time. They are delightful, condensed versions of upcoming features that pull out the best clips of a movie and make us think that everything coming to a theatre near you is going to be amazing. Recently pre-movie, I saw a whole line up of sci-fi previews set to be released in 2013. As a fan of the genre, this should have made me happy, but I saw a pattern emerge that left me decidedly unhappy.

The story lines in these films varied some, but had major common points. They all involved an unwanted alien invasion: a first contact nightmare situation. The solution for each of these conflicts, whether fighting alien or human, was also the same: grab a weapon and do as much damage as possible. The bombardment of the-world-is-ending-put-your-fists-up images made me long for the old days, the days of The Next Generation.

For those of you not familiar with Star Trek: The Next Generation...shame on you, befriend a Netflix and educate yourself. For those of you who are, you may already know where I am going with this. TNG and especially Captain Picard presented a different vision of leadership and a sort of answer to Captain Kirk's tough guy, shoot first ask questions later antics. Many of TNG's episodes were devoted to tackling conflicts with diplomacy. Through this, many conflicts were resolved in the realization that there had simply been a lack communication. Sure, when talking went south, they had a bank of photon torpedoes and an angry Klingon to fall back on, but it wasn't the go-to option. There was an eloquence to that vision of the future that I have not seen in recent times.

I will admit that a preview does not always do a movie justice, so I could be wrong about the new releases (I hope I'm wrong). However, in case I'm right, I'd like to give a message to all sci-fi and action writers, directors and producers: make some Earl Grey tea, pull out your flute and try to get in touch with your inner Picard, for all our sakes.