I Love The New Star Trek Like Pie, and other SPOILERS

[x_los]

So it's retcon AU Maaaaaadness, and I don't even care. Every canon reference was as manna from heaven. Kirk's petulant, bitchy Captain's Log note-taking? The inclusion of Riverside, Iowa (ten minutes from my college town--yet, of course I've been to see their mock-up Enterprise in the town square, why do you ask?) as Kirk's point of origin? The cliche 'Kirk macking on green-skinned alien babe'? McCoy? Scotty? Chekov? Sulu? Be still my fucking heart.

Also, the movie included, albeit in a truncated fashion that didn't quite do it justice, Wrath of Khan's Kobayashi Maru Scenario. This is one of my favorite bits, so I'm happy it was around.

People (and by people, I mean the horde of boyfen I just finished disagreeing with in the lobby with the collective conceptual capacity of a sieve) are going to bitch that it's not Staaaaaaaar Trek, wah, because of the zany 'traveled back in time' thing. It got likened in my hearing to 'but it was all a dream!' No. No, because JR did actually get shot, y'all, and in a universe that includes time travel, you automatically have to accommodate 'time travel with far reaching consequences.' And don't we already do this double-think with all our comic book fandoms? It's like different cosmologies in a mythology: Egyptian mythology remains coherent as an over-arching cultural system despite the different origin stories promulgated by different cult centers (each emphasizes the primary importance in the creation of their local patron deities). So too does X-Man canon function despite the wide number of different, conflicting story arcs (Ultimate X-Men, House of M, 1602, original!canon, movie!canon, etc.). It doesn't mean your original series doesn't exist any more than House of M means Rouge and Gambit can finally make love (as sweet and spicy and long simmering as Gambit's gumbo) like it's Antarctica all over again! It's just an AU! GTFO!

Most embarrassing moments:

I hope you like New Doctor Who, b/c they're going to be stealing some plot motifs. And by some, I mean a lot. Guess who's the looooonliest half-human member of a dead race of geniuses? If you ever wanted Academy footage or Time War Destruction of Gallifrey highlights, photoshop in some silver trees to go with that desert, the people in robes and your dust red sky, and there you are.

Also, Spock/Uhura is a great lie. A lie I am going to have to go and read a lot of the K/S slash I poked at as a child en route to my Picard/Q otp to dispel.

...can I just say I miss my Romanesque Romulans? I know we rarely see anyone not affiliated with the military/the militaristic government, but we had some picture of Romulan architecture/culture/dress etc., and so while it's not impossible that their thus-far hegemonic culture could encompass this level of variation, the tattooed dudes are unprecedented, and I missed my proper 'hail Brutus' Romulans?

...I could have done with an Andorian walking by in a crowd scene. Just sayin.'

...at some point I realized I remembered the Enterprise's registration number, and both loved and hated myself. I can do both at once. Like I can believe in AU and Original!Universe at once. JUST SAYING, FANBOYS.


Conclusion: Love it! Loathe it! Don't be the fucking sieve.

Also: Mine is still a trekkie heart, and this franchise has closer emotional associations with me than almost anything else. Despite having moved into a larger world of things I spend more time on now, much of how I think about sci-fi and, well, everything, really, was influenced by countless hours of Trek as a child. I've seen every episode but the new Enterprise run (I refuse it like American!Life on Mars, sorry f-listers who like it, if any there be.). And it's definitely done me right. I could make you a favorite ST:TOS episode list on the spot, and may this weekend, during a nostalgic re-watching.

Comments

[reserve.livejournal.com]

Guess who's the looooonliest half-human member of a dead race of geniuses?

HAHAHAHA I SO TOTALLY TWITTERED ABOUT THAT TODAY. I BELIEVE I SAID, "JJ ABRAMS + RUSSELL T = BFFS 4 EVA."

BUT YES. I AM DOWN.

I totally thought about RUSSELL T's Master interpretation, though, when Spock was all up in the mathematics hole on Vulcan.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

So right! I don't even care, though, I love it.

...how is one /supposed/ to get into and out of the math hole is Spock doesn't shove you? There are no stairs. Those kids are tiny. This is like when Daleks couldn't fly. :(

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

DUDE. I refresh my flist and suddenly it's ALL TREK. ALL THE TIME. There are four posts literally one after the other here, all conveying slightly different flavors of "OMG awesomesauce."

So, uh, I guess Imma gonna hafta see this movie over the weekend, huh?

I heart the whole Trek franchise to a slightly embarrassing degree, so I can't help being gleeful over other fans' glee. And yet. Next Gen is the true Trek of my heart, so I kind of have to echo my flist-person youngcurmudgeon in saying that, if this new AU universe invalidates all of Next Gen? It ain't my Trek.

(Picard/Q OTP 4 EVAH, btw.)

Still. I am really, srsly, deeply glad that the new movie doesn't suck, and that there is so much squee and potential discussion to be had about it. \o/ \dorkitude/ \fandom/ \o/

[x-los.livejournal.com]

It's like your flist is Spike TV all of a sudden.

You shooould, I think you will liiiiike it.

Ah, see, again, I think it's fine, just different--AU doesn't invalidate, blah blah. And all the Next Gen stuff will still happen in this universe, just sliiiightly differently given that Vulcan's gone, and there might be a few differences that flow over from the Kirk era. But it's 200ish years on, I think Next Gen's largely fine?

Of course Picard/Q is a true love, I mean come on.

I too am glad it wasn't shite. <3

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

Hee! Horrifying thought.

Yeah, invalidate's not quite the right word. The AU does not contain Next Gennishness? I dunno. And yeah, a lot of it could potentially still happen theoretically, but Trek seems to work on more of a "step on a butterfly in the past and you're fucked" model, and Vulcan is, like, one of the most important members of the Federation EVER, and...

You know what? I'm going to not worry about it. Especially I'm going to not worry about it till I've actually seen the thing. Sorry.

I'm still longing for the crossover that explains exactly HOW Five and Ainley!Master are Q's grandparents, btw. :D

[x-los.livejournal.com]

ahhh, the crack that never gets written...

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

....And, having just seen it, I return to say: screw what I said above, that was undiluted awesomesauce and I loved it.

(Though I do agree with you on the Romulans. WTF. Also, must all bad guys have such crappy lighting in their ships? It makes sense for the Borg, but come on now.)

[x-los.livejournal.com]

How have they NEVER assimilated a lighting director of like, a community theater or something, though? Or Christopher Lowell for his uplights uplights uplights? /Something/, Borg, come on!

[blinkidybah.livejournal.com]

<3 <3 <3 <3 ~*~*~*~*~ SCOTTY ~*~*~*~*~ <3 <3 <3 <3

[gothic-hamlet.livejournal.com]

NEED MORE TUBES

[x-los.livejournal.com]

IDK THAT WAS A LOT OF TUBES...

[gothic-hamlet.livejournal.com]

THERE ARE NEVER ENOUGH TUBES.

IN FACT I HAVE INFORMED MY FRIEND THAT WHOEVER'S BIRTHDAY IS NEXT WILL HAVE THE DISPLEASURE OF FINDING THEMSELVES IN POSSESSION OF A CAKE SHAPED LIKE A TUBE... WITH A LITTLE SCOTTY FIGURE STUCK IN IT.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

I KNOW RITE?