a reaction post that is actually hardly at all about Star Trek: Into Darkness
I am at a conference! It is very tiring. Let me talk about Star Trek instead.
I saw this on Monday with my brother and two of his friends. I didn't like it that much!
Mostly it was the Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan thing. I knew about that going in, and I knew I wasn't going to like it, so I was unsurprised. But it was totally distracting to me, and really prevented me from getting into the film. I could see that it was a pretty movie, and that fun action things were happening, but- no.
But other people have talked about Khan way better and with more understanding and articulation than I can bring to the table, so let me talk about this other thing! Because I think one of the things that I was most unhappy about with this movie was that it gave me a glimpse of the movie I WANTED to watch, and then took it away.
Because the movie I want to watch is the one where Kirk does get busted down, and does get taken on as Pike's number one, and forget Khan, that plot doesn't happen, what happens is that Pike and the Enterprise get the five year mission.
So there's Kirk, still reeling from losing his first command, and now being told that he's going to be serving on his old ship for the NEXT FIVE YEARS, with the crew that he loves and a man he admires, but THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HIS MISSION, GDI, and he's so fucking annoyed. And Spock gets back onto the crew, somehow, maybe by annoying his new captain and then pestering Pike, and pointing out that the Enterprise still needs a new science officer for its tremendously important five year mission, and you want only the best, don't you, Admiral, and by the way, I'm sure my transfer would be extremely simple to accomplish-
So there's Kirk, and he's going to spend five years in space with his former XO who he has TECHNICALLY forgiven but he's still kind of annoyed/furious at. It is not an ideal situation.
Except, EXCEPT, it turns out that being an XO is great for Kirk. Because he can voice his opinions, and tell Pike off, and aggressively misinterpret orders, he makes Spock at his sassiest seem positively meek. And Pike lets him know where the line is between advice and mutiny, sure, but that line has a lot of latitude in it, especially on this ship. And Kirk can relate more with the crew on their level, like he's always wanted to, because he's not the Man handing down orders, he's the man relaying them, he's on their side. He hangs out with Uhura and exchanges complaints about Spock, he chills with Scotty and indulges their mutual lovefest with the Enterprise, he jokes about Pike with Chekov and Sulu and the rest of the bridge crew. He does exactly the same thing with McCoy as he always did, because that is an immutable and perfect relationship and McCoy was not affected by Kirk's captaincy very much in the first place (except maybe that he worries less about Kirk jumping into danger because Pike is in charge now, and Pike takes way fewer stupid/unnecessary/heroic risks).
And Kirk even bonds with Spock, because now he understands where Spock was coming from before, and being an XO is a lot of work and your captain is always either a genius or an idiot. And you don't know when you're going to get your captain in trouble and when you're the only thing keeping him out of it, and you're part of the crew but you're also next to be captain, and you're always going to have to balance yourself between your personal loyalty to your captain and your knowledge that he is TOTALLY WRONG AND SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU.
Meanwhile, Pike is teaching Kirk life lessons about why Starfleet regulations ACTUALLY MATTER, and that you can get away with things, but you still have to tick the right boxes and do the paperwork, and yes, sometimes you do things because they're the right thing to do, but there still has to be accountability and you still have to be willing to take the consequences. And Kirk is teaching Pike that Starfleet regs don't apply to even half the stuff they're seeing, and that if you have to make a million exceptions then sometimes a rule isn't even worth paying lip service to, and that if you have to sacrifice a life to preserve the status quo you'd better be really really sure that the status quo is worth it.
And they all go through five years of this, five years of shaping each other. They get back to Earth, and the whole Enterprise crew doesn't quite fit in - they've got their own vocabulary, their own way of thinking, and they'll never mesh perfectly with Starfleet (not that they did before). But it's especially obvious with Pike and Kirk. They're not the same people that they used to be - they almost have more in common with each other than they have with their past selves.
And Pike tells Kirk that he can have his own ship now, if he wants it. If he thinks he's ready.
And Kirk says he's been ready for YEARS, PIKE, YEARS, but actually he would be up for being XO for a little while longer, you know, if it's not too hard on Pike to have a number one who is wise to all of his bullshit. And Pike just smiles.
Anyway, that is the movie I want. Or the fic I want to write. Unless someone has written that, please tell me if someone has already written that.
Also please tell me if someone has written the fic where Pike keeps Kirk on a leash to keep him from getting into trouble (and also for sexy reasons), because that is something that I would like to know about.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/65646.html. Comment wherever you want.
I saw this on Monday with my brother and two of his friends. I didn't like it that much!
Mostly it was the Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan thing. I knew about that going in, and I knew I wasn't going to like it, so I was unsurprised. But it was totally distracting to me, and really prevented me from getting into the film. I could see that it was a pretty movie, and that fun action things were happening, but- no.
But other people have talked about Khan way better and with more understanding and articulation than I can bring to the table, so let me talk about this other thing! Because I think one of the things that I was most unhappy about with this movie was that it gave me a glimpse of the movie I WANTED to watch, and then took it away.
Because the movie I want to watch is the one where Kirk does get busted down, and does get taken on as Pike's number one, and forget Khan, that plot doesn't happen, what happens is that Pike and the Enterprise get the five year mission.
So there's Kirk, still reeling from losing his first command, and now being told that he's going to be serving on his old ship for the NEXT FIVE YEARS, with the crew that he loves and a man he admires, but THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HIS MISSION, GDI, and he's so fucking annoyed. And Spock gets back onto the crew, somehow, maybe by annoying his new captain and then pestering Pike, and pointing out that the Enterprise still needs a new science officer for its tremendously important five year mission, and you want only the best, don't you, Admiral, and by the way, I'm sure my transfer would be extremely simple to accomplish-
So there's Kirk, and he's going to spend five years in space with his former XO who he has TECHNICALLY forgiven but he's still kind of annoyed/furious at. It is not an ideal situation.
Except, EXCEPT, it turns out that being an XO is great for Kirk. Because he can voice his opinions, and tell Pike off, and aggressively misinterpret orders, he makes Spock at his sassiest seem positively meek. And Pike lets him know where the line is between advice and mutiny, sure, but that line has a lot of latitude in it, especially on this ship. And Kirk can relate more with the crew on their level, like he's always wanted to, because he's not the Man handing down orders, he's the man relaying them, he's on their side. He hangs out with Uhura and exchanges complaints about Spock, he chills with Scotty and indulges their mutual lovefest with the Enterprise, he jokes about Pike with Chekov and Sulu and the rest of the bridge crew. He does exactly the same thing with McCoy as he always did, because that is an immutable and perfect relationship and McCoy was not affected by Kirk's captaincy very much in the first place (except maybe that he worries less about Kirk jumping into danger because Pike is in charge now, and Pike takes way fewer stupid/unnecessary/heroic risks).
And Kirk even bonds with Spock, because now he understands where Spock was coming from before, and being an XO is a lot of work and your captain is always either a genius or an idiot. And you don't know when you're going to get your captain in trouble and when you're the only thing keeping him out of it, and you're part of the crew but you're also next to be captain, and you're always going to have to balance yourself between your personal loyalty to your captain and your knowledge that he is TOTALLY WRONG AND SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU.
Meanwhile, Pike is teaching Kirk life lessons about why Starfleet regulations ACTUALLY MATTER, and that you can get away with things, but you still have to tick the right boxes and do the paperwork, and yes, sometimes you do things because they're the right thing to do, but there still has to be accountability and you still have to be willing to take the consequences. And Kirk is teaching Pike that Starfleet regs don't apply to even half the stuff they're seeing, and that if you have to make a million exceptions then sometimes a rule isn't even worth paying lip service to, and that if you have to sacrifice a life to preserve the status quo you'd better be really really sure that the status quo is worth it.
And they all go through five years of this, five years of shaping each other. They get back to Earth, and the whole Enterprise crew doesn't quite fit in - they've got their own vocabulary, their own way of thinking, and they'll never mesh perfectly with Starfleet (not that they did before). But it's especially obvious with Pike and Kirk. They're not the same people that they used to be - they almost have more in common with each other than they have with their past selves.
And Pike tells Kirk that he can have his own ship now, if he wants it. If he thinks he's ready.
And Kirk says he's been ready for YEARS, PIKE, YEARS, but actually he would be up for being XO for a little while longer, you know, if it's not too hard on Pike to have a number one who is wise to all of his bullshit. And Pike just smiles.
Anyway, that is the movie I want. Or the fic I want to write. Unless someone has written that, please tell me if someone has already written that.
Also please tell me if someone has written the fic where Pike keeps Kirk on a leash to keep him from getting into trouble (and also for sexy reasons), because that is something that I would like to know about.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/65646.html. Comment wherever you want.