James' Star Trek Wank-a-Thon
May. 26th, 2009 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqThe new Star Trek movie is made of awesome with an extra helping of win sauce.
But it does have it's flaws. Somethings that seem like flaws, but aren't. Other things seem like good points, but are drawbacks.
The first flaw-that-isn't is the villain and his plot. Let's recap: Captain Nero witnesses the destruction of Romulus in the late 24th century. He blames Spock Prime for this (though it isn't really his fault - he just wasn't fast enough to fix things). While engaging Spock Prime in combat, both ships are caught in the event-horizon of the red-hole (which is what I'm going to call a black hole created through red-matter) and both ships are thrown into the past.
Nero emerges into the past. He has not way of getting back to the future (ha) and is almost immediately hailed by a Federation starship - the USS Kelvin. In his grief and anger, he attacks and destroys it.
We don't get a lot of character exposition from the bad guys in this film. We know they're a nasty bunch because we see them act like a nasty bunch. But consider this: Nero has just destroyed the Kelvin. He's figured out by now that he's trapped 154 years in the past. His most likely conclusion is that he's doomed his future wife and son to never existing, and it's his fault because he didn't just quietly skulk away before blasting a giant smoking hole into the time-line.
If you want to know why Nero does the things he does, it's because he has a bunch of self-blame he can't openly acknowledge to himself. Grief and self-loathing turned inwards have driven him around the bend so that he can't go forward with any number of better plans (for example, going to Romulus and taking over with his super-advanced ship and becoming the conqueror of the galaxy). Even if he goes for the least disruptive interference now - warning the Romulans that they're sitting too close to a star that will go supernova in 154 years, and they might want to do something about that - it's too late, he's already destroyed the people he cares about.
So he broods out in the middle of nowhere, waiting for Spock Prime to show up. He probably sends his men out on occasional piracy raids to keep the ships larder full, but other then that he spends his days wallowing in his angst. The men go along with it because their probably weren't the sharpest tools in the Romulan fleet. Remember, the Narada is a mining ship. Nero is smart enough to be the captain of this ship, but he didn't make the grade to be an officer in the military fleet. He's the Captain Morton of Romulus.
Nero's plan (destroy planets in revenge for something that hasn't happened) is a nihilist's plan, a sociopath's plan. So we can judge his behavior in this light. Before everything went to shit for him personally, he was probably what we'd call a "high functioning sociopath" - the sort of guy who can hide his problems well enough and can even make them work for him in a hierarchy because he doesn't care about stepping on toes to get what he wants. His wife and kid exist as a sociopath's loved ones - important as a possession more then actual people, which also explains why he can't let them go. The destruction of Romulus is, to Nero, a personal attack, and so he will destroy worlds for his personal revenge and to hell with helping/conquering/warning the Romulan empire.
So we can see that on the surface, Nero's plan makes no sense, but scratch under the surface of Nero's psyche, it makes perfect sense. As the antagonist of the story, I have no problems with Nero.
I do have a problem with the presence of Spock Prime. Oh, It's good that he was there to help defeat Nero and all, but they really should have killed him by the end of the movie. We now have a situation where the Federation can mine Spock Prime for information. This removes a lot of possibilities for reusing plots from TOS (The Original Show, for those not up on their Trekkie jargon). He's already told Spock 2.0 and Kirk that they're destined for great things. He's given Scotty a few of Scotty's own scientific advancements. Basically, he's given them all an excuse to be lazy. Why work to create your accomplishments when you can just ask Spock Prime what they are (assuming he cooperates, and so far they have).
At the end of the story, Spock Prime is assisting with the Vulcan diaspora. Obviously this was done to get him out of the picture (and possibly use again in future films, provided Leonard Nimoy is still around). That's not going to stop Federation Agents from giving him the exit interview to end all exit interviews, with an eye towards avoiding many future calamities. They wouldn't need to give him the third degree either, it would only take an appeal to Spock Prime's responsibility. "Think of all the Ensign Rickys you can save by telling us what's going to happen". He could give a ton of info too:
Nero and Spock Prime's actions create a very different Trek verse, which of course is what the creator's wanted. First, they wanted to keep all the old continuity (it still exists in an alternate universe, and could potentially be visited). They also had to send an unambiguous message that this is not your father's Trek. On this front I wholeheartedly approve. Growing up with it, I loved TOS, in a way that I never duplicated with the later series (and I tried, I really did). Getting to see new adventures with the original crew is something I'm quite giddy over.
The altered time-line is quite weird now, but it's something you can work with. It's patchy, but it looks something like this:
The original time-line exists (with orphaned-incursions into the time-line by the Enterprise Prime crew that we saw in TOS in the 1930's and 1960's). This goes on until the events of "Star Trek: First Contact" (the best of the Next Generation movies), which alters the time-line to create "Star Trek Enterprise". The next diversion occurs with the appearance of the Narada and the destruction of the Kelvin. This creates a much larger change in continuity they any of the earlier changes, effectively wiping out The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
What it doesn't alter is effects that began in the past. For example, the Doomsday Machine is still out there, looking for targets, because it was created in the past. Yonada is still on a collision course with Daran V. It also doesn't affect things that are going on in distant parts of the universe beyond the current reach of Star Fleet technology. The Borg are out there, doing there thing, as are the Andromedans and the Dominion. Spock Prime presumably has warned the Federation about all of them though. Dealing with them is another matter.
Of course, I suspect that any new stories dealing with these threats will quietly sweep Spock Prime's information under the rug, it doesn't make for a satisfying story otherwise.
But it does have it's flaws. Somethings that seem like flaws, but aren't. Other things seem like good points, but are drawbacks.
The first flaw-that-isn't is the villain and his plot. Let's recap: Captain Nero witnesses the destruction of Romulus in the late 24th century. He blames Spock Prime for this (though it isn't really his fault - he just wasn't fast enough to fix things). While engaging Spock Prime in combat, both ships are caught in the event-horizon of the red-hole (which is what I'm going to call a black hole created through red-matter) and both ships are thrown into the past.
Nero emerges into the past. He has not way of getting back to the future (ha) and is almost immediately hailed by a Federation starship - the USS Kelvin. In his grief and anger, he attacks and destroys it.
We don't get a lot of character exposition from the bad guys in this film. We know they're a nasty bunch because we see them act like a nasty bunch. But consider this: Nero has just destroyed the Kelvin. He's figured out by now that he's trapped 154 years in the past. His most likely conclusion is that he's doomed his future wife and son to never existing, and it's his fault because he didn't just quietly skulk away before blasting a giant smoking hole into the time-line.
If you want to know why Nero does the things he does, it's because he has a bunch of self-blame he can't openly acknowledge to himself. Grief and self-loathing turned inwards have driven him around the bend so that he can't go forward with any number of better plans (for example, going to Romulus and taking over with his super-advanced ship and becoming the conqueror of the galaxy). Even if he goes for the least disruptive interference now - warning the Romulans that they're sitting too close to a star that will go supernova in 154 years, and they might want to do something about that - it's too late, he's already destroyed the people he cares about.
So he broods out in the middle of nowhere, waiting for Spock Prime to show up. He probably sends his men out on occasional piracy raids to keep the ships larder full, but other then that he spends his days wallowing in his angst. The men go along with it because their probably weren't the sharpest tools in the Romulan fleet. Remember, the Narada is a mining ship. Nero is smart enough to be the captain of this ship, but he didn't make the grade to be an officer in the military fleet. He's the Captain Morton of Romulus.
Nero's plan (destroy planets in revenge for something that hasn't happened) is a nihilist's plan, a sociopath's plan. So we can judge his behavior in this light. Before everything went to shit for him personally, he was probably what we'd call a "high functioning sociopath" - the sort of guy who can hide his problems well enough and can even make them work for him in a hierarchy because he doesn't care about stepping on toes to get what he wants. His wife and kid exist as a sociopath's loved ones - important as a possession more then actual people, which also explains why he can't let them go. The destruction of Romulus is, to Nero, a personal attack, and so he will destroy worlds for his personal revenge and to hell with helping/conquering/warning the Romulan empire.
So we can see that on the surface, Nero's plan makes no sense, but scratch under the surface of Nero's psyche, it makes perfect sense. As the antagonist of the story, I have no problems with Nero.
I do have a problem with the presence of Spock Prime. Oh, It's good that he was there to help defeat Nero and all, but they really should have killed him by the end of the movie. We now have a situation where the Federation can mine Spock Prime for information. This removes a lot of possibilities for reusing plots from TOS (The Original Show, for those not up on their Trekkie jargon). He's already told Spock 2.0 and Kirk that they're destined for great things. He's given Scotty a few of Scotty's own scientific advancements. Basically, he's given them all an excuse to be lazy. Why work to create your accomplishments when you can just ask Spock Prime what they are (assuming he cooperates, and so far they have).
At the end of the story, Spock Prime is assisting with the Vulcan diaspora. Obviously this was done to get him out of the picture (and possibly use again in future films, provided Leonard Nimoy is still around). That's not going to stop Federation Agents from giving him the exit interview to end all exit interviews, with an eye towards avoiding many future calamities. They wouldn't need to give him the third degree either, it would only take an appeal to Spock Prime's responsibility. "Think of all the Ensign Rickys you can save by telling us what's going to happen". He could give a ton of info too:
- Tell the miners on Janus VI to not destroy the silicon nodules - they're the eggs of a sentient race.
- You're going to find a derelict sleeper ship a few light years from Ceti Alpha V. Put the ship on a nice M-class world that isn't Ceti Alpha V and wake them up remotely. Spy on them every few years, but don't contact them directly. Let the resulting culture mellow out for a few generations first.
- Watch out for the Nazis, the gangsters and the kiddies.
Nero and Spock Prime's actions create a very different Trek verse, which of course is what the creator's wanted. First, they wanted to keep all the old continuity (it still exists in an alternate universe, and could potentially be visited). They also had to send an unambiguous message that this is not your father's Trek. On this front I wholeheartedly approve. Growing up with it, I loved TOS, in a way that I never duplicated with the later series (and I tried, I really did). Getting to see new adventures with the original crew is something I'm quite giddy over.
The altered time-line is quite weird now, but it's something you can work with. It's patchy, but it looks something like this:
The original time-line exists (with orphaned-incursions into the time-line by the Enterprise Prime crew that we saw in TOS in the 1930's and 1960's). This goes on until the events of "Star Trek: First Contact" (the best of the Next Generation movies), which alters the time-line to create "Star Trek Enterprise". The next diversion occurs with the appearance of the Narada and the destruction of the Kelvin. This creates a much larger change in continuity they any of the earlier changes, effectively wiping out The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
What it doesn't alter is effects that began in the past. For example, the Doomsday Machine is still out there, looking for targets, because it was created in the past. Yonada is still on a collision course with Daran V. It also doesn't affect things that are going on in distant parts of the universe beyond the current reach of Star Fleet technology. The Borg are out there, doing there thing, as are the Andromedans and the Dominion. Spock Prime presumably has warned the Federation about all of them though. Dealing with them is another matter.
Of course, I suspect that any new stories dealing with these threats will quietly sweep Spock Prime's information under the rug, it doesn't make for a satisfying story otherwise.
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Date: 2009-05-27 05:13 am (UTC)