Journey to Babel: it's 'Meet the Parents' time!

[bigmamag]

Right, I missed doing meta, because this was fun to write even if it's not that in-depth and it's a popular episode. I watched Journey to Babel today because I hadn't seen it in a long time and I was waiting for my sister to arrive for Supernatural night.

I saw at least one squee-worthy thing in the episode, and it along with other things made me

Comments

[daphnie_1]

JUST COMMENTING SO I CAN BE THE INTERNET XD Going to read now!

[daphnie_1]

OKAY XD This episode is actually one of my faves for alot of the reasons you flag up here.

I also think it's a *really* interesting take on Spock and Kirk as Captains. Spock does his duty - and while it would be easy to go WTF GO SAVE YOUR DAD - I'm with you that it makes sense for Spock to do what he does. It's not an easy choice but I like that, because it shows that Spock isn't all just talk, he STICKS by what he says even when it's hard. I also love that it's also a Kirk vs Spock as captains - both are capable, competent, but Kirk has the upper hand because he can see the third option - he created the third option - where Spock couldn't.

I also love how Kirk is with Spock in this episode. He dosen't push him - and Kirk never has - to be more human, like his mother does, or more Vulcan, like his father does, Kirk just let's Spock be Spock.

[bigmamag]

I absolutely love whenever Spock gets command, because he's truly not suited for it in the long term. I think this episode is unique because usually when Spock is captain and shit is going down, Kirk is not able to be there to help out. We don't get Spock vs. the crew, which always spells disaster unless Kirk is there to mediate, because no one really gets Spock, not even McCoy, though he at least is more sympathetic and eventually works with him after butting heads forever. But even if we don't get Spock vs. the crew, we still get the internal struggle of Spock vs. his human half/Vulcan half, so in a way this shows better what goes on in Spock's mind all the time, how he always is split down the middle and how he can't do 'the human thing' because he's not human but when he does the Vulcan thing, he agonizes inside. Lord knows what Spock would be like if he never met Kirk and had a different captain. I imagine at best he'd get a person like McCoy who at least tries to understand him, but fails a lot because he'd just want Spock to be

[daphnie_1]

...I like that. I do think Kirk is very much a mediator. I think the crew respect Spock though - less to start with but it grows - however it's a very tenuous sort of respect. While they have Kirk there they are willing to give Spock the 'benefit of the doubt' because they know Kirk will step in and make sure everything works out.

Without Kirk there I don't think the crew really has any sort of idea how to deal with him.

"Lord knows what Spock would be like if he never met Kirk and had a different captain." - they wrote a book about that actually xD Spock is...idk. I don't trust it. Spock is wayyyy too good with the crew. Especially since this is a Spock who NEVER had Kirk to take the edge off.

[bigmamag]

I think it's left out because it's so subtle and really it just shows that Spock cares a heck of a lot about Kirk. It's fishy because Kirk is healing well and is shirtless, but it's really hard to claim that look as slashy, even if I personally do. And I think Spock stares at McCoy a lot in All Our Yesterdays when he's passed out, but Spock's going all caveman and losing his Vulcan reservations, so that's all easily explainable (I always tell everyone, gleefully, that the reason Kirk is not in the cave in that episode is that the writers couldn't make us truly believe that, after having his reservations removed, he'd have sex with Zarabeth rather than Kirk.)

[bigmamag]

You are totally right about Kirk shooting that to hell too! I love in STIII at the end, after Kirk says "the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many" (or however he said it, I'm lazy), Spock starts to walk off, a very Vulcan reaction to illogical statements, simply not caring and not saying goodbye or nothing. But then Spock of course remembers Jim, and we freaking get to see the actual change from all Vulcan to a happy medium and it's all because of Kirk. It's like he re-found himself in the space of a few seconds.

[bigmamag]

Thank ya! Maybe since STXI had elements of Wrath of Khan, they'll pay attention and continue this characterization of Kirk, even though they switched McCoy's role to mediator and Kirk to pure emotion. Maybe it was only for that first movie, when they were all strangers, and STXII will ease back to Spock vs. McCoy and Kirk mediating because he's Spock's bff now. Damn it, I really want to see lots of Kirk and Spock being buddies and flirting and being space husbands. Or, well, space somethings because I don't want to disrespect Uhura here. :)

[bigmamag]

;) I want it too, but maybe once they work out the Spock/Uhura stuff and we see what happens there. I'm hoping they don't have more Kirk/Spock antagonism because we had enough of that in the last movie and it goes against how they were 99.9% of the time in the original series (yeah different universes and all that, but the timeline is supposed to be correcting itself right now.) Seriously, they start the whole freaking show with Kirk and Spock playing chess and flirting, so we need to get back to that business.

[cicero_drayon]

I JUST ABOUT SHIT MY PANTS WHEN I SAW YOU HAD SLAPPED THIS UP, no lie. You hit all the nicest points concisely. I very much missed your meta.

Also I am a douchebag and haven't sent back your draft yet. :/ If you want I'll give you what I've got and then do the whole thing--I did finish, but I wanted to go over it again and simply haven't had the time.

[bigmamag]

Thank you! :)

Oh don't worry, you can take more time on the beta. To tell the truth, I've been a horrible, horrible writer and have maybe eked out a couple more complete scenes since I sent it to you, so I'm not even in revision mode yet.