A little history into my life as a Trekkie of the mild variety (no, I don't find the word 'trekkie' offensive and neither should you!)
I remember watching "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" at the drive-in at Ava, Missouri. I was six and my mother, uncles, aunts and the three of us piled into a couple cars to head out. I remember sitting in the hatch-back and looking up at the guy from "Fantasy Island". Surprisingly, I didn't notice how much of Ricardo's muscled chest we get to see (I'm not sure I like his warrior look!). We are a SciFi family and I remember watching "Star Trek" reruns after school. I remember loving Captain Pike played by Jeffrey Hunter. I love the Q and the Borg. I don't even know what ST movie is my favorite as I can talk about one and think it's the answer ("Insurrection" comes to mind) and then see one of my favorite scenes from another (the last 20 minutes of "Wrath of Khan" are so powerful) and waffle buckling under the pressure of a clever turn of phrase or plot line. I used to have ST: TNG stickers from cereal boxes stuck to my closet door. I love Commander Riker. I wanted hair like Troy. When I first went to Las Vegas I had to ride the "Star Trek Experience" at the Hilton. I bought gold-pressed Latinum chocolate bars. Um, I want to make an original Star Trek girl uniform out of a t-shirt. I want a phaser. I will watch every ST movie in the theatre. When she is old enough, I will start bringing my kiddo along.
OK, so now we've got that out of the way...whew...I'd like to talk about this latest reason to watch Benedict Cumberbatch...er I mean the latest Star Trek movie. We watched Into Darkness for my birthday, thank-you husband for the lovely present and thanks friends for the lovely day of used bookstore shopping and awesome dinnertime fun after the movie.
Spock versus Spock, Or How I Stopped Gasping and Learned to Love the Melding of Timelines
Going into the 2009 ST I wondered how Abrams was going to pull off rebooting the story while keeping the franchise intact. Literally the whole audience cheered when Leonard Nemoy appeared and I began to understand that making a 'what-if' timeline allowed everyone to have the best of both worlds. AND...there are two perfectly multifaceted Spocks...yes, the best darned reason of all! I don't think I need to mention that new timeline Spock dates a black girl (don't think I didn't notice that one)...actually, that little argument as they headed to Kronos seemed a little too familiar. Hmmm...It's nice to think I'm married to Spock. Seriously, "The Wrath of Khan" and "The Search for Spock" made me cry buckets and still would if I let them. I love that we get the bitter (so many death scenes) with the sweet in this timelines. I do wonder, though, who else are they going to bring back and what does that mean for both timelines and while my husband says that things go downhill when you add alternate universes and people coming back from the dead JJ Abrams, cinema god that he is, makes it all work so beautifully. I also love the humor that we see in these films. And, if you want to see the dueling Spocks check this out. Thank-you lovely Barkers for showing it to us the other evening.
Khhhhaaaaannn!
Holy wow! so my friends and I all hung out the other day so I could watch "The Wrath of Khan" with "Into Darkness" in my mind and my friends could watch "Khan" for the first time--I know, I know, I'm such a bad friend--I didn't know they'd never seen it. Ricardo Montalban's Khan seemed a wee bit one-sided...you killed my wife blah, blah, blah, revenge, blah, blah, blah, the more I suffer the more you suffer blah, blah, blah. I never felt any type of positive feeling for him. I was never on his side and I never wanted him to win to prove a point. Benedict Cumberbatch, however, plays Khan with so many facets that at one point I thought that we were going to be joining sides and I was thinking about how amazingly fun it would be on the Enterprise with Khan as we fought the Borg (pre-Hugh, of course) or tongue-twisted with Q. I was beginning to like him, and I didn't care that he killed Marcus and I was sad that he was so upset at being reanimated (or, whatever it is that you do when you unthaw someone whose been cryogenically frozen). Poor Khan. I'm glad that Spock got to beat the dickens out of him. I'm glad he isn't dead in the end.
Oh my gosh, that ending! *SPOILERS*
So, we've already talked about the timelines, but let's talk about what that means. It means that really nerdy/geeky Trek fans can compare the bifurcations against one another. And, it's in these branches that we see what great care Abrams and crew have taken to preserve the Roddenberry universe while creating a new universe. I love watching these movies taking what I know from the previous movies and seeing where things are going to change and what that means for the rest of the storyline. Throughout we are reminded of the "Kobayashi Maru"; we are reminded that every choice, even the right one has consequences. I can't wait to see what refreezing Khan and using his blood to save Kirk does to this new universe.
Favorite Quotes
"I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I only know what I can do."
"Attention John Harrison. This is Captain Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise. A shuttle of highly trained officers is on its way to your location. If you do not surrender to them immediately, I will unleash the entire payload of advanced long-range torpedoes currently lock on to your location. You have two minutes to confirm your compliance. Refusal to do so will result in your obliteration. And, if you test me, you will fail."
"Tell me, are you feeling homicidal, power mad, despotic?"
And, because I have a friend from Iowa and I need more ways to tease her about her Iowegianess
"Are you out of your corn fed mind?"
To wrap up: love the reboot, love that we've got Star Trek with TNG wittiness, I may be in love with JJ Abrams, love Spock, more Uhura/Spock liplocking please, can't wait for the next one.
Oh, and I really want to see it again...any takers?
Just saw this lst night. Benedict Cumberbatch definitely has the "superior human" market cornered. My husband and I were also hoping that in this timeline, he might have been a good guy. Love your post. Star Trek has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It was one of the few television shows my Dad took the time to watch.
ReplyDeletethanks! chris had never seen it, so we're watching it from the beginning...we're on season 2.
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