SeeingEyeBorg

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Posts posted by SeeingEyeBorg


  1. I'd like to see something with the Klingons just to see how they are in this new universe.

     

    Amen. Bring on the Klingons. Give us a mighty battle sequence and lots of dialogue--and singing--in Klingon (put Uhura to some good use). Hey...do you guys think they'll have the regular-looking Klingons, or will there be an augment virus issue in this 'verse as well?

     

    Also--and please no one jump on me for this (I asked a simple question about this on another site and some dude gave me 'tude) :weird: --I want the writers, whether via story or interview, to explain the point of destroying Vulcan. That was a HUGE deal, and there's no way they can destroy Vulcan simply to satiate yet another Star Trek villain's whiny wrath--there should be at least some long-term point to it. I mean, destroy Bajor? Sure. Betazed? Possibly. Vulcan? No. They might as well have scorched Earth while they were at it!

     

    I scoured the net looking for satisfying explanations, and I've yet to find one. Maybe I missed something? :P


  2. It is as if the folks running the franchise can't deal with the Vulcan culture that has developed over the years, and is attempting to make them more human. Wiping out most of the Vulcans ( all but about 10,000) gives those running the franchise freedom to do most anything, which is unfortunate. The various alien cultures that have developed over the years in the Star Trek saga have allowed for

    many deep and poignant episodes in which the human condition was analyzed, because there were well-developed non-human cultures to contrast it with, while still telling a good story.

     

    At the risk of going completely off topic, I'm glad someone addressed this. What's with the franchise-runners' dislike of Vulcans? I noticed it after the death of Roddenberry. Before his death, Vulcans were portrayed as unemotional, yes, but they were generally seen as honorable, peaceful, and an overall enlightened species. Enter DS9. We see almost no Vulcans except for an overbearing Ambassador, an arrogant, prejudicial Vulcan captain who commands an all-Vulcan crew, a psycho Vulcan in season 7, and after Garak gets tired of comparing Julian Bashir to a computer, he calls him a Vulcan, and by his irritable tone we can tell its meant as an insult. Enter Voyager. All I can say is Tuvok must have been in hell. Enter the Vulcans of ST: Enterprise--enough said.

     

    I've also noticed this dislike carries over into fanfic. Writers consistently portray Vulcans as arrogant and rude. Now their homeworld is destroyed (which I did not agree with; the writers should be killed for that).

     

    And the Vulcan who's most beloved and deemed iconic is...half-human. Wtf?

     

    Back on topic...I had a thought. Maybe Chapel's unrequited love was Roddenberry's way to get back at the network by only giving them half of what they wanted. In the meantime, may the Spock/Uhura romance reign supreme. I like this pairing not because I'm a big fan of the two new actors (do NOT like Zoe Saldana), but because their pairing represents progress. Last I checked, that's what the ST universe was about--progress. Progress isn't about predictable pairings in outdated, overdone plots. It's not about a handful of people seeing what they want/like, but rather everyone seeing what they need to.


  3. Here's where I'm torn.

     

    On the one hand, Roddenberry, Nimoy, and Nichols report that Uhura and Spock were always meant to be a couple, but the network didn't want to have a white guy in a steady relationship with a black woman (and let's not forget Shatner's incessant need for all the attention and all the publicity...in "Plato's Stepchildren" he didn't even make the kiss look good). So instead of getting to see the full monty we got--Roddenberry claimed--"hints."

     

    The Spock/Uhura pairing most certainly did NOT come out of nowhere. I am surprised to see so many people claim that, I guess they have either forgotten or are not that familiar with TOS. In fact, it has been canon since the very first aired episode of Star Trek, "Mantrap", although not as a an actual romantic relationship, but as an attraction/friendship/flirtation. Uhura flirted with Spock in those early episodes, as you can see here:

     

    YouTube - Making chit-chat with Mr. Spock (from "Mantrap")

     

    YouTube - Uhura sings about Spock (from "Charlie X")

     

    I always found it weird that this wasn't followed up after early season 1, since they had such interesting chemistry. Spock/Uhura has been a very popular ship in fanfiction, but on the show, they did not get many scenes together later on, but there were still little hints of underlying attraction here and there (e.g. season 3 "Is There In Truth No Beauty") . They opted to focus more on Spock/Nurse Christine Chapel (played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry), which was written more as a hopeless love on her part.

     

    As I learned more about the history of it all, it turns out that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, always planned to have some kind of attraction between Spock and Uhura, and it was written in the "show Bible" as a part of character backstories and relationships within the crew (as, for instance, Kirk and McCoy being old friends). Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, also said in an interview in 2008 that there was supposed to be more than was seen on the screen: "I created a relationship between Uhura and Spock as being her mentor and the person she looked up to. Uhura was the only one who could play the Vulcan lyre and the only one who had the audacity to sing a song teasing Spock." Trek CelebWatch: Takei Talks Roddenberry, Stewart Hits Manhattan, Nimoy v Colbert and More | TrekMovie.com

     

    But the network didn't like it... They didn't like Uhura in general, and kept asking for her role to be minimized. It was the 1960s, and having a black woman as a competent professional on the show was in itself very brave and controversial. To have anything resembling a relationship between a black woman and someone played by a white actor, was practically unacceptable. Roddenberry fought to keep Uhura on the show and include her in more storylines, but most of the time she was just seen sitting in her console and talking about communications: "Hailing frequencies open, sir".

     

    It is also funny how many people think that Uhura and Kirk were an item, just because everyone has heard of the "first interracial kiss on TV" between them. Kirk and Uhura had a lot of respect for each other in TOS and seemed very friendly, but they never flirted and never showed any explicit romantic interest in each other. If you watch the episode "Plato's Stepchildren" in which they kissed, you will see it was because some sadistic people with special powers were keeping a few of the Enterprise crew prisoner and playing games with them, making them do embarrassing things by controlling their movements and behaviour. Kirk and Uhura were forced telekinetically to kiss against their will, they were trying to resist it, and they both felt uncomfortable about it.

     

    Furthermore, the kiss was supposed to be between Spock and Uhura, and would have been if it wasn't for William Shatner's huge ego. Roddenberry came up with the idea for the episode because he wanted to showcase an interracial kiss and break new ground, and this was the only way they were able to get it past the censors. They planned for Spock and Uhura to kiss, but Shatner pulled rank and insisted that, if anyone was going to kiss Nichelle, it was going to be him, "the star of the show" as he considered himself. (Nichelle Nichols talked about all this in her autobiography, "Beyond Uhura"). Shatner was never able to deal with someone else taking the spotlight, and even had it put in his contract that Nimoy was not allowed to have more lines in an episode than he did...of course he wasn't going to let him have all the publicity! So eventually they caved in and changed it to a Kirk/Uhura kiss, while Spock was forced to kiss Nurse Chapel.

     

    Uhura had a thing with Scotty in the 1980s movies that took place many years later (ST V came out in 1989), although there was never any hint of any interest between them in the original series.

     

    In fact, the only character she showed any romantic/sexual interest in the original series, was Spock. Sulu seemed interested in her, but it was one-sided, and she seemed annoyed with his advances.

     

    Therefore, I didn't find the Spock/Uhura pairing surprising at all. I was only surprised that they took it that far, implying a previous relationship, kissing on the transponder publically... But for the pairing itself, it is completely unsurprising. It's obivous that, with the trailers, magazine covers, etc. they really tried - and mostly succeeded- to mislead people into thinking that Kirk and Uhura would hook up in the movie. I was upset at the time, but I never really believed that, and suspected it was all a misdirection, because it would just be so wrong, considering their dynamic in TOS - not to mention that it wouldn't be interesting as a story, at all.

     

    I think that it was a real shame that Spock/Uhura was not developed more on the show, and that Uhura was so underused in general, so I felt deeply satisfied when I learned about this plot in the new movie. It is like finishing old business, and an old injustice finally set right.

     

    http://www.fanforum.com/f89/spock-uhura-2009-a-62894171/

     

    The new writers wanted to fulfill the dream Roddenberry never got to, for which I say brava. After certain ST shows and films (which shall remain nameless) effectively laid waste to a beloved franchise, I think it's great someone finally stopped asked, "Well, what would Roddenberry do?"

     

    http://www.scificool.com/spock-and-uhura-together-at-last/

    http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur53104.cfm

    http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2009/05/1...50672/index.xml

     

    On the other hand...we've got Chapel.

     

    Now, about Chapel...I always felt so bad for that character. In the regular timeline, it should've definitely been her--hands down. That was cruel, cruel, cruel what they did to her in the shows, because she understood Spock from day one. In the "The Naked Time" when she tells Spock, "Oh, how we must torture you!" she showed unprecedented understanding and acceptance of Spock just as he was, which even I will admit, Uhura never did. Quite frankly, I always understood Spock; humans usually are annoying and overly spoiled and emotional, and that would grate on any mature being's nerves. So when she uttered lines about how she understands his problems, I was like, "Yes! Finally someone gets it!"


  4. So...I was pleasantly shocked about this romance. You know you're a HUGE Trekkie if you were born in the 80s but you've been waiting since the 60s for certain things to happen. There's been debate for ages about Spock and Uhura, from their singing in "Charlie X" to every time Spock paid her a compliment to entire fansites dedicated to nothing but these two. The actors were grateful it happened, and Leonard Nimoy has even gone so far as to say he was "jealous" and that he would never forgive the writers and directors for depriving him of Uhura for the last 40 years.

     

    I for one am deeply thankful that we finally see Uhura in a solid relationship with someone actually worthy of her. There was no better choice than Spock. There are many reasons for my thankfulness, which this blogger lists and analyzes perfectly: http://rawles.livejournal.com/340736.html?thread=6239744 (I highly recommend reading it. She's a witty writer).

     

    Very rarely I have read disapproval of this pairing on the net. For the most part, I've read, "It's about time" and how this pairing is, for lack of a better term, "logical."

     

    I hope the writers don't get caught up in their phenomenal success and screw everything up. If they do something dumb like make Spock (or Uhura) really emo and initiate an unnecessary break up, they should die. If anything, they should give us flashbacks as to how these two got together, because in the movie they just threw it at us as if to say, "Suck on that for a minute."

     

    Either way, it's great this finally happened, in a time when there's no stupid societal barrier tampering with our beloved franchise.



  5. Click for Spoiler:
    Spock and Uhura kissing


    That's pretty much a given, and it's about darn time they did after 40-some years.

    But the one I can't stop laughing is when


    Click for Spoiler:
    Kirk offers assistance to a defeated Nero. Spock goes all "WTF?" and Kirk says compassion is logical, and that he thought Spock would agree. To which Spock replies, "Uh...not really."