Let’s continue with the pros and cons idea of being a Sci-Fantasy enthusiast that I touched upon in my previous post. Before I do that, let me warn you that “thar be spoilers, here”. Also, I realize that there are some of you who eat, sleep, and breathe the Star Trek franchise and you will know things that I do not. So, as the Gospels preach the sufferance of heathens, do not persecute my ignorance for I have not heard The Word.
And I’m not sure I want to. Which brings me to my point.
This weekend, my fellow crime-fighter and I caught the most recent Star Trek film – Into Darkness. (This is your chance to opt out of spoilers. I’m not going to tell you again) and I feel my history with Star Trek television and film is pretty good.
I've seen all the movies and, thanks to syndication, I have seen every first generation episode several times and most of the Next Generation episodes at least once. I know the groundbreaking event that Kirk kissing Ohura was. My stepbrother had the bridge playset with the cylinder you turned to replicate transporting. (He only ever let me be that big-head alien, but that’s a story for a different day.) Chekov was always my favorite, by the way.
In addition, I served in the Navy so I understand the terminology such as “forward” and “aft” and the reason why Sulu always repeated the course and speed orders. That’s how it’s done. (And in case you didn’t know, that little whistle prior to intercom communications in the original show hearkens back to the use of a whistle on waterborne vessels to communicate information.)
The question that I have for you eat/sleep/breathers is this: How much information is too much? At what point does all the knowledge and trivia you have interfere with the main purpose of these films and shows – the entertainment?
I saw myself crossing that line yesterday, during the movie. The interpretation of earlier Khan doesn't mesh with the earlier tv and film Wrath of Khan character at all and I found that distracting. He had a British accent, for one thing. We all know Ricardo Mantalban was not a native English speaker. Shouldn't they have bridged that gap somehow in the writing?
And also, the cinematography included a vast number of close-ups and the lighting was such that most of what I noticed during those close ups was the color of each character’s eyes. I found myself wondering such things as “Did DeForest Kelley have green eyes?”
This is future Kirk and his crew! There are things that continuity says that you have to answer for if you have fans who know so much. You will have to provide for the fact that there are ticket holders who not only know the back story on each of the crew members, but they know the back story on every Enterprise there ever was, all the way back to wood.
They will have schematics of the engine room and production drawings for communicators. They name their cat Gainan. They have pajamas with every color of Star Fleet uniforms except red, because we all know what happens to the red shirts. They know what each uniform insignia stands for. They know that in Episode 15, the hatch cover they remove is the same hatch cover they removed in Episode 6, but the compartment they gained entry to should have been on the starboard side, not the port.
The point is, in creating this franchise, they have made it impossible to please everyone and if they try, they run the risk of pleasing no one. (Case in point, did Spock and Kirk really have to have that reverse scene where its Spock shouting Khan? Kirk would never have been able to withstand the kind of radiation to even have that scene. The only reason Spock did in his was because he was only half-human, remember?) Anyway, the film-makers have to have to walk a fine line between paying homage and over-cheesing for the fanboys and there will be absolutely no way to get it right.
So, without taking all day to examine the benefits and pitfalls of uber-fandom, I’ll say this. I will never be the “dress up for the convention” sort of fan. I will never be able to hold my own in intense discussions about the number of O-Clubs necessary on a vessel that large, and will never be proficient at identifying potential flaws in the wiring schema of the transporter console (the first series, not the movies or the Next Generation.)
In fact, for the sake of being in the moment, I will check my trivia at the door as much as possible and attempt to enjoy each of these interpretations of the story line as they are in the same way that I accept new Doctors as they come. “Rejoice in the familiar, but do not despair the differences” will be my motto, moving forward, with the exception of one critical question.
How did Spock feel about Kirk kissing his ex-girlfriend? That had to be awkward.
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