December Talking Meme
Mar. 7th, 2015 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34For the December Talking Meme, elfin asked which Trek captain is mine and why. I have to take the easy way out here and say that I loved them all (with the exception of Archer but only because I haven’t watched Enterprise yet.
TOS Kirk was my first captain. I was listening to the show from the womb, so I was primed to love it.
(In an aside, my mom told me after Nimoy’s death, that when Spock died at the end of Wrath of Khan it was so shocking and upsetting to her; after the movie premiered, Nimoy spoke publicly about not wanting to be involved in Star Trek anymore, so my mom thought Spock was well and truly dead. She said she remembers hanging washing out on the line to dry while ugly crying because Mr. Spock was gone. She was telling me this over our weekly Skype session; we started the conversation by making the live long and prosper sign at each other and simultaneously saying, “I have been and always shall be your friend,” while tearing up. Emma almost had to leave the room, we were embarrassing her so badly. LOL This is the kind of household I grew up in, folks. No way in the ‘verse I wasn’t going to be a Trekkie.)
Shatner’s Kirk is a lot of fun. He’s got a great sense of humor he gets to be goofy and silly at times. He’s also flawed in ways both endearing (allergic to Retinax V and must wear old-fashioned spectacles) and heartbreaking (“I’ve never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I’ll never forgive them for the death of my boy”).
What’s super refreshing about revisiting TOS is that in our modern media age of the morally grey hero and the unabashed villain we root for anyway, Shatner’s Kirk is just a stand-up guy. He makes mistakes; he’s flawed—but he’s not morally grey. He’s not rising above a dark past to hopefully attain redemption. He’s the Steve Rogers of TOS (or maybe the Aragorn).
Jean Luc Picard is the captain of my adolescence. I was 8 when “Encounter at Farpoint” aired, and I avidly followed the show from start to finish. Picard is so different from TOS Kirk, and my mom has never warmed to him. I think that Picard has a good sense of humor, but it’s subtle, and he doesn’t display it readily, especially not in those first seasons. I think my mom sees him as passionless, bloodless, too cerebral. I also think she doesn’t identify with the activities we see him enjoying—opera, fine wine, art and archeology—things that can be read as upper class markers that make him seem snooty to her. I disagree, though. TOS Kirk is open and big-hearted, and his emotions are readily apparent; Picard feels just as deeply, but he keeps his emotions close to the vest. And I don’t find him snobbish in the least. I like that Picard ushers in the era of a more inclusive Trek (“where no one has gone before”). He’s much more in tune with social justice issues (in the finest sense of the word) regarding race, class, gender, etc. than Kirk and his crew. I also have heart palpitations every time he says, “ForMIDable.”
Benjamin Sisko is the captain I have the most difficulty with. I do not understand his obsession with the wormhole aliens and his decision to leave his wife, son, and unborn baby for an unspecified time period to dick around with the Prophets. The Prophets seem unnecessarily vague and ambiguous; I know the point is to make them alien and otherworldly, but they just seem like assholes to me. What do they want, really? What is Sisko going to do while he’s down the wormhole? Sit around and have obtuse conversations with aliens wearing the avatar of his dead wife? So frustrating. I get legitimately angry at that plot point.
However, the relationship he has with Jadzia/Curzon and the relationship he has with Jake are two of my very favorite fictional relationships ever. Ben and Jake are my all-time favorite parent-child combo depicted in media. It’s all the little acting choices they make—the constant, casual, and affectionate touching; the faces they pull at each other; they truly seem like a father and son.
Janeway just flat-out kicks ass. Who doesn’t want to watch her crawl through Voyager’s Jefferies Tubes in a tank top with a phase rifle strapped to her back? I think her character suffers from inconsistent writing at times, but that’s kinda par for the course in a multi-season show. I like that she’s allowed to be depressed; I think her despair is very convincingly portrayed. I love that when she realizes she’s cut off from romance since every other person on Voyager is under her command, her solution is to make herself a boyfriend. I adore to an almost unspeakable degree the way she goes back in time and sacrifices herself so that Voyager’s crew can come home much sooner.
And she’s so freaking shippable!
Chakotay/Janeway: two leaders on opposite sides of an ideological struggle
Paris/Janeway: the May/December romance
Seven/Janeway: mentor/mentee
B’Elanna/Janeway: mentor/mentee + anger issues
I must give a shout-out here to Captain Sulu, who immediately rushes to the aid of his comrades on the Enterprise and never once thinks of the future of his career.
I will end by saying that contrary to many of you, I’m pretty much besotted with the reboot movies and think that Chris Pine’s portrayal of Kirk does the original justice while taking the character in slightly different directions. I’m looking forward to seeing what will come next for Trek.
elfin asked which Trek captain is mine and why. I have to take the easy way out here and say that I loved them all (with the exception of Archer but only because I haven’t watched Enterprise yet.TOS Kirk was my first captain. I was listening to the show from the womb, so I was primed to love it.
(In an aside, my mom told me after Nimoy’s death, that when Spock died at the end of Wrath of Khan it was so shocking and upsetting to her; after the movie premiered, Nimoy spoke publicly about not wanting to be involved in Star Trek anymore, so my mom thought Spock was well and truly dead. She said she remembers hanging washing out on the line to dry while ugly crying because Mr. Spock was gone. She was telling me this over our weekly Skype session; we started the conversation by making the live long and prosper sign at each other and simultaneously saying, “I have been and always shall be your friend,” while tearing up. Emma almost had to leave the room, we were embarrassing her so badly. LOL This is the kind of household I grew up in, folks. No way in the ‘verse I wasn’t going to be a Trekkie.)
Shatner’s Kirk is a lot of fun. He’s got a great sense of humor he gets to be goofy and silly at times. He’s also flawed in ways both endearing (allergic to Retinax V and must wear old-fashioned spectacles) and heartbreaking (“I’ve never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I’ll never forgive them for the death of my boy”).
What’s super refreshing about revisiting TOS is that in our modern media age of the morally grey hero and the unabashed villain we root for anyway, Shatner’s Kirk is just a stand-up guy. He makes mistakes; he’s flawed—but he’s not morally grey. He’s not rising above a dark past to hopefully attain redemption. He’s the Steve Rogers of TOS (or maybe the Aragorn).
Jean Luc Picard is the captain of my adolescence. I was 8 when “Encounter at Farpoint” aired, and I avidly followed the show from start to finish. Picard is so different from TOS Kirk, and my mom has never warmed to him. I think that Picard has a good sense of humor, but it’s subtle, and he doesn’t display it readily, especially not in those first seasons. I think my mom sees him as passionless, bloodless, too cerebral. I also think she doesn’t identify with the activities we see him enjoying—opera, fine wine, art and archeology—things that can be read as upper class markers that make him seem snooty to her. I disagree, though. TOS Kirk is open and big-hearted, and his emotions are readily apparent; Picard feels just as deeply, but he keeps his emotions close to the vest. And I don’t find him snobbish in the least. I like that Picard ushers in the era of a more inclusive Trek (“where no one has gone before”). He’s much more in tune with social justice issues (in the finest sense of the word) regarding race, class, gender, etc. than Kirk and his crew. I also have heart palpitations every time he says, “ForMIDable.”
Benjamin Sisko is the captain I have the most difficulty with. I do not understand his obsession with the wormhole aliens and his decision to leave his wife, son, and unborn baby for an unspecified time period to dick around with the Prophets. The Prophets seem unnecessarily vague and ambiguous; I know the point is to make them alien and otherworldly, but they just seem like assholes to me. What do they want, really? What is Sisko going to do while he’s down the wormhole? Sit around and have obtuse conversations with aliens wearing the avatar of his dead wife? So frustrating. I get legitimately angry at that plot point.
However, the relationship he has with Jadzia/Curzon and the relationship he has with Jake are two of my very favorite fictional relationships ever. Ben and Jake are my all-time favorite parent-child combo depicted in media. It’s all the little acting choices they make—the constant, casual, and affectionate touching; the faces they pull at each other; they truly seem like a father and son.
Janeway just flat-out kicks ass. Who doesn’t want to watch her crawl through Voyager’s Jefferies Tubes in a tank top with a phase rifle strapped to her back? I think her character suffers from inconsistent writing at times, but that’s kinda par for the course in a multi-season show. I like that she’s allowed to be depressed; I think her despair is very convincingly portrayed. I love that when she realizes she’s cut off from romance since every other person on Voyager is under her command, her solution is to make herself a boyfriend. I adore to an almost unspeakable degree the way she goes back in time and sacrifices herself so that Voyager’s crew can come home much sooner.
And she’s so freaking shippable!
Chakotay/Janeway: two leaders on opposite sides of an ideological struggle
Paris/Janeway: the May/December romance
Seven/Janeway: mentor/mentee
B’Elanna/Janeway: mentor/mentee + anger issues
I must give a shout-out here to Captain Sulu, who immediately rushes to the aid of his comrades on the Enterprise and never once thinks of the future of his career.
I will end by saying that contrary to many of you, I’m pretty much besotted with the reboot movies and think that Chris Pine’s portrayal of Kirk does the original justice while taking the character in slightly different directions. I’m looking forward to seeing what will come next for Trek.
