Star Trek: The History

[eumelia]

My brother sent me an email last night asking me where my review of Star Trek was.
My reply to him was thus:

"I am still squeeing

I need to articulate my thoughts beyond;
OMG Spock!
OMG Kirk!
OMG The Red Shirt Died!
OMG That was an Orion Girl in a Bikini!

so... yeah..."

However, I feel that I must first write about my Trek background seeing as it's a huge part of why I so thoroughly enjoyed the movie. In this post I'll give you a quick history - behind a cut so as not to bore you to death - of how Star Trek changed my life no less than Buffy.

Once I have this written down, I'll be able to give you a much better review.

Enjoy the Geekery!

I suppose I should disclaim and say that I've been a Trekker for most of my life.
I've even written fic (though it was a post-DS9 universe).

Trek Fandom in Israel is very TNG and beyond focused. Most of the Trek fans I've spoken to (not all, of course) consider TOS, while being the conception and inception of the best 'verse ever, to be far too cheesy and 60's to take seriously.

I fist laid eyes on Star Trek when I was seven years old, this was way back in the 1992, we recently had cable teevee installed and had lots of new channels to view.
This was all very exciting for me as I was addicted (yeah, I know, not very past tense) to teevee back then and spent most of my free time in front of the idiot box.

One of the channels was called Star Plus (it's an Indian satellite channel), the details are a bit vague by now, but I remember my brother being very excited about this and telling me that every evening there was a time slot that would not be moved.

Now, let me express, I had already seen some of Star Trek TNG and a few of the movies (my favourite is The Voyage Home; me, a budding environmentalist? Never! :P) so I was aware of the existence of Star Trek, but certainly not intimately. The names of characters were not embedded in my mind and I had no idea what the point was other than space ships and sci-fi.

Lo and Behold.
My brother was fourteen at the time and for some reason still considered me good company, I really should ask him why?
He plonked me beside him, our parents sat on the other side of the couch.
The screen was black and then... there was this:

To say that I was hooked, is an understatement.
Looking back, I believe the first episode I ever saw was The Man Trap and egads I was terrified out of my seven year old mind.
I believe I actually jumped behind our couch and cried a bit.
It didn't stop me from wanting more.
My favourite eps, to this day, are "The Devil in the Dark", "Amok Time", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "A Piece of the Action", "The Trouble with Tribbles" - "Intriguing. It's trilling noise seems to produce a tranquillizing effect on the human nervous system. Fortunately, I am, of course, immune." oh, Spock... 'kay, I'll stop now, safe to say... I loved the TOS episodes.
A lot.

It'll come as no shock to anyone who knows me that I loved Spock the most.
My absolute favourite.
His voice.
His nose.
His ears and eyebrows.
I myself am an eyebrow raiser... it is a trick I learned early in my sardonic life, many a thanks to Spock, of course.

I couldn't articulate then, what it was that I loved so much about Spock. Now however, I am able to say that it was very much the depth of his feeling and his sense of justice. He wouldn't compromise if it meant more deaths. He was not violent, but knew that it was sometimes necessary (and when he used violence it was always restrained and with minimum and elegant movement - Vulcan nerve pinch, yeah).
And of course, the friendship he shared with Kirk and eventually with Bones.
I loved the way he bridged his dual heritage.
His balance and coming to terms with the fact that he would never belong on either world, so he would live in Space.
Not to mention, he was an Alien among humans.

Which brings us to the real reason I love Trek (TOS specifically and not the rest after TNG, as much).
Spock personified (as did the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise) the concept that makes Vulcans the awesome species they are (though for some reason they were portrayed in latter shows as less than... grrrr) which is the concept of the IDIC* - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.
The Universe in a nutshell, I would say.

To a certain extent, Star Trek (and to a lesser extent Sci-Fi in general) taught me that there were "Other" people out there and that they were just like me - there are issues with that, but a liberal upbringing isn't the worst thing that can happen to a child living in ethnocratic and centric country like mine.

And while Star Trek is very much stuck in the 60's with much of its concepts on race and gender, the vision it held as a lighthouse is one I still believe in.
Maybe that makes me a bloody hearted peacenik hippie.
But fuck it.

And that's what Star Trek means to me and as I grew up and became quite closeted about, because as I mentioned, TOS is under appreciated in Israel.
This new movie gives me hope, flaws and all, which will be examined in my critical review.
Thanks for taking the time to read this scroll

And that's that.

It's been two days since the viewing (and now planning on seeing it again) and I think I'm capable of writing the spoilerific review you all deserve to read, including on what was awesome and what really, really wasn't.
Stay tuned!

*Plugging starbase_idic for that reason!

Comments

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

And while Star Trek is very much stuck in the 60's with much of it's concepts on race and gender, the vision it held as a lighthouse is one I still believe in.

Yes! This! Exactly why it caught my attention. That it wasn't a utopian future, but that it was a place where people would expect to be treated equally, and it was expected that everyone would strive for that ideal.

I'm sure one or both of my parents watched the original series, because when I watched it, supposedly for the first time in the early nineties, there was so much that was familiar to me. It must have been in the early seventies, before I was old enough to remember, but the colours and the sounds of the show, oh, I knew them.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

When I think about ST:TOS currently, I can't help but think of the New Doctor Who (and to a certain extent Torchwood), in the sense that these are shows for the whole family and are part of a social vision.
Both of which I love, but are also different :)

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

My first exposure to Star Trek was through all the novels, because there was no cable TV in Australia then, and my rural town only got two channels, neither of them showing any Trek. So by the time I actually got to see an episode of TOS (around the time TNG started) I had all the ideals and expanded world of the novels in my head - and, like you, the ideals overwhelmed the slightly dodgy reality of the show for me. So I loved the movie and can enjoy it both critically and uncritically, because the dream is in my head.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I haven't read enough of the novels, I never enjoyed them as much, I think I'm too entrenched in fanfic, which can at times be as good as canon.
Alas, different generations :)

And yes, enjoyment was had critically and uncritically was had!

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

*feels terribly old*

Yes, it was pre-internet days! Some of the early novels are very much fanfic - and were in fact written not just by ficcers, but by slashficcers!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Don't feel old!
Seven in 1992! I'm a baby, okay!

Mmmm, slash...

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, Black Fire was pretty slashy, but I enjoyed it a lot as a kid even though I've never been a slasher. So far as more generalized fan-fic goes, Battlestations! and Dreadnought! were the worst. Lieutenant Piper was so obviously a Mary Sue that they hurt to read.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Black Fire, Triangle, Killing Time Lt. Mary Sue Piper...it all made so much more sense once I discovered fanfic!

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

Oh, god. I liked Triangle, too. Fuck. I might be a latent slash fan. D: D: D:

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

*cough*Xander/Riely*cough*

*whistles innocently*

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

That's not slash! They were totally banging behind Buffy's back!

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

I was a huge Trekkie -- I still have an interest in the franchise but aside from a couple animated series episodes I watched last week, I've not watched any Trek in probably four years -- and love most of their movies (The Motion Picture is the only original series movie I hate whereas First Contact is the only The Next Generation movie I like) and a number of the original series novels like "Prime Directive" and "Spock's World", but have never liked the original series.

Not only is it "cheesy" and "too sixties" to me, I just don't care for Kirk, Spock, or McCoy as they're portrayed by the younger Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelly. Kirk is too smug; Spock too arrogant; and McCoy too belligerent, but they all mellowed with age and I adore older Spock and McCoy, and though I don't feel as strongly about older Kirk, I like him just fine.

That said, I have a lot of respect for the show for laying the groundwork for the later series (DS9 is my favorite, and the only show I still consider myself a real fan of), and I love this adaptation, plot holes and all.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Tonight a spoke to one of the big heads of the Star Trek fan club and he said he's never seen the whole of TOS.

He said it was boring.

I find that so sad, personally. The Sci-Fi in TOS is so good, the concepts, the tech (even the babble), human development. I find it way better portrayed (60's based race and gender concepts aside) way better than in the latter TNG (the earlier was much like TOS only with better acting and FX).
I also really love DS9, the Bajorans are my favourite species after the Vulcans.

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

Okay, now that's weird. I never claimed to be that hardcore (though I did own about 350 of the novels), but I can't imagine being a big wig in a fan organization and not liking what started it all.

The Next Generatiom has aged pretty badly and is now just as hokey in an 80s way as the original series is in a 60s way. It was my gateway, though, and I'm sure I'll always have a soft spot for it, even if I never see another episode.

My favorite species, for what it's worth, are the Romulans (to paraphrase Xander, I am sick of them being everybody's butt monkey. Fucking Nemesis. Fucking Star Trek. :p), Cardassians, and Bajorans. I also love the Dominion in toto and really like the Vorta (which I *just* realized are a mirror of the Bajorans, with the Founders playing the role of the Prophets), but don't really care for the Changelings or Jem'Hadar seperately.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I was actually really offended by that whole thing - I'm a big dork I know, but how am I supposed to feel a part of the Trek community in my vicinity when one of the big wigs doesn't even like it!

As I said, I'm very cagey about revealing my Trekker statues (which he - the big wig - said term was Trekkie, BAH!) to others. Because seriously, it was good up to DS9 (I hated VOY and thought ENT was really, really cheap and didn't go well with the canon like they tried).
And the last really good movie, that I enjoyed, was "First Contact" and even then it was... meh, not so good.

I agree with you on the Romulan as Scapegoat shtick is getting old. I also like the Romulans (seeing as they were hardcore Vulcans who opposed Surak! Dude, that's awesome :D).
Maybe in the coming sequels we'll get to see Romulans as characters and not megalomaniacal villains - Nemesis was so bad!

[sabotabby]

And while Star Trek is very much stuck in the 60's with much of it's concepts on race and gender, the vision it held as a lighthouse is one I still believe in.

So much yes. I actually watched the Whale Movie last night (the new movie seems to have stirred up all of my old Treklove*) and I was struck by the whole "but we don't use money in the future" and the idea that, yeah, there can be shiny spaceships and buttons but the point is not to kill people. Also it was hilarious and campy.

* Yeah, so, uh, the three good things that my father introduced me to growing up: Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Douglas Adams. Other than that my bio-dad sucked.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

the new movie seems to have stirred up all of my old Treklove

I so know how you feel! I'm very quickly developing an obsession... again!
I found someone to go with me again this Sunday! And I'll probably be going with my GF the following Sunday.
The movie, warts-and-all, has so much win I;m still inarticulate!

[tinyrevolution.livejournal.com]

omg yr my sister's age!

also omg The Voyage Home is my favorite old movie also! Maybe it's because I live less than a mile from alameda ... :)

also have you seen this (http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html)?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Haha! Does that make me young or old?

The Vayage Home, is the first Trek movie I saw, which I think had a huge impact on me when it came to other issues... that and Free Willy :P

My family are Cohens... we knew :D

[tinyrevolution.livejournal.com]

That makes you 2 years younger than me. :)

I like how TVH was based on a fanfic. It's totally got a fanfic thing going. Also it's even more fun to watch once you know the bay area. Alameda does have a naval base - or had, rather, as it officially closed in 1997 so there aren't any nuclear wessels afaik. Sausalito is a real place but there is no Cetacian Institute. :(

Also worth noting, around the same time as alameda's naval base closed, the army base in the presidio closed (1994 I think) - this is the base which, in the Trek universe, was supposed to stay open for centuries and eventually become Starfleet HQ. Now it's a park and part of it is a nude beach, and on the way to the nude beach area you pass these old abandoned rocket launchers/giant guns/whatever they are, still aimed out at the pacific ocean. And if you look at the golden gate bridge right from the nude beach, it's like ALMOST the same angle of the bridge as they show it in the TNG Starfleet Academy episode (in the late 80s, I think). hmm I will find pictures ...

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfleet_Academy)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Beach)

Presidio was also the site of a famous "mutiny" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_mutiny) by drafted soldiers during the vietnam war.

I like how some bay area history intersects with star trek history!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

nuclear wessels

LOLZ!!!