Thoughts on time and Star Trek
Went to see Star Trek (the movie, for those of you living on the dark side of the Moon) last night.
I'll keep this spoiler-free for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but I wanted to air some thoughts.
I enjoyed the new Star Trek film (there, I said it). However, for most of the film I couldn't help but compare it to one clip from Stargate SG-1's episode 200 (for those of you who don't know the episode, it's a pastiche of the series, pitched as a producer who wants to make a new version of Stargate SG-1, but "edgier", with a "younger cast". Hilarity ensues.). This, to my mind, fits the new Star Trek film very well - this is TOS1 for the 2010s.
For one thing, Kirk is ridiculously young. This is a guy in his late 20s, who is (by a series of events which I won't spoil here) put in command of the fracking Flagship of the Federation (think of it as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier if that helps to make the point). There must have been most of a crew more qualified for the job than him! And this is right after his involvement in a series of events which probably did little to endear him to the command hierarchy.
Plus, whilst it's true to character that Kirk was not exactly a man who played by the rules, in this film he not only breaks but utterly smashes so many of them (as well as spending at least 10% of the film involved in fistfights with someone, usually with another member of his crew!). In a quasi-military organisation like Starfleet, that should have some serious repercussions, but of course it doesn't, because this is Kirk we're talking about here. I guess I'm just annoyed that his "punch, blast, blow it all up, what the hell" attitude seems to yield positive results.
This is where I think my rose-tinted glasses are impairing my judgement, but I'm sure that Star Trek was never this... blatantly over-the-top. Maybe I'm just getting old, and my standards for what I consider over-the-top have moved down. Or maybe Star Trek was never very subtle, just that, when I was younger and more impressionable, it didn't occur to me to think of it as over-the-top.
It's a wild ride - the special effects are jaw-droppingly gorgeous (possibly the best I've seen in awhile, and coming from a sci-fi geek, that's saying something), and the film has bucketloads of references and in-jokes for all the geeks in the audience (Admiral Archer's pet beagle? :) ). Often, getting all the references is half the joy for me, and this film provides it in droves.
Also, it's clear the actors are having a blast - Simon Pegg as Scotty and Karl Urban as Dr McCoy (he even gets a "I'm a doctor, not a..." line) are a joy to watch. Even the very post-feminist Uhura gets some good moments (and smoochies! That's all I will say about that...).
To close, here's a badly mangled quote from Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters fame:
"Jim [Kirk] wants big boom."
1 The Original Series, the first Star Trek television series (with Kirk, Spock et al)
I'll keep this spoiler-free for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but I wanted to air some thoughts.
I enjoyed the new Star Trek film (there, I said it). However, for most of the film I couldn't help but compare it to one clip from Stargate SG-1's episode 200 (for those of you who don't know the episode, it's a pastiche of the series, pitched as a producer who wants to make a new version of Stargate SG-1, but "edgier", with a "younger cast". Hilarity ensues.). This, to my mind, fits the new Star Trek film very well - this is TOS1 for the 2010s.
For one thing, Kirk is ridiculously young. This is a guy in his late 20s, who is (by a series of events which I won't spoil here) put in command of the fracking Flagship of the Federation (think of it as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier if that helps to make the point). There must have been most of a crew more qualified for the job than him! And this is right after his involvement in a series of events which probably did little to endear him to the command hierarchy.
Plus, whilst it's true to character that Kirk was not exactly a man who played by the rules, in this film he not only breaks but utterly smashes so many of them (as well as spending at least 10% of the film involved in fistfights with someone, usually with another member of his crew!). In a quasi-military organisation like Starfleet, that should have some serious repercussions, but of course it doesn't, because this is Kirk we're talking about here. I guess I'm just annoyed that his "punch, blast, blow it all up, what the hell" attitude seems to yield positive results.
This is where I think my rose-tinted glasses are impairing my judgement, but I'm sure that Star Trek was never this... blatantly over-the-top. Maybe I'm just getting old, and my standards for what I consider over-the-top have moved down. Or maybe Star Trek was never very subtle, just that, when I was younger and more impressionable, it didn't occur to me to think of it as over-the-top.
It's a wild ride - the special effects are jaw-droppingly gorgeous (possibly the best I've seen in awhile, and coming from a sci-fi geek, that's saying something), and the film has bucketloads of references and in-jokes for all the geeks in the audience (Admiral Archer's pet beagle? :) ). Often, getting all the references is half the joy for me, and this film provides it in droves.
Also, it's clear the actors are having a blast - Simon Pegg as Scotty and Karl Urban as Dr McCoy (he even gets a "I'm a doctor, not a..." line) are a joy to watch. Even the very post-feminist Uhura gets some good moments (and smoochies! That's all I will say about that...).
To close, here's a badly mangled quote from Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters fame:
"Jim [Kirk] wants big boom."
1 The Original Series, the first Star Trek television series (with Kirk, Spock et al)