Neo-Trek: The Brick Wall
May 12
Neo-Trek: The Brick Wall
Neo-Star Trek has been consuming my brain all goddamn week. The build-up was amazing, the onslaught of rapturous Twitter-reviews stoking my skiffy-lust as I made my way to the Cinerama dome on Saturday. I’ve loved this franchise since I was a wee one. The idea that it’s suddenly relevant again, that it’s back in all its live long and prosperish glory, is a potent thing. It reminds me of the way I felt when I found that battered copy of The Lost Years at my local library, or the way my heart just fucking stopped the first time Major Kira Nerys stomped her combat booted way through ops. Star Trek — like Buffy, like various incarnations of the X-Men — is one of those icons of geekiana that just does it for me.
So I suppose I went in with reservations, too. Nail-biting excitement mixed with a weird kind of fear.
I wish I could follow that sentence up with some kind of definitive statement. Like, “but guess what? My ass was kicked” or “and then it was stupid so I cried into my gagh and went home.” My reaction, however, was one of those frustrating, complicated things that I’m having a hard time fitting into a zippy one-liner.
SPOILERS behind the cut.
So, okay. For big, fat sections of the thing? My ass was kicked. The genius construction of the Kirk/Spock dynamic, the spot-on casting, the brilliantly interwoven bits of sparky humor…all great. Spock Prime made me cry. The continuity re-set was handled well. And I just think Chris Pine’s performance is this amazing sort of thing that pays tribute to Shatnerian-brand swagger without going to that easy, hammy place of excessive vocal intonations.
But as I was watching, I kept running into a big, brick wall that held me back from full fangirl mode. And…well. It’s basically the thing I said before, when the previews started saturating our collective consciousness. Seven major crew members. One of them is a chick.
I know the cast breakdown was revolutionary in the ’60s, that it was enough for Uhura (and Chekov and Sulu) just to be there. But in the world as it is today? That same cast breakdown looks really fucking dated. Considering all the tweaks J.J. Abrams and Co. were able to make to the source material — yet still keep that special Trekkian spirit intact — would it have been so outrageous to flip this a little? Maybe go the Galactica route and make Chekov a girl or something? Because I thought maybe I could just go with it, but…it stood out to me. It really did. It’s the one thing that didn’t get updated that kind of needed to be.
To give credit where credit’s due, I felt like the filmmakers did a nice job of amping up Uhura, of really giving her a distinctive voice and some truly kick-ass moments (and my crush on Zoe Saldana is now even bigger than the one I developed after Center Stage, shut up). Or at least they did in the first hour or so — after that, she kind of got turned into a love interest and while I enjoyed the ‘ship, I would have liked to see her get to do some stuff that wasn’t related to that in hour two.
Maybe in Star Trek Reboot, The Second?
Now that the movie’s a genuine phenomenon, I’m sure it’s coming. And the internerds have already started speculating as to who will get cast as what and what old-new characters will show up and blah blah. The two female names I see coming up most often are Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand. With all due respect to the wonderful women behind those characters…that doesn’t excite me a whole lot. Those characters are kind of products of the time in which they were created — one of the biggest defining characteristics for both is infatuation with a dude. Something that always thrilled me about Star Trek was that as the franchise progressed, it gave us some truly inspiring, fully-formed female heroes. Saavik. Ro Laren. Kira and Dax. It was never enough for these characters just to be there or to pine away after a guy. They got to do stuff. Cool stuff.
So if Chapel and Rand do appear, let’s really update this shit and give them some of that cool stuff to do. Or better yet, bring in the original Number One. Or even Saavik.
Because I do see a lot of opportunity here — this Star Trek succeeds in being an engaging reboot, a re-establishment of classic mythos for a big damn audience, a new franchise with a vast universe to explore. I’m excited about that part of it. I’ll be even more excited if Abrams and Co. use it as a jumping off place to truly push that mythos into the future, where the gender breakdown reflects what I see right now, in my own present day universe.
I gotta agree with you Sarah, I was kinda missing out on more of a strong female presence in the film (as much as I absofuckinglutely LOVED the movie). I’d never thought of them pulling a Starbuck-BSG flip here like you suggest, but that would’ve been awesome, solving the awkwardness of inventing a totally new female character and trying to pass her off with the rebooted original crew.
I’m all for bringing back Chapel or Rand but with major overhaulage. Or even taking a periphery female character from TOS (any of the many Yeomans, Lts, etc) and reinventing liberally.
As for Saldana? I think she did an excellent job as Uhura. But…she comes off as more latina to me. A nitpick as obviously I’m glad JJ et al didn’t go with a Beyonce type of casting choice, but it bugged me a teeny tiny bit.
(But Center Stage rules. I dare anyone to argue otherwise. Jamiroquai plus MJ plus Ballet equals WIN.)
This post just proves you and I are terrifically alike and must join forces for an in-person dinner one day.
I’m right with you–it kicked my ASS except for that exact one bit, but our reactions differ a bit. I’m actually very hopeful and not TOO bothered by the lack of women characters on the bridge. Honestly, I dislike the idea of turning male characters into females, it always strikes me as a token gesture. The idea of pushing a man out to make room for a woman is something that bothers me immensely–feminism to me is based on equality, not replacement. I feel it perpetuates the myth of a woman’s desire to replace men and ought to be avoided in the best interest of true equality.
Writing wise, the creation of a throw-away character or forcing a character in too soon just would’ve been obvious and clumsy. Bleh.
I feel pretty confident that it’s in the next movie where Abrams will slide in those important female characters to balance it out. Abrams did a beautiful job of breathing new life into the characters and this is especially noted with Uhura–but like you said, towards the end she got trivialized for Spock’s emotions, so I think I can mostly confidently wait for the sequel and some more awesome women. And hopefully Abrams gets some feedback about Uhura towards the end that reminds him to give her awesome things to do along WITH awesome Spock smooching. If he doesn’t, though, let’s be obnoxiously displeased together.
Look at all that blahblahblah. Anyway, my two cents!!
p.s. back off my Chekov.
Thank you for the very thoughtful comments! You guys rock my socks.
Thea: I think it was actually Matt who initially suggested a BSGian gender swap. I can’t take the credit! And Center Stage does rule SO MUCH.
Kristina: So when are you coming to LA?
You know, I was initially thinking it would be sort of weird and jarring to throw in a random Poochie-type character or to do a gender-swap and I can definitely see that perspective. But honestly, the imbalance in the main cast was just as jarring to me while I was watching — I wasn’t expecting to feel that way since obviously I knew what the cast was going in, but it hit me on a very visceral level. It just feels really odd in this post-newBSG, post-other-kickass-sci-fi-shows-with-strong-women world, I guess.
As far as the gender swap goes, specifically, I can see what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t go so much for a straight-up replacement as a…reimagining, I guess? They reimagined other Trekkian elements so well, it doesn’t seem like *that* huge of a leap to me. Like, Scotty was different, but still within the spirit of the original character, and I feel the same way about BSG’s Starbuck II, even though they reimagined her into…being a her.
(Sidenote: I think one of the reasons I mentioned Chekov up there is…sorry to say, I can’t stand Anton Yelchin. He was the weak link for me by far…but that means more for you, right?! ;))
I’m glad everyone is hopeful for the sequels — that means they have to give us some more awesome ladies in the next one. Have to!
To play devils advocate, I would compare it to Obama’s administration. The top 7 positions only have one woman, Clinton. And as in Star Trek, most of the attention focuses on the top two men, ie: Obama and Biden. True, Rand and Chapel should balance it out more, but it’s still a story about the top two guys. The rest are just there. If it was a tv series then maybe more screen time could be given to the others but in movies it’s all about Kirk and Spock. Plus, putting more women in front of Kirk might not be a good thing.
I agree with this, although I also see that they were kind of stuck with having to get the whole original cast in there, and introducing a new character on top of it wouldn’t have worked. (And while I might have wanted a gender swap for one of the major characters, it really wouldn’t have worked with the parallel universe conceit).
I’ve been assuming Carol Marcus will show up in the sequel — granted she’s a love interest, but one who has potential to be a powerful character in her own right. I’d be happy to see versions of Rand and Chapel, too, and definitely Number One (I think Saavik is really too young, unfortunately, though I guess she could show up as a kid and Spock could mentor her?)
My one personal bitch is Chekhov’s accent. Nobody talks like that and it doesn’t really make SENSE he’d talk like that when everyone including the aliens is portrayed speaking perfect English (which I guess is supposed to be Federation Standard within the universe). It was already embarrassing when they joked about it in ‘Trek 4’ and I really could have done without it here.
Spot on review, Sarah. Although I don’t think that it should have gone the BSG route, I don’t doubt J.J.’s intentions for a strong female character. Just looking at his past work (Fringe, Alias, Felicity, etc) he’s always written really strong female protagonists. Unfortunately Uhura took a back seat on the action – this time around. I’m hoping that if there’s a second movie by him and I’m sure there will be, Uhura or perhaps the original Number One will take on a more commanding role. But the movie did indeed kick ass. I’m looking to see what happens next.
I seriously geeked out over this movie, so it’s hard for me to even accept it may have flaws–but yeah, Sarah, I think ultimately you’re right.
I would guess the primary reason they didn’t tinker much with swapping genders for someone like Chekov or adding new female characters is because with so many major fundamental changes to Trek happening anyway, they may have thought it was just one too many fanboy meltdowns to handle.
I do think Abrams is one creator who is very comfortable creating strong, smart, dimensional female characters so I have big hopes for someone like that in Star Trek II. Although where that sequel will go otherwise, I have no idea…maybe another post on that this week.
I think it’s an interesting point, though I think a BSG-style gender flip wouldn’t have worked because Ron Moore’s show was a full-on reinvention of the old one — names became callsigns, etc. — whereas Abrams’ film is definitely meant to exist in the same universe as the original stories. His way of breaking free was to rig the story with an alternate timeline that effectively wipes out the old series and movies and leaves the slate blank, which is a good move. I don’t think there was any active desire on the part of the filmmakers to overlook anyone, just to bring back the original slate of central characters. And that’s not to say more female characters — or African American ones, or Asian ones — won’t play a larger role in future installments.
Thanks for the very thoughtful comments, all! You’ve given me even more to think about.
I guess, overall, I don’t quite buy the “wouldn’t have worked because of X” arguments, because they made so many things that SHOULDN’T have worked…work. Like (SPOILERS) exploding Vulcan. Or having two Spocks exist in the same timeline. I’m not saying that my suggestions are the only ones they could have taken, but I think they could have simply put a bit more thought into this issue — like give Uhura more to do in hour two. Whatever. Something. I think it’s always possible to make something work if you figure out a way to do it *well.* And if you do it *well*…even the fanboys tend to come around. Usually.
I admire J.J.’s depictions of strong female characters greatly and I suppose that’s one reason I was kind of disappointed in this area. This is supposed to be a post-Sydney Bristow world!
Oh, and I also thought Chekov’s accent was awful. *gives Caroline Chekovaccent-hating fistbump*
Can’t say I found the lack of women jarring, but I do agree with your sentiments.
What Darlene said – Abrams’ original programming gave us Bristow, Denham, Austen et al. His features just so happen to belong to franchises where male presence is dominant, I’m sure in future instalments he’ll feel more at liberty to diversify the crew.
You couldn’t have just made Chekov a girl because the time-travel plot device wouldn’t alter chromosomes…but you could easily kill Chekov off in the sequel now that they’re in an alternate universe and have a female character replace him.
@Thea – Please don’t go there with the ‘not black enough’ business…grr
Nice to see so many women loving the flick and in ways I agree with. Uhura just seemed like a piece of ass a little, but on a second viewing she did one major thing everyone’s missing. She got Spock and Kirk to agree. For the first time. She made that happen. Yeah the the Spock-Uhura thing was a shock, but doesn’t it make a bit of sense? She predates the universal translator, who else would understand, although it’s kinda unethical on his part being Vulcan.
Maybe she can give Chekov lessons in…uh-oh.