Ruminations on Star Trek

To celebrate Avram's birthday Avram and I went on a real, live, actual date on Saturday. We went to see Star Trek, and then ate at an Asian Buffet, so Avram could get some plentiful, cheap sushi. It was wonderful to be out together, plus the movie was good. Now I need to discuss Star Trek for a minute, partly because I don't watch many movies - the last one I saw in theater was Stardust - and partly because I have to just air my thoughts. For those of you who could care less, this is your cue to close the browser. Also, this will be spoilers galore, so for those of two of you living in a Tibetan monastery without movie theaters who have not yet seen the movie and care deeply about Star Trek, you will also want to stop reading.

First off, I was impressed with the amount of seatbelts I saw. They had them in the shuttles. and in various smaller craft. Most impressively, at the closing scene Kirk tells Bones, while on the bridge, to Buckle Up. See, Star Fleet did listen to me.

Second, Uhura and Spock? The internal Star Trek soundtrack was humming right along, and then Uhura gets in the elevator with Spock, and starts kissing him in a familiar manner, and the soundtrack wrenched off. I know that he's just had some life changing events happen, but really, my first response wouldn't be to kiss a superior officer to comfort him. Hasn't she heard of hugging? Which would all suggest they already had a relationship. While Spock was her teacher of some sort in the academy. Which is about ten kinds of awkward, and something I really don't see Spock doing, even in an alternate universe. Don't get me wrong. I love romance, in general. And it was nice to see Kirk get romantically dissed. But it felt like at that moment I wandered off into some weird fanfiction, or something.

Thirdly, this movie had me crying before the opening credits (if they had had them) were even done. There is just something about childbirth and husbands dying that really is a formula for my tears. I've gone through childbirth twice, and it's an amazingly vulnerable time. And I also heartily laughed, such as when Sulu says his hand to hand combat is fencing, so this movie did elicit the full range of emotions from me.

As the credits rolled, I thought to myself that I would watch a TV show based on the Movie. Which is really saying something - we don't have a Television hooked up to TV. But almost it pursuadeth me. If there were a TV show at all, of course.