Star Trek XI and thoughts on Kirk's motivations.
Went to see the new Trek movie for the third time yesterday. This is a record for me. I don't think I've ever seen a movie twice before, yet alone three times.
I'm hoping lots of my friends have seen and enjoyed it, because I think this is going to become a new fandom for me, and I'd hate to be there without the rest of you.
I'm trying to work out why the movie works so well for me. I'll ponder non-spoilery stuff and then do spoilery stuff behind a cut tag.
Captain Pike - Bruce Greenwood does an excellent job. In the original series, Pike was the captain of the Enterprise before Kirk and features in the episode 'Menagerie'. He's a much more interesting and well-developed character in the movie and I like attractive older men.
Having said that about older men, I have to add that Chekov is cute beyond belief and Kirk (Chris Pine) is virtually jail bait.
Uhura is strong-willed and intelligent and speaks all three dialects of Romulan.
McCoy is wonderful. Karl Urban is McCoy to the life. He feels like DeForrest Kelly. He has the mannerisms, the dialogue and I love him. His relationship with both Kirk and Spock is spot on. And the script-writers have given him some lovely classic lines: "pointy-eared, green-blooded hobgoblin"
Zacchary Quinto does an excellent Spock - very close to Nimmoy's performance (there are moments when you could almost swear he was Nimmoy), and yet, perhaps because he isn't Nimmoy, he isn't my favourite character from the film.
Sulu was the only one who didn't really grab me. Nothing I can fault, but I definitely preferred George Takei's version.
Scotty took a while to grow on me. He feels least like the original character. However, by the third watching I'd become a convert. I like his sense of humour. At one point, viewing a scene of complete chaos on the bridge, he just stands there watching and says: "I *like* this ship."
Pine's version of Kirk really shouldn't work, except that it does... If you had told me that Kirk would be my favourite character, I'd have laughed in your face:--
Kirk is young, angry, rebellious and very aggressive. But, and it's an important 'but', he's also very intelligent and there are points in the movie where he actually uses his brains (and there are also points where that youthful aggression leads him to react with his fists rather than his brains). What's really enjoyable is to realise the points where he starts to mature. He doesn't undergo dramatic changes, but he when he has responsibility he starts to live up to it. He listens to his crew, uses them to the best of their ability and respects their skills.
Kirk has an eye for everything in a skirt, even more so than Shatner's version! For some reason, this totally fails to annoy me, possibly because Kirk is so cheerfully blantant about it.
Actually, I think the reason Kirk works so well for me is because he's NOT Shatner. Shatner's Kirk always made my teeth grate. There was an underlying smugness that irked. Pine's Kirk still has that over-whelming self-confidence, but it comes across differently. With Pine, it's more an unstoppable source of energy. He believes he's the best and that he can take on whatever anyone throws at him, but it comes across as a rebound - as a young man who's had a lot go wrong in his life and has had the choice of being crushed by it, or to fight back at every instant.
Shatner's Kirk feels as though he thinks he's the best because everyone has told him he is.
Pine's Kirk feels as though no one had believed in his ability except himself, until a trigger point in his life makes him decide to try and prove it to other people as well. I think that's a lot of what drives him. He still needs to prove himself to an unbelieving world - that's what drives his aggression. I think it's part of what drives his womanising as well. Every woman he can conquer is a point on a chart saying: "See, I can do something." And for the early part of his life, women are the only score that he's prepared to try for - maybe the only one that his contemporaries would recognise as counting. That and driving cars very fast, stealing things and generally getting into trouble.
Pike, with unerring instinct finds the one thing that will make contact with the young Kirk. He doesn't succeed by appeals to his better nature, but with challenge. He dares Kirk to do better. Presented in that form, Kirk can accept the offer without loss of face. He's not joining Starfleet because Pike wants him to, but in order to prove Pike wrong. Or even to prove him right. It doesn't actually matter which - it's a dare and he's responded to that all his life. But he's smart enough to know that this is a dare that could change his entire life for the better.
It's interesting to think about why Kirk didn't enter Starfleet in the first place. Clearly his mother has remained in the service -she's mentioned by his step-father as being away in space. Does he resent the service for taking his mother away for so much of the time? Does he resent it for killing his father? He's obviously interested in things relating to space. He instantly replies to Uhura's comment that he wouldn't know what xenolinguistics was. He has the interest. He has high grades at school and he must have been doing some pretty heavy reading in his spare time or he'd never have managed to graduate from Star Fleet Academy in three years. So, why not apply for Star Fleet to begin with? Peer pressure? Are the youth around the shipyards in Iowa resentful of the 'elite' imposed upon them? Is there an attitude of 'us and them' between locals and the crew at the yards and those cadets who come to visit the yards?
Kirk chooses to hang out in a bar frequented by spacers (I forget the exact name of the bar, but it's something space related, and the salt shaker of the USS Kelvin says it all). Space obviously draws him, but at the same time, he rejects it. Is Starfleet 'cool' among the Iowa youth? Spock Prime tells Kirk that his father was the inspiration for the original Kirk to enter space. Without that influence, is Kirk still drawn to the stars, pulled by curiosity to study in secret, but never able to overcome the disdain of his peers for men in uniform who have to obey orders?
I'm inclined to think that with a mother who was often absent and a step-father who didn't care, the young Kirk was very reliant on friends of his own age to form his opinions and to base his self-image on. I see his friends as being largely youths who have no interest in things beyond their own town, an insular community that takes money from the spacers, but views them with suspicion. (A bit like the attitude of locals in popular tourist areas. They'll take your money, but they don't consider you as belonging)
Thus, we have a young man who has a strong interest in space, but who keeps quiet about it when his friends are around. He hangs out in spacer bars, both to share the illusion of belonging, but also to be able to laugh at them in order to retain his social status.
We have a young man who has grown up with a less than ideal home life and who doesn't have good role models for either steady relationships or authoriy figures. We don't see any indication that he spoke to his mother before he joins Starfleet, and we don't see her at his graduation (which is tragic). He doesn't form steady relationships with women - and this is probably a reflection both of the family environment he grew up in, and the need to look cool in front of his friends.
He has a bad relationship with authority figures, from his step-father to the local police. Is Captain Pike the first stable authority figure in his life? Possibly. I suspect the presence of at least one really good teacher. Someone found a way to motivate the young Kirk, or he'd never have learned as much as he did. Someone inspired him with a love of learning (I think I feel a fanfic coming on there).
What we have when Kirk first takes command of the Enterprise is a young man of genius-level intelligence, but who has only had three years to train that intelligence into a stable form. He's impulsive and erratic and still has that hard core of rebellion. He's not good at taking orders, and deep down, we suspect that he never will be.
However, his saving grace is that when he does get command, he doesn't blindly run into danger. He thinks, he listens. He knows they need a way to beam aboard the Narada without Enterprise being seen and shot down first. He works with the crew to find a solution to that problem. He doesn't try to control everything when he is not aboard. He trusts Sulu to spot a tactical opportunity and exploit it if one occurs. He obviously has to know that Spock Prime's ship is aboard the Narada and has probably allowed for that when formulating his plans (he doesn't mention it as that would break his promise to Spock Prime).
Once he's got command away from Spock, he accepts Spock as part of his team (and I could say a lot of complimentary things about Spock at this point, but that's another post if anyone wants to read it) and does everything he can to support Spock both physcally and mentally. (though even I was surprised when Spock responded by calling him Jim). He has learnt that Spock is not his enemy and he accepts, purely on trust, that the two of them will make a perfectly-balanced team.
When Kirk offers the Romulans a chance to surrender, it isn't just to impress Spock. He's gained in maturity, and he also understands from Spock Prime what event drove Nero insane. As Captain, he has become an official spokesman for Starfleet, and he speaks as the voice of the Federation when he gives the Romulans that chance. With authority goes responsibility. Kirk has learned that lesson.
I'm hoping lots of my friends have seen and enjoyed it, because I think this is going to become a new fandom for me, and I'd hate to be there without the rest of you.
I'm trying to work out why the movie works so well for me. I'll ponder non-spoilery stuff and then do spoilery stuff behind a cut tag.
Captain Pike - Bruce Greenwood does an excellent job. In the original series, Pike was the captain of the Enterprise before Kirk and features in the episode 'Menagerie'. He's a much more interesting and well-developed character in the movie and I like attractive older men.
Having said that about older men, I have to add that Chekov is cute beyond belief and Kirk (Chris Pine) is virtually jail bait.
Uhura is strong-willed and intelligent and speaks all three dialects of Romulan.
McCoy is wonderful. Karl Urban is McCoy to the life. He feels like DeForrest Kelly. He has the mannerisms, the dialogue and I love him. His relationship with both Kirk and Spock is spot on. And the script-writers have given him some lovely classic lines: "pointy-eared, green-blooded hobgoblin"
Zacchary Quinto does an excellent Spock - very close to Nimmoy's performance (there are moments when you could almost swear he was Nimmoy), and yet, perhaps because he isn't Nimmoy, he isn't my favourite character from the film.
Sulu was the only one who didn't really grab me. Nothing I can fault, but I definitely preferred George Takei's version.
Scotty took a while to grow on me. He feels least like the original character. However, by the third watching I'd become a convert. I like his sense of humour. At one point, viewing a scene of complete chaos on the bridge, he just stands there watching and says: "I *like* this ship."
Pine's version of Kirk really shouldn't work, except that it does... If you had told me that Kirk would be my favourite character, I'd have laughed in your face:--
Kirk is young, angry, rebellious and very aggressive. But, and it's an important 'but', he's also very intelligent and there are points in the movie where he actually uses his brains (and there are also points where that youthful aggression leads him to react with his fists rather than his brains). What's really enjoyable is to realise the points where he starts to mature. He doesn't undergo dramatic changes, but he when he has responsibility he starts to live up to it. He listens to his crew, uses them to the best of their ability and respects their skills.
Kirk has an eye for everything in a skirt, even more so than Shatner's version! For some reason, this totally fails to annoy me, possibly because Kirk is so cheerfully blantant about it.
Actually, I think the reason Kirk works so well for me is because he's NOT Shatner. Shatner's Kirk always made my teeth grate. There was an underlying smugness that irked. Pine's Kirk still has that over-whelming self-confidence, but it comes across differently. With Pine, it's more an unstoppable source of energy. He believes he's the best and that he can take on whatever anyone throws at him, but it comes across as a rebound - as a young man who's had a lot go wrong in his life and has had the choice of being crushed by it, or to fight back at every instant.
Shatner's Kirk feels as though he thinks he's the best because everyone has told him he is.
Pine's Kirk feels as though no one had believed in his ability except himself, until a trigger point in his life makes him decide to try and prove it to other people as well. I think that's a lot of what drives him. He still needs to prove himself to an unbelieving world - that's what drives his aggression. I think it's part of what drives his womanising as well. Every woman he can conquer is a point on a chart saying: "See, I can do something." And for the early part of his life, women are the only score that he's prepared to try for - maybe the only one that his contemporaries would recognise as counting. That and driving cars very fast, stealing things and generally getting into trouble.
Pike, with unerring instinct finds the one thing that will make contact with the young Kirk. He doesn't succeed by appeals to his better nature, but with challenge. He dares Kirk to do better. Presented in that form, Kirk can accept the offer without loss of face. He's not joining Starfleet because Pike wants him to, but in order to prove Pike wrong. Or even to prove him right. It doesn't actually matter which - it's a dare and he's responded to that all his life. But he's smart enough to know that this is a dare that could change his entire life for the better.
It's interesting to think about why Kirk didn't enter Starfleet in the first place. Clearly his mother has remained in the service -she's mentioned by his step-father as being away in space. Does he resent the service for taking his mother away for so much of the time? Does he resent it for killing his father? He's obviously interested in things relating to space. He instantly replies to Uhura's comment that he wouldn't know what xenolinguistics was. He has the interest. He has high grades at school and he must have been doing some pretty heavy reading in his spare time or he'd never have managed to graduate from Star Fleet Academy in three years. So, why not apply for Star Fleet to begin with? Peer pressure? Are the youth around the shipyards in Iowa resentful of the 'elite' imposed upon them? Is there an attitude of 'us and them' between locals and the crew at the yards and those cadets who come to visit the yards?
Kirk chooses to hang out in a bar frequented by spacers (I forget the exact name of the bar, but it's something space related, and the salt shaker of the USS Kelvin says it all). Space obviously draws him, but at the same time, he rejects it. Is Starfleet 'cool' among the Iowa youth? Spock Prime tells Kirk that his father was the inspiration for the original Kirk to enter space. Without that influence, is Kirk still drawn to the stars, pulled by curiosity to study in secret, but never able to overcome the disdain of his peers for men in uniform who have to obey orders?
I'm inclined to think that with a mother who was often absent and a step-father who didn't care, the young Kirk was very reliant on friends of his own age to form his opinions and to base his self-image on. I see his friends as being largely youths who have no interest in things beyond their own town, an insular community that takes money from the spacers, but views them with suspicion. (A bit like the attitude of locals in popular tourist areas. They'll take your money, but they don't consider you as belonging)
Thus, we have a young man who has a strong interest in space, but who keeps quiet about it when his friends are around. He hangs out in spacer bars, both to share the illusion of belonging, but also to be able to laugh at them in order to retain his social status.
We have a young man who has grown up with a less than ideal home life and who doesn't have good role models for either steady relationships or authoriy figures. We don't see any indication that he spoke to his mother before he joins Starfleet, and we don't see her at his graduation (which is tragic). He doesn't form steady relationships with women - and this is probably a reflection both of the family environment he grew up in, and the need to look cool in front of his friends.
He has a bad relationship with authority figures, from his step-father to the local police. Is Captain Pike the first stable authority figure in his life? Possibly. I suspect the presence of at least one really good teacher. Someone found a way to motivate the young Kirk, or he'd never have learned as much as he did. Someone inspired him with a love of learning (I think I feel a fanfic coming on there).
What we have when Kirk first takes command of the Enterprise is a young man of genius-level intelligence, but who has only had three years to train that intelligence into a stable form. He's impulsive and erratic and still has that hard core of rebellion. He's not good at taking orders, and deep down, we suspect that he never will be.
However, his saving grace is that when he does get command, he doesn't blindly run into danger. He thinks, he listens. He knows they need a way to beam aboard the Narada without Enterprise being seen and shot down first. He works with the crew to find a solution to that problem. He doesn't try to control everything when he is not aboard. He trusts Sulu to spot a tactical opportunity and exploit it if one occurs. He obviously has to know that Spock Prime's ship is aboard the Narada and has probably allowed for that when formulating his plans (he doesn't mention it as that would break his promise to Spock Prime).
Once he's got command away from Spock, he accepts Spock as part of his team (and I could say a lot of complimentary things about Spock at this point, but that's another post if anyone wants to read it) and does everything he can to support Spock both physcally and mentally. (though even I was surprised when Spock responded by calling him Jim). He has learnt that Spock is not his enemy and he accepts, purely on trust, that the two of them will make a perfectly-balanced team.
When Kirk offers the Romulans a chance to surrender, it isn't just to impress Spock. He's gained in maturity, and he also understands from Spock Prime what event drove Nero insane. As Captain, he has become an official spokesman for Starfleet, and he speaks as the voice of the Federation when he gives the Romulans that chance. With authority goes responsibility. Kirk has learned that lesson.