After some early tension, Spock (Zachary Quinto, left) and James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) get along just fine.

Paramount Pictures

Rest easy, Trekkers.

The new Star Trek is thrilling, vibrant, stunning, emotionally solid and faithful to the spirit — if not always to the letter — of creator Gene Roddenberry’s original TV series. It debuted more than four decades ago and has proven to be one of the most durable show-business franchises ever, with several films and television reinventions in its wake … even a cartoon series.

Happily, the new Star Trek movie passes all tests with flying colors. It never falters, with exciting seat-of-the-pants adventures that last right to the film’s very satisfying end which, in fact, mirrors the ending of the first Star Wars movie. (Actually, there are several scenes in Star Trek that recall moments from Star Wars, including a young James T. Kirk joy-riding across the corn fields of Iowa in his grandfather’s Corvette convertible much the way Luke Skywalker rode across his desert planet of Tatooine 32 years ago.)

And the film has a cast who are perfect, very believable younger versions of the original cast, bringing to life all the problems and emotional complexities fans of the series are familiar with without making it look like dress-up day on the back lot. This new crew shows great promise in its ability to carry the USS Enterprise on to many more future adventures.

The script by longtime collaborators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, whose output includes Mission: Impossible III, the 2007 Transformers movie and the Fringe TV series, is intelligent, clever and smart as it reintroduces us to younger versions of the famous crew of the Starship Enterprise, giving each one a chance to shine and showing us how they came together, not so easily as it turns out, to form a workable team.

J.J. Abrams, who previously directed Mission: Impossible III, is better known as the co-creator of the hit TV series Alias, Lost and Fringe. For Star Trek he has merged the daring, next-to-impossible adventures of the plot with three- dimensional characters that have personal crises one can identify with and care about, allowing Star Trek to wear a very human face.

Star Trek begins with a bang as the starship USS Kelvin is under attack from a crew of fierce-looking Romulans and their Captain Nero (Eric Bana) who have arrived in a squid-like spaceship from the future on a mission of revenge to find Spock. But the Romulans’ time warp travel has propelled them too far into the past. Spock is still a schoolboy on Vulcan, being bullied by stone-faced Vulcan youngsters because he is half human and doesn’t quite fit in.

James T. Kirk is still in his mother’s womb on the Kelvin and is about to be born at the height of the battle. His father, George, has taken over as commander after the Kelvin’s captain was murdered by the Romulans. Frantic action aboard the under-siege ship and childbirth make for a dizzying opening, a combination of explosive action and human feelings that will be maintained throughout the film.

When he reaches adulthood, Kirk (Chris Pine), enters the Starfleet Academy, but feels the weight of trying to live up to his late father’s heroic legacy. A brash, skirt-chasing young man who can be counted on to find trouble (an early scene involves a bar fight), Kirk is counseled by wise, understanding Starfleet Capt. Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to shape up and fulfill his destiny.

But Kirk’s cockiness and self-assurance don’t sit well with Spock (Zachary Quinto, who was Sylar on Heroes and looks remarkably like a young Leonard Nimoy), especially after Kirk calmly aces the “impossible” test Spock has designed for Starfleet students that is supposed to simulate a Klingon attack and it is discovered that Kirk has cheated to do it. Their tense confrontation doesn’t bode well for any future relationship. Kirk is grounded for his bad boy behavior, but he won’t let that keep him off the Enterprise.

For much of the film the wary Spock tries to keep a frosty distance from Kirk, especially when they find themselves competing for the attentions of the lovely Nyota Uhuru (Zoë Saldana).

Along the way we are also introduced to new versions of old crew members, often amusingly but never quite seeming like an awkward “and here comes …” moment. They include Karl Urban’s crotchety, ever-complaining Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy whose arsenal of drugs creates bizarre reactions; Simon Pegg’s “beam-me-up” Scotty, at this point still trying to perfect his energy transporter; John Cho’s earnest Hikaru Sulu and, most endearingly, Anton Yelchin’s Pavel Chekhov, whose garbled English and youthful passion to save the day under fire is buoyantly appealing.

There also are plenty of adventures, including more than one outer space battle, which look grand on the big screen.

At one point Kirk, Sulu and another Enterprise crewmember plummet Vulcanward from a mini-spaceship to put out a fire-breathing Romulan machine that’s ominously drilling into the planet’s interior. At another, Kirk is banished to a frozen planetoid where he encounters a furry monster (shades of The Empire Strikes Back), a red crab-like creature and Spock himself (Nimoy), back from the future courtesy of that time warp that also brought the Romulans to the present.

Spock is there to point out to Kirk that the Romulans think they know the future, because they have come from there. But because they have done things in the present that will alter that future, nothing is for sure. Or something. If you think too long about all this, I guarantee your head will explode.

Maybe it’s because of that altered future that the writers can get away with altering some of the details from the TV series, such as the fate of Spock’s mother (played on TV by Jane Wyatt and here by Winona Ryder), or the fate of the planet Vulcan itself. And what’s with the kissy-face moment between Spock and Uhuru?

Better you just sit back and go along for the ride. It’s a wild one. Star Trek is in good hands. May the series live long and prosper.

*****Star Trek

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Bruce Greenwood, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Zoë Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder.

Rated: PG-13, contains violence, adult themes.

mjanuson@projo.com