Does J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek prequel stack up to the rest of the series? Read on for the real scoop.

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2013)

It all starts with the USS Kelvin investigating a electrical discharge in space that we find out is actually a black hole. Out of the black hole, 129 years from the future, emerges the Romulan ship Narada, commanded by the vindictive Nero. Nero fires on and cripples the Kelvin, then demands that its captain be beamed aboard. Before handing himself over, the captain transfers command to George Kirk, whose pregnant wife is about to give birth to the legendary James T. Kirk at any moment. The senior Captain Kirk orders his wife and crew to escape the Kelvin in shuttles and pods, then single-handedly pilots the ship into a destruct course with the Narada. In the last moments of Kirk's life, his wife gives birth to their son.
Across the universe, Kirk's contemporary, a young, half-Vulcan/half-Human Spock (Jacob Kogan) is tormented by his Vulcan classmates for his mixed heritage. He lashes back at them in a rage more characteristic of humans than Vulcans, and is criticized by his father for it. Years later, when Spock (Zachary Quinto) is old enough for the enter the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy, he declines the reluctant acceptance of the university's administrators, and instead enrolls in Star Fleet Academy, where he first crosses paths with Kirk.
Kirk and Spock immediately rub each other the wrong way when Kirk manages to pass a test simulation, the Kobayashi Maru, engineered by Spock. The Kobayashi Maru scenario was designed by its nature to be a no-win wargame, to test leadership skills in the face of certain death, so Spock suspects Kirk of gaming the system. He presses charges to have Kirk court-martialed, gathering evidence that Kirk has planted a subroutine in the simulation to make it possible to beat the test.