Star Trek XI! Vid and fic recs, plus my review
Star Trek XI is my latest craze, it's fun and exciting and you should all go watch it before it leaves the theaters.
I really did enjoy it, and I think it may be my favorite movie of 2009, already. It’s a great action movie. It has a quick pace that moves along quickly through the story, but the individual scenes are cut really quickly also, giving the whole movie a really aggressive feel that I liked. I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters, the fun snappy banter that made me laugh out loud. They did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life, in my opinion, especially Spock. Zachary Quinto looked and acted just like him, and I really felt for his losses. And I loved the relationship between Spock and Uhura. I’m a sucker for a good romance, and theirs was well done. The whole thing gave me a kind of nostalgic squee that I haven’t gotten over.
Probably the best thing about this movie though is the way it’s brought Star Trek to a new generation. While standing around outside talking with my family after the movie a group of children ran past and stopped to look at the Trek poster on the wall. One said “Look, Star Trek! Let’s see Star Trek!” and all his friends agreed. I think you have to love that. Although I consider myself a Star Trek fan, I’ve seen very little of TOS because it doesn’t get played on TV much. I’ve seen a lot more of TNG, Voyager, and some Enterprise. But this movie has gotten me really excited about TOS, so I’ve been renting the movies from Blockbuster and DVR’ing the episodes when they air. I’m enjoying them, even though the older stuff does feel a little different.
As for the whole alternate timeline and the changes it’s made, at first I thought that was really cool. JJ Abrams made his own AU vid! But I do realize this brings certain inconsistencies to the cannon, and I’m not sure how that will be resolved. In TNG Picard and the Q had several issues over time travel, and I think Voyager spent a few episodes on it too. I’ve been told that Enterprise spent a lot of time dealing with temporal inconsistencies and maintaining the purity of the timeline in the later seasons. The fact that this movie didn’t pay as much attention to fixing the changes could be disappointing to fans who are used to Star Trek maintaining the position that the timeline is sacred and shouldn’t be messed with. Maybe the next movies will somehow right the wrongs, or maybe this new version will always remain outside the original timeline. But despite those oversights I still really enjoyed the movie.
So bring on the vids! There are a huge number of vids already, but I guess that shouldn’t surprise me since fandom loves this movie so much. I should probably warn that pretty much all of these vids contain spoilers for the movie. As I said earlier I really liked Spock and Uhura’s relationship, so I think I’ll start there.
Broken by Ellie_Kat89 This was the first vid I saw for the movie and I think it cemented my love of Spock/Uhura. It captures his emotions through the movie so well, and shows with wonderful sweetness how he turns to Uhura for support.
Hallelujah by breebree16 Gorgeous song choice. The song is a-capella and the singer’s voice is bare and emotional, and the black and white footage really emphasizes Spock’s emotions.
Angel by Ellie_Kat89 I love this song and Ellie really tied the lyrics in with Spock’s experiences and memories. Bittersweet.
Breathing Space by eiluvial Beautiful in its simplicity. Short, with interesting coloring and blur effects to the footage.
I’ll Stand by You by TerryPink Great cover of the song and the female vocals work really well for Uhura’s voice.
If You Want Me To by TerryPink Lovely song, really touching to watch.
Had enough Spock and Uhura yet ;) If not, check out the Spock_Uhura community and the Spock/Uhura search on YouTube.
Make This Go On Forever by Ellie_Kat89 Ellie uses original Trek footage in this one to excellent effect, to show Kirk what his relationship with Spock was and might be, and to give Spock the relationship with Uhura that he never had. She did it in an interesting way, making this vid unique.
Comfort You by SirHawkeyeWho Spock and his friendship with Kirk and relationship with Uhura and how they comfort him. A more upbeat song than the others.
Left Cold and Grey by Jesuit24 A Spock video, the difficulties with Kirk, the loss of his Mother and planet, some of his relationship with Uhura. A fast paced video.
Stuck to You by giandujakiss So fun!! Kirk, Spock, Uhura and the good times on the Enterprise. Fantastic editing.
Circus by Butterfly Kirk's a "put on a show" kind of guy (oh, you know he is). Another really fun vid.
Who Found Mr. Fabulous by Kuwdora A dancy vid that’s just as flashy as the movie.
We Go Together by Such Heights Yep, it’s the song from Grease! Team Enterprise, and how they make it work together.
Citizen Soldier by EchoStarlight Great song choice to bring out the feeling of duty and courage the crew inspires in the movie, with the editing to match the lyrics.
I’m sure that there are more at YouTube, but so far my searches mostly turn up official trailers, interviews and fans discussing the movie. However I did find some vids for the original series I liked:
Steady as She Goes by Jesuit24 This one is fast paced, funny, and full of fun jump cuts and expressions.
Worst Job in Starfleet by AkharinFlint The redshirts are always getting the short end of the stick! Very funny.
Star Trek Sex by GeneralGrin This is a compilation from all the series, but I couldn’t resist reccing it. Great editing and clip choices, it had me laughing out loud.
I’ve got two fics to recc too:
A Formal Dance in the Bowling Alley by loneraven Here are some things that James Tiberius Kirk, Captain, does not understand about the USS Enterprise and her crew. Unusual name to the fic, but it’s a humorous and endearing look at Kirk getting used to his crew.
Concealed by Yappichick This is a sweet little fic about Spock trying to come to terms with the loss of his mother and Uhura being there for him.
I’ll rec more when I come across it!