Star Trek by the Minute 091: Vulcan Fury

-
What is contained in this segment is yet another senseless fistfight, contrived to put Kirk in the Captain's chair of the Enterprise despite being one of the least qualified people in the galaxy, and this bit of melodramatic adoration of yet more violence is truly embarrassing.  A believable and/or likable Spock would have learned something from his father and formative years, yet this film shows us a caricature of an emotionally stunted, sometimes savant,who is still a child and unable to stop from throwing violent tantrums whenever someone simply refers to his mother. badly  Spock has needed counseling and therapy during the past decades more than  promotions - much like everyone we've seen in Abrams' version of the Federation and/or Starfleet.  With this film's profound confusion of these organizations, it's sometimes difficult even to give meaningful criticism or praise for the writing because the story lacks a coherent , intelligible cultural setting beyond "Black ship bad, white ship good."

After Spock throws a couple of punches at Kirk, Kirk briefly gains his footing and tries counter-attacking, but by doing so, he relinquishes any objectively supported claim to superior emotional stability.  In fact, he demonstrates he is less qualified since he is not only now a mutineer, but the basis of his now violent aggression, an actual charge of treason might be plausibly sustained against him as a traitor to Starfleet, instructions from the prime universe Spock notwithstanding. 
  

After about 30 seconds of Spock beating the tar out of Kirk, followed by a silly mockery of choking,  note the complete lack of pressure in the screenshot, 

 
Sarek exclaims: "Spock!" After which our skipper moons about the bridge, with Kirk coughing in the background.

No women speak in this segment, but Uhura joins Sarek, Chekov, McCoy, Sulu, Scotty, the security manniquins, and crowds of other Bridge crew in gaping stupidly as their captain is attacked and ship controls and displays are smashed.

Next: Spock "relinquishes" his entire command because of emotional compromise in our next episode of Star Trek by the Minute 092: Kirk Takes Command.

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 001

-
Image
The first 15 seconds of beautiful effects of the USS Kelvin in space, include some nice communication chatter that includes “gravitational” readings going crazy and “it” looks like a lightning storm. First, lightning storms do not cause gravitational anything so crazy readings are not what “looks” like a lightning storm, at all. Later we do have some gravitational anomalies, so that plot element could mediate this criticism, but that leads to our next issue: why Kelvin is reporting on “the looks” of some “it” which is “out of visual range”? At least they got 15 seconds into the film before this screw-up, but in JJ Abram’s defense: the effects are spectacular and “gritty”, which was the goal.  We next zoom onto the Kelvin bridge, which is so bright the Captain turns aft while ordering the viewscreens polarized. Apparently, Starfleet standards aren’t very demanding. It seems Academy graduates can reach bridge officer rank on no less than a starship, while never having learned not to blin
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