.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The latest instalment of the Star Trek movie franchise is young, ambitious, hip and sexy, just like this year's crop of MBA grad students at universities and colleges across the continent. Unlike the students, however, Star Trek will make astronomical sums of fast money and enjoy a long and stable career.

The graduating class of 2009 is descending from the ivory tower into a downward economic spiral that spells high competition for scant job prospects, less courting from fewer firms and a decrease in hiring incentives such as tuition reimbursement.

Nero, played by Eric Bana, is a time-travelling Romulan renegade in J.J. Abrams' reboot of Star Trek. - photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

The young crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise provides these uncertain twenty-somethings with a cast of mythical heroes who enjoy a universe of amazing career opportunities in the intergalactic military.

James T. Kirk, played by theatre actor and emerging screen star Chris Pine (No Exit, Waiting for Godot), is practically pulled into the Starfleet academy by a senior officer who discovers him drunk and bloodied after a bar fight during an Ohio roadhouse rave. Just by getting on board, the raw recruit is assured an officer position within four years and command of his own federation star ship within eight years. He boasts he'll do it in three, then achieves his goal about 45 minutes later.

Mr. Spock, portrayed by Zachary Quinto (Down With Love, Psychic Murders), turns down acceptance into an elite academic program to take the position of first officer.

The young Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, played by Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, The Bourne Supremacy), falls into the rank of senior medical officer after his predecessor is unceremoniously blown into space dust.

The techies ascend the job ladder just as speedily. Sulu, played by John Cho (American Pie, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay), becomes a starship pilot despite questionable skills and a lack of experience when the previous pilot is afflicted by a nasty case of "lung worm". Scotty, played by British actor Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), is given control of the ship's guts after being heralded for his unproven potential as an engineer.

The two crew members who secure employment through on the job merit are also characters who traditionally have to fight for their stake in the job market. Pavel Chekov, played with endearing comic sincerity by Anton Yelchin (15 Minutes, Hearts in Atlantis), is a 17-year-old whizkid who does not allow his broken English to impede his employment prospects. Uhura, played by Zoe Saldana (Centre Stage, Pirates of the Caribbean), is the only leading female character and the only student who has to assert herself to get the position she desires and feels she deserves – and it does not come courtesy of Star Fleet's affirmative action policy.

Throughout the film, the rookies take turns saving one another from death while remedying the incompetence of their older, more experienced colleagues. Grey-haired senior management piles greater and greater responsibility on the newly-employed academy grads while happily relinquishing full control at every turn.

What could possibly intimidate this stellar crew of professionally-trained and confident Starfleet folk? The same villains that frighten today's university grads – the future and manual labour.

Enter Nero, played by Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down, Chopper), a time-travelling, working class Romulan who uses a gigantic mining ship to devour planets and render the entire Starfleet armada into splinters.

Nero's devilish face fills the screen the moment the Star Trek students graduate from Starfleet academy. The new grads have to work together to prove themselves as they try to adapt to an uncertain future in which, as Mr. Spock says, "our destinies have changed."