J.J. Abrams Made Me a Space Nerd

We live in a golden age right now where being a geek, or a nerd, is not only acceptable, but actually kind of cool. If only 15 year old me knew just how great life was going to get! I’ve been a gaming nerd since I was old enough to hold a SNES controller, I burnt more hours than I care to admit playing World of Warcraft, and I’ve even played several sessions of Dungeons & Dragons, but I’ve always found myself in an almost defensive manner stating ‘yeah, but I don’t like space-y stuff’. 

Perhaps I saw that as the final threshold into full on nerd-ism that I was too scared to cross, but until 3 years ago I couldn’t tell the difference between Star Trek and Stargate, and my Star Wars knowledge was limited to the fact that Darth Vader was Luke’s Father. Er, spoiler alert. What made all of that change was the release of Star Trek Into Darkness. I had found my love of movies, and decided that I’d give any movie a chance, no matter how boring it sounded, and I guess at the time I’d thought that backfired, when my husband, then fiance, said he wanted to see the sequel.

I made the even bigger mistake of admitting I hadn’t seen the 2009 version, and so not only was I forced to watch it on that very night, but the next day we went to see Into Darkness. I never thought I’d find myself loving it quite so much! Someone had just made Star Trek fascinating to me, and I owed it all to J.J. Abrams. As I tend to do, I spent an hour on his IMDB profile checking the rest of his work, and realised he was also responsible for giving me an interest in the Mission: Impossible series. Ghost Protocol was the first I’d seen, and so I was super excited when Rogue Nation was announced!

Of course, in December 2015 J.J. Abrams did the impossible, and made me fall hard for Star Wars. So hard, our wedding cake topper, reception cocktails and even my wedding shoes were Star Wars themed. I don’t think my Dad’s ever been so proud of me! 

When the stealthy advertisements came out for 10 Cloverfield Lane, I sat and watched the original Cloverfield that same day, and when the release for the new movie came out, I dragged my family to the cinema like a kid on Christmas Day. Never before have I been excited for something because of a Director. Actor or actress, yes, but not Director. That’s partly thanks to the blog, too, for making me think more critically about what I watch, but still.

So here’s to you, J.J. Abrams, Happy Birthday, and thanks for turning me into the space nerd my Dad and Husband have always wanted! I can’t wait for Star Trek Beyond.