Wrath of Khan
Yeah, it's slightly hard to watch Star Trek II unspoiled. I think, on split, it's fractionally harder to stay unspoiled on Amok Time, but if you've ever seen a K/S vid, you know the major contents of this movie.
Enjoying my first viewing to the hilt, though!
Opening with the Kobayashi Maru - with the whole spoiler problem, my reaction to this was more "okay, why is Saavik taking the Kobayashi Maru with high grade 'Fleet officers at their posts?" rather than "why is a pointy eared little girl in command of the Enterprise?" Uhura's so obviously 25 years older here though - where XI has her exasperatedly mocking Kirk, since he knows and she knows the conditions about to be announced, and that rat bastard is not taking it seriously, here in II she makes it sound serious and surprising when events happen. I know this comes down to "order stuff was filmed" Doylist reasoning, but the Watsonian view of this different Uhura is pretty interesting. (Love letter to Nichelle Nichols insert here - I love Sulu beyond what is probably reasonable, but Nichelle Nichols being badass and doing the movies, hair, wrinkles and all? Most actresses won't do that, don't get the chance to do that, any more, unless they're Helen Mirren or Meryl Streep. I <3 you so much, NN)
Also, Tale of Two Cities? I see the reference allusion you slyly pretended to slip in there, Gene Roddenberry. Yes, let us make sacrifices for one another in a world gone mad. This present is not at all topical, especially with Spock giving it to Kirk. No, neither of them could be Sydney Carson, could they?
And I believe this is the first appearance of Kirk's allergies (haven't seen TOS season 3 yet, but still). Amazing how "allergy to specific med" becomes "allergy to several meds" flanderises to "allergy to the universe!" I live in astonishment that Kirk survived the age of 25 over in Reboot. Of course, my personal canon borrows from Honor Harrington and turns 'crops rotting in the fields' into 'eating such food gave Kirk extra special allergies that are only seen in survivors of Tarsus IV who had to eat the fungused grain' insists that 2 month preemie Kirk did in fact catch allergies from space rays, and the inhabitants of Medical Shuttle 37 had to rig a humidicrib from Winona's knowhow and spare parts to keep him alive and safe for them to be rescued.
Then, of course, the uniforms. After enduring TMP, the uniforms are a sight for sore eyes. And they have different uniforms to wear in different circumstances! It's actually slightly militarily realistic! And I don't have to see those horrible short sleeves or v necks or belt buckles again! (Except Carol Marcus appears to have one on one of her outfits. I refuse to believe they were fashionable, ever)
Spock going "no no no no, James, you should command the ship, I choose you!" so adorable. He's happy to be Captain and head instructor on a training voyage, but the first second there's a reason, he's turning leadership over to Kirk. Yes. Subtext has to be subtle.
I laughed hysterically at Saavik quoting regulations at Kirk. "You can't leave the ship without armed escort!" "That's regulations? Really? I don't remember ever reading that...?" Oh Kirk. No one ever dared tell you before.
Also, after this movie, I choose to believe that Sulu doesn't let Chekov serve on a ship without having some old friend there to stop his brain getting eaten by Yeerks. Yes, this is all terribly Harkness and Tremaine. My problem with Honor Harrington is the politics, the preaching and the superdreadnaughts, not the characters themselves.
Also, Saavik is slightly too blonde in this movie. "But you've never faced a no win scenario!" Umm, honey, remember the bit where Kirk took the Kobayashi Maru three times? He faced a no win twice, and then he hacked the test because he doesn't believe in no win scenarios. Also, commendation vs suspension - yeah, nu!Spock gets kinda pissy about people touching his things, doesn't he?
Oh, Spock! "You lied!" "I exaggerated." You wittle corrupted Vulcan! 20 years of knowing Kirk has done bad things to you. Yes, I am now realising how much of XI is a grand romance to Wrath of Khan. Now I'm hoping that XII is a romance to the romance of I-IV.
Okay, seriously movie. Yes, you're now using Saavik to contrast how much more human Spock is. We get it. But I am seeing manipulative, exaggerating, quoting Spock here. He and Kirk learned from each other. It's so tweet.
Spock running off to save the ship - oh Spock! Thoroughly spoiled to it, of course, but McCoy trying to stop him - awww, with extra nerve pinches and mind melds. And I must admit I had to laugh at Scotty and Bones standing there, either side of the frame, yelling at Spock to stop. Like anything would stop Spock from being logical at a time like that.
Funeral - I cried. Even though they played Amazing Grace on bagpipes, making it stereotypical with bad music. But the wibble lip and the broken voices... awwww.
And hello gayness. "I've never faced death like this before, no." Because every other time, it wasn't his t'hy'la on the line doing the dying. James Kirk - has faced no win scenarios and doesn't believe in them. Has not faced no win scenarios where Spock dies (still doesn't believe in them). No, this is not gay in the slightest at all.
"I'm proud to be your son". Just to hit the idiots in the audience over the head if they'd not yet noticed (I mean, seriously, between both Spock and McCoy knowing Carol, David being all angstily teen and the conversation in the hole in the ground, we needed this to make sure everyone's on the same page. Okay, it's also resolution to this bit of the David story, but seriously, back to Spock right now)
"He's really not dead, as long as we remember him". I love this sentiment, but with its additional loading of "Spock mind melded with me and told me not to forget" and, yanno, the whole Katra plot for the next movie, I love it to pieces while going "even then, they were so setting it up so they had space to make a sequel".
Followed by more Sydney Carsoning. Okay, at this point I'm so annoyed that Dad's always been a Star Wars man, not a Star Trek one. Tale of Two Cities is only my favourite Dickens book, and this movie has just hit some of the "let's play with Beth like a wee toy" notes. I could have been introduced to this at TEN, if things had been different. Movies usually have to do a bit more work to end up on my favouritest ever list, but this is an automatic posting.
And yes, okay, I now see that XI definitely played homage time liek woah with Wrath of Khan. There's homaging, and there's outright "this was teh bestest Star Trek movie eva, in everyone's opinion, so let's just make every scene possible in XI homage II. Allergies. Birthday presents. Surprise Nimoy voice overs. Approximately 55% of the words that came out of Spock Prime's mouth. Kobayashi Maru. Spinal cord devouring slugs. Are we having fun yet, people?" At least they mostly avoided scene stealing, and just took ideas. Plus, if I suddenly met a young version of my t'hy'la eleventy dozen years after he died, I'd be tempted to remind him how much he meant to me by quoting back Our Best Hits.
Enjoying my first viewing to the hilt, though!
Opening with the Kobayashi Maru - with the whole spoiler problem, my reaction to this was more "okay, why is Saavik taking the Kobayashi Maru with high grade 'Fleet officers at their posts?" rather than "why is a pointy eared little girl in command of the Enterprise?" Uhura's so obviously 25 years older here though - where XI has her exasperatedly mocking Kirk, since he knows and she knows the conditions about to be announced, and that rat bastard is not taking it seriously, here in II she makes it sound serious and surprising when events happen. I know this comes down to "order stuff was filmed" Doylist reasoning, but the Watsonian view of this different Uhura is pretty interesting. (Love letter to Nichelle Nichols insert here - I love Sulu beyond what is probably reasonable, but Nichelle Nichols being badass and doing the movies, hair, wrinkles and all? Most actresses won't do that, don't get the chance to do that, any more, unless they're Helen Mirren or Meryl Streep. I <3 you so much, NN)
Also, Tale of Two Cities? I see the reference allusion you slyly pretended to slip in there, Gene Roddenberry. Yes, let us make sacrifices for one another in a world gone mad. This present is not at all topical, especially with Spock giving it to Kirk. No, neither of them could be Sydney Carson, could they?
And I believe this is the first appearance of Kirk's allergies (haven't seen TOS season 3 yet, but still). Amazing how "allergy to specific med" becomes "allergy to several meds" flanderises to "allergy to the universe!" I live in astonishment that Kirk survived the age of 25 over in Reboot. Of course, my personal canon borrows from Honor Harrington and turns 'crops rotting in the fields' into 'eating such food gave Kirk extra special allergies that are only seen in survivors of Tarsus IV who had to eat the fungused grain' insists that 2 month preemie Kirk did in fact catch allergies from space rays, and the inhabitants of Medical Shuttle 37 had to rig a humidicrib from Winona's knowhow and spare parts to keep him alive and safe for them to be rescued.
Then, of course, the uniforms. After enduring TMP, the uniforms are a sight for sore eyes. And they have different uniforms to wear in different circumstances! It's actually slightly militarily realistic! And I don't have to see those horrible short sleeves or v necks or belt buckles again! (Except Carol Marcus appears to have one on one of her outfits. I refuse to believe they were fashionable, ever)
Spock going "no no no no, James, you should command the ship, I choose you!" so adorable. He's happy to be Captain and head instructor on a training voyage, but the first second there's a reason, he's turning leadership over to Kirk. Yes. Subtext has to be subtle.
I laughed hysterically at Saavik quoting regulations at Kirk. "You can't leave the ship without armed escort!" "That's regulations? Really? I don't remember ever reading that...?" Oh Kirk. No one ever dared tell you before.
Also, after this movie, I choose to believe that Sulu doesn't let Chekov serve on a ship without having some old friend there to stop his brain getting eaten by Yeerks. Yes, this is all terribly Harkness and Tremaine. My problem with Honor Harrington is the politics, the preaching and the superdreadnaughts, not the characters themselves.
Also, Saavik is slightly too blonde in this movie. "But you've never faced a no win scenario!" Umm, honey, remember the bit where Kirk took the Kobayashi Maru three times? He faced a no win twice, and then he hacked the test because he doesn't believe in no win scenarios. Also, commendation vs suspension - yeah, nu!Spock gets kinda pissy about people touching his things, doesn't he?
Oh, Spock! "You lied!" "I exaggerated." You wittle corrupted Vulcan! 20 years of knowing Kirk has done bad things to you. Yes, I am now realising how much of XI is a grand romance to Wrath of Khan. Now I'm hoping that XII is a romance to the romance of I-IV.
Okay, seriously movie. Yes, you're now using Saavik to contrast how much more human Spock is. We get it. But I am seeing manipulative, exaggerating, quoting Spock here. He and Kirk learned from each other. It's so tweet.
Spock running off to save the ship - oh Spock! Thoroughly spoiled to it, of course, but McCoy trying to stop him - awww, with extra nerve pinches and mind melds. And I must admit I had to laugh at Scotty and Bones standing there, either side of the frame, yelling at Spock to stop. Like anything would stop Spock from being logical at a time like that.
Funeral - I cried. Even though they played Amazing Grace on bagpipes, making it stereotypical with bad music. But the wibble lip and the broken voices... awwww.
And hello gayness. "I've never faced death like this before, no." Because every other time, it wasn't his t'hy'la on the line doing the dying. James Kirk - has faced no win scenarios and doesn't believe in them. Has not faced no win scenarios where Spock dies (still doesn't believe in them). No, this is not gay in the slightest at all.
"I'm proud to be your son". Just to hit the idiots in the audience over the head if they'd not yet noticed (I mean, seriously, between both Spock and McCoy knowing Carol, David being all angstily teen and the conversation in the hole in the ground, we needed this to make sure everyone's on the same page. Okay, it's also resolution to this bit of the David story, but seriously, back to Spock right now)
"He's really not dead, as long as we remember him". I love this sentiment, but with its additional loading of "Spock mind melded with me and told me not to forget" and, yanno, the whole Katra plot for the next movie, I love it to pieces while going "even then, they were so setting it up so they had space to make a sequel".
Followed by more Sydney Carsoning. Okay, at this point I'm so annoyed that Dad's always been a Star Wars man, not a Star Trek one. Tale of Two Cities is only my favourite Dickens book, and this movie has just hit some of the "let's play with Beth like a wee toy" notes. I could have been introduced to this at TEN, if things had been different. Movies usually have to do a bit more work to end up on my favouritest ever list, but this is an automatic posting.
And yes, okay, I now see that XI definitely played homage time liek woah with Wrath of Khan. There's homaging, and there's outright "this was teh bestest Star Trek movie eva, in everyone's opinion, so let's just make every scene possible in XI homage II. Allergies. Birthday presents. Surprise Nimoy voice overs. Approximately 55% of the words that came out of Spock Prime's mouth. Kobayashi Maru. Spinal cord devouring slugs. Are we having fun yet, people?" At least they mostly avoided scene stealing, and just took ideas. Plus, if I suddenly met a young version of my t'hy'la eleventy dozen years after he died, I'd be tempted to remind him how much he meant to me by quoting back Our Best Hits.