Star Trek by the Minute 082: Outpost Ingress

-

Entering the Starfleet outpost, the scene in Star Trek XI (nuTrek) is really one that speaks for itself, especially in the lack of any dialog or action which would convey the critical emergency, and mass death and destruction probably taking place while our "heroes" stand around gawking...

Delivering lines with their typical literary panache, Abrams, Orci & Kurtzman feature Kirk declaring incitefully: "Ah!"  Followed by "Ah!" and then Kirk says (I'm not making this up) : "Ah!"

 
When some lights turn on far down the hallway, Kirk yells: "Hello!"

The munchkin-like alien (or is it an oompa-loompa-like alien?) then comes running toward them as if he was the one in a hurry to, you know, save the galaxy.

The rest of this segment is a slow walk through what looks like a location shot, but there is simply no sense of urgency about trying to warn the earth it is about to be obliterated by the Klingon fleet annihilating behemoth.

Since this scene has virtually no dialog, it might be a good time to bring up some of the issues that arise with plot holes and other errors in the film.  I admit to being torn as to how much of the blame belongs with Abrams, Orci & Kurtzman.  Should they be working on 5 big projects simultaneously?  It depends somewhat on your point of view regarding quality vs. quantity.

Food analogies are often used in critiques of the film, and like the 2009 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary points out, corporate organization of food production leads to huge volumes of output that is marketed heavily and highly profitable but bad for health when those marketing efforts are successful.  Abrams nuTrek is an action film - not bad in and of itself, but when one of our only mass media options for popularizing the thrilling, fascinating drama of science and space exploration is turned to something very much like careless whoring for corporations, cheering for violence and the military, and appears actively hostile to serious thought, science, logic, and wrestling with important ethical questions, those who care about such things and appreciate thought provoking science fiction will be likely to see these priorities removed from public view yet again. 

No women speak or appear in this segment.


In our next episode of Star Trek by the Minute 083: You are Montgomery Scott, we meet the main comic relief of the film.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Star Trek by the Minute 018: Vulcan Racism

-
Previous: Proud Mama In a great contrast, this segment makes a sharp cut from the warm light of Winona Horowitz's all-too brief close up appearance with a flash to a slanted, rotating and zooming medium shot in sterile cold blue lighting of a large amphitheater. The closely intimate, loving family interaction supported by soft cellos is juxtaposed with ludicrously high benches occupied by 3 stern-looking ministers and harsh silence. The bench is set against a backdrop of severe, angular architecture with the roof beams giving an appearance of cross-hatched cuts of a scalpel across cadaverous sky beyond. The voice of the male head minister echoes through the high-tech judgment cavern: "You have surpassed the expectations of your instructors. Your final record is flawless with one exception; I see that you have applied to Starfleet as well." It seems reasonable to question the characterization of an application to Starfleet as a "flaw". Without attempting to gath
Read more

Star Trek by the Minute 117: My Honor, Commander

-
Image
"Bones!" says Kirk, slapping his Chief Medical Officer: "Buckle up!"  McCoy rolls his eyes.  Kirk sits in the Captain's chair and calls engineering, "Scotty, How we doin?"  Does ANY ship actually require verbally checking with personnel in engineering in to determine operational status?  Would the Flight Director at NASA actually need to contact a launchpad engineer to make certain the rocket was fueled, or would fuel status be automatically visible in Mission Control? "Dilithium chambers at maximum, Captain," replies the Chief Engineer, who then turns to Deep Roy and yells "Get down!"  The obvious question regarding Scott's report is: how does a "chamber" vary from maximum to minimum?  I suppose if one knows very little of "Treknology", one might think dilithium is a fuel, like diesel or gasoline, in which case this report would make sense, like saying (of a car) "The tank is full."  Although trek
Read more

Star Trek by the Minute 019: Ladies’ Night

-
Previous: Vulcan Racism As Spock finishes his interview with the council, we cut to a car driving down a lonely Iowa cornfield with the last flames of dusk dying on the horizon. Without stopping (or slowing) at the crossroads, the car pulls up to a what we discover is a futuristic roadhouse bar. The driver appears to be the Uhura, and we follow her swishing red turtleneck mini dress through the club as she approaches the bar and orders a Clavian Fire Tea, 3 Budweiser® Classics (another shameful product placement), 2 Cardassian Sunrises, and what sounds like a "Slushle Mix" at the bartender's suggestion. Now we see there are women everywhere, but at least they're just functioning as scenery, and ordering drinks. At GirlBar in Hollywood one might see 5 to 1 ratios like this…but in Iowa? OK, it's the future in an alternate universe. The bartender goes to work on her order. "That's a lot of drinks for one woman" comes from our tipsy future hero James T.
Read more