All Things Star Trek

[NinjaCow64]

Honestly I can barely remember the Search for Spock. This really doesn't speak well of the film.

 

[CivCube]

I can't emphasize this enough: Read the novel! It answers the questions that crop up during the movie, such as "where's Carol?". The answer is that she's busy attending to Regula personnel matters - such as notifying the murdered scientists' next of kin. At the time of the voyage back to Genesis, she's on Delta IV, attending a funeral for one of her colleagues.

There's an excellent, albeit brief, subplot in the novel involving Scotty. Depending on which version of the movie you saw, you may not know that Midshipman Peter Preston (the cadet who was killed) was Scotty's nephew. In the novel, Scotty goes home to Edinburgh to be with Peter's family - and they basically blame Scotty for Peter's death (since it's apparently Scotty's fault that his nephew adored him and everything about starship engineering and wanted to follow in his uncle's footsteps).

Yeah, I'll have to get on the book wagon at some point. Getting more detail about the supporting crew like Scotty would be fun to read about. It's another opportunity they could have used in this film to give them more to do. I didn't realize there was more than one version of this film!

The very last bit of Trek fiction I remember reading was a Spock novel back in '97 or '98. I wish I could remember the author, but there was a lot of story regarding Amanda in the first half. I do know it was part of a Spock trilogy.

Okay, this is a controversy that's been going on for decades in fandom: Which Saavik was better?

The main reason I dislike much of this movie is due to the actress who plays Saavik. WTF was Nimoy thinking, to tell her to play Saavik with no emotion at all, and with the personality of a piece of stiff cardboard?

Of course Nimoy's view was that Saavik was fully Vulcan, when the novels and unofficial backstory are that Saavik was half-Vulcan, half-Romulan, and that Spock found her on a barbaric backwater world called Hellguard, realized she was part-Vulcan, and decided to adopt her as a protegee. The novel goes into this in greater detail, and it's how Kirstie Alley played her - a hybrid, trained in Vulcan disciplines by that point, but still occasionally expressing anger or frustration as a Romulan woman would.

Easily Kirstie Alley's version. Even without that context, Alley's Saavik is interesting and mysterious for, well, savvy Star Trek viewers who know a bit about Vulcan. She does a great job of representing the too-clever-by-half next generation for Kirk in "Wrath of Khan".

As for the movie's plot, I loved the 23rd century touches - McCoy trying to hire a shady pilot, the odd fashions, and seeing how Starfleet operates on Earth. However, it does drag a bit in some places, mostly on Genesis. I found the novel version of Saavik and David interesting; the movie versions are just ho-hum, kinda boring.

I kinda loved the WWI holo-arcade game. McCoy's jilted waitress was also a great little detail for DeForest Kelley--with her, the disco outfit, and the pirated alcohol, this guy has quite the private life.

There was a fanzine that ran a contest prior to ST III's release, in which people would write their version of how they thought the movie would go. The winning entry was like this (paraphrased, as it's been a long time since I last read it):


Grandiose Music
Opening Credits


EXT. GENESIS PLANET
(Kirk and McCoy beam down, and see a tall, humanoid male walking toward them. He is dressed in a Vulcan burial shroud)

SPOCK

Captain, what took you so long?


Closing Credits
Grandiose Music

Honestly I can barely remember the Search for Spock. This really doesn't speak well of the film.

Eh, that can be for different reasons. I barely remembered "Khan" after watching it over nine years ago, but that's partly due to Meyer's brisk pacing.

 

[NinjaCow64]

I don't really think it was that, usually I have a weirdly good memory for this sort of stuff. I can remember basically all of the plot of Star Trek I & II, yet I only get the "exciting parts" of III. Namely, sabotaging the transwarp drive, McCoy's possession, that they fought the Klingons at one point (don't even remember why) and that there was some weird ritual at the end (don't remember the details). The other parts I don't really remember other than I found them boring.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

They fought the Klingons because the Klingons wanted Genesis (it would make a hell of a weapon). The ritual at the end was transferring Spock's katra (his consciousness and memories) from McCoy's mind to the now-adult Spock's body.

The WTF thing about that ritual that some people picked up on was why, if Vulcan is such a logical, non-emotional, non-pleasure driven people, are the priestesses of Mount Seleya wearing transparent gowns?

 

[Sommerswerd]

I have 2 fanboy/apologist explanations:

1. Vulcans don't need to hide their bodies because they aren't moved by sexuality or other emotional stimuli, the amount of sexuality that an outfit has is simply a non factor.... They just don't care... so for example to a Vulcan, T'Pol's outfit isn't the least bit sexy and they would find it ridiculous that it drives human men wild.

2. (completely contradictory to the above) Vulcan lust/sex drive during Pon-far (sp?) is legendary and they are also known to have turbulent, passionate roots... uncontrolable even, which led them to seek emotional repression in the first place. So maybe these sexy outfits are a relic of that sex-crazed past and kept as a reminder/ for sake of tradition?

That's the best I can come up with. Of course my cynical non-fanboy explanation is it's blatant shameless eye candy'ing to shortcut making the scene more interesting/titillating.

 

[CivCube]

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986

Tomorrow is yesterday again as the crew of the HMS Bounty Formerly Known As Q'sun'dheit travel back in time to save the earth by saving the whales. As a kid, this was my first entry to Star Trek, and I loved watching it endlessly when we checked it out on library loan. Even today, the plot beats come floating back to the surface, like giant sea creatures that need to get some air. This is where I first learned what the word "cetacean" meant.

It's also a movie to air out the franchise a bit, even though it didn't really need it. Nicholas Meyer came back to help out with the script, originating from a story by Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy. It's the "funny Star Trek" that made a substantially larger sum than its predecessor. Nimoy's "Three Men and a Baby" sensibility is loud and clear; the movie knows it's a lark and splits the crew up for a bit of fun. Nimoy is also given more room to show that he's a decent director, giving us lovely establishing shots of Vulcan, Earth, and San Francisco.

Although there's still a bit of clean-up storytelling from "Search for Spock", some moments are unforgettable. Starfleet's situation room besieged by a storm, with reports coming in from glassy-eyed crew still sticks in my five year old brain, as does the Klingon bird of prey materializing over a panicked whaling ship. I forgot about the remarkable time travel sequence that was probably pure Leonard Nimoy. And hey, the idea is actually rather neat! Hauling some whales to the future in a Klingon tank is pure, gonzo Original Series.

If it were me, I would have taken the movie even more in the direction of "A Hard Day's Night" and just let the characters do whatever. I'm somewhat surprised that the supporting crew don't do as much as I thought they did, although there's plenty to enjoy, like Chekov asking about "nuclear wessels" and Scotty talking to a Macintosh. And who can forget Spock giving the neck pinch to the boombox punk on the bus? In my favorite scene, Bones gives twentieth century medicine hell while he operates on Chekov. Being the doctor he is, he can't help but treat other patients on the spot.

Kirk and Spock find their targets at the Cetacean Institute, where they run into Captain Decker's "7th Heaven" wife, Dr. Gillian Taylor. Catherine Hicks is okay as this movie's version of Edith Keeler, although she gets on my nerves sometimes. It's interesting to see Gene Roddenberry's future characters come back to help out a desperate modern day scientist at the end of her wits. I'm not sure the movie's trying to say anything here but it would not have been out of place to have a few "Last Battlefield" moments and critique then-current scientific efforts. Are we doing all we can, or have we already lost our imagination? Is there room for Star Trek's future in Reagan's America? The closest it gets to such things is by chastising the audience for letting a species become endangered without much subtext.

Still, it's hard to argue with the crew pointing at whales with delight and pushing each other into the water. It's the kind of camaraderie you don't see in a lot of franchises, and I'm glad this movie gives itself lots of chances to show that. Twenty years after Star Trek first premiered, it hasn't forgotten where it came from.

All's whale that ends whale for the Earth, for the crew, and for the Enterprise-A, the real Jesus at the end of the "Search for Spock" arc. Is "The Voyage Home" preachy? Yep. Is it Star Trek? Also yep; it's still a decent introductory movie for what Star Trek is about, and an okay retread of "Tomorrow is Yesterday", with a bit of "City on the Edge of Forever" thrown in. It knows what it wants and it accomplishes it. I wish Nimoy and Bennett went for more, but it is what it is. For what it's worth, Kirk's reference to home being the Enterprise is a good touch that leaves us open to more adventure. And for five year old me, the movie left me open to Star Trek, cetaceans, and a budding respect for science.

 

[CivCube]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, 1989

This has the reputation of being the worst Star Trek film before "Nemesis" and "Into Darkness" came along. A bloated William Shatner nightmare that trudges its way to a ridiculous encounter with God, most people give this a skip on their way to "The Undiscovered Country".

Well, guess what...I liked this movie. Unapologetically so. I know, right?

Let's talk a little bit about what I call the thirty minute first act, a practice that every TOS film has done. For the first thirty minutes, there's usually some time spent on setting up the story for the rest of the movie. It's noticeable when you're watching these movies one after the other like I'm doing. Done well, it establishes initial thematic arguments, gets character arcs going strong, and lets the audience soak in atmospheric detail. If you do it the Harve Bennett way and don't let Nicholas Meyer rewrite the script, you end up with crazy-daisy narrative threads that run into each other and waste half the movie. It's a conscious structural choice that, while formulaic, works great if you shovel enough material into the fire.

And boy, does "The Final Frontier" have coal to burn. The movie opens with some nifty outdoor shots of Sybok and his soon-to-be-latest convert before we cut to Shatner climbing a mountain. We get some great character moments between Spock, Bones, and Kirk. The Bones-Spock bon mots in particular are welcome and sorely missed from the movies up to this point. These scenes help to establish just how important these three characters have been to each other, and why their pure forms of intuition, logic/emotion, and passion are important to understanding Roddenberry's vision of future humanity's emotional state. This sets up a thread where each member of the trio does something to put things in balance, like when Bones defends Spock against Kirk's protests when he sees Spock acting within his emotions. There's more focus on this triune relationship this time, and it's equally interesting to test it against the background Vulcan religions where logic won out.

Sybok's an intriguing guy. He's Spock if Spock initially chose to side with his humanity instead of Vulcan. With that comes all the same strengths, used for different purposes: mind melds used to exact control instead of understanding, nonviolent means used to show power (Sybok walks into a rifle's firing range twice with no fear), a conscious use of his mystical Vulcan image to cultivate charisma. He takes over an eye-rolling symbol of Jerusalem to create a banana republic version of the Federation, with Terrans, Klingons, and Romulans represented.

All this results in a rather static first act but one that is more chewy than the previous couple installments. We can forgive this movie for spending a little too long on each of these scenes because they actually do some great forward progression for how the trio is expressed and how Star Trek views itself. There are a few clunky scenes, but no more than "The Voyage Home". The invasion of Paradise is on the nose and doesn't do much for the story, although Uhura's seduction of the zealots is fun. The Klingon crew really didn't need an introduction to themselves, and their firing on the Voyager probe is really tacky—it even makes little screams as it floats away. We won't speak of the Star Wars pew-pews that do God in.

Sybok twists the premise of Star Trek by assuming that the Enterprise is on a quest to find knowledge and throws it back as justification for finding out if there's a greater being. True, there is a quest for knowledge, but it's always in the service of greater understanding, which includes the realization of not knowing. Star Trek says ultimate knowledge is a futile task, one used to enslave humanity. This is reflected in Kirk's great speech about needing pain. The pain in loss, the pain in being different, not knowing if there were better decisions...this is the human condition, and like "The Motion Picture", "The Final Frontier" celebrates this instead of demeaning it.

Like "The Way to Eden", this movie shows some empathy for Sybok's cause. Wouldn't anyone like to know more about reality, anyway? Wouldn't it be anti-science to not keep going? Kirk throws up his hands and says to hell with it. Religion at least does leave an appreciation for mystery, even if it will leave no stone unturned for the sake of proving faith. The kernel that made "The Final Frontier" was a story Gene Roddenberry was wanting to do for a long time: a direct encounter with God to question His motives. Paramount executives freaked out every time he brought this up, so it would mutate into "In Thy Image", then into the unpublished "The God-Thing", then picked up by Shatner into "The Final Frontier", then into Q's judgement of humanity in TNG's "Encounter at Farpoint". Besides being a rah-rah for atheists, it's a good illustration about recognizing the same impulses in religion as being equally present but developed further in humanism. Roddenberry wants to argue that there's more authentic faith in humanity than in servile faith to institutional culture.

Before we get a chance to really do that, the movie blinks right at the climax. It's not God after all, just another energy being with laser eyes. Maybe it was leading Sybok on, maybe it wasn't, but it's a kick in the crotch for a movie that was ready to go all the way. The movie seems to know this and goes for a consolation prize: God shows itself as a double of Sybok, revealing Sybok's fervor to be nothing more than narcissism, however well intentioned it may be. So it is that Kirk points to himself and says that the real God is "in here". It's a sly gesture that speaks not about there being a real God, but the desire within us to reach out for the unknown, even if we never find the truth. And in what was likely a sneaky promotion of the then-concurrent TNG, we find our makeshift representation of the three species pointing the way to a future cooperation even greater than the future we've been shown.

"The Final Frontier" manages to be a worthy, if fairly on the nose sequel to "The Motion Picture" and "The Wrath of Khan" by following through on each film's strengths. It makes full use of the past thirty years' worth of characterization to nail the thematic notes that it needs to hit without forcing the audience to rely on outside information. We get the best Kirk-Spock-Bones interplay since "Operation: Annihilate!", and a look at religion, spirituality, and humanism that is empathic as well as critical. It's more "Way to Eden" instead of "The God-Thing", but it's a story that shows just how far we can go as humans—if we trust our strengths, potentially forever. Give it a chance and you'll find a cool illustration of mutual, authentic respect beating painless submission.

 

[CivCube]

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991

Nicholas Meyer returns to direct as the Original Series era draws to a close. Captain Kirk is surprised to find that Spock has secretly been negotiating with the Klingons to find peace between them and the Federation. When the Chancellor is murdered after leaving the Enterprise, it's a race against time to find the perpetrators before more blood is shed and the galactic peace talks break down permanently. It doesn't help that Kirk and McCoy are thrown into the frozen wastes!

From the first minute, I was captivated. Meyer has crafted an excellent screenplay here, one that manages to impart more information and events in thirty minutes than many pictures are able to handle in two hours. We learn about this big turning point in history alongside Sulu, now an awesome captain ("Fly her apart, then!"), followed by so much emotional information about the characters and the universe they now live in. The famous dinner scene with the Klingons is indeed great--"You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon".

"The Undiscovered Country" is a smart, classy film. It's a character-building film. It's a film that knows its dramatic history and gets its acts and structures all in a row. It's a film that contains so much setting detail, great cinematography, passion, and shots infused with directorial meaning it's close to bursting. There is not another Star Trek film with this level of professional competence.

So why can't I rate it higher? At the end of this exquisitely set meal, the Romulan hangover is starting to kick in. Meyer does this thing where halfway through the movie, the plot writes its own ending in a perfunctory way. It's like the film is saying, "And then this happens, and then this happens..." It's logical but it's not very exciting. The characters don't end up in a place much different than before, although they have created a lot of change for everyone else. It's an algorithm resolving its own variables. It's certainly not rote but it's not interested in having much to say beyond its homework assignment.

But damn me if it's not a tight film! Nicholas Meyer is a clockmaker. That's his strength as a writer and a director. All his gears and levers line up perfectly to exact specifications. And again, much of his on-screen detail serves purpose, whether for the plot or for worldbuilding purposes. He's a visual storyteller and aims to communicate as much information as possible with efficiency. The scene with Kirk and Spock looking at each other across a long conference table says so much about their relationship at this time, for example.

It's a film that's very aware of its place in time. As the last film in the revival series, the theme of turning points is present everywhere in "Undiscovered Country", of endings for galactic war and starships. It weighs heavily on the minds of the crew, who are up for retirement in three months. It creates a quiet desperation in the heart of the Klingon Empire, who will lose its ability to support itself in fifty years. It's present in the actors who sign off with their literal animated signatures, shortly after we watch the Enterprise make way for the next crew to explore that new future.

I look forward to seeing what Meyer has to contribute to "Star Trek: Discovery". He's a much needed voice that helps to balance the Roddenberry threatening to disappear within its own self-satisfaction. I just hope that between the extensive plotting and the elaborate setting detail, that the franchise doesn't forget to be bold in its weirdness and work toward third acts that surprise, not just bemuse.

TOS Revival Films, ranked
The Motion Picture
The Wrath of Khan
The Final Frontier
The Undiscovered Country
The Voyage Home
The Search for Spock

 

[Arakhor]

I don't think you'll ever find anyone who agrees with your ratings, even if they understand them.

 

[CivCube]

I mean, who rates "Wrath of Khan" over "Final Frontier"? Crazy folk!

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it.

 

[Serutan]

I mean, who rates "Wrath of Khan" over "Final Frontier"? Crazy folk!

Rating "The Motion Picture" above anything except "Final Frontier" is what will raise eyebrows. As you doubtless know perfectly well.

Going back to the TV shows, you seem to like the 3rd season better than most. How would you rank the seasons overall?

 

[Sommerswerd]

Undiscovered Country has always been my fav... heresy I know, so burn me damnit, I don't care... Undiscovered Country is a masterpiece.

 

[CivCube]

Rating "The Motion Picture" above anything except "Final Frontier" is what will raise eyebrows. As you doubtless know perfectly well.

Not even trolling, that's my genuine opinion. But yeah, it's not going to be shared by a few people.

Going back to the TV shows, you seem to like the 3rd season better than most. How would you rank the seasons overall?

I'd have to rank it 3 > 1 = 2 but mainly out of personal preference. There's lots to like about each season's direction.

Season One is the one that feels the most like a network season, with episodes that will appeal to everyone. CBS would be most likely to rerun episodes like "City on the Edge of Forever" today, because they fit in well with their "Twilight Zone" audience. There is a lot of great, classy stuff here, and it's the season that best examines its characters. At the same time, there is a very rough patch of episodes at the beginning that are decidedly not classy and very sexist.

Season Two is more consistent and colorful geeky fun with what it does. Its highs meet the same level of diversion from the average as its lows. There isn't as much character stuff here (save for some stupendous Spock stuff) but you're likely to have a good time.

Season Three is where the show decided to go all out and examine its foundational themes more carefully. This wasn't a serialized show but there was a thematic arc to this season that examined how humanity should best meet the unknown, whether in space or in personal experience with strangers. Even if it wasn't the last season, I like to think they would have gone in this same direction. There's a mysterious undercurrent to a lot of S3's episodes that I enjoy.

Undiscovered Country has always been my fav... heresy I know, so burn me damnit, I don't care... Undiscovered Country is a masterpiece.

Is there a bigger backlash against this movie? I think it's great too, the first half anyway. It's easily as good as "Captain America: The Winter Soldier".

 

[Serutan]

Not even trolling, that's my genuine opinion. But yeah, it's not going to be shared by a few people.

I thought your opinion was genuine, but I thought you were being sarcastic about which of your rankings would raise eyebrows.

Is there a bigger backlash against this movie? I think it's great too, the first half anyway. It's easily as good as "Captain America: The Winter Soldier".

I thought "Undiscovered Country" was generally well thought of. I certainly liked it, although I thought the blatant Chernobyl reference at the beginning
was a bit cheesy.

 

[Synobun]

Please no.

 

[NinjaCow64]

Please no.

Wow I actually want to throw up.

 

[Arakhor]

Cool-looking aliens, but not Klingons.

 

[CivCube]

It's a Bryan Fuller show. His aesthetic trends toward ornate, over-the-top stuff set design and costumes.

I don't have an opinion either way. I kind of wonder if those actors were fully costumed--being on lunch break, they may not have had hair applied to their faces.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

If those are supposed to be Klingons, I don't want to know what abominable crap they're going to have for the rest of it.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Cool-looking aliens, but not Klingons.

Reminds me of the Hirogen... Why do this? Just "cause we can?"