Bits 'n' Bobs.

Blimey…

Temptation, thy name is Trek.

Dear J.J. Abrams,

If everything in that headline is true, me and you are going to recreate the scene in the pic that follows it. I’ll be portraying the role of Gay Spock / Non-Prime Spock, and I’ll be strangling you, in an attempt to  ”reboot” your fool brain.

So now you know.

Talking about Black Friday…

Amazon introduced it over here for the first time last year. I picked up a few bits ‘n’ pieces, but found most of the items sold out too quickly.

It’s returned again this year, and I’d forgotten about it, until I got an email yesterday saying “DON’T buy the Batman blu-rays on Amazon!”. Somewhat intrigued, I went to the Amazon website, noticed the Black Friday banner, and spotted them as part of the “lightening deal”.

So I guess that’s one Christmas / Birthday present I know about :)

Anyways, I’ve been having a look, and nothing much has caught my attention - I did noticed the complete sets of Voyager and Enterprise earlier, for £45 each, but I’m loath to buy Star Trek on DVD - the plan, is to buy them all on blu-ray, starting with TOS, the moving onto TNG [the Blu-rays of which are out next year!!].

And then I noticed the above. The O.C. Only last week did I think “I really oughta re-watch The O.C.”.

Oh Amazon, you mind reading people…

Here’s hoping it’s a decent price. The R.R.P is £40.97, so we shall have to wait to see how much they discount it by.

Star Trek Sunday: Star Trek - The Motion Picture.

First things first - a bit of background. I’ve seen most of TOS, albeit out of order, as well as having seen all TNG and [for my sins] Voyager. DS9 was ‘boring’ when it came out - which likely means I’d love it now, and Enterprise - yeah…

As for the films - I’d seen bits and pieces of the earlier ones, and all the ‘later ones’, but inspired by Film4s ‘Star Trek weekend’ last year, I decided I’d watch all the films, in order.

And thus was born Star Trek Sunday - A Star Trek film, every Sunday. And the consequent ‘reviews’ / ‘thoughts’.

Star Trek Sunday: Star Trek: The Motion Picture [1979].

After Star Trek [thus forever more referred to as TOS] came to an end in 1969, the show was eventually put into syndication. With the emergence of ‘demographics’ Paramount realised that Star Trek was pretty damn popular. Vying with ambitions to launch their own network, Paramount decided it wanted Star Trek to be at the heart of it.

And thus was born Star Trek: Phase II. A second ‘Five Year Mission’ following the crew of the Enterprise, was set to hit the airwaves by 1978. Paramount actually got pretty far into production - full sets were produced, TV Quality scale models of the Enterprise were produced, contracts were inked to return the original cast…

All except one. There would be no Spock.

It seems in the years between the cancellation of TOS, and the development of Phase II Nimoy had, to put it politely, a ‘disagreement’ with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, which revolved around marketing decisions involving Spock, as well as discomfort at Bloopers being shown at various Fan Cons.

To get around the loss of the Enterprises’ chief Science Officer, three new characters would be introduced, Lieutenant Xon [a 22 year old ‘pure blooded’ Vulcan], a new Executive / First Officer, in the form of Commander Wil Decker, and Lieutenant iLlia who would essentially be the Ships Councillor, with a previous relationship with Decker.

Sound familiar? Aside from being basically Riker / Troi, that is?

It turns out, when the show / network was put to one side, Paramount decided to move ahead with the pilot episode of Phase II - ‘In Thy Image’, and turn it into a film.

And thus was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, born.

Set according to the internets a year after TOS finished [Really?, I assumed the events of The Motion Picture started a good few years after the end of TOS] The Motion Picture reunites the now Admiral Kirk, Bones [Who looks like he fell in with a group of pot smoking hippies] Spock [More on him in a moment] and the rest of the crew, as they attempt to intercept a seemingly hostile object, on its way to Earth…

Aside from being a boring execution, of an interesting idea, I’ve got a number of problems with The Motion Picture, most of which revolve around character development:

First things first - Kirk behind a Desk? While I understand that Starfleet is a military institution [something that never seemed to be referenced enough on the TOS, but which is perfectly encapsulated in the opening act of the 2009 movie], and that it would be somewhat ‘logical’ for Kirk to advance in rank to that of an Admiral - Are we honestly supposed to believe that THE James T. Kirk, would settle for a Desk Job? A promotion, that’s fair enough, but surely Kirk would want to be out ‘there’ for the remainder of his career?

Speaking of all things logical - Now we move to Spock. When we’re reunited with Spock, he’s back on Vulcan, undertaking the Vulcan ritual of Kolinahr - the purging of all emotion.

This has always ‘rubbed me the wrong way’. Having spent close to twenty years surrounded by human emotions [five years as Kirks first officer, prior to that the eleven years Spock spent working under the command of Captain Pike, and his time on Earth, at Starfleet Academy] it doesn’t really make any sense to me, that Spock would chose to purge his remaining emotions. Surely after all that time, Spock should have realised that his mixed heritage, combined with his experiences abord the Enterprise, make him a better person, than if he opted to purge all remaining emotion?

It’s not a big thing - more of an interesting character quirk. And I suppose technically it’s all been retconned anyway.

Time now, to move onto the new characters - or more specifically one. Captain / Commander Decker [I wrote it as such, because technically he is in charge of the Enterprise before Kirk shows up, so I assume he was a Captain. In the same way Sulu, Spock, Riker, Data etc, etc, are all promoted to Captain.].

Holy mother of all fuckdom, this guy is annoying. If I were Kirk I’d have booted him out the nearest exit within about 10 minutes.

As for the film - the actual plot, specifically everything revolving around Voyager, is awesome. In theory. It’s a shame therefore, that the film is soo awfully executed. It’s just sooooo boring. It’s almost as if someone wrote the plot outline for an awesome Hard Science book [which reminds me, I need to track down a copy of Fast Times at Fairmont High], and mashed it with the plot for a generic sci-fi book, and the generic crap won out.

So yeah. As the first ‘big screen’ adventure for the crew of The Enterprise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is pretty bad [though it’s not the worst in the series.].

Fortunately Paramount redeemed themselves big time with the next one…