General Star Trek thread

Right, onwards to Search for Spock this time: definitely a distinct drop in quality compared with Wrath of Khan, but also not as egregiously terrible as I might have feared. Still dreading V but of the "bad ones" this was surprisingly better in places and hate to say it but didn't feel as slapdash and scruffy as WoK; clearly a few more shekels were allowed.

A very mixed bag: like WoK the strongest parts were the emotional wringers the crew (well, Kirk and McCoy really) went through; all the immediate post WoK stuff on Enterprise had a strong pulse of grief through the whole thing; while the actual heist and escape from Space dock tonnes of fun that offset the palpable gloom before then. Wish the movie also ended with Kirk coming to terms with the price paid for Spock's return: the death of his son and his beloved ship a huge price yet his last line on the topic rang false and glib. Kirk had been trying to reconnect with his son, and seemed genuinely anxious about roads not taken, and to make up time. The script was too eager to get through gang back together and kinda steamrolled the one-two punch.

But ye gods this was also Trek at its most magical. And that's not meant as a compliment. Vulcans turned into this race of wizards and mystics didn't work for me - and it's funny that was the path taken to cobble together an excuse to resurrect Spock. The Genesis planet causing the corpse to restart was a cute, and weirdly plausible idea - but using McCoy's brain as a USB key was just silly.

Oh and Christopher Lloyd was a lot of fun for what amounted to a token villain role.

Voyage Home next: wow, but that was silly with a capital S. Like, deeply and unashamedly as silly as I remembered it; certainly a gigantic whiplash of tone after what had been pretty straight-laced and often introspective first three films. Nope not here, it was Saves The Whales turned into a gigantic time-travel comedy adventure.

Kinda weird watching an early-doors environmentalist piece of media, given where things have gone in the interim 40 years. It all came off so goofily earnest, so naive that with a little awareness we'd suddenly change our ways. Christ that didn't work out, did it?

Still, by all accounts this has to rank high as the Trek movie series at its most indulgently fun; pure entertainment with absolutely zero attempts at profundity or characterisation. It knew its assignment and got the héll outta dodge, no fat no distractions. I'd put it beside First Contact for Trek just being in full-on space adventure mode, and to hell with the ethics.

If I had a Trek based quibble it'd be how Chekov's communicator and phaser were left behind, and in the hands of the US Government of the 1980s no less. Obviously it was of no concern to the writers & had no effect on the future - but still. I know of agents in Starfleet who'd have been unimpressed with that.

It is kinda funny how Shatner only even directed the thing in the first place 'cos he was jealous his rival-friend Leonard got two goes at a movie.

I don't doubt there'll be some little nuggets I'll enjoy - I always had a fondness for the Row-Row-Row campfire scene 'cos it gave the trio a chance to be themselves; it's interesting how often McCoy kinda got sidelined in the films just for the Kirk-Spock dynamic, when really the magic formula of TOS was the three characters circling each other, not Kirk & Spock alone. Maybe DeForest Kelly didn't have as large an ego as the other two and was happy to get pushed aside?

And looked every year of it, even in Voyage Home at a "mere" 66; that's a nice story though about VI and the others looking after him. It's funny how in the great TOS fallouts I'm always here of Shatner, Nimoy and latterly Takei, but never Kelley. Indeed he seemed the least interested in speaking publicly, or preferred to keep a low profile?

Final Frontier checked off, more out of obligation than intent if I'm honest; and hey to spin it in a positive light, you could see there was a lot of ambition in this thing. The plot was ludicruous but it bopped along from one set piece to another, with plenty of sets, locations and a grander scale than had been seen since TMP. No surprise the studio slashed the budget 'cos compared with prior flicks you could see there was an attempt at a broader scope here.

It was, however, still utter bollix of the highest order: you can't blame Shatner for strikes & studio enforced budget cuts but you can blame him for the absolute mess visible beneath all the extenuating circumstance. Such hubris to demand directing & writing credits 'cos his best friend got 2 chances & noteworthy how Shatner wasn't allowed near the series again. But there's always more to talk about a spectacular failure than underwhelming mediocrity.

McCoy's flashback with his father was quite something and fairly powerful; he had been short-changed through the prior movies so this movie gets praise for pushing the core trio's relationship to the absolute forefront. I still remain baffled at how Uhura's fan dance was ever conceived as a good idea; though hadn't realised or remembered she and Scotty had "something" going on. Pairing up Chekov and Sulu was fun and wish we saw more of that.

I hadn't even realised it got a TV adaptation: sought some clips and wow wow, you don't appreciate just how good SciFi has become 'til you remind yourself how bad it used to be. Bloody 'ell but it was some trash.