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As a new Star Trek movie hits theaters this week, one can't help but ask a simple question: Why?

The last ST movie, 2002's Nemesis, bombed at the box office. On TV, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager all had successful runs (seven seasons each), but Enterprise limped along in the ratings until it was finally cancelled in 2005 after four seasons.

Kirk and Spock in the new film, opening this week

But the creaky franchise apparently isn't dead yet. So what keeps it going? Geek-love, for one thing. Then there's the love of money, the root of all kinds of reboots. But why, ultimately is Paramount pouring money into an—ahem—enterprise that has been losing steam (in ST lingo, "venting plasma") for so long? And why not push farther into the future? Why return to the original characters—those who inaugurated that storied and fabled "five-year mission"? Been there, done that, got the T-shirt at the Trekkie convention. Why not a whole new crew?

I think one reason is the power the original characters still possess. Trek was never so much about adventuring in outer space as it was exploring the space between our ears—and the space between each other. It was about ideas. It was also about relationships.

Roger Ebert realized that. To those who slammed the wooden Star Wars characters, he replied, "Hey, I've seen space operas that put their emphasis on human personalities and relationships. They're called 'Star Trek' movies."

The original crew, spearheaded by the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, was anything but wooden. Theirs might not have been the most subtle performances, but they made viewers care. Theirs was a strange and wonderful relationship. On his own, each character was strong but, as a team, they were, to coin a phrase, fascinating.

Spock, Kirk, and McCoy on the bridge

The trio worked on many levels. To begin with, these three provided a metaphor for Man himself. James Tiberius Kirk was the lion-like leader, stately and usually calm. Spock was his supremely rational, but somehow melancholy right-hand man. Then there was the volatile, emotional Doctor Leonard McCoy. Together, they functioned as a picture of tripartite man. In Freudian terms, one was Ego, one Super-ego, one Id.

In the 1982 movie, The Wrath of Khan, the three are in Kirk's quarters. They've just learned of the Genesis device, which has power both to create and to destroy life. Remember this clash between Id and Super-ego?

McCoy: Dear Lord, do you think we're intelligent enough to—suppose—what if this thing were used where life already exists?

Spock: It would destroy such life in favor of its new matrix.  

McCoy: Its new matrix? Do you have any idea what you're saying?  

Spock: I was not attempting to evaluate its moral implications, Doctor. As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than to create.

McCoy: Not anymore. Now we can do both at the same time! According to myth, the earth was created in six days. Now watch out! Here comes Genesis. We'll do it for you in six minutes!  

Spock: Really, Dr. McCoy. You must learn to govern your passions. They will be your undoing. Logic suggests …

McCoy: Logic? My God, the man's talking about logic! We're talking about universal Armageddon! You green-blooded, inhuman …

Often, Kirk found himself mediating between the Apollonian logic of the Vulcan and the Dionysian reactions of the doctor. He himself seemed to be a mixture of the two, of wolf and lamb, able, for the most part, to sublimate his human passions into decisive but benign action.

In more Christian terms, McCoy might be seen as the flesh, Spock the spirit, and Kirk the Pauline 'I' (cf. Romans 7), the human being struggling to rise above his fallen nature. Kirk/Spock/McCoy struggled with himself at times, yet somehow remained a unit, as a man remains one person despite the vagaries of his nature.

This trio also served as an inspiring example of camaraderie, particularly the friendship of men in battle. Leonard Nimoy (Spock) once described what appealed to him about the scenario in Shakespearean terms: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers." 

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