'Please Stand By' Is a Touching Road Trip Drama About a Young Woman on the Spectrum Who Loves 'Star Trek'

Please Stand By tells the story of Wendy (Dakota Fanning), a young autistic woman who deeply loves Star Trek.  After a meeting with her sister Audrey (Alice Eve) that didn’t go well, she decides to run away from her care home and take a road trip to Los Angeles so she can submit the 500-page script she wrote for a Star Trek writing competition.  As she works out a series of hurdles to beat the deadline, her sister and her dedicated caregiver (Toni Collette) scramble to look for her.

'Star Trek: Discovery' Is Entertaining and Spectacular, but Making It a Prequel Was a Bad Idea

Star Trek: Discovery upset a lot of Trekkies for being so radically and fundamentally different from the time-honored notion and values of a Trek show.  Right from the start, it has always been about subverting Star Trek.  This was clear even during its promotion prior its debut.  But Trekkies were probably not expecting or were not prepared for how utterly subversive it turned out being.

There Is Room for Both 'The Orville' and 'Star Trek: Discovery'

Recently, two similar shows in The Orville and Star Trek: Discovery made their debuts on TV.  The fascinating timing makes perpetual comparisons and a sense of competition inevitable.  It can’t be helped.  It’s simply ingrained in the DNA of geek culture.  Nonetheless, enjoying both is not something impossible.

Nu-'Star Trek' Has a Solid, Fun Third Installment in 'Star Trek Beyond'

So that’s three out of three.  Nu-Star Trek accomplishes a solid, entertaining trilogy with Star Trek Beyond.  There were legitimate fears that this third film would prove to be bad.  J.J. Abrams, who helmed the first two films and set the vision and tone for the nu-Star Trek, gave up the director’s chair to Justin Lin (so that he could do Star Wars).  Now, Lin had proven his worth in making exciting movies with The Fast and the Furious franchise, but there was always a chance that the result of changing of hands might not be as smooth as desired.  It also didn’t help that the trailers for Star Trek Beyond were unimpressive, underwhelming messes.  Fortunately, it was simply another case of “bad trailers, good movie.”