{"id":4481,"date":"2016-08-07T11:15:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T16:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=4481"},"modified":"2016-08-07T11:15:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T16:15:27","slug":"later-star-trek-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/08\/07\/later-star-trek-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"Later Star Trek Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fredrik deBoer remarks <\/a>on the recent evolutions of Star Trek<\/b><\/i>:<\/p>\n

I saw the new\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0<\/em>movie. When I tell you that it\u2019s all punching and shooting, I\u2019m really not exaggerating. It\u2019s\u00a0all\u00a0<\/em>punching and shooting. And as far as punching and shooting summer action movies goes, it\u2019s OK. It has an ending that\u2019s like two 13 year old boys talking about what a good ending would be via text message, but it isn\u2019t completely soulless, which is better than you can say for most franchise movies.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0<\/em>isn\u2019t about punching or shooting.\u00a0 It\u2019s contemplative. It\u2019s about actual moral conflict and ambiguity. It\u2019s optimistic about the prospect of peace and the ability to solve problems nonviolently. It lets stories develop slowly. It\u2019s about exploration and diplomacy far more than its about combat.\u00a0And, look, yes, the old\u00a0Onion\u00a0<\/em>joke<\/a> \u2013 \u201cTrekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As \u2018Fun, Watchable’\u201d \u2013 I get it. You have to make concessions to the box office. But I don\u2019t understand the point of turning\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0<\/em>into a punching and shooting franchise, which is what all of these movies have been. I mean, I do understand. It\u2019s the fact that our culture industry is a human centipede that has to keep passing predigested excrement from one host body to the next, so every preexisting \u201cIP\u201d has to have all of its value sucked out until there\u2019s only a dry husk remaining. But it just doesn\u2019t work, fundamentally, to turn\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0<\/em>into\u00a0Punch Quest<\/em>. There are other problems with the movies \u2013 I just don\u2019t buy Kirk and Spock\u2019s friendship, the actors don\u2019t have chemistry \u2013 but on a basic level they suffer from trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I’ve been more or less lukewarm on all the later Star Trek <\/b><\/i>movies as well. Here’s the thing about the initial series, why it seems to hold up so well – it’s not really about the wonder of the future, the joys of going toe to toe with Klingons or Romulans, or getting sucked into giant cones of destruction, or any of the veneer <\/i>of those episodes.<\/p>\n

At its heart, its enduring attraction is about the moral questions <\/i>it raises, as Fredrik notes. Just a couple of examples:<\/p>\n

“What Are Little Girls Made Of?<\/a>” brings to the fore the question of how uploading our consciousness to a computer will change us – can we even hope to be stable personalities in such a scenario?<\/p>\n

“Balance of Terror<\/a>” examines the impact of unthinking hostility can have on two civilizations, and what impact an unexpected link between the two can potentially have.<\/p>\n

“The Doomsday Machine<\/a>” examines a problem we’re really beginning to seriously wrestle with only today – automated weaponry and its worst consequences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, thousands of other people have made this same point, but it seems as if Hollywood doesn’t get it. A good story isn’t merely a sequence of actions, or even a logical sequence of action \/ reaction with big flashy lights.\u00a0 A good story raises a serious question, even a moral dilemma, and tries to play out the consequences of decisions made in light of the question<\/i>. This is what really fascinates us the most, from The Odyssey <\/b><\/i>to E.T.<\/b><\/i> to Blade Runner<\/b><\/i>. A memorable story contains that nugget of some compelling question and tries to answer it. You can see that in historical dramas, Superman cartoons, and other memorable stories.<\/p>\n

And, to tell the truth, I can barely remember the recent Star Trek movies. Vulcan is eaten by a black hole. Yeah. Uh, who cares? Maybe this is why, for all that the Spock replacement is good, and ya gotta love the McCoy replacement’s accent, there’s no real chemistry, and no real future for the future. Where’s the interesting dilemma?<\/p>\n

Punch Quest<\/i>, yeah!\u00a0 Yeah. yeah.<\/p>\n

yeah.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fredrik deBoer remarks on the recent evolutions of Star Trek: I saw the new\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0movie. When I tell you that it\u2019s all punching and shooting, I\u2019m really not exaggerating. It\u2019s\u00a0all\u00a0punching and shooting. And as far as punching and shooting summer action movies goes, it\u2019s OK. It has an ending that\u2019s \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4482,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481\/revisions\/4482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}