![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingThings I Did Today: saw the new Star Trek movie at the mall.
Initial Response: SQUEEEE! There are things I am undoubtedly going to be nitpicky about by tomorrow, or maybe even by the end of this post (writing helps clarify thoughts, you know), but my basic reaction while watching was "OMG yay!" and I walked out of the theater with a giant smile on my face that, two hours later, has yet to fade.
Secondary Response: You know, for all that I grew up in the 80s and 90s, TOS was always my Trek. This is because I did not watch commercial television at all until I was ten, and only sporadically thereafter. (Mostly, I watched what my sister watched, and Vicky is not much of a sci-fi fan.) So my first real* exposure to Star Trek was when I saw "The Trouble With Tribbles" at my friend Charity's house; I was probably ten or eleven at the time. A year or so after that, somebody gave me videos of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "Space Seed" for Christmas. I enjoyed the episodes, but I didn't feel any need to seek out more of the show at that time.
Then, in junior high, I rented all six of the TOS movies. I can't remember exactly why -- possibly it was just out of random curiosity, possibly it was because Generations came out in 1994 and I wanted to get context after seeing it -- but over a couple weeks, I watched every one of them. The first was boring and kind of dumb. (I had the misfortune to rent an edition with twelve extra minutes of footage that had been cut from the theatrical release; all twelve minutes were nothing but extended boring sfx shots. *headdesk*) The Wrath of Khan kicked serious ass (and I am still amused that, of only three episodes I've seen of TOS, I'd watched the one to which that film is a direct sequel). The Search for Spock was necessary filler, but it was vastly more entertaining than the first movie. The Voyage Home is sublimely ridiculous and I love it madly. The fifth movie does not exist... well, okay, the camping in Yosemite is canon, but everything else is a bizarre hallucination Kirk suffered due to, I don't know, mosquito bites having a strange reaction with alien STDs he picked up over the years, or something like that. The Undiscovered Country is a little cramped, but nicely executed and worlds better than the fifth movie.
After that, I was a little obsessed with Star Trek for a year or two. And since I am me, my reaction was not to rent any of the old episodes, or to watch the Trek shows then on television, but to find every damn tie-in novel my local library had, and read them three times each. (I process fiction best as words on a page. I don't know why; I just do.) So my great love was always for Spock, Kirk, and McCoy. Secondarily I wanted Uhura and Sulu to get actual things to do, because I knew they could be just as cool as the three leads if anyone would let them, and I have a great fondness for Scotty and Chekov as well, and for Sarek and Amanda.
So this movie was pretty much exactly what I wanted from a Star Trek movie, and in addition to that, they managed to free themselves from the constraints of following previously established canon without overwriting that canon -- they did an AU branch instead of a strict reboot or reimagining -- and I love that, because I have never seen anyone do that in canon before, and it's a beautiful way of sidestepping all kinds of issues... including, say, this Federation ending up as stultifying as the Federation of TNG, because from the bits and pieces I saw of TNG, and from Generations and First Contact, that Federation is pretty damn ossified; I would not want to live there. (The books do a better job of making it feel liveable, and I am told that DS9 also sands off the cludgiest bits, but still. The base premise -- a moneyless utopia with no interpersonal conflict -- is utterly implausible, and stupid besides.)
Tertiary Response: So, old Spock ships K/S, yes or yes? (Possibly in a nonsexual fashion, but dude, that is VERY BLATANT subtext.) Also, Spock/Uhura? I don't think it was implied clearly enough before that kiss, though in retrospect that conversation about avoiding the appearance of favoritism is telling, but I like it. I like it a lot.
Please tell me the ship wars have not started yet. Please tell me people aren't belittling or demonizing Uhura because she gets in the way of K/S in this new world. I mean, it is possible for people to love more than one person -- either simultaneously or sequentially -- without invalidating either of those loves.
But, you know, I don't have high hopes of sanity suddenly breaking out across fandom. I fully expect Uhura bashing to start soon, if it hasn't already. *sigh*
Other ships with noticeable subtext: Kirk/McCoy (lots! also, they are hilarious together), Spock/McCoy (bafflement and a bit of professional admiration - sparks are yay!), Scotty/Enterprise (dude, I have to say, I'm not sure I can reconcile this Scotty with the old Scotty, but he's fun enough that I don't much mind), a little Sulu/Kirk (adrenaline is a funny thing, you know), a lot of very one-sided Kirk lusting after Uhura (and I don't think she hates him; she just doesn't buy any of his bullshit and has better things to do with her time, i.e. school and Spock)...
You know, they should just have a giant bridge orgy. Chekov can join in once he's legal; Scotty can join if he brings alcohol. *grin* Or at the very least, I am convinced that Kirk and McCoy had drunk sex at the Academy, and Kirk, Spock, and Uhura should end up in a threesome on the Enterprise. *nods firmly*
Quaternary Response: Oh, bother. See, I said I might get nitpicky by the end of this post. And here we go: It's true that George Kirk and Amanda get about the same amount of screen time before their deaths, and that their deaths have comparable impacts on their respective sons, but George Kirk's death does not bother me the way Amanda's does. You see, he dies while heroically saving other people's lives. He dies in the service of a cause, at his own choice. Amanda dies senselessly, through random chance, passively. Her death saves no one; she did not choose it. George Kirk's death doesn't just impact Jim Kirk's life; it illustrates his own character. Amanda's death illustrates nothing about her; the only point is the impact of her absence on Spock and Sarek.
If she had died because she stepped onto unstable ground trying to rescue one of the Vulcan elders, or if the elders had been trying to send out evacuation notices and Amanda had stayed to help manage communications or flight paths, I would not have minded her death. Those deaths would have had meaning in their own right instead of just being plot devices. They would have shown who Amanda was.
As it is, her death reduces her to a plot device, and that bugs me a lot.
(I am also mildly annoyed that Winona Kirk vanishes from the film after the opening scene -- seriously, would it have been all that difficult to have Kirk mention her once while he's at the academy, or for her to have been watching his award ceremony? Or if she's dead, could we have been told about that? Because to the best of my knowledge, Jim Kirk is not currently an orphan in this world, and it's hard for me not to think worse of him if he totally neglects his mother.)
Quint... Fifth Response: But still, squee!
*My technical first exposure to Star Trek was via Reading Rainbow, in an episode where LeVar Burton took viewers backstage on the TNG sets, and even got into costume as Geordi La Forge. Somehow, I missed that he was a regular cast-member, and just thought it was very nice of these people to let him mess around with their show. *headdesk* I was very pop-culture deprived as a child. (I also thought the transporter effect was pretty, but that's neither here nor there.)
Initial Response: SQUEEEE! There are things I am undoubtedly going to be nitpicky about by tomorrow, or maybe even by the end of this post (writing helps clarify thoughts, you know), but my basic reaction while watching was "OMG yay!" and I walked out of the theater with a giant smile on my face that, two hours later, has yet to fade.
Secondary Response: You know, for all that I grew up in the 80s and 90s, TOS was always my Trek. This is because I did not watch commercial television at all until I was ten, and only sporadically thereafter. (Mostly, I watched what my sister watched, and Vicky is not much of a sci-fi fan.) So my first real* exposure to Star Trek was when I saw "The Trouble With Tribbles" at my friend Charity's house; I was probably ten or eleven at the time. A year or so after that, somebody gave me videos of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "Space Seed" for Christmas. I enjoyed the episodes, but I didn't feel any need to seek out more of the show at that time.
Then, in junior high, I rented all six of the TOS movies. I can't remember exactly why -- possibly it was just out of random curiosity, possibly it was because Generations came out in 1994 and I wanted to get context after seeing it -- but over a couple weeks, I watched every one of them. The first was boring and kind of dumb. (I had the misfortune to rent an edition with twelve extra minutes of footage that had been cut from the theatrical release; all twelve minutes were nothing but extended boring sfx shots. *headdesk*) The Wrath of Khan kicked serious ass (and I am still amused that, of only three episodes I've seen of TOS, I'd watched the one to which that film is a direct sequel). The Search for Spock was necessary filler, but it was vastly more entertaining than the first movie. The Voyage Home is sublimely ridiculous and I love it madly. The fifth movie does not exist... well, okay, the camping in Yosemite is canon, but everything else is a bizarre hallucination Kirk suffered due to, I don't know, mosquito bites having a strange reaction with alien STDs he picked up over the years, or something like that. The Undiscovered Country is a little cramped, but nicely executed and worlds better than the fifth movie.
After that, I was a little obsessed with Star Trek for a year or two. And since I am me, my reaction was not to rent any of the old episodes, or to watch the Trek shows then on television, but to find every damn tie-in novel my local library had, and read them three times each. (I process fiction best as words on a page. I don't know why; I just do.) So my great love was always for Spock, Kirk, and McCoy. Secondarily I wanted Uhura and Sulu to get actual things to do, because I knew they could be just as cool as the three leads if anyone would let them, and I have a great fondness for Scotty and Chekov as well, and for Sarek and Amanda.
So this movie was pretty much exactly what I wanted from a Star Trek movie, and in addition to that, they managed to free themselves from the constraints of following previously established canon without overwriting that canon -- they did an AU branch instead of a strict reboot or reimagining -- and I love that, because I have never seen anyone do that in canon before, and it's a beautiful way of sidestepping all kinds of issues... including, say, this Federation ending up as stultifying as the Federation of TNG, because from the bits and pieces I saw of TNG, and from Generations and First Contact, that Federation is pretty damn ossified; I would not want to live there. (The books do a better job of making it feel liveable, and I am told that DS9 also sands off the cludgiest bits, but still. The base premise -- a moneyless utopia with no interpersonal conflict -- is utterly implausible, and stupid besides.)
Tertiary Response: So, old Spock ships K/S, yes or yes? (Possibly in a nonsexual fashion, but dude, that is VERY BLATANT subtext.) Also, Spock/Uhura? I don't think it was implied clearly enough before that kiss, though in retrospect that conversation about avoiding the appearance of favoritism is telling, but I like it. I like it a lot.
Please tell me the ship wars have not started yet. Please tell me people aren't belittling or demonizing Uhura because she gets in the way of K/S in this new world. I mean, it is possible for people to love more than one person -- either simultaneously or sequentially -- without invalidating either of those loves.
But, you know, I don't have high hopes of sanity suddenly breaking out across fandom. I fully expect Uhura bashing to start soon, if it hasn't already. *sigh*
Other ships with noticeable subtext: Kirk/McCoy (lots! also, they are hilarious together), Spock/McCoy (bafflement and a bit of professional admiration - sparks are yay!), Scotty/Enterprise (dude, I have to say, I'm not sure I can reconcile this Scotty with the old Scotty, but he's fun enough that I don't much mind), a little Sulu/Kirk (adrenaline is a funny thing, you know), a lot of very one-sided Kirk lusting after Uhura (and I don't think she hates him; she just doesn't buy any of his bullshit and has better things to do with her time, i.e. school and Spock)...
You know, they should just have a giant bridge orgy. Chekov can join in once he's legal; Scotty can join if he brings alcohol. *grin* Or at the very least, I am convinced that Kirk and McCoy had drunk sex at the Academy, and Kirk, Spock, and Uhura should end up in a threesome on the Enterprise. *nods firmly*
Quaternary Response: Oh, bother. See, I said I might get nitpicky by the end of this post. And here we go: It's true that George Kirk and Amanda get about the same amount of screen time before their deaths, and that their deaths have comparable impacts on their respective sons, but George Kirk's death does not bother me the way Amanda's does. You see, he dies while heroically saving other people's lives. He dies in the service of a cause, at his own choice. Amanda dies senselessly, through random chance, passively. Her death saves no one; she did not choose it. George Kirk's death doesn't just impact Jim Kirk's life; it illustrates his own character. Amanda's death illustrates nothing about her; the only point is the impact of her absence on Spock and Sarek.
If she had died because she stepped onto unstable ground trying to rescue one of the Vulcan elders, or if the elders had been trying to send out evacuation notices and Amanda had stayed to help manage communications or flight paths, I would not have minded her death. Those deaths would have had meaning in their own right instead of just being plot devices. They would have shown who Amanda was.
As it is, her death reduces her to a plot device, and that bugs me a lot.
(I am also mildly annoyed that Winona Kirk vanishes from the film after the opening scene -- seriously, would it have been all that difficult to have Kirk mention her once while he's at the academy, or for her to have been watching his award ceremony? Or if she's dead, could we have been told about that? Because to the best of my knowledge, Jim Kirk is not currently an orphan in this world, and it's hard for me not to think worse of him if he totally neglects his mother.)
Quint... Fifth Response: But still, squee!
*My technical first exposure to Star Trek was via Reading Rainbow, in an episode where LeVar Burton took viewers backstage on the TNG sets, and even got into costume as Geordi La Forge. Somehow, I missed that he was a regular cast-member, and just thought it was very nice of these people to let him mess around with their show. *headdesk* I was very pop-culture deprived as a child. (I also thought the transporter effect was pretty, but that's neither here nor there.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 01:09 am (UTC)*nods* That is the single best
excuseexplanation I have ever ancountered for STV.Hee -- yeah, of all the characters, Scotty was the least recognizable in the reboot, but I love the edge of mad scientist they gave him, and yes, Scotty/Enterprise = OTP. :D
I'm already halfway to Kirk/Spock/Uhura (an OT3? Moi?). ;) I have a bad crackbunny started up thanks to
See my ElJay page for a rec to a *really, really good* Kirk/Spock fic based off the new movie (sorry, typing fast,a bout to log off, no time to hotlink).
Yes, Amanda's death sucked big time. >:(
But, as you say, it's still squee time for me, too. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 01:56 am (UTC)I have decided that writing threesomes is more practical than alternating which pairing to write about and which character to leave out. *grin* Although even if you're leaving someone out of a sexual relationship, that doesn't mean you have to leave them out of an emotional relationship -- for example, it's perfectly possible for Spock to love and be in love with Uhura, and to also be best friends with Kirk. But I do not have high hopes of finding many stories that are willing to give a sexual and a non-sexual relationship equal time, so OT3 seems like a practical solution on the reading front as well. *grin*
Other peeves: I am okay with the whole red matter thing -- it's so ridiculous that I think "magic" and let it pass -- but the supernova destroying Romulus is just close enough to real astronomy that I want a better explanation of why the Romulans hadn't already evacuated, since presumably they already knew the star had exploded and there was no guarantee that Spock would neutralize it in time. *makes face*
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 04:02 pm (UTC)Trekverse ships really aren't that big, and even the enormous ones like Ent-D don't seem to be able to move more than ten or twenty thousand people in a trip. I have no trouble at all believing that the Romulans were pulling women and children (IE, breeding stock) off of Romulus as fast as they possibly could, and simply didn't have time to make a dent in even -that- sector of the population.
A major racial homeworld, at least one that's supposed to have a comparatively nice climate, like Romulus, could easily have billions of people - too many to move in the available time even -without- all the other nearby planets that'll -also- need evacuated.
...I really must scrape up the time/money/energy to go see this film.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-15 12:28 am (UTC)Yes, you really do. :-)
I suppose it would be logistically near-impossible to evacuate an entire planet -- though... unless I am misremembering things, should it not be technically possible (at least with TNG-era technology) to beam people off-planet and then not rematerialize most of them until your ship has arrived somewhere else? In any case, the way the destruction of Romulus is spoken of in the movie does not imply any survivors; it's as if they hadn't been evacuating at all. Which is just weird. (Though I grant you, Nero is crazy and Spock was summarizing like mad, so it's perfectly possible there was a large-scale evacuation that they simply fail to mention.)
And the Vulcans don't seem to have attempted any evacuation either. I can maybe argue that they couldn't attack Nero's drill -- he did have a damn big ship with a lot of weapons -- but there's no reason they couldn't have been launching ships like made from the other side of the planet. Also, it seems very odd for there to only be 10,000 surviving Vulcans. Even presuming that they're very good at controlling their fertility rate, it's a little odd that they wouldn't have established at least a few colony planets at some point. The Romulans certainly have colony planets all over, and they did not split from the Vulcan all that long ago.
I think all these problems can be handwaved. It's just kind of sloppy that they need to be handwaved at all.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 02:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 03:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 01:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 01:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 02:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 02:58 am (UTC)(Also, I had been spoiled, so I knew Amanda died at some point. I was just hoping for a meaningful death -- instead, I got a cliff collapsing under her because she was standing in the wrong place. *sour face*)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 08:13 pm (UTC)And yeah, she totally should have gotten a more meaningful death, if they had to kill her off.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-15 12:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-15 07:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 12:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 02:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-14 03:05 pm (UTC)I just went through my whole ST novel collection and it was a lot of fun to try to remember which ones I'd enjoyed and which ones were awful (most fell in between) but the thing I loved the most about the TOS novels were how obsessed with Vulcan they were. Consequently, this new movie which had a lot of background focus on Vulcan, made me very happy.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-15 12:36 am (UTC)I love that focus on Vulcan. You can tell that most of the authors were loving fans, and that they were just as geekily fascinated by Spock and the Vulcans as everyone else.