Slashdot Mirror
Spock and the Legacy of Star Trek
StartsWithABang writes While the nerd/geek world mourns the death of Leonard Nimoy in its own way, it's important to remember the legacy that Star Trek — and that Spock and alien characters like him — left on our world. Unlike any other series, Star Trek used a futuristic, nearly utopian world to explore our own moral battles and failings, and yet somehow always managed to weave in an optimism about humanity and our future. This is something, the author argues, that is sorely missing from the new J.J. Abrams movies.
long and prosper .. sniff
Only the vessel for him carried by Leonard Nimoy has passed on, but as long as he's remembered he's not truly dead.
The Original Series did a lot within the frame of that series to actually poke at contemporary issues about racism and other things. It was not so much about the science as it was about studies on humanitarian issues.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I'm sorry capt'n , I can't make the movie any darker! But seriously, its a good point raised ... why is darker always better?
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -- Terry Pratchett
Circumcision is child abuse.
humanity doesn't adapt to the world, we adapt the world to us. we don't grow fur in cold weather, we kill animals and drape their skins on us. we don't forage for berries, we plant berry seeds and grow them when and where we want them. we don't lie outside in the rain and sun, we build our own caves out of peat, mud, thatch
point is: we are emergent phenomenon, not static reflectors. we believe something, then we make it happen for real. and if we believe in unreal things, don't laugh, because maybe someday we really will fly like birds and walk on the moon
that also means fatalism and pessimism is what is really for losers. a child's crazy dream today is our reality in a few years
lust like our group beliefs and efforts become our reality, individual lives are reflections of individual attitudes. so if you believe things will never get better, you're right, they won't... but only in your life
don't mistake your stunted imagination and your ignorant empty cynicism for our reality. your defeatist attitude is a self fulfilling prophecy only for you, not all of us
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The Abrams movies are action movie fluff. Nothing more, nothing less. The characters are "Star Trek" in name only, and an insult to every single Star Trek series or movie that came before them.
The first of Abrams movies, I thought "Well, it's just a start. They've got to get their legs under them."
But when Kirk lost the Enterprise and then gained it back in less than 10 minutes in the second movie, I shut it off. I've never watched it. I refuse to watch such an insulting piece of drek that thinks someone is going to be given a trillion dollar starship just because they asked after having had it taken away for breaking the law.
I presume there is going to be another Abrams movie soon enough. I won't bother watching that, either.
Watching the Abrams movies is like watching the first three "Star Wars" movies after having seen the original trilogy. It's painful. It's insulting. It's degrading. And it feels like it's marketed to pre-teens, not people who think.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
The new Star Trek says violence is the way. That the violent people win. And brings a new level of suspension of rational thought. That the Earth would have no defenses against a rougue star ship. That a meeting would have no defenses against a rough droid. That we would be running across the city chasing a suspect. That civilization could build a starship, but could not protect the citizenship. It is not so much a dark world, but a world that reflects the fears of technologically illiterate audience.
Life is pretty bad when your star trek movie makes less sense than the Fifth Element, which at least had good actors.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
They had Star Trek brand... and you could say that the cast was nicely picked.
Aaaand that's it.
They failed in everything else.
From basic Star Trek technology (imagine the next Star Wars movie where Jedi prefer blasters), basic science, logic, story structure... Even characters.
E.g. Spock is not logical and detached - he is passive-aggressive to full on aggressive hostile. Constantly.
He's half-Klingon, barely managing not to rip everyone's heads off and feast on their insides, not a calm, logical Vulcan.
They made a sly Scotty into a bumbling nerdy idiot.
Sulu and Chekov... they have no character.
McCoy was boiled down to a frowny face.
They made Uhura into a love interest bimbo.
And Kirk... He's simply a fratboy dickhead now.
Shatner's Kirk did used to get his shirt off a lot, but he was still a cerebral character.
All of them were. Star Trek was always ultimately about the triumph of the mind - not brute force.
The old scenes of Spock saving the Enterprise in Wrath of Khan vs. Kirk doing the same in Jar Jar's Trek 2: Trek Darker illustrate that very well.
Spock is clearly out of strength and running on will power to complete the task.
Kirk is jumping up and down and kicking the core to make it work.
Brute, mindless force replaced determination and will power.
And then they shit on the entire universe by curing death with magic blood.
And they have portable teleporters that can beam people across the galaxy from Earth all the way to Qo'noS.
Why bother with ships then? In a movie whose big plot point is a secret MegaBig spaceship.
You know... Like the last time on Jar Jar Trek.
Which copied that last Trek movie. About the TNG crew and Romulans. And their big world destroying ship.
Remember how that movie had the captain of the Enterprise driving around in the desert... which is how Jar Jar Trek starts.
And how the captain gets captured... and then someone has to jump through space to the MegaBig ship to save him.
Jar Jar is that kid who comes out of the theater after watching Wrath of Khan all excited about how it was awesome when they "killed those bad guys".
He lacks the capacity to grasp what the show is about - but he likes explosions and shiny.
He's Michael Bay without the looks and confidence to be a complete over the top dick.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens