Star Trek by the Minute 075: I Am Spock

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After excruciating seconds go by with Kirk having no means to resist being eaten by this monster, he is shown kicking ineffectually off screen. The only possible thing his boot could hit would be the tongue with which he has been lassoed. Despite Kirk's complete lack of handholds, footholds or anything else that would prevent him from sliding directly down the creature's gullet, and despite that we have seen this animal break upward through solid ice to attack a polar bear sized predator, crush it in one bite, and fling it easily 100 m through the air, the creature is shown now to be completely stymied. This kind of helpless, senseless delay appears again and again such as in the Kelvin battle, (apparently to enable George Kirk's kamikaze run), the attack on the Enterprise, (apparently to keep our main characters alive), the drill platform fight, (same), Chekhov's attempt to beam out the Vulcan High Council, (yielding the unbelievable death of Amanda), and other examples.

From nowhere, a lit torch begins flailing in front of the creatures gaping maw, and it instantly releases Kirk and backs away out of the cavern as the mysterious wielder of the torch advances steadily and waving his arms while Kirk looks on, gaping widely. The figure holding the torch takes a step back, then another, then another, and another – six steps backwards he takes before turning to reveal the face of Leonard Nimoy, who stares down at our hero and declares "James T. Kirk". "Excuse me?" Kirk asks.

"How did you find me?" Spock asks, ignoring Kirk's question.

"Whoa, whoa," Kirk asks as he stands, "How do you know my name?" ignoring Spock's question. Waxing poetic, Spock slowly declares "I have been and always shall be your friend."

"Uh, look. I…I don't know you."

"I am Spock." In my first viewing, I really became convinced that some kind of amazing explanation was going to be required for this meeting, such as Spock had gone to the future and seen Kirk killed in this cave, so he had positioned himself to rescue Kirk or something like that which would at least make some kind of sense. But Spock prime was actually surprised to see Kirk, which pushed the series of coincidences and miracle beyond ridiculous for me.

Kirk stares at him for a few moments before deciding this is "Bullshit."

In the next shot, we see the pair sitting opposite each other with a fairly roaring campfire between them, which seems a bit out of place in the absence of anything to burn, such as any trees that would provide limbs like the one Spock is using to poke at the fire.

"It is remarkably good to see you again old friend, especially after the events of today."

No women appear or speak in this segment.

We will get more exposition, but not much more sense in Star Trek by the Minute 076: Meld Begins.

Comments

R. Anthony Steele said…
Maybe I just have a soft spot for Nimoy (yeah, I think that's it) but this is the only part of the film that I enjoyed.

The points about Vega's location, and Spock and NuKirk ending up by chance on the same planet are well made.

Perhaps the Narada travels by improbability drive. That would explain how they both ended up on the same planet...

-RAnthony
May 12, 2010 at 11:08 PM
BurntSynapse said…
...and why the Narada crew died: they forgot where their towels were.
May 18, 2010 at 12:43 PM
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