Matthew Wrather hosts a panel including Matthew Belinkie, Peter Fenzel, and Mark Lee to overthink Star Trek, the (spoiler alert) awesome franchise reboot, and look at the future from a variety of perspectives–political, ethnic, pop cultural, technological.
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If I hadn’t just seen that episode again recently, my understanding of the title would have been an utter Shaka when the walls fell.
On the topic of Non-Starfleet regular characters, does Q count? Or is he more of an antagonist? Are recurring villans (on any show) part of the cast?
Sorry for the barrage of questions, but the topic got me (over)thinking
24 hours later, the scene that I find myself mentally replaying is the very, very end: “Space, the final frontier…” It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I know the words well, but the visuals were always these cheesy, dated computer effects. The Next Generation opening hasn’t actually struck me as awe-inspiring in a long time. But in JJ Abrams’ movie, you get the words, with these gorgeous new images of the Enterprise, looking truly awesome. Really encapsulated what works about this movie. It’s the spirit and the mythology, but a totally pimped out vision to match.
However, part of me wishes they had let Kirk – the NEW Kirk – have the voiceover. It’s the CAPTAIN’S line, you know? When he says “Space, the final frontier…” then you KNOW he’s become Kirk. Giving it to Spock is cool too, but it’s Kirk’s movie. I guess we’ll have to wait until the next movie to hear Chris Pine say the line. Maybe he’s not quite Kirk yet.
You know who really counts is Quark. He’s probably the most important thoroughly non-starfleet character in a Star Trek show.
@Fenzel: Good point on Quark. I was going to say, Deep Space Nine is kind of the unloved step-child of the franchise, but if you want non-Starfleet characters and complex Earth politics, DS9 is your show. Quark was probably the most important non-Starfleet character on the show, plus there was Jake Sisko, Kai Winn, Gul Dukat, Garak. Oh, and technically Major Kira and Odo weren’t even part of Starfleet but the Bajoran militia.
More DS9 fangirling: I know others might disagree with me on this one, but DS9 can also be very funny. The Tribble episode? Quark and Rom? Morn? Comedy gold. Then again, I think Next Generation is pretty funny, too. Data makes me laugh almost every episode. What can I say; as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles recently reminded us, robots are hilarious. I think the difference between the original series and later series was that in the original series, the CAPTAIN was funny and vibrant. In Next Generation and on, the captains were pretty serious most of the time. Picard and Sisko are great in their own ways, but Kirk is the most entertaining by far.
-The Kiss: They were forced to for some reason in the episode, but the actors didn’t actually touch. Chock it up to camera and body angles. But it was supposed to be an actual kiss, and yes, the first inter-racial one on TV.
-I am of the camp that believes the world of the future in this universe is based largely on pure communism.
-LOTS of sci-fi movies and series do the references to our current pop culture. It may be a lazy way for writers to go, but I think it makes it easier to relate to or like the characters. If THEY like the Smashing Pumpkins, too, that just makes them all the more awesome, right? Belinkie and I don’t disagree.
-Hey, I *liked* that _Godzilla_ movie. Why are y’all always hating on it so much?
-The way the opening ends, when George Kirk is about to blow up, looked, sounded, and felt just like some of the dramatic episodes of _Lost_. The slow motion combined with the silence of the scene and the heart-string-pulling music. Biiiig dramatic effect there.
-The clips from the very first trailer were actually nowhere in the movie. They were of the construction of the ship and yes, it was being built in space.
-Future technology: If the technology didn’t need the people to do the final bits, there would be no need for the characters at all. There would *be* no _Star Trek_ if they still didn’t need a human to translate, to pilot, to give orders, etc.
-It annoys me as HECK every time I see someone say you’re thinking too hard or whatever in the comments…
-Sulu said the original pilot was sick. It’s on IMDB. As far as I can remember, Chekov was the only one there all on their own (excluding Spock). But his genius is probably why.