Star Trek by the Minute 092: Kirk Takes Command

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Continuing his aimless wandering around the Bridge as if lost, Spock continues to give every indication that he not only has no emotional control or maturity, violating the core principles of his culture and its ethical system, but that he is not one of Starfleet Academy's top graduates, a senior instructor, and a specialist in Bridge operations.  Staring at nothing, he drones: "Doctor, I am no longer (sigh) fit for duty.  I hereby relinquish my command based on the fact that I have been emotionally compromised.  Please note the time and date in the ships log."
  
 
As Spock starts to leave the bridge, Kirk looks hungrily at the captain's chair and Uhura gestures her support for Spock with an exchange of loving looks.  Spock, (the expert in starship Bridge operations) forgets again to hand off command to anyone before departing.

 
Sarek looks around the bridge to see if anyone is going to render aid to the apparently traumatized officer who may be having a breakdown.  McCoy does a great Helen Keller imitation at this point, portraying perfect obliviousness to what's going on just as do all the assembled 15 Bridge crew members and others such as these 3 wastes of life support.
Sarek then moves to follow Spock.

Again with another attempt at non-sequitur humor, Scotty states "I like this ship! Ya know: it's exciting."
 
Chief Medical Officer McCoy decides belatedly to come to life, and from the other side of the Bridge he says: "Well congratulations Jim..."  What? Why would he be talking to the mutinous stowaway Kirk directly like there are no other command officers on the bridge, like those right next to him (like Chekov) that were just recently acting as Captain or at least ship commander?  Perhaps its the doc's creative "prescriptions" talking, which is a hypothesis supported by his follow-up "...now we've got no Captain and no goddamn First Officer to replace him."  What kind of moron is this McCoy?  One wonders if, when the first two sheets on a toilet paper roll are used, does he become similarly paralyzed?  Are we to believe that there is no "chain of command" aboard this ship? Here is yet more ridiculous writing that seems sufficiently lazy to merit a claim that it insults the audience.

With his familiar look of a sexual predator about to drunkenly grope a vulnerable target, Kirk slurs "Yeah...we do!"

"What?" asks McCoy as Kirk steps up to the Captain's chair with Sulu intoning: "Pike made him First Officer."  Of course, Sulu is perhaps forgetting both that "Pike made Spock Captain", and that Captain Spock made the suspended cadet a prisoner when Kirk started violently attacking ship personnel.  Convenient memory lapses, it seems to this viewer.

McCoy seems to note how inappropriate this is when he exclaims: "You gotta be kidding me!"

"Thanks for the support" scoffs Kirk, pushing his hips out and spreading his legs in an apparent clarification of any confusion regarding whether he's got male genitalia.

No women speak in this segment.

Alternate Kirk issues his first orders as Captain of the Abramsprise in Star Trek by the Minute 093: Prep for Battle Stations

Comments

R. Anthony Steele said…
There was an emotional tension to the last three minutes, when viewed on screen, that is missing when you try to break it down like this.

When I watched this sequence, I never questioned that this (thieving, backstabbing, manipulative) Kirk belonged in the command chair; I mean, he's Kirk, right?

When you try to diagram it rationally though, it makes no sense at all. Especially in light of the series of miracles that gets this miscreant back on the bridge of the Enterprise in the first place.

When looked at in this fashion, I am amazed at how well emotion has been manipulated in this film. It's a marvel of film-making, to be able to mask such gaping holes in story and plot with cheap theatrics so effectively.

My hat is off, not to Abrams, but to the film editor and post production team. That this film is even watchable given it's massive flaws is a credit to their ingenuity.

Well done gentlemen. Can I offer you a real film to work on? Where were you when Star Trek V was being butchered in the editing room?

-RAnthony
May 13, 2010 at 10:21 AM
BurntSynapse said…
I would love to find out what happened on ST5... some of that dinner dialog makes no sense at all!
May 18, 2010 at 1:10 PM
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