Raison d'etre, modus operandi, curriculum vitae
This journal exists, right now at least, for one reason and one reason only: the new Star Trek movie. There is no compelling reason for me to clog up the Internet with my thoughts on any other subject. Perhaps there is no compelling reason to clog up the Internet with my thoughts on Star Trek either, but tough shit. This movie has monopolized my mind for the last month, and my thoughts require an outlet.
To begin: I am a new-school Trekkie*, and no other kind. A neo-Trekkie? A Trekkie 2.0? A Rebooter? An '09er? A JJ-ite? A Trekkie A.D.? A Canon Killer? What are we calling ourselves? We need to figure it out soon, because we are legion. Wait - if we're legion, then maybe the proper term for us is...Regular People?
No, that's not fair, or necessarily accurate. Give us a little more credit than that. We haven't made Trek fandom one with the mainstream, exactly. We only sat by curiously as the mainstream and the fandom underwent a sort of arranged yet quasivoluntary mating ceremony not entirely unlike pon farr, and then were sensible enough to dig the excellent cuteness and good-humored temperament of the resulting baby, rather than taking sides with either of the now-squabbling parents.
So I'm a canon-killing New Trekkie because I love the new movie, and I love the new movie first and foremost because I love the new Spock. I feel good about every single major cast member, thoroughly appreciate Bruce Greenwood, and even approve of the opportunistic but appropriately irreverent stuntcasting of Winona Ryder and Tyler Perry. But Zach Quinto and his Spock are for me the single biggest reason this movie works so well.
Oh, sadness. The Spock/Kirk pic will NOT resize. Anyway, that's Ortzman on the right.
As good as ZQ is, though, I can't forget to say that this is also Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman's Spock. The way in which Orci and Kurtzman** have reimagined Spock's relationship to human emotion is to me the single most interesting thing about the character and thus the whole movie. The most obvious expression of this, natch, is the Spock/Uhura relationship, which I am 1000% thoroughmegacompletely behind, and which I hotly await further development of in the sequel. I assume this more openly acknowledged but still delightfully conflicted emotionality of Spock's will also play out in his nascent friendship with Kirk, whether slashily or otherwise. Can't wait for that either.
For now, though, the Spock/Uhura thing is central to me. Yeah, I admit it - I'm a straight chick who finds this pairing sexy; why bother with denial when this actually seems, weirdly and wonderfully enough, to be the dominant audience reaction to them as a couple? But Ortzman have struck gold with these two, in far more than a box-office sense. They can use this relationship to explore a whole bunch of other really interesting shit, if they're so inclined - race and gender issues in the 23rd century, holla! Not to mention that Spock/Uhura will complicate Spock/Kirk in a potentially, um, fascinating way.
Two years being an unreasonably long time to wait for more along these lines, however, I will be filling the void with whatever materials come to hand. If I run short, I am more than willing to make them up myself.
*I have no truck with the term "Trekker," which I find hilariously, self-sabotaagingly P.C. Also, I am not currently engaged in any expansionist land-grabbing in South Africa.
**Hereafter "Ortzman," or perhaps, in moments of obnoxiousness, "Kurtci".
To begin: I am a new-school Trekkie*, and no other kind. A neo-Trekkie? A Trekkie 2.0? A Rebooter? An '09er? A JJ-ite? A Trekkie A.D.? A Canon Killer? What are we calling ourselves? We need to figure it out soon, because we are legion. Wait - if we're legion, then maybe the proper term for us is...Regular People?
No, that's not fair, or necessarily accurate. Give us a little more credit than that. We haven't made Trek fandom one with the mainstream, exactly. We only sat by curiously as the mainstream and the fandom underwent a sort of arranged yet quasivoluntary mating ceremony not entirely unlike pon farr, and then were sensible enough to dig the excellent cuteness and good-humored temperament of the resulting baby, rather than taking sides with either of the now-squabbling parents.
So I'm a canon-killing New Trekkie because I love the new movie, and I love the new movie first and foremost because I love the new Spock. I feel good about every single major cast member, thoroughly appreciate Bruce Greenwood, and even approve of the opportunistic but appropriately irreverent stuntcasting of Winona Ryder and Tyler Perry. But Zach Quinto and his Spock are for me the single biggest reason this movie works so well.
Oh, sadness. The Spock/Kirk pic will NOT resize. Anyway, that's Ortzman on the right.
As good as ZQ is, though, I can't forget to say that this is also Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman's Spock. The way in which Orci and Kurtzman** have reimagined Spock's relationship to human emotion is to me the single most interesting thing about the character and thus the whole movie. The most obvious expression of this, natch, is the Spock/Uhura relationship, which I am 1000% thoroughmegacompletely behind, and which I hotly await further development of in the sequel. I assume this more openly acknowledged but still delightfully conflicted emotionality of Spock's will also play out in his nascent friendship with Kirk, whether slashily or otherwise. Can't wait for that either.
For now, though, the Spock/Uhura thing is central to me. Yeah, I admit it - I'm a straight chick who finds this pairing sexy; why bother with denial when this actually seems, weirdly and wonderfully enough, to be the dominant audience reaction to them as a couple? But Ortzman have struck gold with these two, in far more than a box-office sense. They can use this relationship to explore a whole bunch of other really interesting shit, if they're so inclined - race and gender issues in the 23rd century, holla! Not to mention that Spock/Uhura will complicate Spock/Kirk in a potentially, um, fascinating way.
Two years being an unreasonably long time to wait for more along these lines, however, I will be filling the void with whatever materials come to hand. If I run short, I am more than willing to make them up myself.
*I have no truck with the term "Trekker," which I find hilariously, self-sabotaagingly P.C. Also, I am not currently engaged in any expansionist land-grabbing in South Africa.
**Hereafter "Ortzman," or perhaps, in moments of obnoxiousness, "Kurtci".