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starladyHendrik Hertzberg, of all people, puts his finger exactly on one of the things I found particularly intriguing (and in the end, frustrating) about Star Trek: 2009 in this blog post here.
I really, really liked the fact that the new movie plunked Spock down into the captain's chair. Particularly in light of how the reboot monkeyed with various things, particularly Spock and Kirk et al.'s relative ranks/experience in Starfleet, it makes utter sense for Spock to be captain of the Enterprise in Pike's absence. And you know what? Spock's a pretty damn good captain.
Equally, it makes utter sense that Spock's logical decision, in the movie, to rendesvouz with Starfleet per Pike's final orders, is wrong, and obviously the movie is hitting us on the head with the "OMG they NEED each other to balance themselves out" cluebat. But, emotional compromise or no, I was bothered by how completely Spock took himself out of the chain of command after he assaulted Kirk, and I was bothered again when Kirk gets jumped from cadet (technically I suppose they all became ensigns when they mustered out of the Academy) to captain in one fell swoop at the end of the movie. Spock very clearly is the officer best suited for that post, and I think Abrams and crew are failing Roddenberry again here. Star Trek should be ahead of the sociopolitical curve of its time, not behind it, as Hertzberg makes clear that in this case it is.
So yes, if I had my way, the Enterprise would be commanded by Captain Spock, with Kirk as XO; Chekov would be Chinese or Afghani or something; and most of the characters would be genderswitched, and thus female. Maybe that movie got made in a quantum parallel universe.
I really, really liked the fact that the new movie plunked Spock down into the captain's chair. Particularly in light of how the reboot monkeyed with various things, particularly Spock and Kirk et al.'s relative ranks/experience in Starfleet, it makes utter sense for Spock to be captain of the Enterprise in Pike's absence. And you know what? Spock's a pretty damn good captain.
Equally, it makes utter sense that Spock's logical decision, in the movie, to rendesvouz with Starfleet per Pike's final orders, is wrong, and obviously the movie is hitting us on the head with the "OMG they NEED each other to balance themselves out" cluebat. But, emotional compromise or no, I was bothered by how completely Spock took himself out of the chain of command after he assaulted Kirk, and I was bothered again when Kirk gets jumped from cadet (technically I suppose they all became ensigns when they mustered out of the Academy) to captain in one fell swoop at the end of the movie. Spock very clearly is the officer best suited for that post, and I think Abrams and crew are failing Roddenberry again here. Star Trek should be ahead of the sociopolitical curve of its time, not behind it, as Hertzberg makes clear that in this case it is.
So yes, if I had my way, the Enterprise would be commanded by Captain Spock, with Kirk as XO; Chekov would be Chinese or Afghani or something; and most of the characters would be genderswitched, and thus female. Maybe that movie got made in a quantum parallel universe.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-07 06:20 (UTC)I mostly agree about the things that bothered you, but I think Kirk did have one stop along the way to captaincy -- didn't Pike make him second in command to Spock before he left the ship? So that when Spock stepped aside, Kirk was next in line. It's still weird, but maybe Pike putting him second in command is the thing to raise an eyebrow at. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-07 15:08 (UTC)And I can totally see Starfleet confirming Kirk in his field position of first officer on the basis of results, but...yeah. Spock should be Captain.